Dear Comrades,
We were astonished to see that Omar Hassan, a Victorian teacher and Socialists in Schools (SIS) supporter, is opposing the Fight the Crisis (FTC) efforts to organise a teachers’ strike on 4 August.
FTC and SIS both campaigned for rank-and-file teachers to vote No to the last offer from the Victorian government. SIS however is now declining to support FTC and the rank-and-file’s campaign for a strike on 4 August.
Hassan says that “serious organising is necessary to force the officials to call a strike” but is blind to the reality that this is exactly what FTC and the rank-and-file have achieved.
It was the fantastic rank-and-file response to the agitation by FTC for the strike on 4 August that pushed the officials to call an earlier strike on 23 July. The key question now is to keep up the pressure on the government. Labor’s change of leader and the installation of new Premier Ben Carroll is an opportunity to increase that pressure.
SIS has called for more strikes but now there is the real momentum for a strike on 4 August you have got cold feet.
Hassan says he wants a serious left in the AEU but seems to think that a serious left can be built while abstaining from organising real struggle independently of the officials. A stronger left is being built in the process of the very real struggle for wage justice, against the state Labor government. Running Victorian Socialist candidates is no substitute for real struggle alongside union members.
One Nation is feeding off the bitterness that is the result of Labor’s failure to address the cost of living crisis. A union fightback for pay rises is the way to show there is an alternative.
The 4 August strike represents a real chance for the anger and discontent of the rank-and-file to break out of the bureaucratic straitjacket that so often results in deals that leave wages behind inflation while class sizes grow and the administrative burden increases.
Forty-three sub-branches and the Maribyrnong region have voted to strike on 4 August. Many are reconfirming. The Inner City regional meeting on 29 July is another opportunity for the voice of the rank-and-file to be heard, to extend the vote and build momentum for the 4 August strike.
Now is not the time to be naysaying rank-and-file militancy and tailing the officials. Talking about needing more strikes but failing to organise for them is empty rhetoric. Your position will not build the left in the union; it is a recipe for striking only when it is official. When do teachers strike if not 4 August?
The government, the AEU officials and the media are focused on 4 August. We are calling on SIS to reconsider its position and help make the 4 August strike an even greater success. Every extra school voting to strike makes 4 August that much stronger and puts more pressure on the officials to make 4 August a state-wide strike.
