Education Workers Network

by Boul' Colonial Boy Thu Nov 24, 2005 19:58

For Aine and whoever else is interested details of the rescheduled meeting is on the events listing for December 17th.

by Malatested - Organise! Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:28

The original article discussing the possibility of EWN first appeared in Organise!' s bulletin, Working Class Resistance #5. The AFI no longer existed at that stage

http://flag.blackened.net/infohub/organise/content.php?article.11.8

The Belfast GG meeting was very poorly attended and there was no decision for individual groups to off and initiate EWN (since there wasn't the numbers there to initiate anything!) I think the WSM member present was asked to sound out what other WSMers thought and whether there was potential for folk to discuss the issue in Cork and Dublin.

by Roger Clifford Tue Nov 15, 2005 17:16

Joe, I accept your points which you have made very well. I was in no way trying to pour scorn on anyones attempts to fight the corner of the education worker. My point is simply the Education Unions already have the network set up. With an influx of new active members this network will become more effective, and many of your points about the Unions will not apply. Certainly if joining a Union is not is not an option I would advise every worker to look to organising themselves in the best way they can.

by Joe Black Tue Nov 15, 2005 15:53

Roger the EWN wasn't intended as an alternative to the existing unions but rather as a way for those working in education to exchange experiences and organise across the unions (there are many unions who organise workers in education, over a dozen). It is also true that some of these unions have a poor record of recruiting the more precarious workers in education and/ or of integrating such workers once recruited. Finally there are many smaller workplaces and sectors of large workplaces where workers are either totally unorganised or where only academic staff are organised.

One overview of this situation (with regard to work in general, not just education which is normally a little better organised) is found in a section of the WSM position paper on the unions which I quote below

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12.3.1 The long years of social partnership and the low level of struggle have devastated rank and file organisation in most unions. Branch meetings and AGM's are badly attended and rank and file positions from unions reps to branch committee are often given to whoever is willing to do the work rather than contested. In the private sector union membership has drastically declined with many new companies being effectively non-union. [CSO figures from 2003 showed that only 20% of private sector workers are in unions, and only 10% of all union members are under 25.]

12.3.2 This means that very few of the new generation of political activists have any experience of union activity. Encouraging involvement in unions is no longer a simple question of encouraging people to attend meetings or stand for union rep. Done in isolation both of these experiences can be demoralising. And most young workers now find themselves in non-unionised workplaces. Advocating joining a union to this layer can seem like a pointless strategy when all they hear of is unions that are toothless and long drawn out recognition disputes that are seldom seriously fought by the union side and which end in defeat or Pyrrhic victories.

12.3.3 It does not help that in the few sectors where there is real militancy activists observe the union leaders repeatedly marching the rank and file to the top of the hill only to lead them down again as a last minute compromise is worked out. Large scale disputes when they occur are often limited to a day of action or boycotting a single area of work. Real solidarity is seldom even sought from other workers and disputes end in muddied compromise rather than victory.

12.3.4 This is a depressing overview, one which most of the left avoids facing up to. We know that there are also positive stories of struggle out there but unfortunately they are not typical. Nevertheless our task is to do what we can towards building a fighting union movement under the control of the rank and file.

To that end:
a) We will urge the formation of networks which bring together activist workers with the aim of discussing, formulating and implementing strategies that will help them to win struggles in their workplaces, create unions where there are none and win real rank and file control of union branches where this is possible. They will seek to counteract the isolation individual activists often face when they get involved in workplace struggles.
b) We will seek to encourage a process of frank evaluation and discussion amongst existing left union activists both as to what the real situation is now and what sort of strategies are realistic in the short term.
c) We will circulate and publish any positive news of workplace and union struggles in Ireland.
d) Where we can obtain a speaker we will seek to tour libertarian militants from rank and file unions in other countries to talk not only about their struggles but also about the alternative way those unions are organised.

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While Organise! might not share all of the above analysis this would be one point of view as to why an EWN woudl be a good idea.

by Roger Clifford Tue Nov 15, 2005 14:58 rog1clifford2 at hotmail dot com

There already exists a perfectly workable Education Workers Network. Namely the Education Unions. All that is needed is for grassroot members to get involved and the whole thing will have a momentum of it's own. So sign up and lets get going.

by Joe Black - WSM 1st of May (personal capacity) Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:42

The idea of an EWN has been kicking around for a couple of years and I think may have been first put forward by the AFI (predecissor to this incarnation of Organise!) in their bulletin. As I understand it the Belfast Grassroots Gathering discussed the idea with the aim that individual groups would then go off and initate the EWN. However lack of post gathering co-ordination meant this never really got anywhere and I know we'd suggested to Organise that therefore the best first step might be for them to call a local meeting and see where it went from there.

We had initially thought this would also be worth doing in Dublin but more recently concluded there wouldn't be enough people interested to get it off the ground at this point in time. (We could (happily) be proved wrong on this).

Anyway good luck with the rearranged meeting - a working EWN in Belfast would I'm sure be copied elsewhere.

by Davy Carlin - Street Seen Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:09

Such an intiative should be welcomed.

by . Tue Nov 15, 2005 02:09

As it happens I was genuinely interested in this meeting.
The reason I asked who was running it was that so many of these things in the past have been fronts for other groups.
My concern was heightened by the obvious wish of contributors not to reveal who was behind it.
I have absolutely nothing against Organise and certainly do not agree with the rubbish here that they are bigots.

George, if you think that is sectarian you are an idiot!

by George Tue Nov 15, 2005 01:00

As far as I know the EWN is an initiative that came out of a meeting at the Belfast grassroots gathering a year ago. The meeting wasn't well attended but a lot of people said they were interested so another meeting was scheduled and then cancelled and then another and then cancelled etc. etc. Until now a year later I guess the meeting is going to happen.

So it's not an Organise! thing, or a Grassroots thing but an idea that has been floating around between a hell of alot of people and now finally the meeting is being held. (I'm guessing it was Organise! that booked the room though, does that satisfies your sectarian urges?)

by .. Mon Nov 14, 2005 23:29

I take it from the last comment that the meeting is in fact called by Organise!

What the hell is the big secret?

shades of swp front organisations about this.

by boulcolonialboy - Organise! Mon Nov 14, 2005 20:30 organiseireland at yahoo dot co dot uk

slavishly pro-Loyalist? What a load of crap. For your information Organise! has members from both 'prod' and 'taig' communities and as an Anarchist organisation is opposed to capital and the state (all states - British, Irish or devolved Stormont statelet). Seeking the abolition of all states and the establishment of direct democracy in our workplaces and communities involves the destruction of the state that your 'Loyalists' are supposedly loyal to.

Your post, and others, about our alleged pro-loyalism are simply ill concieved slander.

The EWN meeting is an open meeting for education workers to discuss issues affecting workers in that industry and build on those discussions - it is a process that will also be taken part in by education workers elsewhere.

by Sean Mon Nov 14, 2005 18:41

I understand totally, we had disagreements about the venue too, and im quite positive the future venue will be in a neutral venue.

by Aine Mon Nov 14, 2005 18:23 Belfast

Sean, I would like to check out this EWN as I am a community education tutor myself. But I am fed up of things being organised that are only open to one community because of wehre they are being held and the first meeting establishes a lot about an initiative. I would not feel ok about going to a meeting on the Shankill and I have friends who would not feel ok about going to one on the Falls. There are lots of neutral venues available in city centre. Please use one of them!

by Sean Mon Nov 14, 2005 16:37

The planned public discussion with the view to seeting up a EWN will be postponed due to technical problems with the venue. However we will be holding the meeting in another location shortly!

by Spartacus Mon Nov 14, 2005 14:32

Why do they have to hold a meeting in a Catholic area? Given their slavish pro Loyalist stance I would have thought Organise should hold their meetings on the Shankill Road.

Will Organise be subjecting Taigs to a sectarianism test before they are allowed into the meeting?

by .. Mon Nov 14, 2005 14:19

Sean

I am told that the meeing has been called by Organise, is this true?

by Sean Mon Nov 14, 2005 13:52

Thanks for the comments. As stated in the statement, this will be part of a series of discussion taking place North and South and other parts of belfast too.
For starters, it is the only venue we could get in a limited amount of time so our apologies.
The initiative is coming from those involved in the education sector from librarians, kitchen workers, lectures to teachers etc.
The best thing to do is come and find out whether it is open to all!

by Aine Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:54

And how many Protestant education workers will feel safe about going to the Glor na nGael offices on the Falls Road?

by .. Mon Nov 14, 2005 09:50

Is this meeting open to all?
Who/what organisation called the meeting?