As teachers we need to come together and unite as never before. Internationally we see budget cuts, down-sizing, privatisation and the shifting of the burden for social services onto the poor. In our own country, the conservative economic policies of GEAR represent a major inroad of neo-liberal economic thinking, with consequent negative implications for education.
Teachers are also workers.
As labour we have to stand together against any attempt to lower standards and to set us on a suicidal race to the bottom. As workers we have common interests in terms of securing decent remuneration and conditions of employment for our members. We have to unite around our common interests. By the same token we need to strive for greater unity of all workers in the public service. As professionals, we also need to come together to safeguard the professional interests and status of our members.