National Union of Educators (UNE) of Ecuador statement at SIRAL 27

 THE STRUGGLES OF THE WORKING CLASS AND

THE PEOPLES AND THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST DISPUTES

The National Union of Educators celebrates 79 years of struggle in defense of public, secular, free, scientific and quality education in which it is necessary to ensure the labor, professional and social rights of the teachers.

The UNE has played a fundamental role in defending public education as a fundamental human right. We have strongly rejected the anti-people policies and measures, the attempt at the privatization of education and the demand for greater budgets for this important sector. We are promoting the pedagogical proposal for emancipation, the new school that is one of the decisive instruments for social transformation and the building of the New Homeland.

The struggle of teachers in defense of labor rights. The organization has worked tirelessly to ensure fair working conditions, because without them, there will be no educational transformation. Stability and security for teachers in the exercise of their profession. The UNE has led different measures, in fact, to demand respect for the labor rights of educators, job stability, timely payment of salaries and the implementation of teacher training and modernizing policies with mobilizations and the greatest expression of rebellion, hunger strikes. We have confronted authoritarian governments, tyrants and military dictatorships, who have used and abused public force and in 1973 they assassinated Rosita Paredes.

During the government of Rafael Correa in Ecuador, the National Union of Educators (UNE) played a crucial role in the resistance of the peoples and defense of the rights of educators. During that period, the government promoted a series of measures and policies that directly affected the educational community.

One of the main struggles of the UNE during the period of Correa was the resistance against the criminalization of the social struggle, against an individualist, meritocratic, hierarchical, standardized, authoritarian education, against the politics of subjection and fear that limited the autonomy of the teachers, a policy implemented by imperialism through its multilateral organizations. The UNE denounced the attempts of the Correa government to impose a unique and biased vision on education that affirms capitalism, that is, the reproduction of the conditions of exploitation, inequities, a dictatorial and populist regime.

We confronted a series of reforms that sought to control and direct educational content towards an official narrative. The UNE defended the need for a critical, pluralist education that respects diversity of thought.

The UNE also faced a series of direct attacks against the labor rights of educators, during the period of Correa there were repeated attempts to weaken the union by withdrawing the dues check-off, removing its legal existence, creating parallel organizations, dismissal of a score of union leaders none of which they were able to bend, so the government took over the headquarters of the organization. The UNE resisted these actions and fought for the dignity and rights of teachers to free organization. And we are still standing here.

It is important to note that the resistance of the UNE during the Correa was not easy. The Correa government exerted strong pressure on unions and UNE leaders through disqualification, the imposition of sanctions and political persecution. However, the UNE remained steadfast in its defense of the rights of educators and the quality of education. In 2015, as an expression of trade union and political unity, we joined the United Front of Workers together with the working class; we continued the defense of the rights of the peoples of Ecuador.

In October 2019 the UNE together with the workers’ movement, peasants, indigenous, students, unemployed, women, black, mestizo and montubio [the mestizo people of the countryside of coastal Ecuador] people, the neighborhoods, and social organizations were leading forces in the indigenous, popular uprising against the neoliberal policies of the Moreno government that tried to place the crisis left by the Correa forces on the shoulders of the popular sectors with the creation of new taxes, rising fuel prices, and consequently, the rise in fares, the old dream of the right, the privatization of strategic state enterprises , the reduction of public servants. The popular struggle won a victory with the repeal of Decree 883; this was a turning point in the struggle of the peoples of Latin America.

The teachers were the first social sector that confronted the government of the banker Guillermo Lasso, demanding the revaluation of teachers. We fought for equal pay; we got the Legislative Branch to ratify the reforms to the Organic Law of Intercultural Education. The government was determined not to comply, so the protest rose and the second hunger strike declared that ended with the resolution of the Constitutional Court in favor of the teachers. The deepening of the social struggle was seen in the forceful mobilization of "May Day" that foresaw the dissatisfaction of the rebellious people, who condemned the announcements of privatization, the anti-worker labor policy, the inability to solve the problems of the people.

The organized popular sectors paralyzed the [government’s] activities, due to the continuous deterioration of living conditions, the application of the neoliberal proposal, the insistence on the sale of public companies, the tax amnesty, the usurpation of the workers' voices before the IESS; again the right used its strategy of attacks with harsh repression. However, the force of unity cornered the government and we defeated it.

The vitality of the social struggle and the measures of the government, the low acceptance of the actions of the two functions of State, led to the dismissal of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, for his inability to solve the problems of the country. In the midst of a wave of violence, an increase in crime, with the forced recruitment of minors for small-scale trafficking, hired assassinations and sexual exploitation, with 200,000 students who have not returned to school, the increase in many-sided poverty, the consequence of the application of neoliberal measures, the Executive declared a cross death [in which the president dissolved the National Assembly], a withdrawal of the bourgeoisie and called for early elections. In the runoff, two representatives of the right are participating who are responsible for the crisis of the country; the people were left without a candidate and the form of rebellion is the call to vote null. The UNE, consistent with its principles, played a leading role in the defense of nature together with the social organizations and activists; it was possible to stop oil exploitation in the ITT Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini area and mining in the Chocó Andino sector. Both areas have been declared Biosphere Reserves due to their diversity of fauna and flora, and their conservation reduces global warming and the sweltering era.

We defeated big international extractivist capital and gave an example to Ecuador and the world that it is possible to defeat imperialism; we will remain vigilant so that the decision of the people is respected.

Our struggle continues, we continue to build the road to the dictatorship of the proletariat, because only the people can save the people.

Workers of the world, unite

Today is a unique moment in our reality and in the World; the face of imperialism is seen in every gesture and in every act in public education in Latin America, today more than ever teachers must unite and break the chains imposed by imperialism. In the face of educational neoliberalism we propose education for the emancipation of the peoples.

For this reason today from Quito, the Middle of the World or, we want to raise the voice of hope and encouragement, so that the social activists of the World know that we are continuing to stand in struggle, strongly grasping our ideals of freedom, patriotism and solidarity organized in all sectors and covered by our red flag.

We call on all teachers' unions in Latin America in their different areas to create political education websites with a focus on the social struggle and the teaching of education for emancipation, in order to fight using the computer media, as we have done in the streets of Latin America and the world.