Report of visit to the
26th March
to 2nd April 2009
Bill Greenshields
- President, National
David Drever –
President, Educational
Background
Our unions had become
increasingly aware of the recent radical developments in education in
We stayed in
Its population is
often quoted as “between six and eight million people”. The lack of certainty
is in large part due to the fact that many of the people live in the barrio – the self built “shanty town” on
the lower slopes of the mountains surrounding
It is the
determination to meet the needs of the poor working class and the people of the
barrio, to give them a voice and to
empower them politically that is the clearest expression of the Bolivarian
revolution. There is indeed a revolution underway, with fundamental shifts in
priorities and power, and legal and constitutional changes to reinforce these.
These changes
have, according to a representative of the
All judgements
about the current situation and recent developments in education have to be
made in the context of this polarised revolutionary situation.
The Barrio
We visited Onoto,
one part of the sprawling barrio.
Onoto is subdivided into smaller areas – the area we visited being home to 980
families. For the most part these families live in self built dwellings made
from ubiquitous red clay blocks. As families develop they simply add another
storey. Thus some are single storey, others up to five storeys high – all built
without planning or building regulations, but with the necessary skills being
passed from generation to generation. Many of the buildings are in a state of
disrepair, and facilities are extremely limited. There is a very strong sense
of community, though the area can be very dangerous for outsiders.
The Bolivarian
revolution sees this area and others like it as priority areas, and is building
on the strong sense of community by establishing locally elected Community
Councils (elected every two years) which organise activities and services of
all kinds – social, political, administrative, security - and working
alongside, though independently of, the more formal “People’s Power” democratic
process which recently has become more recognised in the barrios. The Community Council covers a very small area of the barrio to encourage direct and active
participation of the people to whom it is accountable.
We were greeted
by the Secretary of the Community Council, Elias, who lives in Onoto and who is
a health service trade union organiser and Communist Party activist. He guided
us through the extremely steep streets of Onoto, warning us to walk carefully.
He had tripped on the broken surface the previous week and having fallen, he
had rolled a hundred yards down the hill. “It’s a cheap form of transport,” he
said, “if only we could roll uphill.”
There are refurbishment
and rebuilding activities throughout the barrio,
part of the grass roots “Mission Habitat”
funded by grants and loans (on a very low cost basis over 80 year periods) to
families, and with the employment of skilled building workers employed by the
State to work alongside the people of the community. The supply of electricity
and water to all homes is another priority. Not only are houses being rebuilt,
but community centres and small scale workshops are constructed to provide
work. Such workshops include clothing manufacture and food preparation and
distribution. Transport – including trucks, buses and cable car - is also being
provided to enable people to get to other work in
Throughout the barrio, you see the slogans on walls.
Simply “Si!” – an affirmative for the
revolution and its constitutional changes – and also “Uh Ah! Chavez no se va!” – “Chavez is not going anywhere” – a slogan
developed at the time of the failed coup against Chavez in 2002, when at least
a million people from the barrio and
working class district of town surrounded the coup leaders in the Miraflores
Presidential Palace and successfully demanded the release and reinstatement of
Chavez.
The “missiones”
The government
has established “grass-roots” missions to improve the lives of the poorest
sections of the community with emergency measures, to put in place more long
term programmes, and to build social and political authority from the bottom
up.
Health care
Despite
One of the health care
missions is called “Barrio Adentro” –
and our visit to Onoto included a visit to a newly established polyclinic,
staffed by Venezuelan health workers, supported and trained by others from
Food and nutrition
Just across the way from
the polyclinic was a supermarket called “Mercal”.
This is one of a chain of state run “missione” supermarkets selling good basic foodstuffs
– rice, beans, oil, flour, sugar etc – at very highly subsidised rates. These
are situated to be convenient for the
barrios and for the poorest districts of town, and staffed by enthusiastic
workers who lose no opportunity to promote the Bolivarian revolution.
Corazon Adentro – the cultural mission
We visited a state
community TV station – TV Caricauo – which serves a very tight community as
part of a network of community television stations… a big feature of the Chavez
government’s attempt to break the dominance of the big business controlled
private media… the latter routinely calling for his overthrow, and being very
central to the failed coup of 2002.
TV Caricauo was hosting a
community education class/activity when we arrived. It was focused on
developing multiculturalism and mutual respect – with people from different
ethnic and cultural groups exploring how they celebrated particular festivals
and significant days.
The TV station encourages
local people to take active part in activities and debates around all sorts of
social and political issues, and to make and present their own programmes.
We took part in one such
programme, being interviewed about the purpose of our visit, what we thought of
Venezuelan society, about education in
Education missions
There are a number of grass roots education initiatives using volunteers and about 35,000 extra emergency trained (2 year
programme) teachers since 2005, working with about 12 million people across the
whole country.
Mission Robinson
1 & 2 (launched July
2003) teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to Venezuelan adults, and
then to bring them up to the standards expected at the completion of primary
education. UNESCO has recently declared
Mission Ribas (launched November 2003) – provides remedial secondary level
classes to Venezuelan “high school dropouts” and adults, with about 600,000
students enrolled, being taught such things as grammar, geography and a second
language.
Mission Sucre (launched in late 2003) – provides free and ongoing basic
education courses to adult Venezuelans who had not completed their
elementary-level education. This is now expanding into Advanced and Higher
Education for people without formal entry qualifications, through University
“outreach” centres available in the community.
A workplace basic skills and
vocational skills programme
There are
many other missions concerned with (amongst others) electoral rights and participation, the environment and conservation, indigenous rights, socioeconomic transformation
and land
reform, forestry and rural development. We did not
get an opportunity to observe these at first hand or to discuss them in any
detail – but they are considered to be an “integrated package” for the “bottom up”
transformation of society. The land reform programme is particularly hotly
contested as it involves the “expropriation” of big underused privately owned
estates and their distribution to the previously landless rural poor.
The formal Education System
We had
meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Education, the National
Assembly Commission on Education, the Minister for Women, the Ministry of
Labour, and with five teacher unions. These provided us with a picture of the
development of the formal Venezuelan education system, its current situation,
and current and future plans.
In brief…
The
Venezuelan education system developed rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s. This was
as a result of a great deal of general social and political unrest, including
widespread teacher union activity and strike action over teacher pay, school
funding and the demand for free education for all, led by the teacher unions of
the CTV.
In the
1980s and 1990s the government adopted the neoliberal agenda with the resulting
and increasingly widespread underfunding, pay cuts and privatisation programmes
– and resulting exclusion of many children from the education service. This was
again met by militant action by some. The teacher unions leaderships still made
“pay and conditions” demands on behalf of teachers, but the union leaderships
were largely unresponsive to the more general demands for political progress
Up to 1999
– before the election of President Chavez, only about 60% of children were in
school, including both public and private sectors. Of this 60%, most working
class children, barrio children etc
left school before the end of primary education due to economic pressure, and
the need to earn a wage.
Now, 95% of
children are in school, and completing secondary education.
They
identify five stages to education, which is free up to 16
1. Birth
to six years
State
support for mothers and families, parental education, kindergarten from 3 for
some (with “small” parental contribution) – though there remains a long waiting
list for early years provision
2. 6 to 11 years
1st
– 6th grade primary education
3. 11 to 16 years
7th
– 11th grade general secondary education and technical education
4. 16+
School and
continuing education, training etc
5. 18+
University
Prior to the
election of the Chavez government, 3.7% of GDP was spent on education. Now,
over 7% is spent on education
There are a
total of around 25000 state schools in
The number of teachers has also significantly increased in the country. In the
1999-2000 school year there was an average of 62 students per teacher, a number
that has now been improved to 28 students per teacher.
The rapid improvement in state
schools, and the reduction in class size to below that of the private sector
(maximum of 38 in state schools, normally around 45 in private schools) has
meant that the private sector is in real decline.
Now there
is a government led initiative for “Bolivarian Education” and “
The target
is that all state schools should be Bolivarian Schools by the end of 2010, and
that the remaining private schools should also follow the Bolivarian
curriculum. Those that fail to do so will be taken under state control. The
latest figures (2008) show about 6,000 schools are fully integrated into the
Bolivarian school system
Bolivarian
Schools are open 8 hours a day - an increase of three hours. Teachers in these
schools are paid 60% more than teachers in more “traditional” schools. The
school provides for the all round well being of pupils, including food and
nutrition (three meals per day), health care, social workers etc. They are
staffed, as are all schools, by fully trained teachers who are graduates with
postgraduate training
The new Bolivarian education is based
on four “pillars”. Learn to create, learn to participate and coexist, learn to
value, and learn to reflect.
It is based on the ambition to
integrate “the school, the family and the community”, and emphasises,
environmentalism, multiculturalism, national independence, internationalism,
inclusivity and co-operation – “to reflect our changing society”
Teachers is Bolivarian schools are
expected to adopt “teaching by investigation”, a child-centered dynamic
approach, very different from the very formal didactic education process more
traditionally prevalent.
The Ministry of Education is highly
critical of the nature of the curriculum before 1998. They regard it as being
"colonial, Eurocentric, ideological education," that taught
Venezuelans “to admire the conquistadors, based on capitalist values and
promoting consumerism and contempt for others."
In launching the Bolivarian
curriculum, Chavez said, "We want to create our own collective, creative
and diverse ideology.”
We were told that these educational
developments in schools – and in Universities – are at the centre of the
“battle of ideas” in new
As Maria de la Paz – the national
Assembly’s Chair of the Commission on Education told us, “Economic development
should be about meeting the needs for human development – not vice versa.
Politics is not about preserving institutions but empowering citizens.
Education is our route to both. Venezuelan society now demands this new
approach”.
Her Deputy said, “
Visit to a Bolivarian primary school
We met the Headteacher. She had been a
teacher for 25 years, always working with the poorest children. She told us she
had always had to spend her own money on buying not just school equipment, but
clothes and food for the children. She said that often malnourished children
would bring a mixture of rice and dog food to school for their lunch – while
others had nothing. Children would use small nets, weighted with stones to trap
pigeons, which they would kill, cook and eat – causing real health problems.
Often children would be asleep or faint in school.
In the last ten years there had been
huge improvements. Her school was open from early morning to late afternoon,
and provided three meals a day (from onsite kitchens). The children received
regular health checks, inoculations etc, with a permanent nurse on site, and a
doctor visiting the school and families on 3 days a week.
The school was open to the whole
community for education through the missiones.
Her school had 887 pupils aged between
3 and 12. There were 80 “teachers and helpers” – and a maximum 38 children to a
class. All the teachers were university graduates with postgraduate training,
and a year of “internship”
All children of the local area
attended the school, except those selected (through school nominations and the
agreement of parents) for specialist art, technical or Special Needs
education). All such students were reviewed regularly, and many returned to her
school “when agreed appropriate”. The school had a special “UPE” unit for
children with special needs.
She was very proud of the performing
arts aspect of the school – particularly dance and working with the outreach
work of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra
She explained to us that the biggest
issue in the school had been the change in teaching style – now child centered
and investigative – which some teachers (who had become used to “simply
following text books”) had found very difficult and demanding. They approached
this problem by increasing those teachers’ CPD time.
Teachers were also expected to work
with the family and community, which could be very demanding.
These developments were leading to
much greater teacher creativity, more professional control, and much greater
professional reward and sense of achievement – “but it remains an issue”.
The school was run by the Headteacher
together with representatives of the local Community Council and of the formal
Local “People’s Power” Government.
We asked her about teacher unions. She
immediately responded that the teachers in school were members of the FEV - the
Venezuelan Federation of Educators – which she said was “the biggest”.
“Welcome to the University of the
Revolution!” said Luis Damiani, the Rector of the
The University is 5 years old, “Born
out of the revolutionary process, which rejected the policies of exclusion.” He
claimed that statistics for 1998 showed 497,000 people who had wanted HE places
who were refused under the old system.
Now Mission Sucre and the
The University has 197,000 enrolled
students – divided into 2000 “University Villages” with 11 Headquarters
throughout
The University offers HE courses in
Legal studies, social administration,
politics and government, computing, environmental studies, architecture, engineering,
petrochemicals/gas, public health, medicine. They are just preparing a new
course in political economy.
Students can study any one or a
combination of these areas.
The Rector described a process that
all the academic staff had to constantly put themselves and their teaching
through… “Revision, rectification, reinvigoration” to meet the needs of the
people, rather than their own needs as academics.
This involved them in both informal
and formal processes of examining and “reinvigorating”
1. Strategic design and development
2. Logistical management
3. Day-to-day work
Currently he was working with “all
staff and students” – academics, administration workers and students – on
reviewing the original principles of the University… then considered radical,
but now recognised as being still too tied to “post-modernist, neoliberal
principles”
They were starting from the position
of recognising the relation of theory and practice, of academic thought and the
reality of life – and recognising that it is reality that is primary that needs
to develop new ideas – not vice versa.
They were looking at postmodernist,
fragmented society and the negative individualism it created – and how this permeated
HE worldwide, affecting research, administration and teaching.
“The main characteristic of the
reality of Venezuelan life is one of social conflict,” he maintained - the
conflict “between neoliberal capitalism and Bolivarian socialism.”
This conflict was manifested in many
ways he said – legal, ideological, political, cultural, physical. “No
university could or should put itself above this struggle.”
The previous role of Venezuelan
universities (private and autonomous) had been to train future professional,
economic and political leaders to enable the “wider reproduction of capitalist
production”. The role of the
Therefore, there were identified
structural changes that are necessary.
1.
More participation and democracy in all
aspects of planning, decision making and delivery. The University was putting
in place a system of student, teacher and worker representation on all strategic
bodies in the university
2.
They were abolishing school and faculties,
and introducing a module and topic based study to reflect “the complexity of
humanity and society rather than the commodification of education”
3.
All curriculum research should use not a reductionism
approach, but a dynamic, dialectical materialist philosophy – examining the
contradictions in society, to establish how to progress toward a new society of
new relations of production.
These structural changes would equip
all those associated with the University to “know reality, identify conflict
and its causes, examine the root problem… and deal with it” – and to struggle
to end the division between “those who think, and those who do.”
After some discussion, he presented us
with his new book dealing with these issues, and said, “One more thing. The
thing I was thinking about while waiting for you. Do we understand society from
the context of law and customs, or law and customs from the context of
society?” Discuss.
The trade union federations
The CTV (Confederation of Venezuelan
Workers) is the longest established of trade union federations in
CTV then formed a “strategic alliance”
with the employers’ organisation FEDECAMARAS (the Venezuelan Federation of
Chambers of Commerce) to attempt to take
On April 9th 2002 the
employers organisation FEDECAMARAS called for a 3 day general strike against
the government and its radical policies. The CTV, including some teacher
unions, supported that strike. Following a march on the Presidential Palace
(which was defended by a counter demonstration of Chavez supporters) there was
a coup organised by sections of the army and the employers’ organisation.
Chavez was taken away and imprisoned, the government dissolved by force.
FEDECAMARAS leader Pedro Carmona was installed as “President”. CTV is very
widely alleged to have taken part in the development and organisation of the
coup, and its leaders were certainly in the Presidential Palace playing a full
part when the coup plotters celebrated their temporary success. They gave their
full support to Carmona, until he was removed from office.
After 48 hours the coup leaders in the
Presidential Palace were surrounded by over a million workers and people from
the barrio, demanding the
reinstatement of Chavez and his government. The Presidential Guard, loyal to
Chavez, took control back, and reinstated Chavez.
For their part these CTV unions,
including the teacher unions, deny that there ever was a coup. They repeated
this to us when we met them. Chavez had “simply resigned” following their
demonstration. Then he “changed his mind” and was reinstated.
Unfortunately for the coup leaders
there happened to be an Irish film crew in the Presidential Palace during all
these events – there initially to make a documentary about the Chavez
government and its social policies. What they actually managed to film was the
entire process of the coup – now a major award winning documentary, “The Revolution Will Not be Televised”.
Following the coup attempt, many of
those involved fled abroad. Carlos Ortega, the President of CTV, escaped from
jail left
Following the unsuccessful coup
attempt, FEDECAMARAS and the CTV union representing a managerial union in the
oil industry shut the industry down for 3 months, locking out the hourly paid
oil workers, in an attempt to paralyse the economy. There was widespread
sabotage and destruction of plant and machinery. After 3 months, the government
sacked 18000 oil managers, and brought the workers back to work. This led to
complaints to the ILO by the sacked managers. The ILO was very critical of the
sackings and of the Chavez government’s attitude to CTV. Chavez said, perhaps
unhelpfully, that the ILO could, “…go fry monkeys.”
It was in response to all this that a
new trade union federation, the UNT (National Workers Union) was established.
The UNT is a relatively recently
established trade union federation formed by workers opposed to the CTV
leadership and broadly supportive of the revolutionary policies of the Chavez
government.
In 2000, there was a government
organised referendum in which workers were asked if all unions should undergo a
“re-legitimation” process. The outcome was a vote in favour of all unions
having to hold one-member, one-vote direct elections for their leadership. This
was adopted into the National Constitution ( a pocket sized copy of which is
carried by very many Venezuelans), and applied by the CNE (National Election
Council). This provision ran counter to the rule books of many of the CTV
unions who refused to implement it. Thus the Chavez government regards these
unions as “unconstitutional”.
The British TUC unanimously adopted a
resolution in 2005 recognising and supporting the social and political
developments in
“Congress agrees to
support wider trade union initiatives to highlight the issue of
The Education trade unions
There are 8 teacher unions. We were
able to meet with 5 of them.
Fetra-E, Fetrasined, Collegio de
Licencias and Fetra Magesterio are all associated with the CTV).
They met us together.
Fetra-E
The meeting was opened by Jesus
Ramirez, the President of Fetra-E, which claims 80,000 members He is also a
national leader of CTV.
He told us that the government
excluded most CTV teacher unions from negotiations, favouring SINAFUM, which he
referred to as a “government union”.
Negotiations over teachers contracts should now be happening, but his
union and others are excluded because they do not just follow the government
line - they try to talk to the government but are ignored. The government
regards them as unconstitutional because their rule books do not conform to the
constitutional requirement to hold direct membership elections for national
leaders – but this, he maintained, is an excuse. He claimed that the real
reason is political because the CTV unions do not support government policies.
“No-one really wants Chavez here.”
The CTV teacher unions had, last
October, handed a document to the Vice Minister of Education containing demands
regarding teacher contracts and pay in the light of “below inflation” pay
awards. It was ignored, and the CTV unions had organised a demonstration and
more recently a strike.
He said that the government was
undermining teacher professionalism by employing people as teachers without
proper qualifications – just two year’s training.
Fetra Magesterio
Nelson Gonzalez claimed 47000 members.
He told us that he was an
anti-imperialist and a progressive person, but the government developed policy
without consulting his union, and flouted principles of inclusivity. Curriculum
change was taking place without proper consultation. His union was excluded
from discussions on the contract. The government did not respect union autonomy
and used the state body, the National Election Council, to try to impose rules
and procedures on them.
Fetrasined
Falime Hernandez, President, could not
give us his membership figures.
He alleged that Chavez had an ambition
to destroy all unions and replace them with his own creations. At first he had
tried to win elections in the established unions but failed, and so was
organising “parallel unions” through the UNT. He uses the power of the State
and Ministries to make it look as though CTV unions are illegal, by constantly
inventing new rules, but, he alleged, SINAFUM “never held elections, and never
produced financial accounts” and so should be illegal. SINAFUM, he said,
supported the Government in cutting teachers’ pay
Collegio de Licencias
Irma Rojas could not give us
membership figures
She asserted forcefully that Chavez
was following a highly politicised agenda with the unions. He wanted “to turn
Her union was now approaching many
other professional unions and bodies in the different regions of
There was an economic crisis, yet
Chavez increases spending on his supporters. “Everyone should suffer equally in
the economic crisis,” she said.
Venezuelans are told by Chavez not to
be wasteful, but, “We see the waste of our national resources on all these
extra government workers, just buying him votes.”
Following these statements, Jesus
Ramirez made some further points in relation to things that had been said, and
direct questions
Q. If Chavez excludes all unions who did not support him, why had he not
excluded two CTV unions - FEV (Federation of Venezuelan Educators) and FVN
(Venezuelan Teachers Federation), unfortunately not represented at this
meeting?
A. Their existing rule books happen to
conform to CNE requirements for democratic processes, and so Chavez cannot
exclude them from the collective contract negotiations, but still makes life
difficult for them, and invents new rules all the time.
Q. How did the strike and demonstration go?
A. The response was 100%.
Q. 100%? How many schools were closed or affected? We’ve been told that the
response to the strike call was minimal – less than 1%
A. This is not true.
Q. So are you planning further strikes and demonstrations? Could we meet
some strikers?
A. There were many other actions that
members took and would take to show support other than striking.
Q. What about SINAFUM? Are they a real union?
A. They are set up by Chavez. They
have members – but that is because all new teachers have to join it if they
want a job as a teacher.
Q. If “No-one wants Chavez”, how does he keep winning elections and
referenda?
A. He misuses the authority of the
State and Ministries to promote himself and his party, and uses all sorts of
programs and government workers to get people to give him support. Now he wants
to change the curriculum in schools to support his politics.
Q. Is this what was meant by the assertion that Chavez spends money on his
own supporters, and wastes money on extra government workers?
A. A lot of government money is being
given directly to his supporters, providing electrical goods like fridges to
the barrio just before elections–and
new buildings etc – and all sorts of projects just so that they would support
him in elections.
Q. What about the private media? Don’t they put out a lot of anti-Chavez
information?
A. We used to have a free media, but
Chavez is trying to control it. He shuts them down if they oppose him, and pays
for TV stations that support him. There are only a few now that can oppose him.
Q. So with the abuse of the Ministries, the use of the State for
propaganda, the exclusion of opposition views, the buying of votes, the use of
extra government workers to support him, and the change in the education
curriculum etc… are you saying that he cannot be removed democratically? Is
that why you supported the coup in 2002? Would you support another one?
A. (Before Jesus could get in the
translator replied!) There was no coup. It is a fabrication. Chavez realised
after our demonstration that he was not wanted, and resigned. (Then she
translated her answer for Jesus, who continued…) He was given transport to
leave the Miraflores Presidential Palace. We had a party to celebrate his
resignation. I was there, so I know what happened. We had to find a new
President. We supported Carmona, but only for 48 hours then we withdrew our
support because he was doing bad things. Then Chavez changed his mind, and he was
brought back. There never was a coup.
Q. You only supported Carmona for 48 hours. Wasn’t it about then that a
million people surrounded the Presidential Palace demanding Chavez’ release and
reinstatement?
A. That’s another exaggeration. It’s
not true.
Q. So what is your strategy for the future?
A. We will carry on fighting for our
rights, to be included in negotiations, to represent teachers and fight for a
new collective contract and teachers’ pay.
FENATEV (part of CTV)
This organisation was unable to attend
the meeting organised by CTV
FEV (Federation of Venezuelan
Educators) and FVN (Venezuelan Teachers Federation) (also part of CTV)
These unions are recognised by the
Chavez government as their internal democracy conforms with constitutional requirements.
They were not represented at the meeting organised for us by the other CTV
unions.
SINAFUM, part of the UNT, met us separately
Orlando
Perez, President of SINAFUM, claims 56,000 members
He
began by asking about the situation for teachers and the education service in
Then
he made the following points
Prior
to 1999 Venezuelan teachers and education had been subject to neoliberalism.
Teachers’ pay in
Many
people were excluded from the education system. Only the “middle and upper
class” completed their education. Out of every hundred children starting
primary school, only around 20 would complete it. Only about 10% of those
completing secondary education would continue in education – and between 25%
and 50% of those starting Higher Education would drop out. This exclusion was
caused primarily by poverty and deprivation of the families. In other words, in
formal terms there was apparent equality of opportunity to education, but the
reality was that there was no real access for the majority of the population.
Before
1999 about 2.5 – 3% of GDP was spent on education. There had been no new
schools built for 20 years.
In
1999 the Chavez government’s new constitution established, in Article 102,
education as a human right. An investigatory report explored the actual
exclusion from the system and its failings, and set objectives for improvement.
Spending
was raised to 7+% of GDP. Teachers pay increased by 54% between 1999 and 2007,
with inflation over the same period running at 34.5%
There
are now about 380,000 in service teachers, and another 120,000 retired
teachers.
As
well as increases in real pay, and improvements in working conditions the union
and government together have established the “Institute for the Protection of
Teachers”. This supplies teachers with all kinds of support, including health
care, low interest loans, holidays and recuperation in purpose built hotels,
car purchase schemes, computers and IT equipment and training, personal and
professional support and development.
The
National Insurance scheme is funded by the employer at 6%, and by the state at 12%
SINAFUM
is growing rapidly as a result of the nature of the other (CTV) unions. It now
has 56,000 members – an increase of 21,000 in the last year.
It
has regular elections of the whole membership for the leadership. At the time of
the last election there were 35,000 members. 17,000 took part in the election
for President, which he won with 12,000 votes. He offered to show us the
paperwork of this that had been accepted by the National Elections Council.
Some
of the CTV teacher unions refuse to hold membership wide elections, even though
this is constitutionally required (Article 93) as a result of a referendum of
all teachers in 2000. Those unions are therefore not recognised by the
Government for collective bargaining or negotiations.
It
is these same unions that supported the 2002 coup against the elected President
and government.
For
many years, these unions had been in an alliance with the political party
Accion Democratica which had become a neoliberal party, and as a result had not
opposed any of the neoliberal policies of the time. They “joined the business
community and ran their unions like that.” Following the 1999 elections they
had systematically opposed the government and its educational program.
Progressive teachers had tried to “democratise” these unions and the CTV, but
this had proved impossible.
In
2000/2001 Professor Aristobulo Isturiz stood as a progressive candidate for
President of CTV. The results have never been declared.
As
a result of this lack of democracy and membership involvement, progressive
workers first established the Bolivarian Federation of Workers, which became a
new Trade Union Federation, the UNT. SINAFUM is the teachers’ section of UNT.
It supports the Bolivarian revolutionary process, but is “totally independent
of government.” Perez offered us an
opportunity to meet with some of his members, but we could not fit this into
our program.
“Teachers
need an independent union, and the Bolivarian revolution needs workers to be
organised and taking a lead in the process,” he told us.
SINAFUM
is organised in the schools, and at local, regional and national levels.
Subscriptions are kept to the absolute minimum – 0.5 Bolivar a month.
SINAFUM
is currently in negotiations with the government for a new collective contract,
together with two other teacher unions from the CTV that conform with the constitution’s
requirements in terms of democracy. These negotiations are focusing on working
hours, pay, and the “social wage”
At
present, teachers in state schools work a 36 hour week. Teachers in schools
integrated into the Bolivarian education process work 54 hours per week, and
are paid 60% more as a result. SINAFUM is proposing a maximum 48 hour working
week, with appropriate pay. 30 hours of teaching, 6 hours of research, 6 hours
of CPD, 6 hours of work in community education.
Given
the increase in teachers pay since the 1999 election, the global economic
crisis, the urgency of developing the school system and the missiones, and the need to combat
poverty, SINAFUM has reduced its wage claim to the rate of inflation. In
return, they expect to see the development of the Institute for the Protection
of Teachers and its support for teachers, an increase in the national minimum wage,
the capping of “top salaries”, even more investment in the missiones, and the acceleration of the Bolivarian education
developments, with the establishment of a single type of Bolivarian National
School by the end of 2010.
Following
this introduction we discussed a number of issues.
Q. There are 380,000 teachers in
A. We
recruit all teachers in schools and on the education missions. There is no
compulsion to join, no requirement – but many new teachers recognise the nature
of the unions and want to join us. So we have grown by 21,000 in a year.
Q. We are told that SINAFUM is not democratic, and does not produce
accounts.
A.
I was recently elected after a hard fought election with about 50% of members
voting. And our accounts are presented properly, on time
Q. Recently the CTV unions called for strike action and
demonstrations over teachers’ pay and because they have been “derecognised” by
the government. What did you think of that?
A.
This was part of a continuing attempt to destabalise the government. There was
very little support for it. Only 168 educational institutions
went on strike out a total of more than 25,000
in the country. Their own members do not support these unions.
Q. How do you see things developing?
A.
We have offered a national referendum for all teachers to vote on which unions
should be in the negotiations and collective bargaining. We think that all
unions should conform to the year 2000 referendum of teachers that said that
there should be democratic all-member elections for the leadership of the
union. We have a lot to do to represent teachers well, and to develop our
education system and our society.
Q. Our British TUC (which includes both EIS and NUT)
voted unanimously in 2005 to build links with UNT. There is also the
international organisation of education unions, Education International. What
is your attitude to international links?
A.
We are internationalists. We would very much like to have such links with your
organisations, and we need to know more about Education International, its
membership, activities and processes. We look forward to working with you.
CONCLUSIONS
1. The situation in
2. Education is recognised a key to that process by all involved in it.
Therefore there is an acute struggle of ideas, which manifests itself in
different organisations and social movements
3. There are many radical, progressive attempts to reform and rebuild the
education service in
4. The fundamental ideas behind the Bolivarian educational developments have a
great deal in common with our own education policies of “a good local school
for every child and community”, inclusion, lifelong education, the defence and
promotion of an integrated system of state education, education as the
liberator, equality of opportunity, fighting poverty and disadvantage etc.
5. The CTV unions that are recognised by the government were not invited to
our meeting by their colleagues, and no explanation was offered for this. Some
of the other CTV unions appear to have understandable complaints that they are
excluded from negotiations and collective bargaining, and that the state is
attempting to bring about changes to their internal processes.
6. However, it is certainly true that if the NUT refused to comply with the
law on elections, and indeed had been associated closely with an attempt at an
armed coup against the British government, and thereafter with continuing
efforts to destabalise that government, we might also expect some action to be
taken against us.
7. The NUT would strongly support any British government which opposed
neoliberalism and prioritised education for all. This would not be an
indication of lack of independence from that Government
8. SINAFUM is a newly established fast growing independent trade union which
gives support to a revolutionary government with education policy at its heart.
It has democratic processes and a very real growing membership