You heard it on No Te Duermas
Daniela Sposato, an education worker and current general secretary of SUTEBA, a union that brings together teachers from the La Matanza section, was interviewed on the radio program “No Te Duermas”.
Initially, Daniela, given her commitment to public schools and the struggle she has been carrying out, spoke about the debate on essentiality in the congress and the mobilization: “Essentiality is actually the restriction of the right to strike. On Thursday we had a very large assembly, a very intense debate, and on Friday the debate of general secretaries.”
What is coming from the teachers’ union
“La Matanza is a history of resistance and struggle and participation in all activities, in all participation bodies to which we call, colleagues participate, delegates and the entire active movement of teachers join,” she said.
“For the Wednesday mobilization, not only did we go on several buses, but also comrades on their own in public transport, the union this time provided buses so that we could mobilize more forcefully.”
Regarding the assembly, Sposato added: “On Thursday, the assembly was also very large, there were around three hundred comrades debating, three speakers, the truth is that this strengthens us, beyond our internal discussions, we have very intense, very heated debates but then the majorities resolve.”
“What was discussed,” he added, “in the last assembly was the salary proposal made by the provincial government of Axel Kicillof, how we continue the plan of struggle, the national plan of struggle that CETERA is carrying out in a very complex framework, we went from having three provinces with attendance to having thirteen provinces with attendance.”
In turn, developing on the subject he said: “What it means to have to rethink how we are going to have that discussion, how we are going to fight that battle, to put up for discussion our tool which is the strike tool which is valid and historical but in what context are we going to use it and in what context are we going to be inventing other tools,” he said.
Salary
In relation to salary he said: “We have salaries in the provinces of three hundred thousand pesos, three hundred and fifty thousand pesos that do not exist, think that on top of that salary the attendance is also removed, so the colleagues are tied, we cannot ask them to give more or do more.”
“However we have provinces that go on strike and continue fighting. The strength of the education workers is historical, and that is why we say that public education in Argentina is defended by education workers, but also the union organizations that we lead have to think of strategies.”
“We are thinking about the federal march, about local actions and what we have been planning for a long time is how to have this discussion in the school with the communities, how to explain this essential project to the families,” she stressed.
Budget
“The families said, something is happening with the school, we say yes, of course something is happening; there is a lack of budget, that is why sometimes there are no classes because there is no water, not because of the teachers’ strike. We have to be able to put our words to it.”
“In the province of Buenos Aires we have a tool that perhaps not all provinces have, which is the union certificate, if one mobilizes the union it gives you a certificate that you were there, then that helps us not to go on strike.”
“We are in the school, the comrades are in the school with a day of struggle to make things visible inviting the family, we give a day at the school to say what is happening or we are in the mobilization.”
Asked if the essentiality somehow ties the teacher’s salary to the impossibility of striking, or what the punishment is, she said: “The punishment is economic and we also have to undo that lie, in the province of Buenos Aires the school opens its cafeterias even if there is a strike, there is a guard of presence in the schools, they are not closed.
So that is a big lie from the government about whether the schools are closed when there is a teacher strike.”
In response, one of the drivers referring to the response to what the government argues is that there are no classes, that is, they lose days of classes, for which Sposato added:
“The punishment is economic, and at no time are they putting the centrality to the kids in relation to teaching, because we do not have computers, because we do not have books and because we do not have classes when there is no water or there is some infrastructure issue.”
“We workers have had the courage to put on the table issues that have been highly questioned, such as; never again, how to speak of pedagogy of memory, and we are in that context where workers have to put words on things where there is surely someone from that community.
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