Anarcho-Syndicalist Education Workers Network
Sep 17 2006 09:01
Hello all,
a quick and perhaps not very coherent report from the yesterdays Solidarity Federations Education Workers Networks conference in Manchester.
Ten people participated, which is not too bad for our little organisation. The conference discussions were lively and i think very productive. I left the conference feeling quite motivated and exited.
There are a few education workers networks now, so perhaps it is good to start from describing what EWN is and is not.
As anarcho-syndicalists we do not believe in separation of economical and political, and therefore EWN is as much part of Solidarity Federation as a local group would be. We do not believe in two tier memberships, front organisations, or being dishonest to our class, so from the start we will describe ourselves as anarcho syndicalists and our aims are clear. If one wants to get involved in EWN they would join their nearest SolFed local and automatically join the industrial network according to their job.
The long term aim of the network is of course as anarcho-syndicalist organisation to pave the way towards proper anarcho-syndicalist fighting, militant and relevant union.
This union would be industrial, meaning that all workers within that industry would join the same union rather than according to their craft. Already in EWN we have workers from all areas of work in education industry: lecturers, manual workers, support staff, administration etc. who normally would be split into various craft unions.
This union would also be revolutionary, which from anarcho-syndicalist perspective means that its goal is to establish a libertarian communist society and the overthrow of capitalism. Practically at this stage of the game it means that the organisation is also political, rather than just economical and these issues are discussed both within the organisation and communicated outside in our material.
The road to relevancy is a difficult and long one, but has to start with first steps such as establishing this network. At this stage our activities will be limited to producing material, sharing experiences, internal education, public events, practical workplace advice and pushing anarcho syndicalist point of view in different areas of disputes, reformist union activities, nature of education and challenges facing our industry.
Some of the main areas of work were identified as commercialisation and privatisation of education, casualisation within our industry, discussions about libertarian education, opposing divisive craft unionism etc. Lots to do!
Currently we have EWN members up and down the country, mostly active in north west, and hopefully there will be some activity in London area as well soon. At the moment we would have only one workplace group at the University of Manchester.
If you are interested in pulling your weight to get this off the groud, please contact your Solidarity Federation local (www.solfed.org.uk), and join our mailing list at:
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/ewn
(or contact me)
Upwards and onwards!
Sep 17 2006 11:32
#2
shit, i forgot the students, sorry comrades 
They are part of EWN, but may decide amongst themselves in future to organise separately. We had some good discussion about students within the group. For us who work in the industry it is invaluable to have student contacts, for organising events, getting different point of view and also as workers we are usually stuck in one corner of campus, perhaps just one building, and maybe can't distribute material freely, and students can help us out with that.
At the moment there are not as many students in EWN as people who work in the industry, and so far most of the vocal organisers in EWN are workers, so lets see how the student side develops in future.
Sep 19 2006 02:23
#3
Yeah, cos I mean students are wankers and you wouldn't want to be overcome by the type of politics that a lot of students are into, but especially any workers in the public sector its really important to get service users involved, because it's them that the bosses/media will say you're hurting by demanding any improvements. Education seems like a great place for this co-operation because many pupils/students will be more likely to be sympathetic or be radicals of some sort.
Sep 19 2006 07:22
#4
one good point which was raised was that if students are involved they could, in theory, get experience and ideas to take to their future workplaces and organise there.
In education we also have these students who are more or less staff anyway, like postgraduates (especially research).
Sep 25 2006 11:30
#5
Quote:
Yeah, cos I mean students are wankers
Eh. feck off. ya cunt.
Actually we are trying to establish a SF student group in MMU we got leaflets and posters sorted, and we are gonna be doing alot of flyering etc.
cheers for the report jdmf. one question:
what did you decide about students?