Australia: Labor government tightens war-related powers over universities
As in the US and Europe, a wartime-style atmosphere is being created, backed by threats of punishment of researchers and universities that fail to comply.
Mike Head•
Australia: Teachers on the front line of the NDIS cuts
Alongside people with disabilities and their families, the Labor government’s gutting of the National Disability Insurance Scheme will have a devastating impact on teachers and education support staff in Australia’s already crisis-ridden public schools.
Carolyn Kennett•
Australia: Vote No to the third AEU-Labor Sellout! Build the Victorian Educators Rank-and-File Committee!
The Australian Education Union is once again trying to bulldoze Victorian teachers and staff into accepting a wage and condition cutting sellout that they have twice rejected.
Committee for Public Education•
Australian Education Union pushing new sellout of Victorian teachers after anti-democratic conference
The AEU is once again trying to stampede educators into accepting a sellout through a rushed ballot that does not allow for discussion or debate.
Committee for Public Education•
A WSU Rank-and-File Committee member•
Dayananda Ratnayake, Kapila Fernando•
Our correspondent•
Frank Gaglioti•
Jesse Thomas, Barry Grey•
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Rank-and-File Committees
We are building a network of rank-and-file educators, students, parents, and workers to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.
National Steel Car workers in Hamilton, Ontario launch strike for second time in three years
More than 1,200 workers at National Steel Car in Hamilton, Ontario went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, August 12. The walkout followed a decisive vote to reject the company’s “last, best, and final offer,” which was handed out to workers over the heads of the United Steelworkers Local 7135 Friday afternoon.
Dylan Lubao•
Australian Education Union pushing new sellout of Victorian teachers after anti-democratic conference
The AEU is once again trying to stampede educators into accepting a sellout through a rushed ballot that does not allow for discussion or debate.
Committee for Public Education•
National Steel Car workers: Reject the corporate/USW “partnership!” Prepare strike action under rank-and-file control!
The centrepiece of USW Local 7135’s 2026 contract campaign—the elimination of the “incentive” program,” i.e., piecework—has evaporated over the last two weeks. The union now proposes to get involved in administering the piecework program rather than abolish it.
National Steel Car Rank-and-File Committee•
Postal workers in Britain condemn death threat against Will Lehman by UAW official
Postal workers at Royal Mail in Britain have added their voices to the growing international condemnation of the public death threat made against Will Lehman, a Mack Trucks worker and candidate in the United Auto Workers presidential election, by a senior UAW official.
our correspondent•
Industrial Workers Rank-and-File Group (Australia)•
A member of the National Steel Car Rank-and-File Committee•
Committee for Public Education•
Western Sydney University Rank-and-File Committee•
Committee for Public Education•
Essential reading
All over the world the trade unions, including those which were founded through bitter struggles led by socialist-minded workers, now play the leading role in enforcing the dictates of management.
In this lecture, delivered in Sydney, Australia in January, 1998, WSWS international editorial board chairman David North explains this profound transformation through an historical examination of the trade unions themselves.
The Soviet literacy campaign remains the largest and most successful in world history. It serves as an enduring demonstration of the extraordinary possibilities for reorganizing society in the interests of the working class on a planned, socialist basis.
This two-part article is a critique of the Democratic Socialists of America’s narrative of the teachers strike wave in 2018-19. It reviews the role of the teachers unions from West Virginia to Arizona, exposing the claims of “victory” by the unions and the DSA. It also assesses the DSA’s opportunistic “dirty break” with the Democratic Party and their role in collaborating with the unions to divert teachers by pressuring the powers-that-be.
This article reviews the significance of the Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court case. As an AFSCME’s lawyer warned the ruling elites during oral arguments, the collection of “agency fees” is routinely traded for a no-strike clause in union contracts. He warned, “Should those clauses disappear, employers will have chaos and discord on their hands.”
In line with the identity politics promoted by the Democratic Party and the pseudo-left, “abolitionist teaching” foments divisions among teachers and students based on race.
The origin of the term ethnomathematics is attributed to Brazilian postmodernist Ubiratan D’Ambrosio (1932-). It emphasizes “power relationships” and cultural relativism, downplaying “objective knowledge.”
After Trump provocatively called educators “loser teachers preaching socialism,” the AFT made no comment. Far from defending teachers against red-baiting, union president Randi Weingarten (annual salary above $500,000) agrees that “socialist” teachers have no business in the classroom. This report looks at some of the long and ugly history of the union’s anticommunism.
Democratic rights and education
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