We wish every teacher, parent and student a happy and creative school year. We all strive for the best for our children’s education, we all have hopes and expectations for their future and progress. That is why we do not settle with misery, with the little… We do not squeeze our needs for education and a life with rights into some coupons, vouchers and passes, we do not “buy into” the government’s narrative of “innovations in education and a return to normality.

Dear parents, students, teachers,

At the moment, we are faced with a “mountain” of obligations, bills, while increases in electricity, fuel, essentials break record after record. The government’s myth that “we are out of the memoranda” and that high growth rates will save us is being shattered by the reality we are living in.

Our wages are not even enough for the first ten days of the month. Rents and travel costs, especially for substitute teachers and new staff, wipe it out and what is left is crumbs… This is not a natural phenomenon, it is not our bad luck and circumstances. It is the result of the political support of business interests, by all governments. Such as the record profits of the big tourism companies, while half the workers have not taken a single day’s holiday, the amendments that exempt from taxes and give back debts to shipowners, the passing of an EU directive updating the regime of unfair taxes on ‘energy products’.

The escalation of the attack on our lives and rights goes hand in hand with the intensification of the repression, the attack on trade unions and their action, on the state control, on the activation of a vile mechanism against the ‘enemy people’, which came to the surface on the occasion of the ‘surveillances’ case.

This is the so-called “executive” state that is jointly defended by the New Democracy, Syriza and PASOK. Quick and effective for the interests of big business, the promotion of anti-worker policies and the striking of the workers’ movement. Non-existent and dysfunctional for the defence of the life and health of workers, the protection of the environment from natural disasters, the rights and education of youth.

Nothing happens if you remain a spectator – everything is reversed if you take the lead!

Parents, teachers, students and all workers can live better! We have proven that only through collective organization, struggles and solidarity can we get positive results. This is what have shown our struggles to keep the schools standing over the past years, and this is what is being put into practice in a number of other workplaces and sectors where the workers’ struggles have been successful. This is how government measures and unjust laws are in practice being blocked. This is how the anti-educational evaluation was cancelled in practice, no cameras were put into the classrooms, we have left the law on the education system inactive for more than a year.

Schools are opening and despite the Ministry of Education’s triumphalism about the innovations it is supposedly introducing, we know the real situation. The real teacher vacancies, remain large even after the first recruitment of thousands of substitutes. Parents will be asked to dig deep into their pockets for another year, and there is a real risk that many children will freeze to death in the winter if no measures are taken on oil, gas and electricity. The underfunding of school boards is breaking bones. The increases in prices of school supplies are large, with increases of more than 30% on photocopying paper alone.

The regularity of the ND Government is stated in the legislative arsenal it has passed. By stepping on and extending laws of previous governments, it seeks to form, even faster, a categorised, with more class barriers and commercialised school in structure and content, through the implementation of the so-called “evaluation”, the Vocational Education Laws etc. The notorious “extended full day until 17:30” is being implemented without any plan, infrastructure and pedagogical framework, creating a literal mess in schools.

And this yearit is shown that the government is not prepared to implement even the most basic measures to protect the health of pupils, teachers and their families, since it does not even provide for free covid tests.

We are not spectators! We are not waiting for saviours! We are taking the situation into our own hands!

We are organising in every union, in every municipality, in every school, to fight for our own needs.

WE DEMAND

Work and life with rights. 20% increase in teachers’ salaries. Return of the 13th and 14th salaries.

Reinstatement of all substituteterachers. Covering all real vacancies in schools. Measures to support the daily living of teachers. Rent subsidy at 300 euros, use of all available infrastructure for housing. 50% discount on all mass transport. Free meals in military and university schools.

15 students per class.

Epidemiological surveillance measures for schools. Free and repeated covid tests under the responsibility of the EODY and provision of all Personal Protective Equipment. Recruitment of additional full-time cleaning staff.

Money for education, not for NATO slaughterhouses. No involvement of Greece in the war.

Extraordinary funding for school committees. Cancellation of electricity and utility debts. Tax-free oil and gas. Abolition of VAT on all school supplies. Imposition of a cap on prices.

Free lunch and breakfast for all children. Immediate commencement of Supplementary Teaching and Additional Teaching Support programmes.

We are escalating the struggle, preparing a major strike response by the workers in the immediate future.