SADTU3
SADTU Update, February 2016 Speaker's Notes and Booklet for the 2016 Education Workers' Forums Full Contents (present section in bold): Introduction Pseudo Movements Defending Collective Bargaining The Privatisation of Education Migration of TVET Lectures in terms of the Public Service Act Government Employees' Medical Scheme (GEMS) Government Employee Housing Scheme (GEHS) 2016 Retirement and Tax Reforms Record of NEC Decisions on MTT recommendations Conclusion Pseudo Movements The current political climate with the rise of the "#MustFall" pseudo-movements and the consistent undermining of collective bargaining by those in power demands that we do things differently this year with greater innovation and urgency. The "#MustFall" movements give rise to the possibility of our own space being invaded by the so-called radical alliance and we are not insulated from this possibility. Some of these are funded and sustained by masked, undisclosed sources and are clearly becoming the first phases in an effort to effect regime change ultimately. This is the reason the "#MustFall" movement relating to student fees went a as far as threatening the upcoming local government elections. Whilst the ANC led government managed to dilute the potency of student-led "#FeesMustFall" movement, some undesirable elements have found a way to sustain it through what is now called the "#OutsourcingMustFall" movement. This pseudo-movement is led by disgruntled individuals and the possibility of invasion to our space is real. We must as an organisation seize the moment and apply the correct strategy and tactics to ensure that genuine struggles of the working class are not hijacked by rogue regime-change elements and that we are not reduced to irrelevance as a union. It is us who must lead these struggles and it us who must see to it that they are not used for the wrong reasons. For 2016 we must go back to the basics if we are to survive what will likely be a rough patch. All signs are there that there will be another assault on our rights as workers. We expect those now outside our organisation to continue to work even harder in counter-organising against us using all forms of propaganda and underhand tactics. We have to organise twice as hard, offer member benefits in line with our strategic goal number one of the SADTU 2030 vision and we must service them diligently. We have to go beyond the bare minimum because the enemy does not rest. The "#MustFall" movements exposed the entire mass democratic movement and its respective components. The establishment that we seem to be associating with through being in alliance with the ruling party is challenged by a strata that we never thought could lead a revolution, being the middle class. This stratum is confident, educated and are good in articulating the demands of the poor and the working class. SASCO as the legitimate representative of the poor and working class students has been temporarily displaced, this then affects all organisations including SADTU. We highlighted earlier that organizations of the MDM and SADTU in particular are at risk of being displaced if we keep the social gap but also enjoy the comfort of incumbency and remaining in air conditioned offices. We need to be close to workers and pick up issues on behalf of members. It is likely that this battle will be extended to TVET and later to Basic Education. Campaigning Against School Fees The freedom charter is clear in that the doors of learning shall be open for all. The ANC government has made major strides in this regard with no-fee schools which have incrementally increased access to education particularly at a primary school level. Access must still increase even further at the basic education level and it must go hand in hand with increase in quality infrastructure. -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
