Scottish teachers in massive 48-hour strike for 10%

By Socialist Party Scotland members in the EIS

The national 48-hour strike held on February 28 and March 1 by the vast majority of Scottish teachers has just ended.

Once again we closed 99% of all primary and secondary school in Scotland. Our fight for a 10% pay rise, almost one year on, continues with further action throughout March and April.

Tens of thousands of EIS members, as well as members of the NASUWT, have taken to the picket lines to show their unbreakable determination to win an improved pay offer.

Following on from the selective action last week that targeted the constituencies of first minister Nicola Sturgeon, deputy first minister John Swinney, education secretary Shirley-Anne Sommerville and the Scottish Greens’ Ross Greer, teachers have returned to national action with a bang.

John Swinney is meeting EIS negotiators this week and is said to be raging that we dared to take action that targeted his area.

Our strike was “indefensible”, according to Swinney. But he, Sturgeon, Sommerville et al are the ones who can end this strike action. By offering a 10% pay rise and a guarantee of inflation-proof pay rises from now on.

We know the latest pay offer of 6% is a disgrace and an insult. With RPI inflation running at well over 12% for last year it’s a massive kick in the teeth.

The Scottish government are at it. They have massively underestimated the determination of our members to fight for the pay rise we deserve.

Our huge vote of 96% in favour of strike action on a 71% turnout said it all about just how serious we are to stop the year-on-year erosion of our pay.

John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon say there is no money for pay rises, but if the Scottish government stopped making Tory cuts, taxed the rich and stood for the nationalisation of the energy industry as well as big business generally there would be plenty of money for pay rises to match inflation.”

As it is, if we stay strong and escalate the action after this current round of strikes we can and will force new concessions from a Scottish government that has never been weaker and never been more divided.

New dates for multiple days of national strike action should be agreed if there is no immediate movement from the employers and government.

We’ve been striking alongside posties, rail workers and university lecturers. It’s also time to coordinate the action and build towards a 24-hour general strike. The TUC and the STUC must take the lead.

As EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley pointed out: “Months of negotiations have brought nothing but a series of offers that amounted to deep real-terms pay cuts when teachers’ wages have already lost 25% of their value since 2008.

The additional funding needed for the teachers’ pay claim is £175 mil- lion…less than a tenth of last year’s £2BN Scottish Government under-spend.”

As they have with NHS workers, the SNP sought to blame the unions for cuts in budgets. “The financial situation for the Scottish Government is challenging and additional money for teacher pay means reduced public services elsewhere”, said Shirley-Anne Sommerville.

The Scottish government have passed on every penny of Tory austerity to public services in Scotland. And it is that reality of continual ac- ceptance of cuts that has brought

the Scottish government into head-on collision with the trade union movement.

As we have seen as the strike wave has unfolded, the SNP and Scottish Greens are no friends of the working class and the trade unions. The concessions that have been won by local government and NHS workers have been a result of national strikes or the threat of strike action.

For teachers, workload remains excessive while more and more is demanded with fewer and fewer resources. In response we are offered a derisory pay increase which is nothing short of a substantial pay cut. This cannot be allowed to continue.

Socialist Party Scotland members in the EIS and the wider trade union movement work to build a fighting trade union movement at all levels.

We stand for socialism and taking the wealth from the super-rich and big business for jobs, pay rises and homes for all.

This can be done by bringing into public ownership the main sectors of the economy under democratic working-class control.

Sturgeon’s resignation underlines the need for a new party for trade unionists

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as SNP leader and first minister has underscored, in spectacular fashion, the multi-faceted crisis that has engulfed the Scottish government recently.

The crisis is rooted in their implementation of austerity and anti- working class policies generally. The recent strikes have played a decisive role in exposing and undermining Sturgeon’s government. Wave after wave of strikes and threats of strikes in the public sector have been taking place against SNP politicians. The NHS is in a unprecedented crisis – the result of decades of underfunding.

Socialist Party Scotland has advocated the building of such a workers’ party consistently. Even in 2015, when the SNP were sweeping all before it, we stood in the 2015 general election as part of the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

As we did in the 2016 Scottish parliament election, putting forward the case for fighting socialist policies and for an independent socialist Scotland.

Today we continue that pioneering work in preparation for the next general election.

While standing for the building of a new party, in the meantime we will also stand workers’ candidates in the next election.

We would appeal to all those who want to see the building of a new mass working-class party to help lead mass struggle against capitalism and for socialist change to join us.