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Demanding Better
The theme for this edition of the SEJ is, very much so, demanding better. The EIS is offering its support to the Scotland Demands Better campaign, with a major march and rally set to be held in Edinburgh on Saturday the 25th of October.
This important campaign, co-ordinated by the Poverty Alliance and supported by a wide range of organisations, including the EIS, is calling on Scotland’s politicians to do better for all the people of Scotland.
Poverty, hunger, inadequate housing, digital poverty and inequitable access to public services, including education, continue to blight the lives of far too many people across Scotland – including a large number of young people in our schools, colleges and universities.
The Scotland Demands Better campaign is our chance to stand up and tell the politicians that enough is enough, and that they must take action to make the lives of the people of Scotland better.
The EIS hopes to have a strong presence at the rally later this month, and encourages all members able to do so to turn out and show their support. Funding support for transport through EIS local associations is available, so please consider coming along to this important event.
The EIS is demanding better in other areas too. As we highlight in this month’s edition, the EIS is stepping up its support for humanitarian causes in Gaza, as the ongoing military offensive by Israel continues to impose a terrible price on the civilian population.
The assault on Gaza City, one of the few areas of Gaza which has not yet been flattened by Israeli attacks, threatens to cause even more harm to a civilian population which has already seen many tens of thousands killed and well over a hundred thousand injured since the military incursion was launched in the wake of the 7th October attack on Israel by Hamas.
The aid organisations on the ground in Gaza are fighting a never-ending battle of their own – one aimed at saving lives rather than taking them – but a struggle that comes at a huge cost and places aid workers under constant threat of injury or death as they struggle to provide sufficient food, water and medical supplies to the besieged civilian population.
In supporting organisations providing humanitarian support in Gaza, the EIS hopes to play a small part in relieving the suffering of the civilian population, including many thousands of children living under intolerable conditions in a homeland ravaged by war.
Closer to home, the EIS is also demanding better of the UK Government in relation to the Gaza/Israel Crisis. Following persistent calls from many organisations, including the EIS and the wider trade union movement, the UK government did take the hugely important, and welcome, step of formally recognising the state of Palestine.
Yet, at the same time, that same UK government has also been stamping down on peaceful protest at home, including the arrest of many people protesting in support of the people of Gaza. The draconian expansion of anti-terror laws to allow the arrest of peaceful protestors for wearing – in the government’s view – the wrong t-shirt or for carrying the wrong sign is a shame on the UK and marks a real low point in the nation’s history.
Specifically in Scotland, the EIS is demanding better of the Scottish Government and local authorities on support for education. Funding for our education system remains inadequate, and teachers are still awaiting both an overdue pay increase for this year and, also, the long overdue delivery of the Scottish Government commitment to tackle workload by reducing class contact time.
Colleges remain under the cosh financially, with a recent report by the Funding Council laying bare the financial challenges faced by the sector. In the Higher Education sector, the funding squeeze has led to a pay impasse, job cuts and the threat of more to come, with two EIS branches having taken local strike action in defence of jobs, and with a national dispute over pay approaching fast.
In the difficult and turbulent times in which we currently live, it is ever more important that we organise and stand together to demand better of our employers, of local authorities and of government. It is through the EIS and the trade union movement that Scotland’s teachers, lecturers and associated professionals must make their stand.
