The Educators Rank-and-File Committee is an international network of educators, students, parents, and workers fighting for workers power in the schools, to stop the capitalist destruction of public education and eliminate COVID-19.
Fill out this form to join the rank-and-file committee nearest you. If there is not already a committee in your area, we will help you get one started.
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The new school year brings educators face to face with an unprecedented and bipartisan assault on public education, as the oligarchy moves to strip schools of funding and democratic control, in the service of world war.
The trade unions kept the stoppages apart and remained silent on the Albanese government’s pro-corporate and pro-military restructuring of the universities.
“People should not be forced into silence… Freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and the right to participate in public debate are fundamental human rights.” – Yasemin, Victoria
National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy results show that the gap between rich and poor school students is growing at an increasing rate.
The struggle at National Steel Car cuts directly across the national divisions that the corporations, governments and union bureaucracies are trying to impose on workers.
“This young man is immensely courageous in speaking out against war. His persecution is setting a precedent against anyone who opposes any war and a warning to all.” — Mental health nurse
The National Steel Car Rank-and-File Committee (NSC-RFC) was founded by shop floor workers in June 2023, on the eve of the last strike, after it became clear to them that the United Steelworkers (USW) bureaucracy would not wage a genuine fight for workers' demands.
The decisive question two weeks into the strike is whether we organize ourselves to win or allow the United Steelworkers bureaucracy to fritter away our strength until we are starved into accepting another sellout.
“Rank-and-file” is originally a military term. It refers to the lower “ranks” of soldiers, who literally stand in lines or “files”. These soldiers have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than the officers or “brass” who prosecute the wars on behalf of the ruling elite.
Rank-and-file committees are of, by and for the rank-and-file workers, who have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than management, the bosses, the politicians, and the trade union apparatus, who send workers to die while defending the profits of the ruling elite.
Yes. The formation of rank-and-file committees is 100% completely legal under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The right to freedom of speech means you can say whatever you like about what you agree or disagree with. Freedom of association, also covered under the first amendment, means you have the right to associate with others who share your views, for political ends. You also have the right to petition the government for redress, to make demands on the government and tell them what you want them to do.
No. HIPAA has an exception for disclosures to prevent and control the spread of disease, but the state is deliberately not invoking this exception in order to conceal information from workers, so that they can pretend that what they are doing is safe when it’s not.
Rank-and-file educators have the right to know who’s gotten sick, where, when, and what happened. Rank-and-file committees have to demand this information, and have to share it with other workers as a matter of collective self defense.
