By Panini Wijesiriwardane <\/p>\n
The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) in Sri Lanka has betrayed a three-month long strike, caving in to government pressure on Thursday. The strike was called off without achieving any of the academic staff\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n
About 4,000 teachers from 14 universities took part in the industrial action that began on July 4. They demanded a 20 percent wage rise and an increase in government spending on education to 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
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\nAfter a series of closed-door meetings with cabinet ministers and education officials, FUTA officials accepted the government\u2019s worthless \u201cassurances\u201d. The union claimed that a letter written by Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera ensured the finance ministry\u2019s commitment to the teachers\u2019 wage demands. His letter, however, merely stated that \u201cthe government will give due consideration to address remuneration-related concerns expressed by FUTA … within a 5-year medium term framework commencing from 2013 budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
This letter is consistent with the stance taken by President Mahinda Rajapakse\u2019s government since the beginning of the industrial campaign, and commits it to nothing. Moreover, it made no assurances whatsoever about increasing public education expenditure.<\/p>\n
FUTA president Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri and other union officials initially agreed to participate in a joint press conference to announce the deal, alongside Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse, the president\u2019s brother, and Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake. However, expecting bitter opposition among academics, a section of the union\u2019s executive committee decided to hold a separate media conference in an obvious attempt to avoid appearing too close to the government.<\/p>\n
Dewasiri nevertheless signed a joint statement with Basil Rajapakse that made clear the union had sold out the strike in return for a more central role in implementing the government\u2019s right-wing tertiary education \u201creforms\u201d.<\/p>\n
The joint statement endorsed the Rajapakse administration\u2019s goal of \u201cmaking Sri Lanka a hub of knowledge of South Asia\u201d\u2014a phrase that serves as a cover for the promotion of private universities. The document referred to university faculty boards and senate committees helping approve the provision of \u201cuniversity resources for the usage of private institutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, the government-union statement insisted that the university bodies would determine the form of new \u201cLeadership Training\u201d\u2014a compulsory four-week military training course for new university students that the government announced last year.
\nUnion president Dewasiri admitted that the teachers\u2019 demands had not been met. But he insisted that the government\u2019s admission that there were problems in the education sector was a \u201cmost important achievement\u201d. He added that the submission of a cabinet memorandum proposing recognition of university academics as a distinct professional category marked \u201ca victory\u201d.<\/p>\n
The union bureaucrat shamelessly praised Basil Rajapakse. \u201cI do not hesitate to thank Minister Rajapakse,\u201d he declared, for providing an \u201copportunity to have a serious discussion\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dewasiri indicated that the FUTA leadership had never been serious about the demand for increased education spending. The union president declared the demand had merely been \u201csymbolic\u201d and did not \u201cform the crux of trade union demands during discussions\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Nation reported Dewasiri as saying that a trade union action \u201ccannot go on forever\u201d and had to end with a \u201ccompromise\u201d. He added that there were \u201ctwo dimensions\u201d to FUTA\u2019s campaign\u2014the trade union action, that had ended, and a \u201cmass campaign\u201d for higher education spending, that was ongoing. FUTA spokesman Mahim Mendis declared: \u201cThis is not a permanent exit but a temporary suspension of a historic struggle. We will continue with greater determination and expect the government to fulfil what they had agreed to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agreement reached between FUTA and the government is not a compromise, but a complete capitulation by the union. Likewise FUTA\u2019s claim that the \u201chistoric struggle\u201d has only been suspended is a lie, aimed at defusing the widespread hostility among FUTA members to the sellout. The union leadership, hostile to the democratic rights of the university teachers, has not even placed its deal before the union membership for a vote in favour or against.<\/p>\n
The so-called opposition parties all stand exposed by the FUTA sellout. All of them\u2014ranging from the United National Party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Frontline Socialist Party, to the ex-lefts of the Nava Sama Samaja Party and the United Socialist Party\u2014supported the union bureaucracy during the strike. Virtually all of them remained silent since the betrayal.<\/p>\n
The only exception has been JVP secretary Tilwin Silva who in an interview with Lankadeepa, justified the betrayal and the union\u2019s failure to take a vote of members. \u201cWe all know that a strike cannot go forward indefinitely,\u201d he said. Silva insisted that there was no alternative but to surrender to the government in the face of its threats.<\/p>\n
From the outset of the strike, the FUTA leadership, and the political parties that backed it, did everything possible to prevent the emergence of a political struggle against the government.<\/p>\n
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) repeatedly warned university teachers and other workers about the role being played by the union. A statement issued on September 25, \u201cSupport the struggle of Sri Lankan university teachers\u201d explained:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SEP calls on workers and youth to take action of their own to back the teachers as part of the broadest possible campaign to defend living standards. This necessarily involves a political struggle against the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Colombo political establishment as a whole. We warn that the leaders of the trade union involved\u2014the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA)\u2014are fundamentally opposed to such a perspective and, as a result, will capitulate to the Rajapakse government and sell out the strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SEP pointed out that the demands of university teachers could not be realised under the Rajapakse administration or any other capitalist government. Rajapakse and his colleagues, like their counterparts around the world, are ruthlessly implementing an austerity agenda aimed at making the working class bear the burden of the global economic crisis.<\/p>\n
The SEP urged teachers to take their struggle out of the hands of the FUTA leadership, organise rank-and-file committees and turn out to other sections of the working class facing attacks on jobs, wages and conditions. As with other social and democratic rights, teachers\u2019 demands will be won only through a broad political struggle for a workers\u2019 and peasants\u2019 government committed to implementing socialist policies.<\/p>\n
COURTESY: WSWS<\/p>\n