Louisa L.
In Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership, Mao writes of combining a general call with detailed work to make “a breakthrough at some single point.”
Neither the NSW Teachers Federation nor the Australian Education Union quote Mao. Trade unions are reformist and don't fundamentally challenge capitalism. But for the people, reforms are important.
In NSW the Teachers Federation focused on education funding during the election. The call was simple: implement Gonski, but it grew from decades of campaigning against a system starving state schools of funding.
Federation President Maurie Mulheron stated, “Our campaigning forced the federal Coalition to commit to the Gonski funding for four years.” He called the increase in overall investment an historic achievement at a time when worldwide “austerity measures, government debt reduction and public sector cutbacks dominate the political landscape.”
A sea of Gonski Green
The Gonski campaign was a key factor holding back a Coalition landslide in NSW. 100,000 people registered their support on the www.igiveagonski.com.au website.
Thousands of teachers, parents, students and supporters in every corner of the state staffed stalls, leafleted, hammered questions to politicians and handed out Gonski green apples. Gonski vans criss-crossed the state. Just one covered 10,000 kilometres in eight weeks, from the Big Banana to the Big Prawn to back o' Bourke.
The Salvation Army shop in Parkes had Gonski signs in their window, while in Leeton all employees in the sandwich shop wore Gonski T-shirts in election week.
Abbott's proclamation that he was 'on the same page' as Labor on Gonski was challenged, with information about how much would be stripped from each school in each electorate by his failure to guarantee six years' funding.
Abbott tried to re-open another front, on the usually bitterly contested breakup of state systems into 'independent' public schools, but didn't get a bite. The Gonski message held firm.
People's politics
In one Sydney coalition stronghold, reticent candidates were finally cornered by principals, who ear-bashed one till 10pm. He later rang back, saying Pyne would support Gonski for six years. Scott Morrison told the same group that they would honour the agreement in NSW.
Meanwhile, the Education Department demanded schools' Gonski signs be removed. Many principals refused, saying Gonski had bipartisan agreement, so was not political. Nothing is further from the truth, but the ruling class promotes parliamentary politics as the only politics so what could they say?
In Sydney's eastern suburbs, the Federation rep at Matraville Public School informed the P&C when the principal was leant on. Outside school every morning for four weeks parents held the signs, while teachers did it after school.
In another school, a polling booth, a group ringed the top of the hall with Gonski signs the night before the election, and the extension ladder disappeared so signs couldn't be removed.
A movement grows
The campaign was so successful that public schools will receive more money from Abbott than from Whitlam. But electoral intervention was not the key. There are no delusions of salvation from the ALP.
Maurie Mulheron put it this way, “A social movement has been galvanised into action and it is crucial that this continues to grow.”
As a letter to Federation's journal said, “Whoever's in, the fight continues. Service to giant multinational corporations who run Australia is the default position of the major political parties, so we had to fight like fury for every concession won on Gonski. Parliamentary elections can register victories in campaigns Australians have united and fought for. Likewise they can add obstacles. But if we don't continue to organise and fight, both we and our students will lose.”
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