About 500 teachers came this Monday, around two in the afternoon, to protest an event held in the center of Madrid with the presence of the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz-Ayuso. Protesters surrounded the entrance door while a dozen police officers protected access. “Ayuso shows his face”, “Zarzalejo, what a joke, your lies no longer work”, they shouted. To clear the exit from the building, several dozen riot police have arrived at the scene and, given the protesters' refusal to leave, they have begun to charge until they have been displaced several meters. “Strike, strike, indefinite strike!” and “Ayuso, listen, the public is fighting,” they shouted. The teachers have moved from the daily concentration that they hold every day in front of the Madrid Department of Education.
While early in the morning around 300 protesters greeted the vehicle in which a representative of the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid was traveling with a loud whistle upon arrival at the Antonio Palacios public Vocational Training Institute. The purpose of the rally, within the framework of the indefinite strike that began on October 14, was to make their mobilizations visible before an event in which the Madrid Minister of Education, Science and Universities, Mercedes Zarzalejo, planned to participate and whom the teachers demand sit down to negotiate their demands. In addition, they have launched blue smoke bombs. The event has finally been suspended and the concentration dissolved by the National Police.
Before the time at which the Zarzalejo event was scheduled to take place, teachers have begun to arrive at the educational center uniformed with their classic green t-shirts in defense of public education. There were also the presence of early childhood educators who usually dress in yellow. Everyone in unison chanted songs with the counselor as the recipient. “Where is Zarzalejo, where is Zarzalejo?”, “Sit down, Zarzalejo, Zarzalejo, sit down”, “We are teachers, not criminals”, “Public education”, “This is also for your children”, “Indefinite strike” or “Fight is the only way” have been some of the slogans.
The Community of Madrid has stated in a statement that it "deeply regrets the radicalization of these protests, which in just four days have lost most of the support of teachers in the classrooms, going from 44.6% of support last Wednesday to 13.2% today [Monday], but which some are still determined to take to the streets to prevent the normal development of activity in the centers and continue taking students, their families, teachers and all citizens hostage."
Early in the morning, in another part of the capital - in the Moratalaz district - another group of strikers blocked the A-3 highway towards Madrid. Traffic has been stopped for 30 minutes due to the presence of the protesters and dozens of school desks and chairs that they have placed in the middle of the road. “Public education is not for sale, public education is defended” or “Ayuso's penthouse for 3º B,” they shouted. The protest has been led by two main banners, one under the slogan “Public education on strike” and another “Your well-being cannot wait, your well-being matters too.”
The indefinite strike for public education has entered a new phase since this Monday. The first three days were a “success” according to the organizing unions, which estimated their following at 70% on Wednesday, and 60% on Thursday and Friday, in addition to two large demonstrations from Atocha to Sol on Wednesday and Friday that gathered 25,000 and 35,000 people respectively, according to the Government Delegation. From now on, the 65,000 non-university teachers called to strike, who teach more than 660,000 students throughout the Community of Madrid, must decide whether to keep the pulse with the same intensity as until now. The calling unions—CC OO, UGT, STEM, CGT, CNT and Solidaridad Obrera, as well as other teaching groups and platforms such as CSIF, which has called a strike outside of the unitary mobilization—consider that the time for mobilization is “now.” For their part, educational centers are organizing rotating shifts so that teachers alternate strike days with others such as minimum services. Some, such as Nuestra Señora de la Paloma and República de Venezuela schools, have 100% monitoring.
Concentration before counseling
Meanwhile, around noon, some 2,000 people gathered in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Education, on Alcalá Street. Hundreds of teachers dressed in green t-shirts have arrived from Puerta del Sol, the Seville metro and the Cibeles roundabout. Four vehicles from the National Police and the municipal police tried to contain the group in one of the directions of the road, but it only took a few minutes for it to overflow and occupy both directions.
Pilar, who is a primary education teacher, remembers that they have gone to the place to demand that the ratios be lowered and the number of teachers per educational center increased so that students have better evaluations. But he demands that the counselor listen to them: "It seems to me to be a huge lack of respect for a group like education. We are the pillar of society. It seems incredible to me that he doesn't want to dialogue. We want to keep the pressure at a high level to achieve dialogue, but we have to be united."
Amid the noise of drums, tambourines and whistles, the protesters have shouted out “quality public education.” The landscape is one of an intergenerational struggle: you can see young teachers shouting into the loudspeakers and others on the verge of retirement who accompany them with their palms. In one corner there is also a group of children playing and painting the floor with chalk while their mothers and fathers participate in the concentration.
Barbara, a teacher at a school in Vallecas, observes the little ones and reflects: “We are teaching them that struggle is a way to achieve social rights.” But Consuelo, a retired teacher from the same school, who accompanies her this afternoon, adds: "It is also so that they have the right to a decent public education. I want my grandchildren, just like my children, to be able to enjoy that right."
The concentration has also brought together some students. Luis Miguel came today from Fuenlabrada in the company of Lucía, Jorge and Camila, his classmates from the second year of Baccalaureate. They agree that "the teachers' fight is so that everyone can study. Not just a few." Luis Miguel is aware of the consequences of the strike, which this Monday marks its fourth day: “For us it is a great pride to see how our teachers, despite the fact that money is being taken from them and that they are also suffering, are coming here to fight for their rights and mobilizing,” he exclaims as he prepares to play the tambourine that he carries in his hands.
