The General Secretariat of the World Federation of Teachers’ Unions FISE, affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions WFTU, following the 20th International Congress held in Rabat, Morocco, on April 5 – 6, 2025, and on the occasion of world Workers’ Day: Thursday, May 1, 2025, extends its warmest greetings to the working class, including education workers, around the world. Thursday, May 1, 2025, is of particular significance because it marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the World Federation of Trade Unions WFTU in Paris (October 3, 1945) following the Second World War, as well as the 79th anniversary of the founding of the International Federation of Education Trade Unions FISE on July 7, 1946, also in Paris.
The context of May 1, 2025, is also marked by the proliferation of wars that have caused tragedies that have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people (children, women, and the elderly..) and the destruction of infrastructure, schools, universities, hospitals, trees, etc., particularly in Palestine, Ukraine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo..
Therefore, the General Secretariat of the World Federation of Teachers’ Unions (FISE), affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), invites you, as educational unions and teachers, to commemorate the international holiday of May 1, 2025, and to raise the following slogans and demands:
1) Oppose wars, imperialist, colonial, and monopolistic interventions, as well as the plundering of peoples’ wealth, and stand in solidarity with our peoples, and oppose the role of multinational corporations and the role of the United States of America, NATO, the European Union and their allies, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank;
2) Solidarity with the Palestinian people and condemnation of the genocide committed against them in Gaza and throughout Palestine, boycott of institutions and companies complicit with the occupying forces, and pressure on governments to sever their ties with the colonial apartheid regime;
3) Solidarity with the Cuban people against the blockade and sanctions imposed by US imperialism, and praise for the tenacity of the Cuban people, who have developed an efficient health and education system and placed it at the service of humanity, in addition to their great solidarity role in defending the sovereignty of peoples;
4) Strengthen international solidarity and strengthen the World Federation of Trade Unions WFTU and the World Federation of Teachers’ Unions FISE and their member trade unions, in order to develop the organization and struggle for workers’ rights worldwide;
5) Solidarity with the struggles and protests of education workers worldwide, including in Nepal, Ivory Coast, Italy, Sudan, Turkey, Iraq, Kurdistan, Morocco, etc.;
6) Solidarity with the Sudanese people and call on the parties to the conflict to immediately cease fire and work together to build a lasting peace in Sudan, which has suffered greatly from imperialist manipulation.
7) Solidarity with the Congolese people DRC and denunciation of the dirty roles of the imperialists in the war and in the theft and plundering of their wealth;
8) Condemning the imperialist terrorist attacks against the AES countries in Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger).
where schools are closed, villages displaced and famine is spreading….;
- Condemning the terrorist attack against innocent people in Pehelgaon, Kashmir, India, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025;
- Combat racism and fascism, and combat all forms of discrimination;
- The struggle against capitalist exploitation and the capitalist system’s continued attacks on workers’ rights and trade union freedoms;
- The struggle for respect for the right to strike, which is restricted and subject to serious violations;
- Demanding the release of all teachers detained for union, social, or political reasons, such as Palestinian prisoners, Jaloul Mohamed from the Rif in Morocco since 2017, Doujari Assi from Côte d’Ivoire in April 2025, and others;
- The struggle for free public education that meets the contemporary needs of the working class and ensures the wellbeing of societies, and for the elimination of the commodification and privatization of education and all forms of ignorance and illiteracy;
- The struggle against precariousness and flexibility of work and for decent and dignified work that preserves the dignity of women and men in education worldwide;
- Demand significant increases in the salaries and pensions of education workers;
- Fight for decent housing at affordable prices, with a good environment and good/living conditions;
- Fight for the right to comprehensive, appropriate, public, and free education, and healthcare, and defend social protection: social seeurity, retirement, and pensions;