And for another year, the unions have organized prefabricated strikes for us. And we, individually, will decide whether or not to join the strike, without the need for any assembly at the school.

The strike model that I was taught is no longer in vogue, it seems. In my imagination, the strike is a common decision and it cannot be otherwise (an “individual strike” would be an oxymoron). And as a very close colleague who I consider to be quite an expert in the history of the strike says, the strike is the result of a long process. In this process, employees jointly define their needs and demands, as well as make decisions together. In fact, I would say that the process of bringing the teaching profession together and making collective decisions autonomously, as such, can be a clamor, whether or not it is carried out on strike.

I would even say that this whole decision-making process should be carried out together with the students and their parents and involve the students in our claims: we go together and the students will not be well if we are not well and, likewise, if the students are not well, we will not be well. But I see with great surprise that in the strike proclamations the students do not appear at all... are we working with screws?

But apparently the strikes have changed and there doesn’t have to be a codecision process, because no, this whole process will be saved by the unions. In this way, they will come to inform the school of the demands of the strike that they have planned and decided; like the pre-cooked food, they have all the preparatory work done and one only has to buy and consume – individually and if you want – for 100 euros per day (which will be saved by the Basque Government). However, according to the purchase, as another close colleague says, we will have the opportunity to participate in a spectacle that seems more like a procession than the demonstration, including the poteocho of the successor! Fast, cheap and comfortable. Ready to eat, fast food.

However, keep in mind that trade unions are well subsidized to make superficial demands and, with great care, not to question the aspects that should not be touched and not to address the real problems that are at the core... so that in the end, it seems that we are protesting, but without protesting and, of course, without disturbing anyone (including ourselves).

I look forward to the proclamations. Are the most serious problems faced by teachers are the decline in purchasing power and restrictions on working hours or those related to permits? I am not saying that the economic part is not important, but there are much more serious problems that education suffers today, which have to do with the quality of education.

The Basque Government – always at the service of money – has launched the mergers of schools, in other words, it wants to accumulate students in macro-centers because it is cheaper, with the consequent deterioration in the quality of education and massification. Do we really not have any other demands or worries about this than guaranteeing teachers' jobs? Although I have seen the decrease in ratios somewhere in the explanations of the claims, one of the points of claim that should be at the center (something that the Basque Government has never wanted to admit and that is at the heart of many problems of education) manages to go unnoticed.

On the other hand, that the health of teachers – especially mental and emotional – is a point to be taken care of, all right, but the fact that what we are asking for is an annual medical examination seems to me almost sarcasm. Should we look at the conditions that are the cause of illness rather than the consequences? And where are the concerns about student health? Shouldn’t we also release them, strictly related to our health?

In fact, the reality is that the health of both teachers and students has deteriorated due to the loss of humanity of education, among other causes. We teachers are full of training and bureaucracy: questionnaires, protocols, training courses, minutes, programming adaptations... In the end, what was the essence of our work was buried among all of them and at least gives me the joy of life: teaching and the moment of class. But now we can not prepare the classes and without time to look the students in the eye, among other things because their eyes are also directed to a screen.

The holy digitization that only benefits macro companies has consumed education (perhaps even society as a whole) and we see its damage every day: with a screen in front of them, students are less and less able to pay attention, read less and write worse and worse. In addition, thanks to the pedagogies of competences, they also incorporate less and less content. But at the same time, and paradoxically, suspending the disciples seems offensive and it seems that they will soon become a sin.

I repeat: if we have problems in education and also reasons for the strike, mainly because behind most of the decisions taken by the Basque Government there are many commercial rather than pedagogical interests (digitalization, new methodologies and continuous transformation, sterile formations...) and because they are only “methodological axes” that are established to fill a few pockets and not for the benefit of education.

I don’t know about the trade union liberals, but teachers see all this every day and if all we ask for is more money and material comforts, the inevitable question that comes to mind is: what is the remuneration that we are asking to look the other way?

After all, given this placebo nature of glutamate strikes, I wouldn’t know if we’re talking about controlled dissent or symptomatology of the ills of rich, individualistic and cowardly Western societies, but I’m ashamed to call something like this a psychic “strike,” which is nothing more than a farce and a calming conscience. Call me a schirola, a purist or a denationist of strikes, at this point five of me.

Maite Fdz Landaluce, Philosophy teacher