“That saves lives,” they said!

by Domenic Bellissimo, Active Retired Members (ARM), chapter 12

My career at the Provincial Office of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) spanned 24 years where besides being an organizer, I also served as a staff member in the Protective Services (formerly Collective Bargaining) and Communications/Political Action (CPA) departments. I was Director of the CPA department and retired as the Associate General Secretary of the Professional Services Division. I’m currently on the executive of the Federation’s Active Retired Members (ARM) chapter in Toronto.

So, I have seen our union from many perspectives, but one thing has remained constant throughout my membership: building the union and strengthening solidarity were two of the most important tasks to be done. This past November, I attended the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) Staff Professional Development Conference where I shared my experience of being responsible for international projects which OSSTF/FEESO was part of. Regardless of which country I travelled to, I discovered that education/teacher unions were often at the forefront in the struggle for human rights and social justice. They advocated for their students, communities, and families; often doing this work on the streets and in opposition to reactionary governments willing to use the police and military against its citizens. They were seen as leaders. Courageous leaders. In South Africa, our solidarity extends back decades, to the days of the Apartheid regime with our demands that Nelson Mandela be released from prison and that free and fair elections take place in the country. One person, one vote was the focus to help bring democracy to the country.

OSSTF/FEESO can proudly say that the Federation was part of sponsoring the largest classroom event in 1995 at the Sky Dome in Toronto when tens of thousands of students came to hear Nelson Mandela address them. Our Federation continued to strengthen its relationship with SADTU—the South African Democratic Teachers Union, the largest multi-racial education union in the country. We have collaborated on Common Threads curriculum material on HIV/AIDS and have hosted each other during conventions.

When traveling to Colombia, (one of the most dangerous country for labour leaders and human rights activists for many years), I heard that teachers continued to speak out against injustices and for a fairer society which included well-funded public education in every community. Often at great risk to themselves, they established schools as “zones of peace,” preventing both the army and any guerrilla groups from using their campuses as staging zones. The Colombian activists urged us to continue to witness their struggles so that the government would know people around the world were watching. “That saves lives,” they said! Today, we continue to support the Colombian teachers through their pedagogical circles project.
In Guatemala, in Argentina, and in Mexico today, it has been teachers and their unions speaking out against privatization and in favour of public services. Sometimes resisting tear gas and intimidation. Years ago, on a human rights tour with a number of education unions, I witnessed an elderly woman in Honduras marching against a government coup despite being warned not to march. She began chanting toward police and army soldiers in Spanish. Pointing her cane and shouting, “they’re afraid of us, because we’re NOT afraid of them.”

And so, my message is simple. When we speak out against human rights violations—we save lives. When we speak out against racism, sexism, and homophobia—we save lives. When we speak out against war and occupation—and when we come to the defence of our students and their chosen identities—we save lives.

We need to see ourselves more often, as the defenders of what is good for society. Public education (despite its faults), is the gift we give to each other in Canada. And we need to speak out constantly to protect and enhance it. And we need to build support for it unapologetically while addressing the problems that exist.

Sometimes we underestimate just how large our education family extends around the world. Think about it: in every country, in every city, in most towns and in many villages—we have educators who are part of the largest global federation—Education International. The strength of these educators, and of Education International is the respect and credibility they demand—the respect and strength to be listened to by parents, and by governments, when forced to do so.

Building stronger union solidarity—What do we mean?

Well, I’ve touched briefly on what international solidarity can look like. It involves much more than simply sending resources from North to South. Fundamentally, it is the recognition that the struggles of the Global South are linked to our own.

Solidarity is NOT charity.

It is recognizing that we must stand together in order to change the systemic inequalities that affect so many people throughout the world. And education is essential to this cause.

By educating our members about the issues affecting others we deepen our understanding about the underlying causes of global inequality and remind ourselves that learning is a two-way process. Education can happen anywhere—in a classroom, at the union office, or on the street.

As cited by Webb in Canadian Dimension magazine, in their new book, Solidarity, The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea, American authors, Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor insist that solidarity is both a principle and a practice. One that must be cultivated and institutionalized so that care for the common good becomes the central aim of politics and social life (Webb).

A few years ago in the U.S., the “Red for Ed” movement spoke about striking for the “public good.” It involved more than 100,000 educators, primarily in Republican states. As they put it, they were fighting for the future of public education in America. I would suggest they’ll need to stay mobilized given the Trump administration attacks which are coming and which will continue to dismantle the supports and programs that we value in civil society.
I like to refer to solidarity as both, a process and a verb.

One thing is for certain, we need to practice solidarity in action with others, so they see conversely, our struggles as being important to them. The old saying: “When you need a friend, it may be too late to go find one” is in fact very true. We need to be proactive. Our solidarity must be genuine, ongoing, and respectful so that we don’t appear self-serving when we seek support from others in the public.

Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor also note that “solidarity is not sameness, but rather a recognition of our interconnectedness and the power that we hold collectively to push for social change. Solidarity requires a recognition of common struggle without erasing the important differences in our circumstances” (Webb).

I’ve become more convinced that the attacks we face in public education (over the past 3 decades), originate in other countries and are part of a global plan to privatize anything that can make money. It’s not conspiratorial to see the connections.

In his book Public Education, Neoliberalism and Teachers, Canadian author (and former OSSTF/FEESO Member) Paul Bocking, illustrates the similar challenges faced by educators in Mexico City, New York, and Toronto. Often the private companies selling educational resources or training, work across our hemisphere as well. We know that governments share strategies and blueprints for so called “educational reforms”(Bocking).

This is why our work in the Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education is so important. Working alongside educators from Mexico, the U.S., and Canada allows us space to share common features and strategies to resist privatization.
According to Larry Kuehn of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF), and a founding member of the Coalition, conferences can serve as points of comparison, inspiration, and solidarity:

We see ourselves much more clearly when we have a chance to look outside ourselves. Through comparison, we can understand our own problems in a broader context, as well as developing a better sense of our own privilege as public school teachers in Canada.

The Indigenous teachers we visited in Orizaba, Veracruz are an inspiration for what can be accomplished against great odds. They are creating a school to preserve their Indigenous language and culture for future generations. Teacher leaders in Chicago say that hearing about Canadian unions at a Trinational Conference was an inspiration for the work they did to revitalize their own union, which has in turn inspired hundreds of thousands of teachers in the U.S. who went on strike last year for improved conditions. Solidarity can come in unexpected ways. When the BCTF was on an illegal strike there was a chance that the courts would direct that the BCTF website not be used for communications related to the strike. The Mexican Section of the Trinational Coalition created a website that could be used by the BCTF if it needed to. More than 30 million of us teach and work in public schools around the world united by a common interest in defending public education. The Trinational Coalition is one of the many ways that we act together on behalf of that common interest (Kuehn).

International solidarity isn’t something that can be thrown together in a fortnight, it is honed over years of relationship building, through listening and understanding how our differences and our commonalities intersect. Working together for the greater good, under a global arch of solidarity is the only way to counter hate, oppression, and inequities. OSSTF/FEESO’s experiences with these international relationships benefit us locally while also strengthening the labour movement writ large. This is only a snapshot of the work the Federation does as part of the global movement for workers’ rights (we also have built additional relationships with labour organizations in Bangladesh, Australia, throughout the U.S., and in Europe). The more we seek out partnerships, the more united we become in our quest to protect and promote the services and policies that protect the public good—and the more we can achieve.

 

WORKS CITED
Bocking, Paul. Public Education, Neoliberalism, and Teachers in New York, Mexico City, Toronto. University of Toronto Press, 2020.
Kuehn, Larry. “Acting Together Across North America for Public Education.” CTF Blog Perspective, Feb. 2019.
Webb, Chris. “To Build Solidarity with Palestine, Canada’s Labour Movement Must Look to the Past.” Canadian Dimension, 27 Sept. 2024, https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/to-build-solidarity-with-palestine-canadas-labour-movement-must-look-to-the-past. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah, and Astra Taylor. Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Pantheon, 2024.
“Education for Solidarity.” IDEA Network, http://idea-network.ca/en/?p=514. Accessed May 7, 2025.