Towards public and democratic education in North America
Université du Québec à Montréal - Salle Marie-Gérin-Lajoie
A Brief History of the
Trinational Coalition
by Dan Leahy
During the late 1980s, many of us were fighting the
neo-liberal attack on public schools. The Nation at
Risk report, which described the mediocre state of
education in the United States, was a real spark that
motivated us to fight against those who wanted to
lower public education funding and change its
purpose. This naturally led us to oppose the CanadaUnited States free trade agreement, and later NAFTA.
Many of us have met elsewhere in forums or
demonstrations against NAFTA in Vancouver (Canada)
or Zacatecas (Mexico).
While we were closely monitoring NAFTA negotiations, we became aware of a separate, yet
parallel effort undertaken under the auspices of the United States Information Agency (USIA)
and various American foundations to coordinate higher education institutions at the North
American level. The idea was that NAFTA’s economic integration had to be reinforced through a
better cultural integration which could be assisted by higher education in each of the three
North American countries. This cultural integration would be accomplished by an “educational
common market” that would contribute to the development of a new “North American
identity.”
In January 1993, we decided to organize our own conference, sponsored by Evergreen’s Labor
Education Center in Olympia, Washington, and funded by union organizations in all three
countries. The theme was: “The Future of Public Education in North America”. At the time, we
wanted to establish a North American Public Schools Commission that would run parallel to
NAFTA’s Free Trade Commission and defend public education against privatization arguments
included in NAFTA.
More than two hundred union delegates attended this first four-day conference. Forty delegates
came from Mexico, representing all levels of the education system. We also had delegates from
Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America. At this moment, we adopted a trinational plan as well
as the Olympia Declaration which advocates education as a social right.
This declaration affirms that:
“to preserve the social fabric of our countries, we must promote an educational
model that recognizes the right to self-determination in matters of culture, language
and communication, a model based on social participation and subject to
democratic processes, that promotes continental development including a plan to
eliminate Mexico’s debt, that guarantees equal access to health care, recognizes the
sovereignty of states and the dignity of all, that establishes a code of conduct for
transnational corporations which protects human rights and workers’ rights,
including the right to a fair wage, and that defends and protects the environment.”
FORMATION OF THE COALITION
It took two years for the work from this conference to start bearing fruit. In October, 1994, in
Zacatecas, Mexico, the Labor Center organized a follow-up conference with the intention of
forming a North American Public Schools Commission that would be independent, funded by
union organizations that would implement ideas in the Olympia Declaration. This second
conference was attended by the president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation,
representatives from the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) based in
Toronto and the British Columbia Teacher’s Federation (BCTF) based in Vancouver, delegates
from the National Education Association (NEA) in Washington D.C., and union leaders from
Mexican universities and secondary schools.
A brief history of the Trinational Coalition
Towards public and democratic education in North America
(Université du Québec à Montréal)
But as the discussions went on, the idea of a commission like we had conceived was finally
abandoned. Delegates agreed instead to establish a Trinational Coalition to coordinate actions
taken by union organizations in support of public schools in each country; we also wanted to
create national “sections.”
At the outset, we agreed on some organizational principles that would guide us, even if they
were destined to evolve. We decided there would be no formal membership in the coalition.
The participation of organizations would be free, non-formal, resulting from the willingness of
each to be involved in financing or the organization of various projects, forums or conferences.
Coalition funding is exclusively provided by educational union organizations, and always on the
basis of specific projects. There is no bank account! The conference host is responsible for
coordinating the event, developing the programming and general logistics; other organizations
are invited to contribute financially to the cost of simultaneous translation, hall rental, etc.
Coalition coordination was entrusted to a small group of three volunteers who, for a long time,
were Dan Leahy, professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Larry Kuehn, research
director at BCTF and Maria de la Luz Arriaga, professor at the National Autonomous University
of Mexico (UNAM). Dan Leahy has acted as the spokesperson when the coalition needed a
trinational voice.
THE ROLE OF UNION ORGANIZATIONS
In February, 1995, we held a conference in Mexico City and set up a Mexican section of our
coalition, essentially with local and regional associations belonging to the National Union of
Education Workers (SNTE) in Mexico City, Michoacan and Oaxaca; university unions (in
Zacatecas, Queretaro, Chapingo and Mexico City) also joined.
The Mexican section would later be coordinated by a college committee, formed by Arturo
Ramos, a professor at the University of Chapingo, Pedro Hernandez, representing K-12 teachers
in section 9 of the SNTE, and Guerardo Hernandez, representing UNAM.
Although the national sections’ project has never come to pass in Canada and the United States,
the Mexican section has been operational since its inception in 1995. Besides organizing and
participating in several Coalition projects, the Mexican section has also published the Coalition
magazine, a forum for articles critical of neoliberal policies in education.
3
A brief history of the Trinational Coalition
Towards public and democratic education in North America
(Université du Québec à Montréal)
In Canada, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) has played a key role from the start by
promoting the coalition in provincial organizations and by coordinating solidarity actions.
Several provincial organizations have also been very active in the coalition: BCTF in Vancouver,
OSSTF in Toronto, the Manitoba Teachers Society, and the Fédération nationale des
enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ-CSN) and the Confédération des syndicats
du Québec (CSQ). More recently, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) joined
in the work of the coalition, including being host of the sixth conference in Toronto in May 2003.
In the United States, the participation of NEA, and particularly its national staff, was exceptional
during the first conference in 1993. NEA representatives, however, declined an offer to directly
participate in future and expressed the wish to be observers.
Since then, the two large American unions (AFT and NEA), although sympathetic, have never
really gotten involved in the Trinational’s work, despite our efforts to invite them.
Several reasons explain this situation. Some hold political positions in these organizations that
are, for example, not as clearly opposed to free trade treaties. NEA and AFT are also members of
Education International (EI), which has set up regional structures. The need for an additional
organization of the same ilk would not be important despite the fact that, on one hand, Mexico
is not part of EI’s regional structure and, on the other hand, the Coalition has a focused political
objective which makes it extremely relevant in North America.
Official relations between large union organizations must also be taken into account. Mexican
members of the Trinational Coalition are closely associated with the democratic current of the
SNTE and are thus considered dissidents by the official Mexican union. It is believed that there is
a will, on behalf of the NEA and AFT, to maintain diplomatic links with the SNTE; the recent
ousting of the EI from this union may change things.
TRINATIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The Montreal conference is the ninth for the Trinational Coalition1. Organizing a multilingual
conference like this is always a huge job, especially ensuring that simultaneous translators know
the public education system and are able to fully convey the richness of our discussions. We
have always favoured community organization and want to keep a relaxed atmosphere. A
1
Olympia (93), Morelia (95), Vancouver (97), Queretaro (98), Zacatecas (2000), Toronto (2003), Oaxaca (2006) and Los Angeles
(2008).
4
A brief history of the Trinational Coalition
Towards public and democratic education in North America
(Université du Québec à Montréal)
guided tour of local schools, a special moment during these conferences, is now part of the
tradition.
Besides other Coalition achievements, these conferences have been a forum for intense
exchanges on the different realities in our respective countries, a forum for reflection on our
current and future actions. Over the years we have all learned a lot about our union
organizations and respective education systems; this knowledge allows us to refine our
strategies and improve our actions to counter neoliberal policies.
We have learned to support each other in national actions. The first joint action of the Coalition
was a letter writing campaign in support of Mexican teachers during a major conflict. In return,
these Mexican teachers got their local union sections to support a strike by Ontario teachers
and, later, to support British Columbia teachers fighting against anti-union legislation put forth
by the provincial government.
We hold forums on issues that unite us. In August, 1997, we organized, for example, the first
large forum on the issue of standardized tests at the Law School of Mexico. The Coalition invited
American and Canadian experts to attend and analyze the possible effects of a new standardized
test called the Examen Unico. This multiple choice test was to be developed and managed by a
private agency called CENEVAL. The test was supposed to show Mexican high school students
not only what university they should attend but what they should study there!
We learned to build stronger ties between our organizations, especially among teachers in
Vancouver, British Columbia and those in Mexico City’s Section 9, where 60,000 primary school
teachers struggle. In November 1998, in Mexico City, we organized another forum that led to
the creation of the Red SEPA (Civil Society Network for Public Education in the Americas). Larry
Kuehn and Maria de la Luz Arriaga sat on the executive committee of this organization. Its
mission was to bring Latin American unions into discussions about education created by the
formal participation of education ministers in negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the
Americas agreement (FTAA). In similar negotiations by APEC (Asian Pacific Economic
Cooperation), human resources ministers were consulted on questions about job training but
education as such was not on the table.
During FTAA negotiations, education ministers drew up an Education plan for the Americas and
asked for comments from civil society. The Red SEPA was set up to respond to this request from
a human and union point of view; the organization took part in demonstrations around FTAA
negotiations in Quebec City in 2001.
5
A brief history of the Trinational Coalition
Towards public and democratic education in North America
(Université du Québec à Montréal)
We also learned that we could quickly mobilize Coalition forces during an emergency. Two
months after the 1998 Queretaro conference, the Mexican government jailed the leadership of
Mexico City’s Section 9 that represents primary school teachers. They had protested in the
Mexican Senate and were threatened with sedition and mutiny charges. These charges do not
permit bail and result in long jail sentences if convicted.
The Trinational Coalition, led by the president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, mobilized
an international protest of letter writing, press conferences, consular visits and various legal
representations. Within two months, all jailed professors were free and the charges against
them dropped. One of the reasons for the great success of this mobilization was that, a few
months prior, these same jailed teachers were the ones who had given guided school tours
during that conference in Mexico City!
The Trinational Coalition also helped raise awareness in Canada and the United States about the
incredible strike led by students at the National University in Mexico City (UNAM) in 1999. With
more than 300,000 students and a 3,000-member faculty, this university is a city within Mexico
City. The students protested against proposals that would lead to privatization of the university
and the strike lasted one year. Some proposals the students opposed were a plan to charge
tuition and a plan to entrust university entrance and exit exams to private firms using
standardized tests.
We promoted participation in the Hemispheric Forum on Education, organized as part of the
People’s Forum which was kept on the sidelines of FTAA negotiations in Quebec City in 2001.
The participation of the Mexican section and Latin American organizations, along with the Red
SEPA, substantially enriched this forum’s final declaration.
In January, 2002, the Trinational Coalition joined forces with the Red SEPA and the Continental
Alliance to ensure that education was formally placed on the agenda at the World Social Forum
in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The world social forum movement exists to counter efforts of global
economic governance directed by transnational corporations.
In October of that same year, we promoted the first Hemispheric Day in Defence of Public
Education.
Following the conference in Toronto in 2003, the Trinational Coalition became more involved in
the issue of part-time workers in high education. In August, 2004, we participated in COCAL VI,
6
A brief history of the Trinational Coalition
Towards public and democratic education in North America
(Université du Québec à Montréal)
organized by the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor. The Trinational Coalition
promoted a greater involvement by Mexican delegates at this time.
Since 2003, the Coalition has worked closely with Jill Friedberg, a committed filmmaker who
monitors global justice issues. Several of the people interviewed in her film Granato de Arena
(Grains of sand) were Coalition organizers struggling to democratize their union organization
and fighting against neoliberalism.
Organizing the 2006 conference in Oaxaca helped to forge close links with the teaching
community in that state, which came on the radar shortly after a popular uprising was violently
suppressed. The network of contacts - woven into and around the Trinational - has enabled
trade unions to support the Mexicans; the AFT, NEA and many of their affiliated organizations
have passed resolutions supporting the teachers’ struggle in Oaxaca and offered financial
assistance. In December 2006, an international delegation pushed for and won the release of
thirty people unjustly arrested during the uprising.
In 2008, the Trinational Coalition held its eighth conference in Los Angeles. Particular attention
was paid to encouraging local participation in the conference. To this end, several dozen
teachers from the Los Angeles Teachers’ Union took part. In total, more than two hundred
people attended the conference.
7