The ERFSC is a network of educators, students, parents, and workers spearheading the fight to eradicate COVID-19, end the pandemic, and save as many lives as possible.
On this page you can:
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• Join the Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee
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• Why must schools be closed to eradicate COVID-19?
• Read Statements of rank-and-file committees
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Contact us now to join the committee nearest you. If there is not already a committee in your area, we will help you get one started.
In the US, we now have rank-and-file committees of educators in New York City, Chicago, California, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alabama and Oregon.
We are also connected to committees of rank-and-file educators in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Sri Lanka.
Don't wait! COVID-19 has spiraled out of control, but thousands of lives can still be saved through urgent action.
This ten-minute presentation explains the science behind why mitigation measures like vaccines and masks alone are not enough to combat the highly contagious Delta variant, and why a shutdown of schools and workplaces, combined with vaccines and contact tracing, can eradicate COVID-19 in a matter of weeks.
COVID-19 relies on human hosts to propagate, and the only way it can be suppressed is by cutting off all avenues of transmission. This requires the closure of schools and nonessential workplaces, travel restrictions, mass testing, masking, contact tracing, the safe isolation of infected patients, and other basic public health measures, combined with mass vaccinations.
This webinar featured distinguished scientists who have been in the forefront of the global fight for eradication: Professor Yaneer Bar-Yam, Professor Michael Baker and Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz.
Three basic strategies for approaching the virus have emerged: 1) “herd immunity”; 2) mitigation; and 3) eradication. The global spread of the highly infectious Delta variant and the drive to fully reopen schools worldwide, despite the well-known risks to children, have sharpened the antagonisms between these three positions and made clear that global eradication is the only scientifically grounded and effective strategy.
The Rajapakse government rushed to reopen schools not out of concern for the education of children but to defend capitalist profits.
Educators and parents in Washington state demand urgent action to halt a massive surge of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths predicted for the winter months ahead.
The Southern Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees met to discuss the guiding principles to build a mass movement to end the pandemic.
The Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee (UK) passed a resolution Monday condemning the ruling of the Berlin Administrative Court, which on November 18, 2021, upheld the designation of the German security service of the German section of the ICFI as “left wing extremists”.
The stoppage reflects widespread anger over soaring workloads, stagnant wages and the dangerous reopening of the schools, all of which have been enforced by the unions.
The Rajapakse government rushed to reopen schools not out of concern for the education of children but to defend capitalist profits.
At five out of the 15 colleges that were meant to strike starting in September, the UCU reached deals with the employers before the strike began.
Educators and parents in Washington state demand urgent action to halt a massive surge of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths predicted for the winter months ahead.
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Join the discussion with hundreds of educators, students, parents, and other workers from across the country and around the world in the Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee Facebook Group.
The WSWS is the most powerful tool in history for the revolutionary education and organization of the international working class.
“The Chicago teachers are the voice of educators internationally. They want to go into remote learning, and that's exactly what should happen.”
“Because in this committee there's a bunch of other educators who are feeling the same way, not only in New York but on the national level. So what can we do as educators nationally to come up with a plan?”
“Rank-and-file” is originally a military term. It refers to the lower “ranks” of soldiers, who literally stand in lines or “files”. These soldiers have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than the officers or “brass” who prosecute the wars on behalf of the ruling elite.
Rank-and-file committees are of, by and for the rank-and-file workers, who have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than management, the bosses, the politicians, and the trade union apparatus, who send workers to die while defending the profits of the ruling elite.
Yes. The formation of rank-and-file committees is 100% completely legal under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The right to freedom of speech means you can say whatever you like about what you agree or disagree with. Freedom of association, also covered under the first amendment, means you have the right to associate with others who share your views, for political ends. You also have the right to petition the government for redress, to make demands on the government and tell them what you want them to do.
No. HIPAA has an exception for disclosures to prevent and control the spread of disease, but the state is deliberately not invoking this exception in order to conceal information from workers, so that they can pretend that what they are doing is safe when it’s not.
Rank-and-file educators have the right to know who’s gotten sick, where, when, and what happened. Rank-and-file committees have to demand this information, and have to share it with other workers as a matter of collective self defense.
