Madrid: Let's support the fight of teachers!
He 14 October the indefinite strike of Madrid teachers began with pickets, street closures and a massive mobilization of the green tide. After the teacher strikes in Catalonia and Valencia, The conflict confirms the growing unrest in public education. We must strengthen the fight, unite social demands and move towards the general strike called by UGT and CC.OO. for him 11 of November.
By Ruben Tzanoff
Mobilization for wages, resources and decent conditions
On Wednesday 14 October began the indefinite strike of non-university public education in the Community of Madrid. Some 65.000 teachers were called to stop to demand salary improvements, reduction of teaching hours and ratios per classroom, more specialized staff, less bureaucracy and better infrastructure. Among the main demands is a salary increase of 600 monthly euros.
The day started with information pickets, student actions, a bull run at the Complutense University and traffic cuts on Paseo de la Castellana. In the afternoon, A massive demonstration toured the center of Madrid, from Atocha to Puerta del Sol, with a green tide that expressed support for public education.
The unions estimated a follow-up of the 70% and the day expressed the existence of a deep conflict and the willingness to fight. The mobilization was also marked by police action against students in the Complutense, where charges occurred, arrests and injuries. We repudiate the repression and demand respect for the right to strike and protest.
A wave of teacher strikes sweeps the State
The Madrid fight does not arise from nowhere. During the previous months, The teachers of Catalonia and Valencia led important mobilizations against the deterioration of public education.
in Catalonia, The teaching unions promoted new strike days in May and June 2026, after march mobilizations against the educational agreement signed by the Government with CC.OO. y UGT, that other union organizations and the base rejected for insufficient. General strikes were called for May and June, in addition to territorial days. He 8 In September there was another teaching and non-teaching strike in public centers and the educational leisure sector.
In Valencia after the strike days of the 11 from December to 2025 and the 31 March 2026, the teaching staff started the 11 May an indefinite strike called by STEPV, CC.OO., UGT and CSIF, with the support of ANPE. The demands included salary and labor improvements, ratio reduction, more resources and effective negotiation with the Administration.
These conflicts express shared problems: inadequate wages, work overload, lack of staff and resources, overcrowded classrooms and a deterioration in the conditions necessary to guarantee quality teaching. Although educational powers are distributed among the different autonomous communities, Education workers face problems that require common responses. Coordination between struggles can strengthen demands, prevent each conflict from being isolated and ending up wearing down.
Defend public schools against cuts and privileges
The educational crisis is the result of political decisions about how public resources are distributed and what interests are prioritized, among which are those negotiated for private education and the diversion of resources towards rearmament instead of social items.
The massed classrooms, lack of counselors and support staff, Bureaucratic overload and deficient infrastructure harm both the working conditions of teachers and the right of students to quality public education.. Faced with this situation, resources are needed, staff recruitment, salary recovery, an effective reduction of ratios and teaching hours.
In Madrid, the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP) must be responsible for the situation of public education and its budgetary priorities and not try to delegitimize the claims. Political responsibility does not end in the autonomous communities either.. The central government of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) must answer for its own decisions and for the difficulties in guaranteeing fundamental social rights throughout the State.
education, housing and cost of living: the same social struggle
The teacher strike takes place amid growing social unrest. The mobilizations for housing, The protests against evictions and the impact of the Maricarmen case have once again brought an unbearable reality to the foreground: Basic rights such as housing and education are increasingly threatened, while the capitalist crisis worsens living conditions.
The increase in rent prices, job insecurity, The loss of purchasing power and the deterioration of public services respond to problems that cannot be solved in isolation.. The teachers' demands are part of a broader fight for decent wages, accessible housing and public services that must converge on the path of the next general strike.
He 11 of November: an opportunity to unite the struggles
The first task is to support the educational struggle, although it is not the only one. As a product of the demands of the UGT and CC.OO housing movement. They were forced to call a general strike 24 hours for Wednesday 11 of November, after 14 years looking the other way. It is essential that it not become an action to decompress the situation of social protest and be used as a simple electoral resource in favor of voting for Pedro Sánchez as the “lesser evil.”.
This call opens an opportunity to connect educational conflicts with struggles for housing and social rights. But this unity cannot remain in a coincidence of dates or in an isolated day.. This is why it is essential to unite the struggles, promote grassroots assemblies in all workplaces to decide what to do in favor of the strike, form strike committees and promote all forms of self-organization on the path to demanding a plan of struggle that gives continuity to the strike with a list of demands that emerged from the base.
For a political alternative of the radical and revolutionary left
The succession of conflicts also raises a fundamental political question: How to build an alternative capable of defending social rights without subordinating the struggles to electoral calculations or the limits of the '78 regime. Consistently confront the PSOE government and its partners, to fight on the streets and in all areas to the right and extreme right of the PP, Vox, Catalan Alliance and others, that does not place confidence in the reformist expressions of capitalism.
We need the radical left, anti-capitalist and revolutionary come together in an alternative for struggles and elections. Linked to workers, to social movements and organizations that fight. An alternative that defends a transitional program with immediate needs on the path of a fundamental exit by the workers' government and socialism.
You may also interest you: “In the face of the fight for housing and 29N: "Let's stand up a radical left alternative."
