Message of Solidarity and Support to IMAK and the People of Greenland
Education International is an organization founded on universal principles of human rights, democracy, peace and human dignity. Our members are the educators of the world, a global profession anchored in our global union federation that was forged in a response to the horrors of world wars as well as brutal and oppressive colonial systems that extracted wealth with violence.
Education International exists to defend not only our members and students rights, but to uphold and defend a multilateral, rules based system where all human beings lived free from fear and oppression and with the right to democratic self-determination and respect.
It is in this spirit that we have come to Greenland with UTNORD (the Northern Nordic Teachers Council) at the invitation of the national teachers union, IMAK, to bring our solidarity at a time of intensifying threats to their sovereignty and security.
During our visit we have heard stories from teachers, many who teach under difficult circumstances and remote conditions about increasingly targeted propaganda and disinformation campaigns amplified by far-right politicians about the benefits of selling their nation and relinquishing all future generations rights to decide the future of their human and natural resources.
Yet, the Greenlandic people, personified by the brave and wise Greenlandic teachers know history and they know both when their indigenous heritage, language and identity is being threatened and they know that they are not alone in defending their rights.
Education International members and especially the leaders of our Indigenous Peoples Taskforce join us in expressing our full solidarity to IMAK, the nation builders of Greenland at this critical time as warships circle and threats escalate. No one has right to “take that land one way or another” save the Greenlandic people who live here and have been the caretakers of the land for centuries. We reiterate our commitment to stand with IMAK now and into the future.
They are not for sale. They are not for the taking. They are not alone.
You can find support statements from our members here:
