WHAT IS ACT-PHILIPPINES? The Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Philippines is a progressive, militant and nationalist organization of teachers, academic non-teaching personnel and non-academic non-teaching personnel established in June 26, 1982. It is the largest non-traditional teachers’ organization in the country which works for the economic and political well-being of teachers and all other education workers as well as for genuine social transformation.

WHAT ARE ITS PRINCIPLES? ACT believes that Philippine society is backward, agrarian and pre-industrial whose economy is export-oriented and import-dependent brought about by its debt-ridden government’s continued subservience to the interests of foreign economic and political powers. As such, the Philippine educational system can not help but be colonial, repressive and commercialized whose main victims are not only the members of the education sector (the students, mentors and all other education workers) but the basic masses and the progressive and democratic sectors as well. While teachers constitute a decisive majority of the country’s entire professional force, they continue to rank among the most exploited and oppressed groups of professionals with an average income far below the poverty line. Moreover, economic benefits are continuously denied from them while their democratic rights are relentlessly repressed. In the performance of their functions, teachers are assisted by  other education workers who are also exploited and oppressed and whose rights and legitimate interests need to be promoted and sustained through collective action.As significant members of the academic community, teachers and education workers are at a vantage position to observe, analyze and help solve problems besetting the school, the community and the education system as a whole.  Conscious of their roles as agents of cultural change, they aspire to impart to the youth correct ideas and proper values that will motivate them to act constructively for the betterment of society.

There is , therefore, an urgent need for teachers and other education workers to consolidate their ranks in a broad unity, thereby strengthening their position to help change the education system in order to make it genuinely pro-people.  Through this broad unity,  teachers and other education workers can become a potent force in society and, by linking with the basic masses and other exploited sectors of society, can effectively contribute to social change in the larger context of genuine national development with a resolute anti-imperialist stance.

 WHAT ARE ACT’S OBJECTIVES?  ACT defines its objectives in the following terms:

• To unite teachers and other education workers to struggle for their democratic rights and economic welfare.

• To advance a nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented education.

• To encourage active and dynamic participation of teachers and other education workers in social transformation.

• To represent, assist and defend its affiliates and their individual members, in particular, and the teachers and other education workers, in general, in the advancement of their legitimate rights and interests.

• To launch campaigns to protect human rights, the environment and the national minorities/indigenous peoples, promote gender equality, genuine land reform, workers’ rights, and be involved with other social issues.

• To help in the formation of the broadest unity of all oppressed sectors of Philippine society in advancing the interests of the Filipino people.

• To unite with progressive individuals, groups and movements abroad who share common beliefs and aspirations with ACT-Philippines.

WHO CAN BE MEMBERS OF ACT?  Membership in ACT is open to national and regional organizations whose membership or composition include federations, unions, alliances, cooperatives, political, disciplinal or interest associations of teachers and of education workers.  Active and nationalist teaching and non-teaching personnel working in the education sector in all levels (pre-school, elementary, secondary and tertiary) in both public and private institutions who are members of an education-based organization are eligible. 

ACT is the umbrella formation of two national organizations, the Congress of Teachers for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND), a militant and nationalist teachers’ organization, and the National Federation of Teachers and Employees’ Union (NAFTEU), the national formation of school-based labor unions.  Membership in these organizations means automatic affiliation with ACT. Individual members who are qualified are also accepted. 

HOW DOES ACT ORGANIZE ITS MEMBERSHIP?  Integration and education are ACT’s main organizing and  consolidation activities.  Regular visits are made to update members of the organizational activities and campaigns.  Discussions, dialogues, for a, and symposia are held especially on the burning issues of the day that directly or indirectly affect the education sector.  ACT also aims to unite the membership on the principles and objectives of the organization, align itself with the basic masses and raise its levels of unity to an anti-foreign domination stand on the educational system and Philippine society.  ACT also provides institutional services like free legal aid, media exposure on legitimate concerns, training, and other forms of assistance as may be deemed necessary.  It regularly comes out with its quarterly publication, the ACT Forum, for its present and future members.

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