In 2014, for the New Teachers’ Movement, was the year of breaking the silence after almost eight years of recession and inactivity, and the beginning of civil protests. We were still in the early months of the new year when a flood of letters from teachers addressed to government officials and parliament members was published in the media. After that, protest petitions signed by teachers from various provinces were sent to the capital one by one. Before the middle of the year, preschool teachers protested their uncertain situation by sitting in front of the parliament in September. The beginning of the school year was also an excuse for issuing protest statements on the occasion of the reopening of schools, which were published by independent unions and activists. The common core of all these open letters, protest petitions, and statements was the protest against the terrible living conditions of teachers and the demand for equality. All of these indicated a new beginning. The use of social networks and modern communication tools such as Viber, Telegram, and WhatsApp by

The expansion of the gathering on December 10th.

The widespread media coverage of the 10th of Esfand (February 28th) teachers’ gathering was mainly due to the widespread nature of the gatherings throughout the country. In more than eighteen provinces, teachers simultaneously gathered in provincial centers. In most of these provinces, in addition to the provincial centers, other cities in the province also witnessed similar gatherings. This widespread gathering was not only unprecedented in the past two decades of teachers’ trade union struggles, but it can confidently be said that among the active trade unions in the country, no similar gathering can be found. The extensive participation of teachers in the trade union’s call was mainly due to their living conditions and economic difficulties, as they currently live below the poverty line – as declared by official sources. While the poverty line for a family of four in urban areas is between 2.4 to 3 million tomans, the average salary of a teacher with twenty years of experience is at most 1.2 million tomans. The

Achievements of the tenth gathering of Esfand

Achieving civil maturity, collective coherence and self-organization through the use of social networks were effective characteristics of this collective movement. The widespread protests throughout the country were such that the teachers’ movement can be considered as the pioneer of civil protests in contemporary Iranian society. The security atmosphere in the years after 2009 and the intimidation of trade unions during those years had created a wave of recession and apathy in trade union activities, but the December 10th gathering provided the grounds for breaking this heavy atmosphere, to the extent that even domestic media, despite pressures, covered the news. Many trade union activists had little hope for the success of the gathering until the day before, and there were still concerns about security measures. However, the widespread presence of teachers and their civil coherence in adhering to the silent gathering minimized the possibility of security measures. In such circumstances, even in the final days of December 2014 – 24th and 25th of December – and without the participation of the