Lutsk educators called on colleagues, many of their fellow countrymen from Donetsk region, Dnipropetrovsk region, Mykolaiv region, and Luhansk region to join those standing on Independence Square in Kyiv. "Today Ukrainians, through many-thousand-strong rallies, convincingly prove that we are not slaves, we are the united Ukrainian people, we are a proud and independent nation. Let us not succumb to provocations, let us not divide into right-bank and left-bank, into eastern and western" – the appeal states. In the document, teachers also call for supporting the younger generation, because: "we, the teachers of independent Ukraine, have raised a new generation that does not wish to submit to the machinations of the authorities, that does not want to make compromises, that is ready to defend its rights and the fate of its Fatherland to the last."
Today all schools in Lutsk are on strike. Having supported the active form of mass actions, teachers forced the authorities to make concessions to them. By a decision of the Lutsk city mayor dated November 29, vacations have been declared in general education institutions from today until December 5, 2004. School principals have been tasked during January-May 2005 to ensure the implementation of the curriculum, and educators have been granted days off until December 5 with subsequent make-up work.
Last week, general education institutions of Lutsk announced their support for the strike; until yesterday, they joined mass actions only after 3:00 p.m.