Statement

Anti-Oppression, Exploitation, bullying and Harm

The Yoga Teachers Union, a branch of the IWGB, is a grassroots, member-led trade union, representing yoga teachers from all across the country from the widest range of backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual orientations, genders and nationalities. As workers and as yoga practitioners, we stand against exploitation, violence and harm. We are committed to holding exploitative and abusive employers to account, and we are committed to fighting the discrimination and structural violence - on lines of race, gender, class, queerness, disability and much else - that are replicated in and through many workplaces.

We are here to fight exploitation and oppression in all their forms in our industry and more widely. We are here to fight for an industry and a world based on relationships of care, support, and resourcing, not harm, abuse, and discrimination. This work of resistance, of organising to build a better world, starts with us and our community; that means working collectively and as individuals to uphold the highest standards of respect, inclusivity, and active solidarity between all union members, staff, and our wider networks. It means acting always in commitment to accountability, transformative justice, and ongoing community learning. It means zero tolerance for abusive, bullying, and discriminatory behaviour. The union must be a space where everyone is safe, welcome, and resourced to organise sustainably; everyone should feel they are respected, included, and equal to every other member.

In law, discrimination is unlawful behaviour that relates to, or is because of, someone else's protected characteristic – such as disability, nationality, sexual orientation, gender or race. These characteristics are protected in the Equality Act 2010. The Yoga Teachers Branch of the IWGB commit to uphold the values and the constitution of the IWGB.

We are also committed to the deepest principles of anti-racism and liberation. In order to successfully organise in alignment with values of care and liberation, we need to build power to resist oppression, exploitation, harm and violence. It is essential that we care for each other and support each other. We are committed to confronting abusive behaviours wherever we find them, and to building a space that is truly safe, inclusive, and accessible: a space where we can fight for our freedom, together.

Yoga Teachers Union, IWGB
November 2021