On January 24, 2002, at the initiative of Manana Ghurchumelidze, chair of the Free Teachers’ Union “Solidarity,” a teachers’ hunger strike began in Kutaisi. Teachers from various regions of western Georgia also joined the protest. Their main demand was to raise the minimum salary of education workers to the level of the consumer basket, since, in their opinion, the 30 percent salary increase provided in the 2002 budget would in no way change the social situation of teachers.

The teachers’ hunger strike in Kutaisi continued, but despite the rather severe form of protest, the hunger-striking teachers failed to attract the attention of the local authorities. The leadership of Imereti and Kutaisi claimed that the strike was politicized and that it was backed by MP Mikheil Saakashvili.

The president’s envoy in the Imereti region, Temur Shashiashvili, also noted that the strike had a political character and that teachers were being used as a trading object.

Mikheil Saakashvili himself met the hunger-striking teachers on February 1 and persuaded them to stop the hunger strike. He declared at the meeting: “Where there are people, there are protests that are political, because non-political protests happen only in zoos.”

“The teachers’ demands were not heard by parliament either, but the organizer of the protest, Manana Ghurchumelidze, considers the goal achieved and declares: ‘With this I showed society that through protest and by raising one’s voice, it is possible to achieve at least something,’” writes the newspaper Akhali Versia.