To beat Covid, we have to fight for safe schools
While politicians squabble over degrees of lockdown, Covid is spreading in educational settings. Education workers must force the politicians to make their schools safe.
‘The fight of our lives’ | Interview with Marian Mayer
Marian Mayer, candidate for Vice President of UCU, spoke to rs21 about the fightback in the higher and further education sectors
Reopening schools is bad science
Mike Downham explains the poor science behind the government plans for schools reopening.
Tik Tok: is time running out for Tory style education?
Ava, a sixth form student, describes how she helped to instigate the protests last weekend which led to the government U-turn.
Failing system
When it comes to delivering an education system without exams the government has flunked the test.
Artivists at Work 2
More from Artivists at Work: resisting NHS cuts, unsafe school reopenings and the gendered impacts of Covid-19.
The government doesn’t care about ‘disadvantaged children’
The government’s reasons for wanting to get children back to school have nothing to do with reducing inequality.
Johnson’s 1 June plans in tatters – how do we build our strength?
Rob Owen argues that the NEU has won a convincing, but not complete, victory over the government and addresses how we develop workplace organisation in the coming weeks.
Educators meet the challenge
Education workers have shown creativity and determination in embracing virtual organising methods to strengthen their opposition to the government’s wider reopening of schools.
Lockdown or meltdown?
There’s no need for confusion about when and how to relax social distancing. But more pressure from below will be needed to stop the government from putting our lives at risk.
Video: Not safe to return to school or work
The government is trying to force people back to unsafe schools and workplaces. Parents, school students and workers are resisting.
Why schools can’t ‘reopen’ until safe
Rob Owen explains why teachers, not ministers, must be central to judging how and when it’s safe to return.
revolutionary reflections | Marxism and childhood
Estelle Cooch traces the contradictory history of childhood under capitalism. How do we defend childhood and fight for a world where play and creativity are not limited to children?
Education in Palestine
Education is a key battlefield in the Palestinian struggle in the wake of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’. #ExistResistReturn
Organising in response to COVID-19
As criticism of the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic mounts, rs21 members highlight the flourishing grassroots responses that aim to provide support and to demand more effective action from government and employers
A crucial week for the university strikes
With negotiations reportedly going well, but the current wave of strikes ending alongside the climate strikes on Friday, rs21 members explain why this is a crucial week and explore some of the debates among strikers.
University strikes escalate from Monday
UCU and EIS members are briefly returning to work before escalating their strike on Monday. rs21 reports from the higher education strike around Britain.
Solidarity needs rebuilding, urgently
The university strikes provide an opportunity to relearn traditions of collective solidarity which strengthen both the strikers and those giving solidarity.
Tough lessons to learn
The struggle against worsening conditions and cuts in education continues. Andrew Stone, 6th form college teacher and District Secretary of Wandsworth NEU, writes in a personal capacity about an upcoming strike and a ballot in Tower Hamlets.
revolutionary reflections | Which side are you on? Work, class and the 99%
Confusion is rife about what we mean by working class or middle class. Bob Carter argues that a focus on exploitative workplace relationships is far more illuminating than arbitrary hierarchies of inequality.
Labour’s plans on education are a step in the right direction
Vygotsky, who is a teacher in a school for pupils with special educational needs, reflects on Labour’s proposed changes to the education system and on her experiences canvassing.
Support the climate strikes!
Tomorrow striking university workers will be joining the next youth strike for climate. What can the movements learn from each other?
Raising the rate of resistance
Educators in the sixth form sector prepare for 3 days of strike action over funding and pay beginning Thursday 17 October.
What a way to make a living | Teaching at the margins
A teacher in a non-mainstream secondary school gives her view on the daily life of teaching in a school which specialises in providing education for students whose needs are not met by mainstream institutions.
A gamer’s guide to social reproduction
Video games can be vehicles for a whole range of political ideas – and some can even help us explain social reproduction theory, argues Kate Bradley.
Battling for the education we need
An open letter about the state of education from concerned grandmother Kes Grant of the anti-academisation campaign John Roan Resists.
Beyond taking sides on No Outsiders
To understand the controversy about LGBT lessons in schools, we need to understand the oppression of both LGBT people and the Muslim community.
‘We are not going to let our world be ruined’
Laura Di Chiara and her school-friends joined the climate strike today and it was much bigger than they expected.
The story of the LA teachers’ strike
Jesse Hagopian talks to LA teacher Gillian Russom about how the teachers in Los Angeles organised, what they won, and what it means for wider education struggles in the USA.
Caring enough to strike: US teachers’ strikes in perspective
Last week, 33,000 Los Angeles teachers went on strike. Tithi Bhattacharya analyses the past year’s teachers strikes from a social reproduction framework.