NEU battles ahead – report from NEU conference
The first NEU conference set an ambitious course for boycotts and strikes over primary school testing, funding and pay, report rs21 delegates.
Happy NEU year?
The newly formed National Education Union is currently balloting for action. What are the prospects for the new union and the left within it?
NEU radicals?
Andrew Stone, Joint Secretary of the Wandsworth branch of the newly formed National Education Union, writes in a personal capacity on prospects for trade unionists in education after the merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Numeracy: On 1st September the UK’s fourth biggest trade union was born […]
NUT conference: “This country must have a Government that will invest in education”
Tom Ramplin and Andy Stone report on the NUT conference that took place in Cardiff over the Easter weekend With the government slashing £3 billion a year from school budgets by 2020, the continuation of a seven year pay freeze and burnt out teachers leaving the profession in droves, the National Union of Teachers conference held […]
Teachers invest in action: NUT strike reports 4/7/16
Activists from Manchester, Birmingham, and London share their impressions of today’s National Union of Teachers (NUT) strike against academisation and other problems facing teachers and students. NUT rep Chris Evans writes: Around 700 teachers and supporters rallied at Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens during today’s strike against growing workloads, class sizes and academisation. There was a healthy mix of young and […]
John Roan school successfully resists restructuring and redundancies
In this time of privatisation of schools and hospitals and with public service managers on the rampage it may seem odd to find so many teachers, pupils and parents at John Roan School feeling jubilant… but they are. Colin F, with Juliana J and Tony A, describe the latest developments in the campaign. Last September a new head […]
Chicago teachers join Manchester’s biggest May Day for years
Tara Stamps and Matt Luskin from the Chicago Teachers’ Union joined Manchester’s biggest International Workers’ Day festival for years. Ian Allinson reports. Manchester TUC had organised a huge festival for May Day this year. Despite hail, rain and sun we marched into the city centre to Sackville Gardens and the Mechanics Institute (the birthplace of […]
Academisation and the Chicago teachers’ strikes
It is really important and positive that the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference was so determined to strike against the Tories’ plans to force all schools to become academies and break up national pay and conditions for teachers. It is even better that the NUT aims to coordinate with other unions, including the junior […]
Building resistance – a report from the NUT conference, part 2
Andy S from Wandsworth NUT continues the report from a union conference ready to defend education.
Ready to strike – a report from the NUT conference, part 1
The government’s forced academisation plans have caused outrage. Teachers are preparing to fight back. Andy N from Birmingham NUT reports on the recent conference.
Six reasons why academisation of our schools should be opposed
George Osborne has announced that all schools are to become academies. The teachers at John Roan School in London are already campaigning to save their comprehensive school from academisation and here explain why. 1. Academies don’t have to follow the national curriculum – the pressures to achieve in English and Maths GCSEs narrows the educational […]
Government tries to overturn teachers’ 86% strike vote
Andrew Stone reports Nicky Morgan has followed through on her threat to mount a legal challenge against Tuesday’s planned strike by NUT 6th form members, on the nonsensical grounds that we can’t oppose funding cuts because they don’t affect our terms and conditions. We won’t know the result of the challenge until Monday afternoon – […]
Greenwich teachers celebrate victory!
Teachers at John Roan school in Greenwich won a victory this week in their fight against excessive work loads. We reported on their first day of strike action on 10 November. Below we publish their letter to supporters and the official National Union of Teachers statement on their successful dispute. Picket line outside John Roan. Photo: […]
NUT conference 2015 report: why are teachers always complaining?
The current coalition government has seen major public sector strikes including all three teaching unions. As we edge ever closer to the general election Andy Stone, president of Wandsworth NUT, reports in a personal capacity from this years recent NUT conference in Harrogate Education is a battleground for two intersecting conflicts over austerity and neoliberal ideology. While the effects […]
Successful schools’ strike in Lewisham against plans for academy status
Ian Crosson reports on last week’s strikes in Lewisham schools against academisation On Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 March there was a very well supported strike in the three Lewisham Borough secondary schools in south east London who are part of the Prendergast federation. This is the third time that staff from the NUT and […]
School staff could lose jobs because of crimes committed by others
Misjudged government attempts to protect children from sexual abuse will have disastrous implications for teachers and other workers, writes Andrew Stone. Imagine a state where it is legal for you to lose your job and career due to a crime committed by someone else. It might be a partner, a relative or a housemate, and you might […]
Who killed Blair Peach? Call for new inquest into antifascist protester’s death
Defend the Right to Protest and the NUT teachers’ union have teamed up to launch a pamphlet about Blair Peach, the antifascist protester killed by police in 1979. Anindya Bhattacharyya reviews it in the latest issue of rs21 magazine. One of my earliest memories of TV news was watching footage of Anti Nazi League protesters demonstrating […]
NUT executive passes up opportunity to join 14 October public sector strike
Andy N, an executive member of Birmingham NUT, writes in a personal capacity on a poor decision by the teaching union’s national committee The National Union of Teachers (NUT) executive committee decided last Friday against calling its members out on strike alongside other public sector unions on 14 October. Some 1.3 million workers in GMB, […]
Up to 1.4 million to strike on #J10
Over 1.4 million workers from ten different unions are striking on #J10. NUT, PCS and FBU have called national strikes, while Unison, GMB and Unite have called out their local government sections. Local disputes in UCU (in King’s College London), Bectu (Ritzy Cinema) and RMT, TSSA and UNITE (London Underground) have been timed to coincide […]
A sunny success for the People’s Assembly
Anindya Bhattacharyya writes: Saturday’s march through central London was a test for the People’s Assembly Against Austerity’s – the first time it had organised a national march primarily through its own resources, rather than putting a call out for a march that brought bigger forces (the TUC, the big unions) behind it. It passed that test smoothly […]
NUT election: Why we should vote for the radical left
With one week left in the National Union of Teachers General Secretary election, NUT activist Rob Owen, asks how those on the radical left ought to vote The NUT has been one of the few unions to hold the line in the pensions dispute. Almost alone we have continued to strike and organised impressive demonstrations and public […]
Post-16 fightback
NUT member Despina M discusses the attacks on post-16 education and fightback against them The post-16 sector has been at the sharp end of government cuts, but has also seen some of the most impressive fightbacks. Whereas – in theory – funding for five to sixteen year olds has been ‘protected’, the Tory coalition has […]
Who was Blair Peach?
Today marks the 35th anniversary of the killing of Blair Peach by the police. David Renton looks back at Blair Peach’s life as a poet, trade unionist and committed antifascist. Blair Peach was a 33 year old teacher killed on a demonstration on 23 April 1979 at Southall against the National Front. He is one […]
Pedagogy and Politics
As the NUT conference starts, Robin B explains why we have to rescue children from the politicians We are a year away from the 2015 general election. After four years of Gove, it is tempting to think ‘come back Labour- all is forgiven’. Looking back at Labour and Tory visions for teaching and learning reveals […]
26 March NUT strike round-up
NUT strikes have a tradition of large political demonstrations on strike days and today was no exception.
“We need to continue to fight for not just our pay and pensions, but for a different vision of education which allows all children to thrive”
“We are striking not because we do not care about our students, but because we do.”
NUT: holding the line or fighting to win?
Rob Owen, Croydon NUT young members officer, argues that, despite the reticence of other unions, if teachers want to defeat Gove’s reforms they need to keep fighting.
Leicester teachers strike against bullying
(Report and picture from Mike Thompson) More than 50 teachers at Gateway Sixth Form College, Leicester, took strike action on Tuesday 14 January as part of a dispute over classroom observation policy. The policy, imposed without proper consultation, is a charter for bullying. Today’s strike action by NUT members is the first of five days […]