National strikes can beat Gove

T
odays strike takes place against a background of a growing crisis in education.Our regional strikes have been a good beginning. But now we urgently need our unions to name the day for a national strike this November. Our unions need to prepare now to escalate our campaign. In every staff room there is hostility to Michael Goves reforms whether its performance related pay, appraisal, GCSEs, or the National Curriculum. Every week there is a scandal around free schools or academies. Goves mania for privatisation and deregulation offers no solutions. And it looks certain that Tristram Hunt, who replaced Stephen Twigg as Labours shadow education secretary, remains wedded to the same neoliberal politics.
Striking earlier this month

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The strikes against Gove have been a long time coming but they have the potential to rock this government. The Tories are nasty but they are weak. Despite their savage plans and vicious rhetoric they can be beaten just look at Camerons defeat in parliament on going to war inSyria.

Unite the Resistance Conference Saturday 19 October, 12-5pm @ Bloomsbury Baptist Church
235 Shaftesbury Ave, London WC2H 8EP
Speakers include:

Billy Hayes

CWU general secretary

Liz Lawrence

UCU vice-president

Ronnie Draper

BFAWU general secretary

Walkouts

Fantasy

Hunt was correct to warn about the massive shortage of school places and an impending crisis in teacher supply. But his talk of parent-led academies as the solution is pure fantasy. So our strike comes at an important time. It is teachers and their unions who are standing up for education. It is not just about our pensions, pay and conditions, but about the future of education. You cannot have a decent education system without decently paid teachers, supported by good working conditions and a school ethos which allows them to deliver high quality education.

And we are not alone in our fight. Our walkouts come just days before a second firefighters strike, with university workers voting to strike over pay and with postal workers about to name strikes too. There is real potential to coordinate our strikes with other workers. We suffered set-backs as union leaders retreated from the pensions fight and strikes in 2011. But now an autumn and winter of resistance is possible. Goves agenda is to drive through a complete deregulation and privatisation of education. One of his key advisors, Dominic Cummings, believes our childrens

Jeremy Corbyn MP Jane Aitchison PCS Phil Jackson

EIS national president

Frank Morris
Crossrail dispute

Sean Vernell

Unite the Resistance

Plus speakers from disputes at Hovis, One Housing, Glasgow social care workers, Barclays Bike, Whipps Cross hospital, Lewisham hospital campaign, ISS East Coast Mainline cleaners & many more Book now at www.uniteresist.org

Goves vision for the future of education?

intelligence is genetically predetermined. In this world view, what is the point of a decent education system? Under this regime the future for the children we teach is bleak. Goves plans for the curriculum reduce it to the rote learning of facts. His GCSE exam changes, just like the phonics tests in primaries are about one thing only branding more working class children as failures. leafleting localities and speaking to parents groups. Its crucial that we carry the argument to parents that we are standing up for education and that they should back our fight. We need pickets, imaginative protests and activities at schools and in local areas. We should already have named the day for a national strike. We need to make it clear to every teacher as soon as possible that we are determined to really take the fight to Gove this time.

Schools are agreeing new pay and appraisal policies this term. Both teaching unions have said that they will sustain (pay full pay to members) the strikes needed in individual schools to beat bad policies. We should push this resistance and action everywhere we can too. Our fightback is part of a global resistance that has seen teachers block the streets inBraziland take all out strike action inChicago. The real root of these attacks is a capitalist system in crisis a system where profit is god, where immense wealth for the few comes at the expense of austerity for the majority.

Join us

Uniting

If we want to defend education we need to campaign against all these attacks, uniting with those prepared to stand with us. We should build initiatives like the Primary Charter, the emerging National Campaign for Education and the campaign for more school places (see http://www. theschoolplacescrisis.com). Nor can we sit by and see attacks on teaching assistants and other support staff. We need to maximise the numbers of teachers actively involved in the strikes. We need joint union meetings in every school to discuss how everyone can play a role in standing up to Gove and where we go next with the action. And we should reach out to the other workers who are fighting back by visiting nearby fire stations, postal depots, universities and civil service offices as well as

Hackney

Hackney NUT inEast Londonhas launched a petition calling on leaders of our unions to name the day for a national strike in November. You can get copies online at http://local.teachers.org.uk/hackney/ Campaigns/strike17Oct2013/ strike17Oct2013.cfm Lets take it round our schools, and tell our union leaders we want national strikes and an escalating campaign.

The Socialist Workers Party seeks to build every fightback, every resistance against the attacks. We think that by linking together and organising those who want to see the most effective fightback, we can help strengthen the resistance and help it win. But we also think that we need to link this fight to the wider battle to get to the root of the problem to end the profit driven madness of capitalism and win a world free from war, poverty and oppression. If you share that view, join us.

Name the day for national action now Plan for escalating action Build a national campaign for education

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Teachers 15/10/13

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