Over 70 NEU members joined the Zoom call on August 18th
as part of the round of individual union meetings to bring together “Trade
Unionists for a New Party”. Not only was this a great turnout at a time when
education staff are on holiday, the thorough and wide-ranging discussion also
reflected the enthusiasm and determination to campaign for the NEU to play its
part in building a new workers’ party.
Here's a report that I agreed to draft to share a flavour of the issues discussed at the meeting and the action points agreed:
The meeting was introduced by Sheila Caffrey, one of
several NEU National Executive members at the online meeting. Sheila explained that
the meeting had been called as a follow-up to the July 21st cross-union
Zoom* initiated by former Labour MP Dave Nellist, attended by both Jeremy Corbyn
and Zarah Sultana, shortly before they made the ‘Your Party’ announcement that
has then quickly gathered such massive support.
Sheila reminded everyone of the role played by education
workers during the COVID pandemic, both in supporting children and our
communities, but also using our collective trade union power too. She listed
just some of the attacks that have been made by the Labour government, including
worsening child poverty with the continuation of two child benefit cap and their
attacks on both disabled people’s and trans people’s rights. Sheila added that
they “have continued Tory education policy of underfunding, underpaying and
undervaluing education and education workers” and that the long record of
attacks, cuts and privatisation of education showed that the need for education
workers to have a political voice and genuine representation was long overdue.
Sheila referred to the democratic structures that already
exist in unions like the NEU to allow members to discuss and elect delegates to
share views, experiences and policies, and argued that a new workers’ party
should work like this too. “We need a new party that not only has education
workers but workers from across all sectors and communities being able to
discuss and create policies that will support our lives, our services and our
workplaces” and that “the collective voices of unions are essential to this”.
One shared aim from the many individual contributions to
the discussion was to encourage as many NEU members as possible to take the
arguments for a new workers’ party into NEU structures, at school, district and
national levels.
A model motion was agreed proposing some concrete
steps that could be pushed for, including inviting Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana
and the Independent Alliance MPs ‘to an urgent meeting of the National
Executive to discuss the role of the NEU in steps towards a new party’; for NEU
NEC members to approach other union executives “to discuss trade union
involvement in the founding of a new workers’ party” and for this to be done
locally through trades councils as well; and for districts to “elect
representatives to attend local meetings about a new workers’ party and share
the needs of education workers”.
A number of contributors pointed out that the model motion
may be opposed in some parts of the Union, on the basis that the NEU should
keep its “independence from any political party”, as current NEU Rules say.
However, Michaela Wilde, another NEU Executive member, pointed out from
her experience in changing union policy over support staff recognition, that the
debate can be won as long as the groundwork is put in at a local level to clearly
explain our arguments. Amanda from Birmingham compared it to ‘walking
the floor’ as a union rep, talking to people face-to-face, arguing for a new
party in your workplaces, and in your communities too.
There were various reports of meetings being set up in local
areas to help build support for the new party that NEU members were already
engaged in, as well as some joint local discussions between NEU and UCU members
on the kind of education policies a new party should have.
There was general agreement in the meeting that the policies
had to address the “ongoing funding and privatisation crisis” referred to in
the model motion. However, it was stressed that the motion hadn’t been drafted with
detailed policy in mind at this stage but could be amended to raise points that
colleagues wanted to add to it in their areas. Demands raised in discussion included
the reversal of privatisation and bringing back education into democratically
accountable public control as well as opposition to Labour’s authoritarian
arrests of peace protestors and the digital divide that left working-class
pupils without equal online access.
Rees, the youth officer for Knowsley NEU, spoke about
the terrible working conditions that young educators faced and the support that
could be won for a new workers’ party amongst young trade unionists. He added
that the power of strike action was key to any union but that we also needed a
political voice as well, otherwise we are fighting “with one hand behind our
back”.
Another common theme was how a mass trade union base could
help make sure the new party had both firm roots in working-class
communities and a programme that offered new hope to the millions let down
by the existing mainstream parties who might otherwise look to the populist
right like Reform.
A video message from Jeremy Corbyn stressed that it
was crucial for the new party “to attract trade unionists, trade union members
and trade unions” and that “ we are in danger in this country of a duopoly of
power, of the Tories and Labour saying exactly the same thing on economic
policy” leaving “the far right, led by Nigel Farage, blaming every social ill
on poor, desperate migrants and refugees. We're having none of that”.
Another point raised in the meeting was the need for trade
unionists to help shape the policy and structures of a new party at this still
formative stage. Naomi Wimborne Idrissi emphasised the need to get
“trade unionists and other community activists actively involved at grassroots
level in open and accessible democratic decision-making structures of the new
party”. That would help ensure it had the strong roots needed to be able to
answer the attacks that it will face in a way that the previous “Corbyn Project”
had been unable to when Jeremy had been leader of the Labour Party.
But there was also agreement that helping to shape the
policy and structures of the new party needed more than just individual
educators joining the new party, it should be done through the union at all
levels getting involved as a collective organisation.
To cement that involvement, Dan Warrington, a newly
elected NEU Executive member, explained why federal structures were needed that
allow unions to affiliate. Dan pointed out how much money the Union had spent
in the last two general elections lobbying the existing parties but “what do we
have to show for it!”. Instead “imagine if the NEU had delegates on the
decision-making bodies of the new party, taking the policies we pass at NEU
Conference into the new party to shape its policies, and then getting MPs elected
on that basis carrying those policies into Parliament and advocating for them”.
Another contributor, Anthony Ryland, made the point that this was how the Labour Party
had first been built by the trade unions over a century ago, and how it was
vital that the NEU was prominent in the new party “rather than shouting from
the sidelines”.
Sean McCauley from Worcestershire NEU also added that
a federal structure should also allow community organisations and existing
parties, like the Socialist Party that he was a member of, to affiliate as
well, to be able to argue against any drifting away from the principles on
which a new party was founded as it started to come under pressure from its
political opponents and in the media.
Louise Cuffaro, another NEU Executive member,
stressed that “I think this meeting reflects that it's not about an individual
leader, it’s about us being the active ‘movers and shakers’ of forming
structures that will allow us to be an accountable party to the people, to the
working class and to trade unionists.”
Questions were asked about whether the NEU Rulebook could be
used to block efforts to build for a new workers’ party. Martin
Powell-Davies, a former NEU Regional Secretary, stressed that there was
nothing in the model motion that went beyond the objects of the union “to seek
to influence the political agenda”. The NEU already attends LibDem, Labour and
Tory Party Conferences. Now, instead of just pleading with parties firmly
wedded to cuts and privatisation, we should be helping to set the direction of
a new party that actually agrees with union policies!
Martin added, however, that for the union to change its
policy about ‘political independence’, or for it to back candidates or
affiliate to a new party would require changes in rules to be won.
The meeting was concluded by Sheila emphasising, in
particular, that:
·
Everyone should take the model motion (see
below) to their local District as soon as possible so that it could start a
discussion within the NEU locally, and for motions that have been passed to be
sent to their NEU Executive members and the National Union.
· A further meeting would be called in the new term, particularly to look at a motion for NEU Conference 2026 that could allow the Union’s existing Political Fund to start being used to back candidates from a new workers’ party committed to fighting for the union’s policies.
***
Model Motion
Educators need new political
representation: it’s time for the trade unions to take the lead in founding it.
This district/branch notes:
·
The
ongoing funding and privatisation crisis across all education sectors; Labour’s
delays in implementing its Employment Rights Bill, and ongoing attacks on
public services and disability benefits, as well as attacks on trans rights,
migrants and ongoing support for the onslaught in Gaza.
·
The
statement by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana calling for a new political party
“rooted in our communities, trade unions and social movements”, with
700,000 people signing up to be kept informed, which will include many NEU
members and other trade unionists.
·
That
other unions are involved in discussions: UNITE are reassessing their
relationship with Labour; UCU have agreed to “look for an alternative
political voice to Labour” and the bakers’ union have released a statement
on the creation of a new political party.
·
That
NEU policy agreed this year states in the motion: Defending and extending
members’ rights at work
Conference further instructs the executive to appeal to all
the MPs with whom the union is associated, the 7 Labour MPs who had the whip
withdrawn after voting against keeping the 2-child benefit cap and the
independent MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, elected for the first time in 2024 to
table amendments to the Employment Rights Bill.
This branch/district believes:
·
The
battles our members face over: workload, funding, pay, restructuring,
academisation etc – will be greatly strengthened if we also have a political
voice.
·
The
number of people signing up to be part of the founding process for ‘your party’
is an indicator of the huge potential support there is for a working-class
based alternative to Labour, with the potential to cut across the divisive
rhetoric of Reform.
·
Jeremy
Corbyn and Zarah Sultana have already vocally shared views on education policy,
child poverty and Palestine that are compatible with our union policy. This would be greatly amplified by having
actual education workers as decision-makers in a new party,
·
A
new party will be stronger and have more political authority if trade unions -
collectively representing more than 6 million members - participate in the
founding of a new party and are represented in the democratic decision-making
process of a new party.
·
Our
union, along with other trade unions, can and should play a leading role in the
founding of a new party.
This branch/district resolves:
·
To
request our National Executive members invite Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana and
the Independent Alliance MPs to an urgent meeting of the National Executive to
discuss how to build a bloc of MPs in parliament that will fight for the
policies of the NEU, and the role of the NEU in steps towards a new party
·
To
request our National Executive members approach the Unite EC, UCU NEC and
bakers’ union executive, and other relevant trade unions, to discuss trade
union involvement in the founding of a new workers’ party
·
To
write to our local trades union council to suggest working with other unions
locally to discuss what is locally needed for political representation.
· To elect representatives to attend local meetings about a new workers’ party and share the needs of education workers.
+++
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