I left after the rally finished to speak at the UCL occupation in Central London, but as I drove away, police cars were going the other way back to the Town Hall. Protestors report that riot shields and police horses were used against the crowd.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Lewisham Labour Group votes for cuts
There was anger at tonight's Town Hall protests as Lewisham's Labour Group voted through the first tranche of their £60M cuts package at the full council meeting. Not a single Labour councillor voted against, one even claiming that they had a responsibility to carry out 'democratic socialist' cuts!
A rally outside heard from trade unionists, service users and students from Goldsmiths Collge who had marched down to Catford to support the protest. As they axed 400 jobs, the Labour Group also voted to cut the 'Opening Doors' centre for the unemployed.
I left after the rally finished to speak at the UCL occupation in Central London, but as I drove away, police cars were going the other way back to the Town Hall. Protestors report that riot shields and police horses were used against the crowd.
I left after the rally finished to speak at the UCL occupation in Central London, but as I drove away, police cars were going the other way back to the Town Hall. Protestors report that riot shields and police horses were used against the crowd.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Should student protestors be treated as 'truants'?
Last week's walkouts by school students have posed a lot of difficult questions for teacher trade unionists.
Active trade unionists - and many others at the sharp end of government attacks - have been inspired by the mass turnouts at the student demonstrations. They have helped to change the debate from 'will' we fight the cuts to 'how' do we fight the cuts.
It seems that debate was taking place in the middle of Whitehall on Wednesday. The school students who linked arms around that police van, to try and prevent others falling into the trap of attacking it, showed clearly that they knew exactly why they were in Whitehall - and what strategy was needed to defeat the attacks on EMA and their hopes of a university education.
Many young people have also understood that they should link up with trade unions. For the NUT, the 'how' has got to mean urgently co-ordinating ballots for national strike action with other unions like the UCU and PCS against the joint attacks on pay, jobs and pensions. However, the timescales needed for national ballots mean that this action won't be taking place before the Government votes on tuition fees.
So, in their urgent struggle, students and school students are likely to be taking action again before Christmas. The UCU Higher Education Conference voted to call on other public sector unions and the NUS to mobilise activity on the day that Parliament debates the fee increases. As on November 10th, NUT Divisions should try and support local activities where they can.
These attacks are also an attack on teachers' jobs. If young people cannot afford to - or cannot see the point in - staying on post-16, then pupil numbers will fall. The Government's White Paper has alreday proposed cutting funding for school sixth forms.
However, what many youth (and their parents) have been asking is whether the NUT can support them when schools try to discipline them for attending demonstrations during school time.
First of all, the NUT has made it clear that teachers cannot encourage pupils to be absent from school. That has to be a decision for school students and their families. Teachers may also have concerns about young people, who might otherwise be in our care, being out of school - concerns that parents will need to think about.
However, where schools are considering taking disciplinary action against pupils who attended demonstrations, I think it is right for NUT groups to question where Heads and/or governors are coming down heavily on pupils. Parents may well also want to complain against sanctions being applied against their sons and daughters.
Not every teacher will agree. The self-organisation of pupils can be seen as a threat. But why should it be? It's true that there were some difficult days in some schools last week with excited pupils and disruption to lessons - particularly where schools were trying to prevent pupils leaving the school site. But some schools avoided such a confrontation by taking a more sympathetic approach and asking parents to discuss with their children about what they should do.
Ceratinly, rather than just trying to clampdown on walkouts, schools could follow the suggestion of a teacher writing in last week's London Evening Standard and provide space for pupils to discuss the issues involved.
Surely schools should distinguish between pupils who are just 'truanting' and young people who want to legitimately protest about an attack on their funding and futures.
What do you think?
Martin Powell-Davies
Active trade unionists - and many others at the sharp end of government attacks - have been inspired by the mass turnouts at the student demonstrations. They have helped to change the debate from 'will' we fight the cuts to 'how' do we fight the cuts.
It seems that debate was taking place in the middle of Whitehall on Wednesday. The school students who linked arms around that police van, to try and prevent others falling into the trap of attacking it, showed clearly that they knew exactly why they were in Whitehall - and what strategy was needed to defeat the attacks on EMA and their hopes of a university education.
Many young people have also understood that they should link up with trade unions. For the NUT, the 'how' has got to mean urgently co-ordinating ballots for national strike action with other unions like the UCU and PCS against the joint attacks on pay, jobs and pensions. However, the timescales needed for national ballots mean that this action won't be taking place before the Government votes on tuition fees.
So, in their urgent struggle, students and school students are likely to be taking action again before Christmas. The UCU Higher Education Conference voted to call on other public sector unions and the NUS to mobilise activity on the day that Parliament debates the fee increases. As on November 10th, NUT Divisions should try and support local activities where they can.
These attacks are also an attack on teachers' jobs. If young people cannot afford to - or cannot see the point in - staying on post-16, then pupil numbers will fall. The Government's White Paper has alreday proposed cutting funding for school sixth forms.
However, what many youth (and their parents) have been asking is whether the NUT can support them when schools try to discipline them for attending demonstrations during school time.
First of all, the NUT has made it clear that teachers cannot encourage pupils to be absent from school. That has to be a decision for school students and their families. Teachers may also have concerns about young people, who might otherwise be in our care, being out of school - concerns that parents will need to think about.
However, where schools are considering taking disciplinary action against pupils who attended demonstrations, I think it is right for NUT groups to question where Heads and/or governors are coming down heavily on pupils. Parents may well also want to complain against sanctions being applied against their sons and daughters.
Not every teacher will agree. The self-organisation of pupils can be seen as a threat. But why should it be? It's true that there were some difficult days in some schools last week with excited pupils and disruption to lessons - particularly where schools were trying to prevent pupils leaving the school site. But some schools avoided such a confrontation by taking a more sympathetic approach and asking parents to discuss with their children about what they should do.
Ceratinly, rather than just trying to clampdown on walkouts, schools could follow the suggestion of a teacher writing in last week's London Evening Standard and provide space for pupils to discuss the issues involved.
Surely schools should distinguish between pupils who are just 'truanting' and young people who want to legitimately protest about an attack on their funding and futures.
What do you think?
Martin Powell-Davies
Support builds for co-ordinated strike action
All of the meetings that I have spoken at over the last few days have given enthusiastic support for the NUT linking up with other unions and taking co-ordinated national strike action next term. Now is the time to make sure that action takes place.
On Wednesday (while students and trade unionists - including Billy Hayes of the CWU were still trapped in the Whitehall 'kettle') I took the tube to Hammersmith to speak at a substantial meeting called by their Trades Council to set up their borough anti-cuts campaign. I pointed out that the local campaign to oppose Kenmont Primary School becoming an Academy was just one example of how we can link communities and trade unions together to defend our public services. But, to really make this Government think again, we urgently needed to put TUC policy of co-ordinating industrial action into practice.
On Thursday, I had the chance to contribute at a meeting of over 500 at Goldsmiths University. UCU delegates returning from their Higher Education Conference were able to report on two key decisions:
a) That the UCU should approach the NUS and all the public sector unions to seek a joint mobilisation on the day that Parliament debates tuition fees (a date in December yet to be finalised).
b) That the UCU should ballot for national strike action at the end of January over the threats to lecturers' pay and pensions.
NUT members should participate where they can in the UCU December protests - just like many NUT Associations did on November 10. But, to the enthusiastic support from the meeting, I pointed out that a joint NUT/UCU ballot in January/February could lead to a mass shutdown of schools and colleges so that teachers, lecturers, students, school students and their parents would be able to march together in a massive show of strength against the attacks on our pay and pensions - and on education as a whole.
The same message was well received on Friday evening when I spoke at meetings inside the student occupation of SOAS in Central London and of the Day-Mer youth group in Tottenham. Mark Serwotka's call for joint NUT/UCU and PCS action at Saturday's Coalition of Resistance Conference went down even better!
As Mark pointed out, it was time that trade union leaders stopped giving excuses as to why action could NOT be organised and started to find ways that we COULD organise co-ordinated action. Repeating again his call for 'not a single job to be lost, not a single penny cut from pay', Mark made clear the responsibility on trade unions to organise the mass action that has the power to defeat the Con-Dem Government's attacks.
The students have inspired an older generation to fight. Now they are looking to trade unions to take the action that we have promised we will organise. It is hard enough to explain to angry students why the anti-union laws mean that a careful ballot and clearly identified dispute must be in place before strike action is called. However, there is no reason to delay any longer than the limits placed on us by the legal requirements.
Of course, above all, we have to have support of our own members. However, teachers themselves are also being affected by the growing mood of anger - and the attack on pensions, paying more for less and retiring older, is something teachers are certainly angry about. Motions passed by Lewisham NUT - and most recently Bolton NUT - confirm that support for action.
The NUT Executive meeting in December must not hesitate. Our November decision to ballot over pensions has helped show a way forward. The UCU and PCS are ready to co-ordinate with us. Now we must agree a firm timetable for ballots and co-ordinated action.
On Wednesday (while students and trade unionists - including Billy Hayes of the CWU were still trapped in the Whitehall 'kettle') I took the tube to Hammersmith to speak at a substantial meeting called by their Trades Council to set up their borough anti-cuts campaign. I pointed out that the local campaign to oppose Kenmont Primary School becoming an Academy was just one example of how we can link communities and trade unions together to defend our public services. But, to really make this Government think again, we urgently needed to put TUC policy of co-ordinating industrial action into practice.
On Thursday, I had the chance to contribute at a meeting of over 500 at Goldsmiths University. UCU delegates returning from their Higher Education Conference were able to report on two key decisions:
a) That the UCU should approach the NUS and all the public sector unions to seek a joint mobilisation on the day that Parliament debates tuition fees (a date in December yet to be finalised).
b) That the UCU should ballot for national strike action at the end of January over the threats to lecturers' pay and pensions.
NUT members should participate where they can in the UCU December protests - just like many NUT Associations did on November 10. But, to the enthusiastic support from the meeting, I pointed out that a joint NUT/UCU ballot in January/February could lead to a mass shutdown of schools and colleges so that teachers, lecturers, students, school students and their parents would be able to march together in a massive show of strength against the attacks on our pay and pensions - and on education as a whole.
The same message was well received on Friday evening when I spoke at meetings inside the student occupation of SOAS in Central London and of the Day-Mer youth group in Tottenham. Mark Serwotka's call for joint NUT/UCU and PCS action at Saturday's Coalition of Resistance Conference went down even better!
As Mark pointed out, it was time that trade union leaders stopped giving excuses as to why action could NOT be organised and started to find ways that we COULD organise co-ordinated action. Repeating again his call for 'not a single job to be lost, not a single penny cut from pay', Mark made clear the responsibility on trade unions to organise the mass action that has the power to defeat the Con-Dem Government's attacks.
The students have inspired an older generation to fight. Now they are looking to trade unions to take the action that we have promised we will organise. It is hard enough to explain to angry students why the anti-union laws mean that a careful ballot and clearly identified dispute must be in place before strike action is called. However, there is no reason to delay any longer than the limits placed on us by the legal requirements.
Of course, above all, we have to have support of our own members. However, teachers themselves are also being affected by the growing mood of anger - and the attack on pensions, paying more for less and retiring older, is something teachers are certainly angry about. Motions passed by Lewisham NUT - and most recently Bolton NUT - confirm that support for action.
The NUT Executive meeting in December must not hesitate. Our November decision to ballot over pensions has helped show a way forward. The UCU and PCS are ready to co-ordinate with us. Now we must agree a firm timetable for ballots and co-ordinated action.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
A Letter to the Evening Standard
Dear Editor
Your article suggesting that ‘crazy’ teachers allowed school students to join Wednesday’s demonstration misses the point entirely. Teachers did not encourage pupils to be absent from school. That was a decision made by the students and their families.
But is it any wonder that so many decided to protest? Their hopes of a university education are being snatched away from them along with the Education Maintenance Allowance that so many of our poorest students rely on.
Young people who took a collective decision to protest about such a threat to their futures should not be treated as if they were just unthinkingly 'truanting' lessons. The footage of 15-year olds in Whitehall standing arm-in-arm to persuade others not to fall into the trap of attacking the conveniently abandoned police van shows an admirable degree of bravery and understanding.
It is the Metropolitan Police who should be explaining why they provoked such tensions by refusing to allow the march to proceed along the route agreed with the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign.
Teachers will continue to work to get the best exam results for our students. But it is for Government to provide the jobs and university places that previous generations would have expected in return.
Martin Powell-Davies, Member of the NUT Executive for Inner London.
Your article suggesting that ‘crazy’ teachers allowed school students to join Wednesday’s demonstration misses the point entirely. Teachers did not encourage pupils to be absent from school. That was a decision made by the students and their families.
But is it any wonder that so many decided to protest? Their hopes of a university education are being snatched away from them along with the Education Maintenance Allowance that so many of our poorest students rely on.
Young people who took a collective decision to protest about such a threat to their futures should not be treated as if they were just unthinkingly 'truanting' lessons. The footage of 15-year olds in Whitehall standing arm-in-arm to persuade others not to fall into the trap of attacking the conveniently abandoned police van shows an admirable degree of bravery and understanding.
It is the Metropolitan Police who should be explaining why they provoked such tensions by refusing to allow the march to proceed along the route agreed with the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign.
Teachers will continue to work to get the best exam results for our students. But it is for Government to provide the jobs and university places that previous generations would have expected in return.
Martin Powell-Davies, Member of the NUT Executive for Inner London.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Police Tactics provoke tensions in Whitehall
Having been invited to speak as a member of the NUT Executive at the rally to be held before today's march in London to protest about tuition fees and EMA cuts, I arrived in Whitehall to find that the march was already stationary at the entrance to Parliament Square and surrounded by police cordons.
It was clear that some protestors were angry - the 'kettling' tactics were only making things worse. However, most of the young people there were entirely peaceful - just frustrated at not being able to continue the march.
What was the justification for the cordons - put in place before the police van was rocked which I have just seen the BBC give as the reason for the 'kettle' - not after? A route had been agreed beforehand by the police with the march organisers - it seems that the police then decided to ignore that agreement.
I manged to blag my way through and back out of the police lines and talked to a few demonstrators. One was clear that she had seen what seemed like 'provocateurs' deliberately pushing over fences and that she had warned youngsters not to join in.
If I had spoken to the rally, I was going to point out that a previous Tory PM had been thrown out twenty years ago - not by a poll tax 'riot' but by the mass action of millions of people organised against the poll tax in every part of Britain.
Young people have every right to be angry. That anger needs to be channelled into an organised movement of trade unions, students and communities to challenge a government that is trying to steal away young people's future and the public services and benefits that have been won by the trade union movement over previous generations.
What was the justification for the cordons - put in place before the police van was rocked which I have just seen the BBC give as the reason for the 'kettle' - not after? A route had been agreed beforehand by the police with the march organisers - it seems that the police then decided to ignore that agreement.
I manged to blag my way through and back out of the police lines and talked to a few demonstrators. One was clear that she had seen what seemed like 'provocateurs' deliberately pushing over fences and that she had warned youngsters not to join in.
If I had spoken to the rally, I was going to point out that a previous Tory PM had been thrown out twenty years ago - not by a poll tax 'riot' but by the mass action of millions of people organised against the poll tax in every part of Britain.
Young people have every right to be angry. That anger needs to be channelled into an organised movement of trade unions, students and communities to challenge a government that is trying to steal away young people's future and the public services and benefits that have been won by the trade union movement over previous generations.
Monday, 22 November 2010
Ireland: The Bond Market Demands Its Ransom Again
The demands that will be placed on the people of Ireland as a result of the EU/IMF deal - more cuts, more job losses, more privatisation - are a stark warning to trade unionists in Britain about what happens if trade unions step back instead of organising mass action to defend jobs, pensions and services.
It's also a stark warning that the Con-Dem austerity measures will only make matters worse for ordinary people. But the bond-markets are laughing all the way to the bank after they successfully attacked Greece, then Ireland and will now move on to Portugal and Spain.
But as Irish Socialist MEP Joe Higgins declared, " RTE says that 'Everyone is really a hostage to the bond markets!’ but isn’t mass hostage taking a grievous crime against humanity? Isn’t it official policy that you don’t pay the ransom demanded?" Shouldn't the bond holders take the losses instead of working people?
As Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Campaign pointed out at the recent SERTUC Public Services Conference, of the £200 billion of 'quantitative easing' designed to boost the economy, around a quarter went straight into bankers profits - to reflate their earnings, not the economy. He has calculated that £120 billion goes wasted in tax evasion, tax avoidance and uncollected taxes.
A small group of bond-holders and bankers are trying to hold the rest of us to ransom. It's time to stand up to the bullies - with co-ordinated trade union action.
It's also a stark warning that the Con-Dem austerity measures will only make matters worse for ordinary people. But the bond-markets are laughing all the way to the bank after they successfully attacked Greece, then Ireland and will now move on to Portugal and Spain.
But as Irish Socialist MEP Joe Higgins declared, " RTE says that 'Everyone is really a hostage to the bond markets!’ but isn’t mass hostage taking a grievous crime against humanity? Isn’t it official policy that you don’t pay the ransom demanded?" Shouldn't the bond holders take the losses instead of working people?
As Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Campaign pointed out at the recent SERTUC Public Services Conference, of the £200 billion of 'quantitative easing' designed to boost the economy, around a quarter went straight into bankers profits - to reflate their earnings, not the economy. He has calculated that £120 billion goes wasted in tax evasion, tax avoidance and uncollected taxes.
A small group of bond-holders and bankers are trying to hold the rest of us to ransom. It's time to stand up to the bullies - with co-ordinated trade union action.
Fees protests gather strength
Of course, the real debt mountain has been created by the banks and the bond markets - but they want us to pay for it.
On top of that, the Education Maintenance Allowance is being scrapped to be replaced by 'targeted support'. But, as the latest TES FEfocus editorial correctly put it, "The new "targeted" support is just a euphenism for cuts ... [it is] an admission of defeat disguised as a policy. It says that you cannot create the conditions where all young people will want to stay in education or have the money to afford it. This is not a situation that a wealthy, advanced country like the UK should ever have to face".
That is the brutal truth - that the Government are admitting that they have no intention of offering young people a decent future. That shocking truth has perhaps hit home the hardest on those young people in sixth forms that had, until now, always expected to go to university. Small wonder that some have decided that they will be joining older students on the protests organised for Wednesday November 24th.
Haberdashers' Aske's School in my Authority, Lewisham, is one of the schools where the press have publicised that students are planning to protest on November 24th. As I told the South London Press, this would be a decision for the students and their families to make, not their teachers. Teachers cannot encourage pupils to be absent from school.
However, I think many people will consider that young people who take a collective decision to protest about such a threat to their futures should not be treated as if they were just unthinkingly 'truanting' lesons. That's why I have contacted the school and asked that they do not take disciplinary action against those who do take part in the protest.
Britain is indeed a wealthy country. That wealth should be invested in the futures of our youth, not squandered on the gambling debts of the bond traders and bankers.
The 50,000 strong demonstration on November 10th showed how a younger generation can help inspire an older generation to use the power of organised trade union struggle to oppose these devastating cuts - and to demand that a decent education should be a right for all, not just a privilege for those that can afford it.
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