Wednesday 28th March saw the NUT and UCU out on strike over pensions.  The strike was only for the Greater London area rather than nationally.

Some of us began the day visiting the sparks demo at the Shard, which while it had reduced numbers was still fairly lively. Those of us not striking or having to work that day visited friends to stand in solidarity with them on strike in Hackney, where there was a good militant picket line. A mixture of sun, coffee and lollipops kept everyone going throughout the morning till we could all head off to the café.

As part of the Governments Welfare Reform Bill (now an Act), Contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) will be limited to 12 months.  This comes into affect from the 30th April 2012 and for the first time is to be aplplied retrospectively.  This means that anyone who has been on Contribution based ESA for a year or more by April 30th will lose this benefit on April 30th.  For many this means relying on a partners income for others it means taking a cut in income while having to go on income based ESA.  The biggest losers are couples.

Workfare is a term used to describe a range of schemes in which people are forced to work without wages in order to receive their benefits. After recent controversies the government has sought to obscure the nature of its workfare policies; this pamphlet will set out clearly and concisely the details of all the programmes and why we need to work together to oppose them.

If workfare was about getting people jobs, the government might have paid heed to its own research which states: “There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work. It can even reduce employment chances by limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers.”

On Sunday 25th March members of the South London Solfed Gender working group, Femcells and others went to church. In response to 40daysforlife harassing women outside abortion clinics, we decided to harass one of their main proponents, Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster cathedral. The basic message, in chant form, was “Bishop Hopes shame on you, come to us we’ll come to you!”. We won’t let the pro-lifers get away with harassment and intimidation.
 

Read a full report here

In Jan 2011 my school became an academy, as set out by the government that outstanding schools could become academies. As a staff we were duped into this. There was some consultation with unions, but as previous headships broke the unions in the school with their “divide and rule” regime, consultation was limited. We were sold the lie that we were now free of the thrall of the LEA, HMI inspections and, due to an outstanding status, free from OFTSED inspections for at least 5 years. This has not been the case , in fact being taken from LEA control now subjects us to far more stringent work practices, where union guidelines are not applicable or at the very least are bent to suit the requirements of management. Also being out of LEA control means if the school hits any financial difficulties, it will be teaching staff who suffer. As under LEA control they can apply financial help that does not endanger staff jobs. Fortunately this has not happened, yet.

Bournville School, Birmingham. Stories of successful attempts at defeating academy coversions seem to be thin on the ground at the moment, with over 1,200 new or conversion academy schools being created since Conservatives/LibDems came into power, so it was inspiring in autumn 2011 to hear that staff and parents at Bournville School in Birmingham defeated governors plans to convert the school into an academy. After a forceful parent campaign against the conversion, and the threat of united strike action by NASUWT and NUT the school's governors shelved plans to convert to an Academy, for at least a year. This means the fight is not yet over though this was a huge victory and an example to all other schools fighting academy conversions.

Oasis Community Learning, a christian educational trust currently running 14 academies in England, is typical of the theological style of industrial relations promoted by the cheerleaders of the Academy sector. Back in November, in the middle of the school year, 13 teachers at its Media City (Salford) Academy were sacked, sparking 5 days of strikes as well as a walk out by year 10 and 11 pupils in the run up to christmas. Ultimately, the campaign to defend the teachers did not win.

Thinly disguised as a cost-cutting exercise, local opinion strongly suspects the sackings were more of an exercise in weeding out those teachers who hadn’t signed an agreement to teach christian beliefs. This is backed up by the fact that the one maths teacher sacked, and the only one to be graded outstanding last year, was a practicing muslim. Further evidence for this came in January, when the academy advertised a number of teaching posts, including one in maths.

On the 26th of January in Sparkbrook, Birmingham- Montgomery Primary School  held a public meeting at a local mosque. The meeting was well attended by the local community, parents staff and trade unions involved in the fight to stop Montgomery Primary School becoming an academy. The speakers included Rich Hatcher from the Alliance Against Birmingham Academies and speakers from all the trade unions involved in the campaign (NUT,NASUWT and GMB) as well as parents. The speakers made clear that the academy programme is an ideological attempt to further privatise education.

Some thoughts of an academy school worker in England.

I’ve recently taught in an academy school for over two years, and in that time I saw a lot of things that have angered me as a worker and as someone who values education, and made even more apparent to me the need for a radical overhaul in education that can only be achieved by revolutionary change in society as a whole.

Downhills Primary School, in Tottenham, North London, is fighting a strong community campaign against attempts to turn it into a sponsored academy.
Participation in the campaign has been huge. “I haven’t seen anything like it since the eighties,” said one mother looking at a packed meeting of over 600 people.
In January, more than a thousand people marched through Tottenham in support of the four Haringey primaries which are under threat of being handed over to academy sponsors, including teachers from all over London. They have shown support to other schools across the country which are rejecting academy status.
Parents, carers, teachers and governors at the school say that they are up against a system which is highly undemocratic. They were shocked at an unexpectedly harsh judgement that they were “inadequate'”by Ofsted, though recognise that this inspection, rushed through on the request of education minister Michael Gove, was a highly political one.