Teachers, parents, and students in Sefton are currently engaged in a struggle to stop a number of schools in the area becoming academies. As part of that fight, they today held a "funeral for education" in Liverpool. Despite the wet weather, a number of people joined the mock funeral procession from St George's Hall to St Luke's Church and handed out leaflets to the public about the issue of academies and why they should be opposed.
Members of Liverpool Solidarity Federation were amongst those present on the march, as were those involved in a similar struggle over Shorefields College in the Dingle - whose picket lines we have previously supported.
The drive to turn schools into academies - as well as to establish falsely-named "free schools" - is nothing more than the privatisation of education. The state wants to give those with capital the free reign to do as they like in the education, leaving the door open for various forms of indoctrination and abuse, as well as the erosion of terms and conditions for those who work in the schools. Despite being dressed up in libertarian language, there is no "freedom" except for the proprietors who can set up their own unaccountable private tyrannies.
Liverpool Solfed offers its full support to the fight against academies and argues that a more libertarian education system can only come about through the democratisation of the school system and giving pupils a say in how they learn. Michael Gove's proposals offer nothing of the sort, and our solidarity goes to all those protesting and taking direct action against the system he wishes to create.
See more photos of the march here.