The Socialist 25 January 2012

Hard times - but not for the 1%

Hard Times - but not for the 1%

The trade unions and Labour

Add your name to the TUSC petition

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition election conference

Public sector pensions: 'Coalition of the willing' gathering strength

Financial vultures kill Peacocks

Con-Demned to unemployment

Fight the Tories' Welfare Reform Bill

Victory against Dorries' abstinence education bill

Keep the racist EDL out of Leicester

Them & Us

Haringey parents say: No to academies!

NUS calls national student walkout

Balfour Beatty re-ballot: Vote to strike again

Sweetheart stitch-ups in the electrical industry: A spark's history of the Joint Industry Board

Exposed - the dirty world of the construction blacklist

Egypt - A year of revolution and counter-revolution

Stepping up the action to defend pensions at Unilever

Defend Len Hockey: Outrageous attack on Whipps Cross hospital workers

Pontefract hospital: Army withdrawn - now kick out PFI!

Save Vine services

Llanelli: Save Prince Philip's A&E

Stop the Salford day centre closures

Kirklees parents say 'save our children's centres!'

Greenwich Unite members oppose cuts, privatisation and racism

Workplace news in brief

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Victory against Dorries' abstinence education bill

Campaigners move onto the next fight

Beth Granter

On Friday 20 January a demonstration against Tory MP Nadine Dorries' Sex Education (required content) Bill 185 was interrupted mid way through when a victory was announced.

To cheers from the crowd I reported that the Bill had suddenly been withdrawn, effectively killing it dead.

Around 250 people turned up to protest against the Bill, which would have required girls aged 13-16 to be given compulsory abstinence lessons as part of their sex education. Over 2,000 people joined a campaign against the Bill on Facebook at facebook.com/stopdorries.

As well as the Socialist Party and Youth Fight for Jobs and Education, the opposition was supported by the British Humanist Association, Abortion Rights UK, Education for Choice, the National Secular Society, Feminist Fightback, Queers Against the Cuts, Slut Means Speak Up, and others.

The Bill had many problems - it was sexist by being just for girls, and abstinence-only education has been proven not to work in reducing unplanned pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections.

As the majority of sex and relationships education (SRE) is not currently compulsory, many schools, particularly academies and religious schools, don't teach comprehensive SRE, meaning that the Bill effectively could have meant abstinence-only education for many.

Although the Bill had little chance of passing its second reading due to scheduling, opposition was rallied in order to raise awareness of the need for statutory, evidence based, comprehensive SRE.

However, Dorries is threatening her intentions might become part of another bill she puts through, so while celebrating the success in defeating this Bill, campaigners are keeping an eye on Dorries and her government, as we know we haven't heard the last of their attacks on women's' rights, education and sexual liberation.

In this issue

Anti-cuts campaign

Hard Times - but not for the 1%