Socialist Party members in NEU
NEU conference meets as we face a huge crisis in education. 20 months into Keir Starmer’s Labour government, austerity in education is continuing, and trade union rights are still not restored.
Socialist Party members at NEU conference will be saying: We need national action, and a new political voice – a party based on the working class with socialist policies!
National action
All members of the NEU, both teachers and support staff, are voting in a national indicative ballot on funding, workload and pay. Labour is pushing for a 6.5% teacher ‘pay-rise’ over three years and without additional funding.
Not only will this likely result in real-terms pay cuts, but will put intolerable strain on school budgets already cut to the bone. Redundancies are inevitable, with support staff likely to take the brunt.
A strong turnout in the indicative ballot is essential, but it has to be the first step. Education workers have had enough. We need a united nationwide campaign by teachers and support staff to challenge austerity in education.
Fight for funding – including for SEND
After more than a decade of austerity, schools are forced to deliver more with diminishing resources. Schools face a £600 million funding gap. A recruitment and retention emergency compounds the stress on an already exhausted workforce.
There is an increased reliance on private for-profit supply agencies, which drain over £1 billion from the system annually. SEND is in crisis, with increasing reliance on private provision.
What we need is a fully funded, community education system that puts workers and students before profit. Our union must lead the fight! The TUC agreed in September to call a national demo against Labour austerity – the NEU must fight for the date to be set.
End privatisation and academisation
The Labour government’s white paper confirmed an ambition for every school to be part of an academy trust. Instead of reversing the fragmentation and privatisation pushed by previous governments, Starmer’s government is set to deepen it.
Academies remove schools from local democratic control and place them under unelected multi-academy trust boards, able to ‘top-slice’ school budgets, taking money centrally while staff and students face cuts. Education workers have repeatedly been forced to fight back.
The NEU opposes academisation, but must make returning schools to democratic local authority control a central national campaign. This has to go alongside a campaign to properly fund local councils.
Support staff – we need maximum unity
At the end of February, hundreds of NEU members gathered at a special conference and voted to begin recruiting unorganised support staff (see ‘NEU support staff: Campaign for unity between unions, not division’ at socialistparty.org.uk).
Currently two-thirds of support staff in schools do not belong to any union. Socialist Party education workers argue to work with the other main support staff unions – on the ground in our schools, our local trades councils, and with the elected national executives of each union getting together to organise a fight for the thousands of unrepresented support staff.
Supply
The NEU’s ‘agency rip-off’ campaign outlines the way private agencies are fleecing schools. The pressure on the government has resulted in a new overseeing body that will cap agency fees and force schools to choose the cheapest option – but when agencies want to keep their profits high, this will lead to further degradation of pay and pension access.
We need a strong fightback linking supply staff with contracted staff. We also have to put pressure on local councils to bring supply back in-house.
Trade unions must lead against racism, war and austerity
By the time we get to the conference, many NEU members will have marched on the ‘Together’ demonstration. Socialist Party members will continue to argue that the trade unions should lead a fight against austerity and racist division, not just to mobilise big numbers – which is important – but to unite workers from all backgrounds to fight together. The TUC agreed back in 2018 to campaign for ‘Jobs, homes and services, not racism’ – it needs to get on with the job.
We need to take the lead in building a political voice that genuinely stands up for workers, to undercut support for Reform with socialist policies. That is important because in the May elections ‘Together’ will want NEU donations to produce leaflets that call on people not to vote Reform.
But who should people vote for?
The NEU should support those, like the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates, who pledge not to make cuts, and to campaign to end privatisation. And NEU must urgently discuss with other unions how we can build a genuine anti-austerity, anti-war, anti-racist political alternative with socialist policies.
Join our fringe meeting!
12.45, Tuesday 31 March
Churchill Suite, DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole, Kings Road, BN1 2FU. Close by the conference venue
Hear from:
Sheila Caffrey, Exec member
Rob Williams, Socialist Party trade union organiser
Hot food provided – donations welcome
