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From The Socialist newspaper, 8 November 2017
Opposition to new academy school being built on Leeds playing fields
Playing fields are a vital community resource (Click to enlarge)
Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party
Consultation will shortly be ending on the proposals by Leeds council to build a new academy on the Fearnville (King George VI) playing fields.
This would represent a vital loss of recreational space to the community, as well as increasing traffic in an area with already poor air quality and vulnerable to flooding. At present the fields are held in a trust which would require the council to get a change in their use, so the current consultation focuses on this issue.
With the recent collapse of Wakefield City Academy Trust, many local parents and residents are apprehensive about a new academy being built in an area with five academy secondary schools that are already underperforming. Essentially the proposals mean that the council will fund building the school, then hand this over to an academy chain we have no real local community control over.
The council's consultation document points out there will be a secondary school places shortage in the area in the near future and that the Department for Education's current guidelines for building a new school require it to be a free school or academy.
But that doesn't mean the council should just accept the diktats of the Tory government which endanger our children's future education. The council should instead be challenging this, mobilising the community, teachers and trade union movement locally.
At community events some local residents have also put together a petition against this and set up a Facebook group. Local Socialist Party members will be adding their weight to the campaign and arguing for a real solution to the school places crisis which doesn't worsen our environment.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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In The Socialist 8 November 2017:
What we think
'Paradise' for billionaires - austerity for us
Socialist Party news and analysis
Westminster sexual harassment scandal
Walk out against tuition fees!
Bosses say 217 years to close pay gap - workers' struggle can close it now!
Child poverty set to hit 5.2m - unions and Corbyn must act now
Workplace news and analysis
Pay cap decisively rejected by PCS union members
BA mixed-fleet workers show strikes get results
Unite union sector conferences: coordinate action over pay
Picturehouse strike: "evil corporations are evil"
International socialist news and analysis
US: Minneapolis Socialist chimes with voters
Ireland: rail workers demand share of 'recovery'
Ireland: dangerous ideas for the ruling class
Spain: Madrid rally celebrates October revolution
Sweden: 'Revolution2017' success
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Health campaign discusses strategy to save NHS
Chatsworth neuro-rehab ward still open - unions join the campaign
Housing campaigners ask Corbyn to instruct Labour council regeneration ballots
Thousands march in London for Palestine
Opposition to new academy school being built on Leeds playing fields
Orgreave campaigners' Halloween 'Death of Justice' march
Sheffield trees campaigner sentenced to prison
Brum meeting celebrates centenary of 1917
Socialist readers' comments and reviews
Obituary: Derek Robinson, car workers' leader, 1927-2017
Welsh update of Chekhov an engrossing tale of 1980s class conflict
Obituary: Paul Randall, 1959-2017
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