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From The Socialist newspaper, 21 July 2010
Education workers must teach Tories a lesson
TRADE UNIONS organising education workers, including NUT, NASUWT and UNISON, lobbied parliament on 19 July against the disgraceful cancelling of building and repair work to be carried out under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and the undemocratic fast-tracking of the Con-Dems' flagship Academies bill.
Greg Maughan
Over 1,000 education workers piled into Westminster central hall for a rally before lobbying MPs. Teachers had also mobilised students who posed for TV cameras with homemade banners and placards and later headed an impromptu march on the Department for Education office on Whitehall.
Students told The Socialist how major problems with their school building, including holes in the walls and broken windows, made it impossible for them to concentrate. These problems had been due to be fixed as part of BSF.
Education workers clearly have the support of their pupils, parents and the wider working class. Education workers' unions should be confident to call further action calling for improvements to be made to schools, though not involving profit-grabbing private firms who tend to divert resources from meeting students' and teachers' needs into the pockets of fat cats!
They should also call action against privatisation and the break-up of national trade union agreements stemming from the Academies bill.
This could include making preparation for strike action in September, but will also need to involve action to continue campaigning over the summer.
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Finance appeal
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.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 21 July 2010:
Socialist Party youth and students
Youth and students: organise to fight for a future
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Anti-cuts campaign
Education workers must teach Tories a lesson
Socialist Party workplace news
Wales: No to fire service cuts
Strike action wins at Tube Lines
Socialist Party workplace analysis
PCS: a strategy to stop the cuts
Unite the struggle to defend pensions
Socialist Party NHS campaign
Con-Dems propose denationalisation of the NHS
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