Teachers across Britain are simmering with anger against years of cuts to pay, crumbling teaching conditions, and the pressure of overwork. Strike action is on the cards. To win against Starmer’s austerity, the NEU needs a militant strategy!
Yesterday, sixth form teachers organised in the NEU began strike action against Labour’s plans to push academisation, and to make workers pay for the crisis in schools. RCP members joined the picket lines to hear what they had to say.
RCP members working in education are beginning to organise within their unions to link questions like pay, conditions, and funding to the fight against imperialism. From schools to universities, our slogan ‘Books Not Bombs’ is finding an echo.
Education workers are gathering in Bournemouth this week for the NEU’s annual conference. The main item on the agenda is the prospect of upcoming strike action at schools. While union leaders drag their feet, members are raring for action.
The Tories are attempting to steamroller academisation in schools across the country. But education workers – such as those at Castle Wood in Coventry – are resisting this push, standing up in the interests of staff and students.
After repeated rounds of walkouts, the struggle in schools has come to a halt, with NEU members voting to accept the government’s pay deal. Rank-and-file teachers were willing to battle on. But once again, there was no fighting leadership.
Last week, after months of struggle by teachers, union leaders announced that they would recommend acceptance of the government’s below-inflation pay deal. Members should mobilise to reject this offer, and organise to forge a militant leadership.
Starmer’s Labour recently announced its programme for education. But as with other questions, the party is promising little but Tory-lite policies. To save our schools, staff and students must fight for a clear socialist alternative.
Last week saw teachers in England returning to the picket lines, with two more days of walkouts. But there are rumours that NEU leaders could be on the verge of accepting a below-inflation offer. Members must mobilise and escalate the struggle.
A struggle against academisation and course closures at NewVic college in London has seen angry students joining forces with striking teachers. Students everywhere should get organised and fight to kick capitalism out of education.
In an effort to continue their pay campaign, the NEU has called two more days of walkouts for the final weeks of term. Teachers must build for these strikes, and use them as a platform to escalate and expand the struggle – in schools and beyond.
Teachers in the NEU and nurses in the RCN have recently resumed their strikes against the Tories’ insulting pay offers. Socialist Appeal supporters spoke to workers on the picket lines, where there was a fighting mood for escalation.