Books not bombs in the classroom
Tommaso Ugo Verga, Lambeth NEU (personal capacity)
Last month, I proposed a motion (see below) to the Lambeth district of the National Education Union (NEU), calling on the national leadership to take up the question of military spending, and to tackle the fundamental problem of education in this country: funding.
The motion was passed unanimously. I could tell that the message of ‘books not bombs’ strongly resonated with everyone in the room.
But the point that got the warmest reception was when I said that ultimately, what we want is for our union leaders to stop retreating, and go on the offensive.
After I introduced the motion, the person sitting next to me asked to hear more about the RCP. I sold him a copy of The Communist, and we had a very interesting conversation about the current crisis, the colonial revolutions, and the nature of imperialism.
This meeting proved in practice to me that there is a mood to fight imperialism everywhere.
As communists, it is our task to connect this question with other struggles, to explain the roots of war and imperialism, and provide the solutions to fight it!
Lambeth NEU district resolution: The NEU against imperialism
The Lambeth district of the NEU notes:
- That Netanyahu’s genocide is ongoing in Palestine, while war and civil war rage from the Congo to Kashmir. The world’s major powers each have stakes in these conflicts.
- That our government has little to say about these conflicts, except empty platitudes at best and active support at worst.
- That at home, our government applies a policy of social degradation through cuts to our NHS, schools, infrastructure projects and so on.
The Lambeth district of the NEU further notes:
- That educational institutions all over the country, and in Lambeth in particular, have been hard-hit by completely insufficient funding increases, school closures due to the cost of living crisis, and by the growing level of deprivation faced by local families. In 2021, 36% of Lambeth children were growing up in poverty.
- That while we’re told there’s “no money” for hospital and school funding or repairs, there is seemingly always plenty of money for military expenditure.
- That this expenditure, far from “keeping us safe,” is about shoring up Britain’s shaky position on the world stage. In reality, the City of London and the government that represents it are money launderers for the world’s great powers.
- That this ultimately stems from a system which prioritises profit above human need and development
- And that the war machine rests on the workers who produce it, and therefore workers have the ability to break it.
The Lambeth district of the NEU therefore resolves:
- To raise with the NEC the necessity to link the struggle for school funding with the need to fight British imperialism and militarism, beginning with demanding a cut to military funding. For Books, not Bombs!
- To arrange educational courses on the nature of imperialism and its links with austerity at home.
Passed at Lambeth NEU District General Meeting, Monday 30 September 2024.
Want to propose a similar motion in your trade union branch? Access our model motion here.
Academies: The parasites bleeding schools dry
Mark Anthony, school teacher
Academies are a silver bullet that’ll bring innovation, funding, better training, and a solution to all our problems – or so they promise!
Just this year my school, which was made part of a multi-academy trust three years ago, could not afford new stationery. One department had to cut more than half their budget for one term.
Lacking books, management told us to go to various cupboards and find any old books we could find. At best, my history students walk around with a mishmash of various dusty books from the early 2010s. At worst, they get photocopies.
Teachers’ workloads are already high. And yet ever more duties fall onto our shoulders. We end up working anarchically in areas that we are not qualified in.
The NEU has just accepted a 5.5 percent pay increase, to be partly funded by schools themselves. These strings attached will put further strain on schools.
In 2022-23, meanwhile, academy trust CEOs saw a 5.2 percent pay increase, and over 40 of them earned over £200,000 – with a self-awarded pay rise of 50 percent over three years!
This isn’t education. Their aim is not to teach, but to pump out – as one colleague put it – “robots, devoid of any personality”.
The money is there. It’s time we put the ones who care in charge: the teachers and teaching assistants!
UCU members reject paltry pay offer – “This is not the way!”
R. L. Stan, UCU member (personal capacity)
In the last week of September, emergency University and College Union (UCU) branch meetings were held across the country to discuss the pay offer made by the UCEA, the higher education bosses’ union.
These parasites gave a final offer that amounts to a 2.5 percent wage increase for the majority of staff. But this comes after a drop in real wages in higher education and further education by 25 percent since 2009.
Meanwhile, vice chancellors like Jane Harrington at the University of Greenwich awarded themselves a 10 percent increase last year, on top of their exorbitant £300k per annum salary – and let’s not forget the expenses!
Now, with Starmer’s Labour maintaining the Torie’s self-destructive limit on foreign students, senior management across the sector are planning mass redundancies, and attacks on hourly-paid lecturers.
The uni bosses are also rubbing their hands with glee at whispers of Labour’s potential plans to raise tuition fees to plug the gaps in university finances.
UCU members have overwhelmingly rejected this pay offer, and reject the idea of students paying for the bosses’ incompetence.
One member stated explicitly, “This is not the way! The government has the money to invest in higher education.” But where is that money going? It is going towards endless imperialist wars and under-the-table bonuses for the bureaucrats!
The voting results highlight that the UCU is at an important impasse. While the majority of members voted to reject the pay offer, the vote for industrial action itself was split 50/50, reflecting the tiredness and scepticism that the leadership’s failed strategies have created.
This was also echoed in a vote to increase lobbying in the Labour Party, which reached 100 percent approval.
This vote for further lobbying comes less from a place of trust in the Labour government, and more out of fear that further strike action will face that betrayal and mismanagement again – especially given Jo Grady’s dismal role in holding back previous campaigns.
UCU members have every right to be sceptical about their leadership, but putting any hopes in the good-will of Starmer’s big business government is a trap.
Under Starmer, austerity is on the order of the day. UCU branches must light fires across the country to smoke out this weak leadership, and to take the fight to Starmer and his cronies.
Our fight is for student and worker control of education. It is a fight we can and must win!
