NUT at the Crossroads

My guest piece for the CDFU bulletin (internal NUT publication):

The NUT is at a crossroads.

Never before have we faced a government so determined to dismantle the state education system.  Even the Thatcher government, with all its commitment to the free-market economics of Milton Fiedman, was limited in how far it could go down the road of education privatisation.  Ultimately, their experiment failed as unions, heads and LA officers worked together to ensure that Local Management of Schools, per-pupil funding and the introduction of a quasi-market through parent choice was not enough to undermine the local authority family of schools.

This government, however, has both the motive and the means.  The manufacturing of an artificial crisis through the manipulation of results and skilful use of OFSTED as a political entity has created a space for the policy of academisation.  Very quickly, Gove-ist double-speak where localisation and parent power mean central control of schools by whitehall has become commonplace.

To drive home their victory and succeed where Thatcher failed, the ConDems must remove the remaining obstacle -the collective voice of teachers, exercised through their democratic organisations.  This is no small obstacle and the government has mounted a number of attacks which it hopes will shut down teacher resistance by weakening their unions.

The policy of academisation and the creation of 'free' schools contain within them the potential to damage teachers collective voice, as does the dismantling of local authorities and local government, with whom teacher unions once negotiated.  The outcome of this will depend in part on the effectiveness of our response.

The government has also mounted a more direct attack on the ability of teacher unions to represent their members.  Under the guise of efficiency savings, the Department for Communities and Local Government has published guidance which advises councils to “scrap trade union posts” to save money.  This is followed up by a separate document which elaborates how councils can “save taxpayers' money by significantly scaling back the cost of trade union facilities time.”

The DfE has now started its own consultation on facilities time in schools, headed by David Laws.  There is no doubt what the outcome of this 'consultation' will be.

Not content with attacking unions' ability to represent their members at work, the government has now also introduced the Lobbying Bill, also known as the Gagging Bill.  David Cameron has been clear in a statement to parliament that the main purpose of this proposed legislation is to limit tade unions' ability to influence the democratic process.  Amongst other things, it would ban major demonstrations and other activities during an election year and cap unions' spending on any campaign which has the potential to influence support for a political party.

The question is how we respond to these attacks.  There is much that we can do as a union to strengthen our structures at a local level and counter the impact of academisation and the dismantling of local authorities.

However, we must also look more broadly than our own union.  Our members have families, they have neighbours, they are part of communities.  And those communities are under attach from this government.  When we stand up for our members' rights, we stand up for their rights too.

We represent the young unemployed workers who can't get a job because this government took their jobs away.

We represent the parents, most of them women, who have taken a decision to stay at home and raise their children and are being hammered by this government's tax changes.

We represent the children who turn up to school hungry because this government has forced their families into poverty.

We represent the real Britain; the Britain this government wants to throw on the scrapheap.  And in order to defend their rights, we need to mobilise the communities in which our members live and work.

Trades councils are essential to this.  They provide the opportunity to co-ordinate and develop local campaigns.  They provide a crucial link between the trades union movement and local communities.

But they need to be adequately resourced and supported.

If we want to protect our members' rights, both in the workplace and in wider society, we need to engage fully with the trades council movement.

It is the responsibility of every NUT division to ensure that they are not only affiliated to, but also play and active role in, their local trades council.

United we stand, divided we fall.