not for sale! Despite Minister for Trade and Industry and former Communication Worker's Union leader Alan Johnson's protestations, the CuTTeNT measures to liberalise the postal service are as much a New
A large rally was organised in early September in Central London, nominally backed by the union nationally, but effectively organised by the London Divisional Committee (postal).
The majority of the four hundred attending the daymillionaires with a religious
Academies have
become the
defining issue of Labour's
education policy,
exemplifying the issues at stake interests against public interests, a common school system or a divided one, the powerful against local communities, democracy against spin and control.
The government, desperate to shore up its flagship policy (even Estelle Morris, ex-education minister, has come out against it), plans to remove local authorities' ability to block Academies and make Building Schools for the Future money even more dependent on having Academies.
Local campaigns may stop some but can't overturn national policy. For that a national action campaign is urgently needed.
A motion on Academies put to the TUC conference by the NUT and the EIS of Scotland was passed unanimously.
It calls initially for a conference 'after which consideration be given to a national demonstration opposing Academies and all aspects of the privatisation of education, and for 'meetings with affiliates and others supportive of a campaign against the establishment of Academies'.
A national meeting of teachers and parent activists convened on 8 October by Birmingham NUT will discuss how to ensure the national campaign is rooted in local campaigns, creating a movement capable of making government rethink the political price it is paying, as well as deterring would-be sponsors and school managements from risking playing the Academy game.