bill blogs

This is very much a personal blog – not a statement of any kind of union position or policy - and not a blow by blow account of things I've been doing... just some random things and some impressions! To start with I tried to include everything - but I couldn't keep up with it - so I've had to leave out a great many events. I'll try to update it every few days...

COMING SOON

March

Cuba Solidarity photo exhibition, Divisional priorities

February

Trade Union Training School, Executive awayday, SATs, Academisation, Norway

January

People's Charter, Burns night, General Election work, collectivising casework

The Union does a lot of work with teacher unions in Latin America - particularly in Cuba and Colombia. Have you see my report of the delegation to Venezuela will I hope lead to us working with teachers and their union there too?

I spoke for the Union at the Latin America Solidarity Conference together with David Drever ex-President of the Education institute of Scotland (our sister union) and a Cuban teacher. The session was on educational developments in Cuba and Venezuela - and the message was that all the fantastic educational advances are inextricably bound up with the more general direction of those countries to rapid social progress.

In these days of "globalisation" and one-planet, we need international contacts and solidarity as much if not more than ever before - it works both ways as you'll see if you read this fascinating and inspiring book.

People's Charter groups are springing up around the country - Derby included. Both NUT and NASUWT have been instrumental in the Derby group. We've been linking our education campaigns to the Charter, and also offering support to other workers defending their jobs, their pay and conditions and the service they offer.

So we were really pleased to take part on the same platform as Lee Barron, the CWU post workers' union Regional Secretary who explained their dispute and led a very lively discussion. Click here for the press release

Southern Derbyshire Association agreed to have a wide ranging discussion about the "challenges" facing us under new Government after May (or could it be March if the Labour Party wants to avoid presenting a major cuts and pay freeze budget just prior to a General Election?). I kicked off by looking back to the formation of the Union in 1870 (you'll find a potted history on the NUT website) and how the history of the Union and all its struggles for education have been inextricably linked with the more general struggle for democracy and for social progress. We discussed how and why we have arrived at the current situation of a "neoliberal consensus" of all the Parliamentary parties, how this made it all the more important that the trade union movement is united and determined to follow a radical agenda for change and progress, and how the Union could be at the forefront of this.

There were not a vast number of people there - about 15 I think - but the discussion was stimulating and with a sense of direction, and I learnt a lot. The issue of The People's Charter - a campaigning tool to link our unions with other groups and whole communities fighting against injustice and class disadvantage - was central to our discussion.

Later in the month I spoke for the Union at the National Convention of the People's Charter. It was a great success (check it out on www.thepeoplescharter.com ) I think all our Associations and Divisions should be encouraged to be taking a lead on this locally. Strong unions and People's Charter groups will be very important when a newly elected Government starts in earnest to try to make us pay for the costs of the economic crisis. It's going to happen - we need to be prepared!

Part of this preparation I believe should be to include these "big issues" in our Union training and education programmes. We can't know how to go forward without understanding our history, and we can't fight successful campaigns without seeing them in the context of a wider strategy.

It was also the day of the UNIFY AGM (UNIFY is the relaunched Professional Unity 2000). I'd really meant to be there, but couldn't get away from The People's Charter Convention.

Remember, this blog is not in any way a statement of Union policy - just my thoughts... so what about...

I've just been preparing for the Union's General Election Strategy Committee tomorrow, and I came across the Press Release I sent out for Derbyshire Division of the Union in May 1997 when Blair was elected. We called for a "People's Agenda for Education" and listed the 10 points as necessary for a successful education system. Ten years on progress has not been dramatic - though in terms of education funding there has been considerable advance over the Tory funding famine, allowing some advance in class sizes too

I'm going to put these 1997 10 points, together with bullet points raised by School Reps at a recent Derbyshire NUT briefing session, on this website... and also start a HEARTH forum. What should be in our "Statement For Education" for the General Election? How should we develop that Statement after the General Election into a real campaigning tool?

What trades unionist would turn down the opportunity to chair a session with speakers like Ruth Winters - the ex-President of the Fire Brigades Union, Carolyn Jones of the Institute of Employment Rights, Bob Crow of the RMT and Len McCluskey of UNITE, and the front runner for its next General Secretary? They were speaking at the final session of the "Communist University" weekend on "The crisis in working class representation", and I was very pleased to take up the invitation to chair it.

Opinions ranged from Bob who declared the Labour Party to be "as dead as Monty Python's parrot" to Len who described the same organisation as "all we've got" in terms of a possible party of government. Ruth explained how New Labour's attack on her union had led to the FBU disaffiliating from Labour and now seeking to work directly with other unions in finding new ways outside parliament for working people to make their voices heard loud and clear. Bob definitely had the best jokes - referring to ex RMT member John Prescott. he told us that RMT had helped him to finish his education. "Unfortunately though," Bob said, "we educated him beyond the level of his intelligence."

But it was Carolyn Jones who for me got to the heart of what we need to do. She argued that the daily lives of working people are what must come first, not just top down parliamentary arguments. We have to get everyone active in fighting for a better future - for jobs, for homes, for public services, against the anti-Union laws, for The People's Charter. If people took up that fight, she was confident that politics would change in Britain - and that only such involvement by people in widespread campaigning would stand any chance of "reclaiming" the Labour Party. If against that background of every day struggle, the Labour Party fails to change, we might need to get those unions, organisations and people prepared to fight to re-establish a Party that genuinely speaks for ordinary people.

Rob Henderson - a very fine comrade - has died, aged 71. Rob was an absolutely committed Trade Unionist and lifelong Communist. He was Secretary of the Bath NUT Association (in all of its incarnations) for 35 years. Prior to that he had been President, and prior to that he was its Young Teacher Secretary.

Rob "inherited" his politics from his father, who was a founder member of the Communist Party. One of Rob's early memories was finding the house full of Soviet sailors who his father had invited home for a drink. But his politics were no passive inheritance. Rob was absolutely convinced of the necessity for a Communist Party and apart from the NUT was active in many aspects of working class politics... and always ready to argue the toss, always animated and enthusiastic - never holding a grudge or taking things personally. Everyone who knew Rob remembers him as a larger than life figure, always smiling and ready for a joke, never dispirited or dejected - but always looking how to respond to the next challenge. We'll miss him. We need more like him.

At his funeral and "do" afterwards, in a room packed like a London tube train in rush hour, about 20 people got up to speak about him and his life from all kinds of perspectives. People from his first school who remembered being warned that a Communist was to join the staff and to "say nothing that they would not want the KGB to know"! People from the basketball team that Rob led and inspire for 40 years. Others from his rugby club. People from our Union, other unions, and the trades council. Of course from his family and many friends... and so on.

Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say, “All my life, all my strength, were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for liberation of mankind.”

Now, as ex President, I'm "half time" National Officer and "half time" Local officer in Derbyshire, I'm picking up a share of casework again... and working with teachers again who are being deprofessionalised, undermined and dispirited not directly by the political attacks of government, but by bullies within our own profession. These sad individuals who through some sense of inflated self importance, or through a careerist personal ambition to "prove themselves", or through craven capitulation to their "superiors" are often in senior management positions in schools (and too often think of them as their personal fiefdoms).

They seem to believe that every teacher should reflect them personally - in the same way that mankind is said to be made in the image of God, I suppose. Professional diversity is frowned upon. Conformity and orthodoxy is what is required. Targets, reporting, filing, statistics, levels... to hell with the education as long as the figures look good.

I'm working with two teachers at the moment who find themselves under the leadership of such a sad individual. We have all the arguments and evidence of bullying... but the Headteacher has all the governors, or at least a good majority. So what we need is collective action - to remind our own members and all teachers that "an injury to one is an injury to all" - and to act together on that sentiment.

Of course it's more difficult than it sounds... but I'm convinced that there is no other way. A strong Rep, a strong school group, unity with any other teacher union present - and with the non-teacher unions too.

That needs to be the Union's number one focus and priority. That is the organising agenda, and it is that which will lead to recruitment, and will both maintain the NUT as the largest teacher union, and will prepare the way for a concerted push towards one education union.

Our Derbyshire School Reps' Briefing attracted just over 20 Reps - though in easier days we'd expect 40 at least. But we had an excellent day, each of the sessions being led by one of the Reps - except the People's Charter/Education Charter bit which I did.

I'm convinced now even more than ever that our policies can only be turned into realities, our campaigns can only be won (as opposed to simply expressing our protest or ambitions) if they are deliberately and carefully embedded in our members in Union organised schools, and integrated with those of other trade unionists and progressive campaigners. We need to build a strong and vibrant alliance that can inspire, motivate and organise tens or even hundreds of thousands of people in committed and regular action, and be actively supported by millions more.

That is a huge task - and of course our enemies (and they are often enemies, not just people with a different view) know as well as we do that such unity would make us strong - even unstoppable.... so they work as hard to divide us as we must work to unite. We are living in pivotal times - not just for education.

One of the Reps has increased the membership in his school from 14 to 40, by keeping everyone informed of what is going on, by pushing for one teacher union (opposed by the others), making sure that the Union's voice is heard loud and clear on all the issues affecting people's lives, negotiating with the Head and Governors and reporting back, making sure that all members work together to present a strong united position. They've made some real progress on workload, and feel strong and respected. Everyone pays £5 into a fund for the school group activities, which are both work based and social. Now that's the organising agenda!

I have known Hank Roberts for 40 years. Neither of us expected to live that long!

I want to Central London Poly with him in the 70's where we were very active in the Union and in Socialist Society... and where we cut our political teeth. Hank's belief in focused direct action and in the absolute centrality and necessity for unity in that action were born in those early days and have informed his thinking and activity ever since. And he is a real "thinker and doer". He is analytical, thoughtful and decisive. And to paraphrase his Uncle Joe, "Once you've decided what needs to be done, you need to get on with it - organisation is everything." Hanks lives by that.

Hank is fearless in every way - politically, personally, physically. He is a great bloke, and a very fine selfless comrade with an ego the size of a house... but as he once said to me "Why wouldn't someone with my talents have a big ego?" He is as you realise also always up for a joke, believing humour to be a great weapon! Anyone who was present at a famous altercation on the National Executive between Hank and Doug McAvoy, when McAvoy somehow thought himself to have been personally insulted, will never forget it - and even more will never forget Hank's "apology". I wish I had it on video!

Anyway, "Happy 60th birthday Hank". The celebrations were held at the Royal Institute, with all its fine architecture, traditional design, gold framed pictures and mirrors, book-lined walls. Greeted at the door by catering staff with champagne and canapés, you made your way upstairs, to where Hank's favourite thrash rock band were performing at full energy and volume amongst all the finery.

We all realise that the coming General Election - and of course the Local Elections too - are of great significance. Our Union political fund set up to oppose the fascist BNP will hopefully be stretched to the limit as we work to unite our communities to fight for themselves, for education, for public services, for our education statement, for the people's charter etc. Fascism generally relies on "divide and rule" approach based on racism - and the now "respectable" BNP is right up there with its swastika wearing predecessors. It is not just an abomination because of its hate-based philosophy and the terrible consequences of that, but also because its fundamental aim is the suppression of working people and our organisations. So we are right to focus on its defeat, both short and long term.

But we have to do much more in the election. With New Labour, Tories and Lib Dems all line up against our concepts of education and community, all proposing fragmentation and privatisation, we have to use the election period to build a large and sustainable coalition for education and public services, for the rights of working people, that will be active before, during and after the election.

For the election itself, we should not believe that "they are all the same" - there are still some significant differences with the Tories now openly promoting the total privatisation of education through a voucher system. Our General Election Strategy Committee had its first meeting, and will have to tread very carefully and delicately in all these things - but once decided our campaign must be loud, clear and robust...

The Executive had a tough job - to make a decision about the SATs ballot, given that the NAHT have decided to survey their members rather than ballot them for action this term. But it was good to see that almost all members of the Executive considered the matter in terms of what would be best for maintaining and building unity and commitment not only between the two unions, but within our own membership.

One or two comrades, though, are still tied into the old factional ways, and feel the need to stick to their "group" decisions taken in their private faction meetings, which ALWAYS lead to unnecessary division, rather than a united way forward. However, we pulled together... and we have another term to step up the campaign and organise members in the schools.

Though I'm very much in favour of demonstrations and street stalls etc, these often involve a tiny minority of our members. Trade Unions at their best are about mass activity and involvement of members, and those members taking the lead and exercising control. We need to make sure that members can take part in the campaign in their school - putting the case to "their own" Governors and parents... taking the message into their own local community. If members have taken part in a campaign like this - rather than just reading in the local paper about what a relatively small number of our activists are doing in their name - an action ballot becomes almost a "rubber stamp" as they use it to take their own campaign to a necessary higher level.

I love TUC Congress. You look round the room and see all the experience, commitment, intelligence, solidarity and diversity of skill and knowledge you need to run an advanced economy and political system with the needs of the ordinary people as its priority. Which is why they are not running the country, which has an economic and political "free market" system with its own very different neoliberal priorities - largely the pursuit of money, power and prestige for the small minority.

Anyway, TUC can be frustrating as the "received wisdom" is that there should be unanimity on everything even if that means compositing motions that say the opposite to each other - which is a common occurrence! All the politics and argument, all the fierce and not always entirely comradely debate, all the deals and agreements are actually found outside of the Conference hall, in smoke-free rooms, hotel bars, around the Conference exhibition, in fringe events etc. This leaves Conference free to become a bit of a rally - but not always a 100% riveting rally.

Nonetheless it is the Workers' Parliament. When the NUT first discussed affiliation to TUC in the early 70s, it was opposed by a rather reactionary old member of the Executive who said, "I don't want my professional association run by a bunch of train drivers." This year, we worked very closely with RMT - who, though not train drivers, are the next best thing - with only RMT and NUT putting motions to Congress on the People's Charter with us developing this further for an Education Charter. So I was able to ask Bob Crow Gen Sec of RMT how he liked his union being run by "a bunch of teachers".

In fact of course, Trade Unions are as strong as their members and as strong as the unity and solidarity that binds them together... and this is always in your mind while at TUC.

There was considerable initial opposition to the RMT People's Charter motion, and our NUT motion which immediately followed it on the agenda. The opposition was not because of what the Charter stands for, but because of a fear that by putting forward strong positive progressive policies in advance of an election, New Labour's policies would be further exposed as reactionary and anti-worker. UNITE the Union were most concerned about this, and put an addendum to the effect that the Charter should be used to try to win support for Labour by getting them to include some of its points in their Manifesto. RMT accepted this - and the motion was agreed overwhelmingly... so can we expect TUC to throw itself into the Charter campaign? Or will they still be a little bit scared of rocking Labour's boat?

Well, if Brendan Barber's attitude towards the NUT motion is anything to go by, don't hold your breath. he said he agreed with the motion generally - which had been brilliantly and passionately moved by Martin Reed - but could not agree that the TUC should organise demonstrative activity, and to assist affiliated unions in coordinating campaigns "prior to the General Election". He said that it was just these 5 words he objected to, and urged delegates to vote against the motion on this basis, "as it clearly political" - and the majority of delegates responded to his call.

But for all the timidity, and the failure to maximise the potential of our great movement, I always have a really good time at Congress and look forward to seeing friends and "old acquaintances" - even though the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" at Congress close is now a bit of a thing of the past!

We've been busy with Charter street stalls in Derby, and we've had good media coverage and a "launch meeting" - but there are those in our own movement who see such activity as a threat... even as the New Labour boat is clearly sinking, they still insist on "no rocking".

The youngest of my three kids - Ellie (married to Jamie, with son Jesse, 2 years old, and a new mortgage) has just been selected for redundancy. So has Jamie who works for the same company. Tell them we should take no action prior to a General Election!

The company appears to have ridden roughshod over procedures, and just expected the workers to put up with it. And most have. They won't fight it collectively. In fact very few are in the union. But both Jamie and Ellie are - they are in UNITE. And they are fighting. It's Ellie's first union activity... and though a lot rides on it, she's enjoying the experience too in a strange way. Why? "Because, Dad, everyone is moaning and feeling sorry for themselves, but just going quietly. I'm standing up for myself, and I feel good about it" I'm really proud of her.

My month began with Nancy Coro, a Cuban visitor, coming to Derby as part of our Cuba 50 celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. She was just so interesting. We only had about 30 or 40 people at the meeting, which Cuba Solidarity, the Communist Party and the Indian Workers Association had jointly organised... but there would not have been room for many more in the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Centre.

She was both funny, and inspiring... then challenging and analytical... as she talked about the development of her society in the face of ruthless opposition from the US.

I then spent a few days in Germany visiting our members teaching in Army schools. But before I met with them I was taken by Jerry Glazier and Jan from the local Association to visit Belsen.

It was cold and drizzling with rain. It seems it's true that the birds don't sing there. There's nothing left of the original camp - typhoid meant that it was razed to the ground - all that's left are the burial mounds, now neatly marked by stone walls marked in art deco script with the number of bodies they contain... 10,000 here, 2,500 there and so on right across the site.

On each wall are dozens of small stones, each left by a visitor as a mark of respect - a Jewish custom. It was not only Jews who died here as the large memorial wall shows... trades unionists, gypsies, socialists, LGBT people, communists.

And, in the most remote part of the camp, the Soviet prisoners of war. There was no need to burn this part of the camp, because they were provided with NO facilities, no huts or cover of any kind - just a barbed wire encircled field where they were left to dig holes in the ground to attempt some form of shelter. 20,000 Soviet soldiers died. But they didn't just wait to die. The very moving exhibition highlights the resistance movements inside the camp, led for the most part by Soviet prisoners - planning escapes and the execution of the most Nazi of the German guards.

I left my Union badge on one of the walls as a marker, and dug down a few inches into the earth to take a small stone - just as a reminder.

The Union meeting was in a school in Bergen Belsen, the village through which the train carrying human cargo steamed to the camp. But apparently none of the locals knew what was happening there... To be fair some Germans started to walk to the camp to throw food and clothing to the prisoners, a practice that was ruthlessly "discouraged", while others - according to letters written at the time by the camp administrator - went simply to stare at these "subhumans" - like a day at the zoo.. but most professed to "know nothing".

How different would "the man in the street" be here? How many now know about racist abuse, activity and violence - and yet choose to "know nothing". How many know about murderous wars carried out in their name, but try to shrug it off as "the way of the world". We teachers and trade unionists have a big responsibility here to educate the young to grow up wanting "to know", facing the truth, and determined to make a better world.

Our Union members gave me - and thus the National Union that I was there to represent - a very good reception at the meeting, and we went out for a meal and a drink in a local pub... which seemed to be entirely populated with English people - there seems to be quite a social "distance" between the English and the locals.

Then we went onto the Army base... which uses all the buildings originally built for Hitler's army. Though the swastikas have been removed, much of the architecture and even statuary remains... and, new to the experience, I have to say I felt uncomfortable with it.

Back in Britain, I led the Union delegation to the STRB. I think we put the case well, and the STRB members were very pleasant and accommodating... but they insisted that pay is not a priority for teachers. they told us that "when we visit schools" teachers are concerned about workload and poor pupil behaviour... not pay. I suggested to them that simply because some is not a number 1 priority above all others, it doesn'y mean that it lacks importance. they looked a bit blank - so I offered an illustration.

"Imagine that we are living in feudal Britain, and the landless serfs are living in dank, mud floor, dirty hovels. Every night the baron arrives, enters the hovels and beats the occupants senseless with a cudgel. The Landless Serfs Review Body came by and asked, "What's your main concern... what is your priority?" the serfs reply, as one, "Stop the beatings!"... and the Review Body, hearing them, replies, "Oh... so you're not worried about the hovels then?"

The STRB folk looked at me in silence... but I think one or two of them "got it".

What a fantastic trip - a real revolutionary situation - so volatile and so demanding, so full of danger and with fantastic opportunity. I've written a formal report for the Executive which you can find here and photos here.

Two very important events for the Union, while the miracle of the free market - the "end of history" - continues to melt down.

Firstly a historic joint day conference with NAHT to declare ourselves ready to reassert our professionalism and get rid of the SATs. We'll need to make it very clear in the course of our public campaigning what the SATs are all about - the "league tables" which are there to ensure that schools compete - in turn to serve the process of breaking up state education. And we'll need to make it just as clear in campaigning with our own members that this is an objective of all teachers - not just those who teach Y6.

My view is that the closer we can work together with other unions the better - but in the end we need to go all the way and work towards one union again.

Secondly, the Executive began feeling our way forward on the big project to put flesh on the bones of our commitment to our "organising culture", to re-energise our Associations and build real strength at school level. Where will this take us? Well there are all sorts of ideas, but at root it means that we know that our source of strength is in an active, united and well organised membership - and that the job of the elected leadership and our full timers is to ensure that this happens,

In Derby, I'm a member of the William Paul Society - which organises discussion groups for people trying to understand what is going on in the economy and society in general at the moment - and find a way forward out of the mess that is the selfish dog-eat-dog "free market" - with all its booms and busts and periodic crises. This is attracting a lot of young people at present, and is one of the most invigorating and rewarding things anyone could wish to do!

My visit to the Isle of Man was brilliant - a well organised and confident NUT Association, with a good positive relationship with the Isle of Man government. Only 35 schools - but no Local Management of schools, no SATs, no OFSTED... and real trust in teachers. A very nice evening and dinner - and people really committed to education, and asserting the profession. And what a beautiful place to live. Of course, there remains the question of the island as a "tax haven" for the rich....

Finished the month with the disgusting spectacle of Sir Fred Goodwin - knighted for services to his pocket - taking a £16million pension as a result of his failure as a banker - enough to guarantee him £690K every year for life.... but then having my confidence in humanity restored as a result of meeting Samuel Moncada, the new Venezuelan Ambassador. He is down to earth, welcomin and receptive - and completely enthused by what is happening in his country, where the poorest of the poor are the priority for the Chavez government. I'm really looking forward to seeing it for myself, together with my good comrade David Drever, the President of EIS

It was very good to see the Union's New Year message of the need for Professional Unity - sent to every member and hopefully now on every staffroom noticeboard. The NASUWT leadership has sadly allowed themselves to be sucked into the world of the "free market", selling their union at knock down prices to new consumers, and bringing the destructive business concepts of "diversity and choice" and "competition" into the trade union movement. Their price war may even have some effect on financially hard pressed NQTs. But it will weaken teachers as a whole. A teacher trade union should represent ALL teachers - it is not a commodity to be "sold".

The NUT is the biggest Union, and that's important. We have to do everything we can to recruit all teachers and to organise ourselves effectively. But in the end, for as long as we are divided, teachers will be very much weaker than we should be, no matter which union is bigger than which.

"Unity is strength" is a powerful concept, not just a cliche to be mouthed for personal advantage by those who really believe in competition and division in the trade union movement.

Wehave to judge people by what they do. How about setting up a Joint Union Committee in every school to work together on tackling the real problems, and promoting teacher friendly management styles?

The massive Israeli attack on the Palestinian people in Gaza, and particularly their killing of children and deliberate destruction of schools - in one case at least using white phosphorous - appalled and shocked people all round the world. We must continue the work started by Steve Sinnott in working with both the Palestinian and Israeli Teachers' Unions to win support for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and for a "two state solution" guaranteeing Palestinians a secure, independent homeland - and the right to return to Israel should they wish to.

The long and appalling history of anti-Semitism in Europe, culminating in the Holocaust and leading to the establishment of the state of israel does not mean that we should be afraid to lay the blame for the current slaughter in Gaza at the door of the Israeli government. Of course we must also recognise that the Hamas rockets - a response to years of oppression, occupation, blockade and military attacks against the whole Palestinian people - do nothing to defend the Palestinians. They simply provide an excuse for the Israeli militarists to continue. In most conflicts, military and otherwise, we need to distinguish between the oppressor and the oppressed, the aggressor and the victim when we are considering their actions. In the

It was good to see organised groups of Jews - religious and non-religious - taking part in the demonstrations in London. ( see My Photographs)

My great grandmother was an Italian Jew, who had suffered European anti-Semitism both individually and with her community - but who found a response in seeking a world which would provide justice - not one in which another people would be made to suffer as she had done.

A few days in Melbourne at the Australian Education Union reminded me again of how teachers worlwide have so much in common - both in our commitment and professionalism, but also in the attacks and issues facing us.

i'd been invited to deliver one of the keynote speeches at the Conference. Last November the Australian people decisively voted out the very right wing Thatcherite government of John Howard.

Howard was subsequently awarded the "Freedom Medal" by George Bush - together with Tony Blair and President Uribe of Colombia - the land of political assassination and terror targeted against trade unionists.

The new Labour (or should I say New Labour) Government of Kevin Rudd in Australia has begun to roll out a neoliberal agenda for education, based extremely closely on that of the Blair Government. This resulted in Professor Peter Mortimore touring Australia with a message of "Don't copy England" which he also produced as a report for a very unresponsive Government.

So my task at the Conference was to examine the same issues from a union point of view - and I was kept busy all the time i was there with questions and discussions.

They looked after me very well socially too... one of the strangest experiences being a candlelit dinner held on the death row of the gaol that had been the final stop for Ned Kelly. As we ate at a long table, the door to the cells stood open - each containing the death mask of its last occupant, lit by a spotlight. On the wall of the cell, a short biography. For the most part they were young people, as much victims of life as perpetrators of crime.

After dinner as i stood chatting to one of the delegates from Tasmania, it was pointed out to me that I was standing immediately below the trapdoor through which each of the prisoners had been dropped with the noose around their neck.

Next to this was a full size photograph of Ned Kelly.... and next to that another version of the same picture but this time with Kelly wearing an orange jumpsuit, drwing the parallel with the prisoners in the US prison in occupied Guantanamo Bay

I spoke for the Union at a meeting organised in Leicester of the Indian Workers Association called to celebrate their own 70th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. About 300 people turned up, and we had a great evening of celebration - with some great food too! The NUT is held in very high esteem - partly because of our policies and campaigns - but more generally because of the Indian community's high regard for teachers generally

I am in the process of writing a detailed report of this very successful and important Conference, and will post it soon on this website.

I opened up the proceedings at the Professional Unity 2000 AGM . The first decision was to change the name as part of a relaunch of the organisation. When PU2000 was started, the unions were getting closer together and unity appeared to be on the horizon. But that did not suit some very powerful interests - both outside and inside our own unions.

So the united workload campaign was hijacked by those powerful interests, and turned into the Workload Agreement... and the rest is history.

But it is when working people are most disunited that we have to work hardest at overcoming that disunity. To simply "shelve" the fight for one education union because it is "too difficult" at the moment means that everything we do we will do from a position of relative weakness... and we can all see and anticipate the result of that when we are facing very strong opponents.

The new organisation "UNIFY" will be taking this on and working within all the unions to promote unity in action with the ultimate aim not just of one teachers' union - but one education union!

I visited the Library at Marx House in Clerkenwell for the 75th Anniversary celebration of its founding, and found myself in the company of a number of faces from Hamilton House and the Executive - answers on a postcard please!

It is a fantastic resource for the whole labour movement - and for an "unreconstructed old bolshevik" like me it is very atmospheric too - to sit in the chair from which Lenin edited his revolutionary newspaper "Iskra" was quite a moment.

Whatever you think of Marx - and he came top of the BBC radio 4 listeners' "Favourite Philosopher" poll - have a look at the website... its fascinating, stimulating and useful stuff! Marx Memorial Library

It was great to take a message of solidarity to unions to do with youth justice, meeting in a parliamentary committee room - youth workers, probation officers, social workers, police and prison officers and some more.

At a time that a Barnado's survey showed that one third of those questioned agreed that "the streets are infested with feral children" and nearly half said that they are scared to approach groups of children for fear of abuse and violence, I took a message that we need to stop the demonisation of children, and to work together with them for a society that puts their needs , and particularly those from the toughest backgrounds, at the top of the agenda.

It is extraordinary, when you get time to think about it , that every generation can recognise the fact that young people have throughout history have been denigrated by the most reactionary of politicians and social commentators - and yet every generation gets sucked into these simplistic and destructive views!

In times of recession, it is almost certain that crime - and youth crime - will increase. Given the nature and origins of the economic crisis, I though it reasonable to put to all the assembled trade unionists from the Justice sector Bertold Brecht's pertinent question, "What is the crime of robbing a bank compared to that of owning one?"

I did some telly for Midlands Today on the academy struggle in Derby. Very interesting to do - and I found that a similar deprofessionalisation process is taking place there too. The journalist arrives alone, negotiates the process, sets up the camera and sound, decides the shots, does the interview, drives the transport etc - what would have been the jobs of at least two- possibly three - specialists at one time

I went to speak at a rally in Croydon organised by the Trades Council against the proposed Academy. I found Croydon in a state of ferment. The very right wing Cabinet member for Education had just been "outed" as a previous member of the Provisional IRA - this being done by an NUT member from the public gallery in a Council meeting! She had kept this secret from everyone for over 20 years - and especially from her now very upset fellow Tories!

The same NUT member was in the room for our successful rally - so I had to say before I started my contribution that if he had any sensational knowledge about me I'd appreciate a bit of warning....

Clearly we are now facing a real, deepening recession. many of us have been saying so since the "credit crunch" euphemism for financial crisis began to be peddled. Our economic system puts ever greater emphasis on finance capital - and the idea that the financial sector can enter crisis without a consequent all round economic recession is absurd.

This crisis will make very real demand on us - are we really at the heart of our communities? How will this contextualise and condition our Union policy and action - what new avenues do we need to explore, and waht old ones do we need to re-open.

Solidarity of working people will be all the more important over the next few months and years...

My definition of class extends just a bit beyond what you call your midday meal - but Christmas Dinner is lunctime (and then most of the afternoon) for me!

Anyway I was very please to host the Christmas Lunch for all the executive and staff at Hamilton House. I tried to lay emphasis on the identity of the Union, on the fact that staff and lay officers are all part of the same movement, and that the organisation of the staff is central to the orientation of the union as an active, campaigning, organising union - a union facing up to the task in very demanding times.

And I was very pleased to announce that the rooms we were in - next to Mander Hall - were about to be fully refurbished and reopened as the Steve Sinnott suite.

The Executive Christmas Dinner (in the evening) was held at Denise's in Southampton Row - Denise being a fantastic Cypriot woman running a traditional French restaurant, a strong supporter of the Trade Union movement - as is her French husband.

I think our relationship with UCU, the University and College Union is very important - perhaps one day in my view a solid foundation for buiding a new education union. So I was pleased to speak at a UCU day conference on the marketisation and commodification of education - a bit of a mouthful, but, unfortunately we know only too well what it means!

There are so may parallels between our different sectors it underlines again how much stronger we would all be with just one education union - organised to protect the identity of ach section, but to maximise our ability to speak with a single, powerful voice

Leicester NUT is facing further Academy proposals. They already have an Academy run by a pork pie and sausage maufacturer... and it was to this "sponsor" that i referred at TUC when I gave a solemn pledge and undertaking that neither the NUT or any of its members would seek to intervene in the production of processed meats, providing the pie industry agreed to not try to run our schools.

Now our Leicester Association have done some excellent work in opposing further "Academisation" by putting forward a radical programme for school improvement based and dependent on cooperative and collaborative work between schools and an integrated education system....

A meeting with Jim Knight the Schools Minister on workload - at which I introduced him to William Morris's concept of "Useful Work and Useless Toil" - I thoght as a Labour politician he might have come across it before - but I think not. It was a productive meeting though, with Jim agreeing to reissue government guidance on lesson planning, previously only issued in the Primary Curriculum startegy document. It will now be republished as guidance to all school - he says. Watch this space!

A meal out with Cuba Solidarity activists in Derby, just to have the chance to chat "off agenda", and also raise some money to send to Cuba as a bit of a token of solidarity following the devastating hurricanes. The hurricanes destroyed buildings and crops and will have a terrible economic knock on effect. But, having been in touch with comrades there they tell me the high level of preparedness, and the way the evacuations etc worked actually strengthened people and enhanced their already high sense of community and solidarity. I suppose it is always the same in adversity - particularly when there is a clear strategy for dealing with it - and that strategy has a high level of support.

But very well worth the time - as I look at "the list" and think of the huge range of points of view, levels of experience, degree of involvement, personal circumstance, professional and political background etc etc it make me feel very proud of a Union that can hold all this together to speak for the profession as a whole - and so appreciative of all the work and commitment that this huge range of colleagues put in to make it work.

The President's Christmas card this year focuses in a quite uncompromising way on Colombia and the fantastically brave role of teacher trade unionists there in standing up for themselves, the children, the education service and their communities. They face real persecution and the threat of death. Some colleagues think the card is a little too "political" I think - but oppression and violence do not stop for Christmas - and it seems like a time when it ought to be at the forefront of our minds, not swept under the carpet.

A very broadly based and vibrant campaign has been going on in Derby ever since the LA Iabour majority party launched the proposal for an Academy. Two years ago Sinfin Community School burnt down, and it now has beautiful new buildings. Without this issue of new buidings clouding the debate, the campaign has immediately got doen to the basics - what sort of school best serves the community? And the answer has become more and more clear... not one which stands outside the LA family of schools, not one which will skew the catchment area to take in "higher ability" pupils, not one which is monopolised by the "sponsor", not one which reduces community involvement and accountability... and so on

So the campaign - a united campaign in which both NUT and NASUWT have cooperated in every way, including strike action, a campaign which has involved pupils, parents, trades council, community organisations - has grown and attracted huge support

The LA consultation meeting in the school attracted 200 people, The "opposition" were refuse the opportunity to present the cas agaisnt the academy from the platfom. This was not a wise move! Speaker after speaker from the floor reached the same conclusion fro a variety of starting points - no Academy in Sinfin. Eventually a UNISON activist called for a show of hands - and opposition was unanimous!

Mx Morris was a great President of the NUT. He was in office fro 1973 to 1974. He died in August at the age of 94, and we were approached by the Socialist Education Association to jointly organise a memorial meeting at Hamiltonu Hose.

It is at such time that you become really aware of the generation-upon-generation significance of trade union activism. Max's colleagues and contemporaries were there - relatives and friends, teachers, politicians and trades unionists including Jack Jones also in his 90s, who brushed aside the offer of a chair to take his place at the rostrum.

Max was not the easiest of people to get along with, but by far one of the very most interesting and stimulating you could have the privilege of knowing. He held very strong convictions indeed. For most of his long life he was a member of the Communist Party - and indeed he'd told Margaret, his wife, that any such memorial meeting should include the singing of The Internationale - the worlwide communist anthem. He expected everyone to hold strong convictions of their own, and be prepared to back them up and argue for them. So it was quite rare to just have a chat with Max! And he didn't suffer fools gladly!

Throughout the memorial, as we all got to know different facets of Max's life, the contributions were interspersed with extracts from Max's speeches - showing his burning commitment to education, and to social progress.

There's something very odd about local radio phone in programmes - hardly a revolutionary thought I know, but reinforced for me when I took part in one while visiting associations in Devon and Cornwall. We were talking about Academy schools - but that didn't worry the punters - one of whom phoned in to talk about his "shopmobility" scooter! Fortunately the larger than life show host took the opportunity to "go off on one" about used car salesmen who he labelled "dishonest, duplicitous, lying tricksters" - and this gave me the opportunity to feign surprise... surely this could not be the case - after all one such salesman is a leading sponsor of Academy schools, and the government seem very keen on him...

I thought that members might be "down" as a result of the ballot outcome, but this was not the case. We had some very good discussions about the nature of pay disputes, the nature of unions, the need to develop teacher unity, the difference between strategy and tactics, working to win community support. One young teacher told me that she'd enjoyed the meeting... and it had been "better than Hollyoakes" Is that good?

Well, I sat down to put some thoughts together as a result of being to a whole range of Associations and Divisions to talk the campaign over with members, to put some ideas forward, and most important to hear what they had to say. My efforts to get this down on paper turned into a bit more than a short blog. So, you'll find it here

I found the atmosphere at the Labour Party Conference very strange. This was the conference of the party of working people, formed just over a century ago by the unions and socialist societies to assist the struggle for progress. It was formed to take the fight for secure employment, good wages, decent living and working conditions, health provision, housing, democratic rights - and, centrally, education - into Parliament. it was the voice of organised Labour. It used to be a policy making conference full of passion and deeply held convictions, and welcoming full trade union involvement - until this was thought by the leadership to make them "unelectable". What a terrible thing to believe - that democracy, debate, honest exchange of views, passion and commitment make you "unelectable" in our parliamentary democracy - but maybe they are right! Does that mean we should drop these from the way we work in the name of "modernisation", or to work on the system and people's perceptions of it - and what they want from it?

Things are very different now, as we all know - whatever we might think of the "modernisation". There are those with a clear agenda of "reclaiming" the party for the old principles - but they are very much the minority as far as I can see - and they have an uphill task with changes to rule and procedure backing the New Labour project.

But it was clear - particularly from the wide variety of lively well attended fringe meetings (including our own on "the costs of schooling" and another together with the Holocaust Education Trust) - but also it has to be said from the Conference debate - that people are still looking for a way forward to social justice, to an end to poverty, to tackling ecological collapse, to protecting the weak and vulnerable, to protecting public service... and when they got the chance such sentiments were loudly applauded. But the opportunities to do so were sadly limited on the floor of Conference.

The Conference itself was predictably very stage managed without any real debate, and where there was to be no mention of the leadership issues. Well, just one mention perhaps. During Gordon Brown's speech, the video link showed an appropriate person in the audience to "illustrate" particular points - a token young person, a pensioner, a delegate from an ethnic minority etc. It didn't really work - it looked "clunky" and artificial. But when Brown, referring to David Cameron, maintained that this was "no time for novices" to be seeking leadership of the country, the video showed a close up of... David Miliband, whose expression changed from one of serious agreement to shock and dismay as he saw himself appear on the big screen! I was watching on a live feed to the exhibition area, and when the discomforted Miliband appeared as the words, "No time for novices" left Gordon Brown's lips, there was laughter and a smattering of applause amongst the delegates around me.

However, off the Conference floor, the talk was of little else than the leadership. But despite the collapse of Labour's ratings - and that of Gordon Brown in particular - there was a "buzziness" about the Conference, and not the pessimism I'd expected. When I spoke to a few "Old Labour" delegates I knew about this, they agreed - but one or two suggested that it was because "the Party" had already gone through the stage of worrying about the next election, were reconciled to defeat, and with growing signs of real economic problems ahead, were planning to leave the mess to the Tories, and use the experience of going into Opposition as the trigger for seeking a new Leader and regrouping around him or her. Thus, they argued, the surprisingly upbeat air was the product of the various groupings in the Party organising around their choice of the next Leader of the Opposition, rather than any expectation of forming the next Government. What a depressing prospect.

At the same time as the Conference, there was a "Convention of the Left" organised just outside of the security "exclusion zone" - a ring of concrete and steel patrolled by serious looking armed police. This convention brought together many of the groups and parties to the left of Labour in a weekend of debate and selling newspapers to each other. Quite a few Labour delegates migrated between the Conference and the Convention - and Tony Benn set up camp in the Convention's lobby, declaring it, with intentional double entendre I think, to be a "Haven of Peace". I was invited to speak at this on the future of education, and was pleased to do so - remembering the education "funding famine" years under the last Conservative governments, and the significant funding improvements under Labour - but tracing through the process of fragmentation, marketisation, commodification and privatisation that had begun under the Tories and accelerated under New Labour... and suggesting that we needed a new mass movement for education - the kind of mass movement that had led to every education advance in the past, and with which, until fairly recently in its history, the Labour Party had been pleased to be associated.

In the last few days of the September, I met with a long term member of 30 years standing in the profession - a real believer in teacher professionalism and the collectivity provided by our Union. But these days he is full of self doubt and feelings of inadequacy, brought about by the new regime in schools. All aspects of the child centred process to which he is committed have been undermined by the new regime in schools - the "what, when and how to teach" orthodoxy, and the competitive process between schools - and he is questioning his role. His stress levels are sky high, matched only by his commitment to the children, which keeps him in work, despite everything. He is a first rate teacher, much admired by colleagues and children - but under inordinate pressure. His story is repeated up and down the country - and such "casework" is making huge demands on our local officers, and Regional Offices. There is something deeply wrong with a system that fails to recognise and value such colleagues, and even despite supportive school management in this particular case, finds them looking for a way out of the profession before their proper time.

In those same last few days, I spoke at a public meeting organised against Trust Schools in Staffordshire, took part in a picket in Liverpool where members were on strike against a cut in their lunchtime, and in Local Association meetings in Bury and Southampton focused on the pay campaign. We are finding ways to show how all our campaigning is interconnected - "good local schools for children and their communities" depend on an integrated, democratically accountable system of schools with teachers with decent pay and conditions. I think we need to embed all our campaigning strands firmly in the context of the defence of state education if we are to build the local and national coalitions and alliances we need to win - and if we are to convince the members of the other teacher unions that their unions need to be campaigning too.

During our two days of National Executive deliberations I took part in our European Strategies Committee - which was in part concerned with some very dangerous stuff from the European Union which makes clear that the legal right to strike is secondary to the legal right of employers to carry out their business unimpeded. The courts can intervene to suggest that industrial action might be inappropriate in particular situations - and therefore unlawful - or that the degree of the proposed action is not "proportionate" to the problem, or that there may be "other methods" for workers to pursue their objectives - all legally enforceable.

It is strange that there are no such constraints on big business and government employers when it comes to reducing the workforce or closing operations in one country and opening in another, reducing wages etc. Such unfettered decisions affect the lives of thousands workers and their families and communities - yet the response of those workers is legally regulated - a case of one law for the rich, and another for the poor... not such a strange or unfamiliar concept after all.

Directly following the National Executive (which your Executive member will have reported to you in detail) two events at Hamilton House reflected the Union's commitment to the whole profession. Firstly, a day of discussion and networking for our Leadership Group members, and, secondly, our relatively low key but successful celebration of World Teachers' Day. I think we should make more of both of these - we need to ensure that our Headteachers and leadership group members tie in their everyday professional lives with union policy and campaigns - and we need to show that very many of the problems we are facing are not usually generated by "the Head" but are in fact "globalised" issues brought about by the huge international pressures for deregulation and privatisation, and a "flexible workforce". Teachers are "deprofessionalised" by this process and Headteachers are often doubly affected - themselves under great pressure and, at the same time, finding themselves expected to pressurise teachers and non-teachers to conform...

Our pride in and defence of teacher professionalism lie at the heart of our Union work.

Our National Union banner was prominently and proudly "out and about" on the End Child Poverty rally in Trafalgar Square... though we could have had a bigger turnout of members! But Sundays are very precious - and often work days for many teachers, preparing for Monday!

Child poverty - and the devastating effect on children's education - is clearly very important to us... and it was good to see Government Ministers turning out on the rally to urge themselves to keep the promise they've made to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. At the moment child poverty is growing, and, in the accelerating recession, the effects of pay cuts and unemployment are likely to worsen this. So let's hope that the Ministers who wanted to be seen at the rally, will even now be working on how to "keep the promise". The first stage would cost about £6 billion - as opposed to the £550 billion promised to bail out the bankers, or the £76 billion committed to replacing the Trident weapon of mass destruction.

I was laid low by a nasty little stomach bug, and was very disappointed indeed to miss a meeting organised by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign to meet the wives of "The Miami 5". The "five" are Cuban intelligence officers who infiltrated terrorist groups in Miami who had been and were continuing to attack Cuba, and particularly its agriculture and tourist industries. They found plenty of evidence, and turned this over to the FBI in good faith and confidence that they would take appropriate action under US law. Well, action was taken. The FBI had the five Cubans arrested, tried as spies and imprisoned, where they have now been for ten years. No action was taken against any of the terrorists, and the information given to the FBI has not been used - other than as evidence that "the five" were spying!

When the families and wives of "the five" have spoken up internationally against this imprisonment, they have been found by US courts to be accomplices, and have been refused visas to visit the USA and see their husbands. Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of UNITE, hosted the wives at the Labour Party Conference. He took Gordon Brown by the shoulder and said, "Gordon, there's some women here you need to meet and listen to"... and Gordon found himself talking to the wives of five political prisoners held in US jails. Let's hope he did

This old trade union slogan was the theme of our Divisional Secretaries' Briefing at the fantastically restored Stoke Rochford Hall. If you can get to Stoke Rochford, make sure you do - it looks fantastic - the wood panelling, the intricate plasterwork, the restored masonry - and much more - are all lasting tributes to the skills of the workers who did the brilliant job.

I'd missed a couple of days (due to my bug) but had been able to speak for the Union at a Manchester "Public Service Not Private Profit" meeting on the night that Brown announced the bank bail out - and everybody realised that we are in for a real economic recession, with all the attacks on working people and public services that it will bring. There was a good turnout in Manchester - about 50 or 60 - but not good enough - we will need massive effort to build campaigns and activities strong enough to protect our communities from what is now likely to come.

The Briefing was, as always brilliantly and effectively organised by Union staff. At such times of course we remember the people who are not there... and much missed. Steve would have been in his element, arguing for the united radical agenda of which he was chief architect in the Union. On the last day of the Briefing, the funeral took place of Mark Slater of Cambridgeshire who'd played a strong an important role as Div Sec and National Executive member, and a number of people left early to be present there. We also sent a message to Bill Anderson of Birmingham who was then very gravely ill, and who died within a few days. All we can say is that led lives well lived, and that their contributions, and of course those of many others, will live on. As Joe Hill, US trade union and socialist activist wrote to his comrades on the eve of his death, "Don't mourn - organise Of course, we do mourn, but we need to organise too...

Following what I understand to have been excellent briefings, plenary discussions and workshops, I had the privilege and challenge of rounding things up with a "President's Address" (see here). I'm particularly grateful to the Div Sec who had to leave early before my closing speech - but who nonetheless completed their evaluation form saying that it was "inspiring"! I'm not sure that it was, but I'm very grateful for the thought!

I'm always reinvigorated by Div Secs', which shows the Union at its very best - united, analytical, active, campaigning - "Educating, Agitating and Organising" - and committed to organising our union from the bottom up, maintaining unity, fighting for teacher union unity, for solidarity with other unions and our communities....

...very different from the atmosphere of Stoke Rochford is that of the Palace of Westminster, or "The Westminster Palace of Varieties" as veteran Labour MP Denis Skinner from my adopted County of Derbyshire has dubbed it. I arrived to chair the launch of our research - undertaken by Professors Maurice Galton and John MacBeath on "Teachers Under Pressure". My train had been delayed (no doubt Lord Adonis in his new role as Rail Minister will get to grips with it) and I was fast tracked through security to arrive in the committee room just as the meeting should have been starting. However, it went well - the evidence was presented well by the researchers, and sympathetic comments were made by David Laws for the Lib Dems, and by Baroness Perry, who had been instrumental in the Tory Party review of Public Service reform... which in part concluded that teacher professionalism has been badly undermined by the process. Of course, we do not remember previous Tory governments quite as supportive as they now wish to sound. Baroness Perry is Baroness of Southwark, and as a previous Peckham resident, I was able to confess to being one of her runaway serfs who has escaped to the free Midlands. Unsurprisingly, though unacceptably in my view, no Government Minister or frontbencher had felt able to attend to argue their case.

However, the Parliamentary launch of our research had not gone unnoticed by the Government - and Ed Balls had chosen the same date and time to announce in the House the demise of Key Stage 3 SATs. Though the Government choose not to speak to us because of our opposition to their undemocratic Social Partnership, let no-one argue that our sustained campaigning, lobbying and pressure are ineffective!

At the end of the meeting, I hurried to another committee room where Labour Friends of Venezuela had organised a meeting concerning the attempts to undermine the elected progressive governments of Venezuela and Bolivia. In both countries, education of the poorest most oppressed people is a priority after generations of neglect. Such priority - together with health care, housing, social security etc make these governments unpopular with the local most privileged class, and with their powerful neighbour to the north - and the meeting was on the theme of "No More Pinochets" - remembering the violent military coup and subsequent extreme repression in Chile in 1973 against the similarly elected progressive government of Salvador Allende.

During my time as Union President, I have tried to make the work here in England and Wales my priority, and so have done relatively little foreign travel... but I am keen to visit a number of South American countries in the new year - two where education is an urgent priority, Cuba and Venezuela, and one which is the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist, Colombia - where the favourite targets of the government backed death squads are teacher trade unionists. Teachers in all three deserve our admiration, respect and solidarity - which just might help make a difference if we do the job right.

You'll probably know that the most recent meeting of the STRB was to consider a number of issues - Special Needs payments, Leadership Group, "Excellent Teachers" etc all important in themselves - but they had made it clear that they didn't want to discuss the central question of the percentage pay settlement for all teachers. In fact they'd said that we shouldn't make any comments or representations on this as they "were minded" to confirm a 2.3% "increase" for 2008/9. We decided that we would "make representations" anyway, and challenge them to discuss it. I had the pleasure of opening on this, and reminded them of their claim - their assertion - that they were an "independent" pay review body. I asked them how they would explain to classroom teachers over a cup of tea in the staffroom (if anyone has that luxury these days) that they wanted to stick to the government guidelines of 2.3% when inflation - whatever indicators are used - is running at over 5% per annum. I told them that their very credibility was at stake, and that to stick to government wishes would simply confirm the view of many teachers that the STRB was very far from "independent". They replied that they were committed to a "further review" culminating in June - but I asked them why they needed a further review when the evidence that 2.3% would be a real terms pay cut was already in front of them. I added that we had previous experience of promises of "further reviews" and "re-opener clauses" in the past that had led nowhere. They clearly did not want to discuss this, so I tried to take a different tack. I told them that teacher morale in the face of many issues was "not at its best", and that they had an opportunity to give every teacher in the country - not just NUT members - a real boost by showing that they were highly valued. A pay cut was not the way to do this.

They appeared to listen, seemed to be "on task" but I'm afraid they did not appear to comprehend. Even after I'd made my objectives very clear at the beginning of the session.

However, we went on to make strong and very well argued representations on the issues they'd identified in advance. The wealth of experience on our side from the Acting General Secretary, Head of Salaries, Head of Education and Equal Opps, members of their departments, Executive members as Officers of the relevant Committees seemed to impact on them. In the "old days" for the most part just the GS spoke, and the rest of us signified agreement! under Steve's leadership this changed, and our evidence became more lively, more immediate, more telling. We overran our time with them - but with very different evidence from the Government and its "Social Partners" we have an uphill task in such talks. Thus the importance of our organising culture, and the pressure from "ordinary members" through our continuing salaries campaign.

My view is that we cannot expect to be "given" anything by the STRB or anyone else - but that we have a whole world to win through effective organisation.

I managed to get down to Brighton for a couple of hours to say a few words at the LGBT Equalities Conference - the theme of which was "putting equality at the heart of the Union". That's exactly my sentiments... nothing must be allowed to "sectionalise" the union into separate and distinct "interest groups" - equalities issues are of vital importance to ALL members, not just those (central to the issue as they are) who are the victims of bigotry, discrimination and oppression. This has always been the case, but as the current economic recession bites deeper, and working people and communities feel increasingly vulnerable, we know that the far right BNP and similar will bring their messages of division and hate as "easy to understand" answers. Our messages of unity and solidarity must prevail - but they will not do so if we don't as a whole union, not sections, tackle the equalities issues in the union and in the profession.

The Equalities Conferences - including this LGBT Conference - are very important parts of that process - and the real NEED to thrash out ideas and struggle with difficult and uncomfortable challenges and concepts was clear in an extremely lively first session which in part tackled the issue of appropriate language, how we describe each other and ourselves, and what that means in terms of promoting equality and fighting prejudice and division.

Anyone looking in might have mistaken the passion for anger, as indeed a few delegates did, but in breaking new ground, we will come on areas that are stony and hard to plough... but its better to get on with the job than to avoid the difficulty by never tackling it. The passion and vitality of the debate made me remember and deeply miss Paul Patrick, one of our leading LGBT thinkers and activists, who died recently. Paul was a very intelligent, articulate, engaging, committed man. I wish I had had the opportunity to know him better - I really only met him at Conferences - but whenever I did I knew I was going to be in for a challenging time. He had a very good memory for detail, and would say, "I've been meaning to talk to you about something you said a year or so ago..." and he'd fix you with a look that meant, "and don't try to bullshit me..." We'll miss him.

... where I'd been invited to speak at a Communist Party seminar on the "commodification of education". I've had the pleasure of formally representing the Union at all three major parliamentary parties over the last couple of years - but this was something a bit different.

The topic really made me think - and do a bit of research too - research that allowed me to present things that we all know about really - but when considered in their entirety carry much more significance perhaps than when we just experience or read about them as they occur. Time was tight, and for once I spoke almost entirely to my notes - so see what you think. I'd be very pleased to hear from you about this. (click here for - Commodification of education seminar)

Two working parties at Hamilton House held "end to end" were concerned with the development of our "young teacher" organisation - and then with support for local associations and divisions. At the Executive in December we are to set an hour or so aside to discuss these vital issues, and further time - an "awayday" in February. We are all no convinced of our "organising strategy", "organising agenda", "organising culture"... we all think it is the way forward - yet we have still to put real flesh on the bones. Can the Union be most effective for members by organising at the place of work and in our Local Associations and Divisions? Can we "collectivise casework" so that Local Officers are not swamped, and colleagues under unreasonable pressure can directly feel the support and solidarity of other union members in the school and area? Can we build strong organisation in every school so that things can't be simply imposed on us, but rather innovation comes from the needs of teachers? Can we build even further our campaigning base, so that our policies generate broad support locally, in the press, in community organisations, in negotiations with the LA and Governing Bodies. This will all need huge effort and determination, programmes of training, the direction of our resources to achieving it. But it IS what trade unionism is about, what teacher professionalism is all about...

Early in the month, I went to the reception organised by ATL to introduce their new President, Andy Ballard. I’ve met Andy on quite a few occasions campaigning against Academies, on public meetings on child poverty etc – and I’ve always been impressed by his sincerity, determination, commitment and his very genuine sense of trade unionism At his reception there were activists and officers from all the education unions – and education journalists were interested in how we related to each other.

The question on their minds, of course, was how we viewed the existence of three competing TUC affiliated teacher unions, and the two exclusively leadership group unions outside the TUC.

I heard otherwise good teacher trade unionists there arguing that there were “positives” in this – that it was good for teachers to have a “choice”, that “diversity” in the TUC (and outside) produced benefits for all. The irony seemed to escape them. The government’s “choice and diversity” agenda in education is designed to fragment our education system, to create competition between schools which intentionally undermines co-operation and solidarity, which prevents progress across the board, and which narrows the vision of the competitors. And of course the continuing divisions between our teacher unions does exactly the same.

Just as “unity is strength” so disunity breeds weakness. The principle of trade unionism is not that of market competition, but of workers in a particular trade or profession speaking with one voice and in solidarity - even when that is hard to achieve. The soft option of division and disunity, two or three competing "voices" is just as bad in teaching as it was and is in the mining industry.

We came close to teacher union unity a few years ago. The government, frightened by the mere thought of it, intentionally undermined it by creating the exclusive “social partnership” arrangements focussing on “workforce reform” to wreck our potentially united workload campaign.

At present, the divisions between our teacher unions are greater than they have been for a long time. It is at a time of real disunity that our commitment to “one union for all teachers” (the slogan that appears on all our publications) is MOST important – for the times demand real strength… we NEED a united teaching profession and a single powerful union, drawing on the strength of ALL teachers, if we are to really defend ourselves and our service.

It’s too easy to make the cheap crack against the other unions – particularly when their leaderships are so constrained by “social partnership” that they fail to stand up for teachers. But we need to recognise that continuing disunity is continuing weakness… and to develop a real strategy for bringing teachers together. Easier said than done of course.

A very determined and serious National Executive met to agree the next stages of our pay campaign. I thought that Steve would have been very pleased and proud to have seen that Executive meeting. No posturing or self-deception about the strength of the Union. No defeatism or lack of confidence in the membership. No sign of the old factionalism that held us back for so long, and that Steve hated so much.

Instead very thoughtful analysis of the situation we are facing in leading the whole teaching profession, and of the relationship with other public sector unions… analysis which led to a unanimous decision to put major resources – human and material - into the continuing campaign, not just the ballot - the immediate vital objective - but into the continuing campaign as a whole.

We were all aware that the pay campaign cannot be separated from the campaign for “A Good Local School….” or from our “Bringing Down The Barriers” policy. We need no less than a growing campaign in our communities for education and progress, and growing unity throughout our trade union movement. This is not a campaign that will be over quickly, or easily won. But, as Steve reminded us from the time of his election as DGS and then GS… “Together, we CAN win” and that our overarching ambition as a union can be summed up in the phrase “Working Together, Winning Together”.

Steve’s legacy of a united, growing union, and his burning ambition to see a single teacher union must be honoured and protected at all costs.

I was very pleased to speak for the Union at this rally – which commemorates the longest strike in history (1914-39) – by school children in Burston in Norfolk. They struck when their teachers, Kitty and Tom Higdon, were sacked on trumped up charges. Their “crime” was to refuse to simply teach children to “know their place”, to insist that their school should be sound and warm, and to openly criticise the local “establishment” who stood against these things.

When the Higdons were sacked despite Union representation, the Union paid them “victimisation pay” – and the children followed them to a makeshift “Strike School”… which moved accommodation a few times as more funds were made available – largely by the trade union movement – and which survived to 1939 when Tom Higdon died. Local people supported the school, despite being punished and victimised by the local clerics, politicians and gentry for doing so. The Strike School building is now a lasting memorial to them.

The struggle for education throughout our history has taken many forms, but it has always been a struggle… alongside and integral to the struggle for decent living conditions for working people, and for the extension of democracy.

I was struck at Burston just how much our struggle today against privatisation, against narrow vocationalism, for proper resourcing, for public sector pay, against “useless toil”, for opportunities for the children from the toughest backgrounds is STILL an integral part of the general struggle in society for equality and democracy, against class privilege, for meeting the ordinary people’s needs, rather than the greed of the tiny wealthy minority.

History will judge us on how we perform in that struggle, just as we judge those who went before.

We had an excellent Congress, with a strong united position on pay and public services, though, extraordinarily, in speaking FOR the motion on public sector pay, Chris Keates for the NASUWT asserted that teachers are very well off, have had very significant pay increases in recent years, and supported the campaign in order to give support to those others who work in our schools who do not have such “advantages”. Our delegation were very self disciplined – allowing Christine Blower to very ably make all the points we needed to from the speakers rostrum. Our self discipline was matched by the clear discomfort of many of the NASUWT delegation!

Just an aside... when ATL delegates spoke, they announced themselves as "ATL - the education union". When NASUWT delegates spoke it was, "NASUWT - the teachers' union." When Veronica Peppiatt of the Executive spoke she announced herself as "National Union of Teachers - just what it says on the tin"!

Underlying the whole of Congress, in debate and in fringe meetings, were two strong themes. The first was for social justice, a fair deal for working people, an attack on the growing wealth/poverty gap – rather than the demands of the “free market” dog-eat-dog society. The second was how we deal with the situation in which the political party which has traditionally been seen as the champions of the former has now been transformed into the principle advocates and exponents of the latter. “New Labour” found no-one at Congress prepared to speak up for them. Alistair Darling’s speech was characterised by some as “indescribably boring”, while others thought conversely that it was very describably boring. He clearly wanted to avoid the major issues – but the questioning must have left him in no doubt that the TUC is definitely not “on message” in his terms, despite text messages from New Labour organisers to a handful of delegates to try to get a bit of applause going for him!

There is of course much debate about how to deal with this situation – some unions laying more emphasis on the “lesser of two evils” arguments, others wanting to see developments that lead to new political representation in parliament for the views of organised workers. We must ensure that the Union is properly positioned in this debate… and that we are prepared for the outcome of the next general election.

At the General Council dinner, Gordon Brown having finished his traditional speech, and having been thanked for it, rose again to announce the establishment of the “Steve Sinnott Fellowship” – a substantial amount of money to be used to provide “release time” for teachers from schools in the most deprived areas to work together on strategies to enhance educational opportunities for the children with the toughest backgrounds. It was a fitting tribute to Steve – a well received tribute… and we will work to ensure that the outcomes are those that Steve would have wanted to see.

Our own delegation dinner was great. Of course we thanked Christine for all her work in the wider trade union movement, and thanked too the Union staff members for their fantastic and tireless work there to raise the profile of the Union and to service the delegation so well. We also remembered Steve, and his massive contribution to the movement. Our toast was to “The Union… and Solidarity”.

I also had the pleasure of taking representatives of the Cuban trade unions out to lunch. Though clearly they were very concerned about the situation at home – the hurricanes were hitting the island – they showed enormous and well informed interest in the central themes of the Congress, and we were able to lay some groundwork for the continuing support of the Union for their struggle for independence and social progress… particularly as they approach the 50^th Anniversary of the revolution.

The presidents of all three TUC affiliated teacher unions also took representatives of the Colombian education unions to lunch… and heard a very different story of a union subject to the most severe repression in the form of arrests, persecution and assassination by death squads linked to the Colombian state. Their personal and collective bravery impressed us all. They laid great emphasis on their achievement in uniting the teacher unions in

Colombia

into a single union, and were very clear in saying to us that we should strive to that end also… a message which was very well received by me at least!

At the end of the Congress, I left even more convinced of the absolute necessity, nationally and internationally, to develop real solidarity – not just as a principle, but as an indispensable precondition for taking forward our movement, and our campaigns for social justice and much needed extensions of democracy.

Back from TUC I was very pleased to visit Cardiff as one of the many participants in the opening of the Union’s new Wales Office – a very splendid building. Rhodri Morgan, the Welsh First Minister cut the ribbon, and Mary Sinnott unveiled a beautiful photographic portrait of Steve with a commemorative plaque.

The picture of Steve showed him at his desk, shortly after his election as General Secretary, smiling broadly , enthused and ready for action. As Mary pulled the curtain away, it was a very emotional moment for all of us – and of course particularly for Mary and their son, Steve and daughter, Kate.

We all knew that whatever physical memorials there are for Steve, it is really in the further sustained unity of the union and teachers, both at home and throughout the world where Steve played such an important role, that will be his lasting memorial. Christine in a very heartfelt and poignant speech said that Steve was the embodiment of a Welsh saying, which, translated goes “He who would be a leader, must be a bridge”. Spot on, Christine.

Harry Barnes, now retired, was a Labour MP – with a background in Trade Union education - who felt no empathy for New Labour. In retirement, he continues his role in real labour movement education by organising a regular discussion forum – and I was invited to open up one such on the fight for education – both through history and the contemporary issues we are facing.

It was a lively discussion, but, with the exception of a a young women about to start her studies for a degree in politics, I, at 57, was one of the youngest in the room.

Harry told me how much he regretted that Trade Union and labour movement training and education had – almost totally – lost its sense of history, and concentrated almost exclusively on the development of “competencies” – negotiating skills, representation of members, understanding the legal position etc.

“If we lose track of where we have come from,” he said, “we’ll find it difficult to understand what’s happening to us now – and even more difficult to decide where we want to go in the future… and how to get there.”

I think the Union should take this on board. We DO need to understand the historic struggle for education, the rights of working people and democracy. Equally we need to understand the role of our union, and the whole trade union movement in that struggle. Only by really looking at these questions will the current disunity between teacher unions be seen as the curse it is rather than the “choice” it might be described as… and when we understand the huge task undertaken by previous generations, we will see our own struggles in perspective… and their historic significance for future generations. It kind of concentrates the mind!