Equality… and fighting discrimination –

Major issues for all our members

Our Union has a very strong record in fighting prejudice, bigotry and unfair discrimination.  We are all aware of the pain, anguish and damage that such attitudes and action cause. They damage people emotionally and psychologically –

and physically too. They undermine people’s careers and relationships in general. They wreck lives.

They maintain exploitation, oppression and social inequality.

Just as importantly, such discrimination and prejudice threaten to weaken us as a profession, a trade union and a group of workers. Our authority and our strength are derived from collectivity, unity and our ability to speak with a unified voice - and act together as a union, rather than simply as individuals or sectional groups.

“Divide and rule” is an age-old tactic – and has, throughout history, often been employed to profound effect. It is used today by warmongers, by employers seeking to drive down wages, and by politicians seeking to dupe  people…amongst many others. We must guard against it in the Union - recognising that often the best of intentions can inadvertently lead to harmful and dangerous divisions.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism and discrimination against disabled people have devastating effects on those individuals and groups who are subjected to them… and those of us not members of those groups can never fully appreciate the specifics of these effects, though of course we can do all we can to understand them. The fact that the ‘discriminated against’ have direct experience that others cannot completely share has led us to set up “equality conferences” – a Black Teachers’ Conference and a LGBT Conference at present – with plans for a Disability Conference at some time in the future – though at present only a tiny number of our members have expressed interest in taking part in the latter. In addition to providing an important forum, it is also hoped that the development of the equalities conferences will encourage more participation in the Association, Divisional and National structures of the Union.

Attendance at the equalities conferences is usually around 50 to 100 people, though there is no quorum. The reason that there doesn’t have to be a quorum is that they are not policy-making conferences. They are not like our Annual Conference, they tend to be much more relaxed and informal. Those taking part are not delegates, many attending on their own initiative, and without any connection with their Association. Some are not NUT members. The process is one of exploring ideas through presentations, discussions and workshops, rather than a motions-based “for and against” policy conference.  The two conferences, Black Teachers and LGBT do not work to the same procedures. For example, the Black Teachers Conference is only open to Black and Ethnic Minority Teachers, while the LGBT Conference invites heterosexuals to participate.  Each has adopted a form that suits its current purpose. The diversity reflects the different situations faced by our colleagues. These features are strengths of these conferences that need to be protected. The more structured they become, the more rules of “consistency” are made to apply, the more they are based on formal rules and standing orders, the more the adversarial debating style predominates, the less likely they are to be attractive to members who currently are not participating in the Union more generally – and so the less likely they are to bring in these people as activists in the Union generally.

How do the outcomes of the equalities conferences influence the work of the NUT, its Associations and Divisions, its National Executive and so on? Parallel to the equalities conferences are the Advisory Committees on Race, Gender and LGBT issues. These report to the National Executive through its Standing Committees. The Executive also receives reports of the equality conferences themselves. All these are circulated, reported on and discussed throughout the Union. In addition to this, the participants in the equality conferences take away their experiences and ideas and – hopefully - take them to their Associations and Divisions, both to influence how they behave and organise, and also in order to formulate policy motions and amendments for Annual Conference. For many years now there has been an Equal Opportunities Section of the agenda of Annual Conference. This guarantees that motions on these issues will be discussed.

In more recent times, it was agreed that the equalities conferences themselves should be enabled to bring motions to Annual Conference. This will start at Conference 2008. I was concerned when this was agreed that it would have the opposite effect to that intended. Rather than positioning these issues more centrally in the Union, I was concerned that Local Associations and Divisions would gradually come to think of “equalities issues” as the property of  “someone else”, ie the groups of members attending the equalities conferences. I was concerned that members in their Associations would even become reluctant to have a view on such issues for fear of being criticised for perhaps having a view different from the equalities conference in question. Eventually, I suggested, we could see equality issues and the anti-discrimination work of the Union removed from mainstream, “heart of the union” discussion, and simply rubber stamped by Annual Conference - having been left to “those concerned” to originate, debate and determine the policy. I suggested that we needed to be very sure of ourselves before we made any change...

The negative possibilities were clearly not the intent of those who successfully argued that the equality conferences should bring motions to conference. They intend that this process will raise the profile of these issues. And they reassured me that there would continue to be motions from Associations on all the issues under question, as well as those from the equality conferences, and that members (through their Associations) would decide which of these should be taken in debate by voting for all of them through our “prioritisation” process  - in which Associations choose their “top six” motions for debate.

But now the National Executive has made a decision at its December meeting that raises these issues again in a very clear way – and again makes me concerned that we could end up “sectionalising” the Union and marginalizing equalities and anti-discrimination issues, by encouraging our members to think that these are simply best left to equalities groups and conferences. The motions from the equalities conferences are not to be considered against other motions when it comes to priority voting. They will, unlike any other motion, be guaranteed to appear on the agenda.

The question the Executive considered was how the motions from equalities conferences should reach the agenda of Annual Conference. At present all the motions put forward are circulated to Associations and Divisions, who examine them against each other in terms of importance and priority. Associations then give priority votes for up to six of them, from anywhere on the agenda. The Conference agenda is put into sections, dealing with different areas of our debate – eg Salaries, Conditions of Service, Early Years, Primary Education, Secondary Education, International etc. One of these areas is the “Equal Opportunities” section.

As a result of the Executive decision the motions from the equalities conferences will not be discussed in the “Equal Opportunities” section. An entirely new section is to be created and entitled “Equalities”. This will directly follow, or perhaps precede the “Equal Opportunities” section at Conference. The “Equal Opportunities” section will contain the equality issue motions from Associations. The “Equalities” section will contain only the motions from the equalities conferences.

Associations will continue to examine, weigh up and vote for their six priorities from the motions submitted by Associations. But members will not be able to weigh up the motions from the equality conferences  against similar equality motions from Local Associations. As equality conference motions will be in a different conference section, they will be guaranteed to be discussed – even if their content might have been considered to be less important by our members than that of motions coming from Local Associations. Members will be able to give a priority vote in the new “Equalities” section, but only to determine the order of debate in that section – not to consider the motions from the equalities conferences against all the others submitted in the normal way.

To sum this up... while equalities motions from Associations are subject to priority voting to be included on Annual Conference agenda, similar motions from the equalities conferences will not be subject to membership priorities – they will be guaranteed to be discussed.

There is a clear not-so-hidden message here from the Executive... and it's that the views of the equalities conferences on these issues are by their very nature more important than those of Associations. What's the lesson likely to be learned by Associations from this? If the Union’s National Executive believes that equalities conferences have more important insights and views on equalities issues – and thus guaranteed space on Annual Conference agenda, maybe Associations and Divisions should just leave these matters to the equalities conferences.

This is not the only problem – though it is serious enough. It is inevitable that the equalities conferences themselves will have to change if they are to become a formal part of the policy formulation structures of the Union. They will have to work according to strict rules on representation, accountability, debating procedure etc. They are likely to become motion-based “for and against” and possibly quite adversarial conferences as different individuals and groups see them as an opportunity to get guaranteed motions to Conference. In fact, far from the flexibility that has characterised these equalities conferences in meeting the needs of teachers brought together by the discrimination they face, the equalities conferences are likely to reflect in some detail the processes and procedures of the Union as a whole which, as we are all aware, do not attract those members into participation! What an own goal that would be!

This matter is to go to Conference in the Annual Report. I believe it needs further consideration. The further matter of “reserved” or “guaranteed” Executive places for what are, rather patronisingly in my view, referred to as “equalities groups” will not go to Conference this year, as the Equality Working Group ran out of time in their discussions. However, these are two sides of the same coin.

I am 100% committed to the promotion of our anti-discrimination agenda, of unity amongst all teachers and opposition to bigotry and prejudice. But these must be matters of open, honest, sharp debate and agreed programmes of action. There are no short cuts. Fundamentals such as this cannot be achieved or even be brought closer by bureaucratic, mechanistic, procedural expedients. In fact such attempted “short-cuts” are likely to result in the opposite. We could find ourselves marginalizing – “ghettoising” is a word often used – the anti-discrimination agenda and sectionalising our Union… perhaps our Union version of “sleepwalking to segregation"?

I would really like to hear your views on this matter

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