UNITY!
A bulletin to all the teacher union
conferences
We call our
bulletin produced for Union conferences “UNITY” and though its contents are
often contentious its title usually isn’t!
But with our
three teacher union conferences, the question of unity could not be more
challenging.
Let’s just
consider the situation. Teachers are under extreme pressure in terms of pay,
conditions, the undermining of our professional control of our lives and schools,
excessive workload, punitive inspection, top down performance management,
competition between schools, targets, testing, league tables, “Academisation”,
the growth of private sector intervention in wider and wider aspects of
education, growing job insecurity, funding issues… and soon almost certainly
our pensions too.
The attacks
on education are no accident, and not just the result of policy mistakes or a
failure to listen. The government remains committed to “public service reform”
which is designed to deliberately break up state education into individual
“increasingly independent” competing education businesses with growing private
sector control. That is their intention. It is not a mistake.
We use the
terms fragmentation, competition, marketisation, commodification and
privatisation interchangeably sometimes… and we shouldn’t. Each is a stage in
the process – a process which is well underway – but by no means complete.
Together, we can still beat it!
The
Government tries to accelerate the process by continuing to denigrate state
comprehensive schools, and accusing them and their teachers of failing children
– despite all the evidence that our work equips more and more children with the
ability to succeed.
Of course
the biggest single barrier to educational success is the deprivation and social
disadvantage suffered by so many working class children living in both
inner-city and rural poverty. It is the government’s failure – not teachers’ –
that this number is on the increase – despite continuing political promises to
“legislate” such poverty out of existence by 2020. The problem is deep seated –
and rooted in the current economic and political system. To eradicate poverty
would need really determined political and economic action – a whole new strategy
aimed at undermining the inequities of the free market system. There is no sign
of this - despite Government Ministers’ participation in demonstrations against
child poverty! And as the recession deepens we can anticipate that the needs of
children will take even less precedence.
There is a
clear need to formulate a set of trade union demands and alternative economic
strategies – and we need to endorse “The People’s Charter” committing ourselves
as teacher trade unionists to helping to build the widest support for such
alternative strategies in the trade union movement and our communities.
Barriers to
the Government’s political agenda and its economic subservience to the bankers
and big business are our national unions - organised and acting independently
of government - our strength locally and in individual schools, our national
pay and conditions, solidarity between unions, our local agreements with Local
Authorities – including union facilities agreements - and our grass roots connections between
schools and local communities. All are under attack precisely because
they are barriers to the process leading to the break up of state education, to
privatisation proper.
And the
Tories lurk just around the corner, ready to step up the pace – and probably
ready to ban public sector strike action too, just as they previously banned
collective bargaining.
In the face
of all this – and more – what teacher trade unionist would not recognise the
need for unity as an absolute priority? What trade unionist would see instead a
membership race to prove that “mine is bigger than yours” as being the most
important thing? Who would put partnership with the government that is
attacking us above solidarity with fellow teacher trade unionists?
We and our
communities are facing economic recession of an order not yet admitted by the
government. Despite the inherent crises of the free market system now exposed
for all to see, the government perhaps sadly predictably continues along a
substantive neoliberal path. We need to be strong and determined in our defence
of ourselves, the children we teach, their families and communities. It’s going
to be a hard battle – we can’t allow big egos, or
petty political ambition in our own ranks to get in the way.
All of our
debates in the teacher unions over this two week period need to reflect the
nature and scale of the attack – and the absolute need to unite in campaigns
and activity to defend ourselves.
And we need to start to work for a single education
union, to take its proper place amongst other public sector unions and the TUC
generally, nationally and locally in trades councils, in struggling to turn the
tide – instead of squabbling and fighting between ourselves.
Teaching is
a single, integrated profession – the greatest profession there is. We need a
single, integrated education union – to become one of the greatest unions there
has ever been.
Future
generations will not forgive us – or even understand us - if we remain
disunited. .Unity is at least the foundations of strength. Will we fight for
it, no matter how difficult some may make that fight, or will we let the
enemies of state education, those who undermine our profession, go having their
way as a result of the disunity they so cleverly promote?
Answers on a postcard please, at the end of conference.
Bill Greenshields