Support grows for Bolton school strike
Jason is a supporter of Permanent Revolution
Nearly sixty people came to the rally, outside a governors' meeting, against the Academy at Withins School, Bolton with strikers, parents, students and delegations from other schools and workplaces.
The mood was defiant and loud, leaving governors in no doubt about the strength of feeling. Some governors came to the picket to discuss the issue and at least a couple of governors said they supported us. The main sponsors of the Academy were not brave enough to turn up though they sent a delegate and the good news is that the combination of the strike against a change of employer, the deluge of messages of support, the strong community campaign and media profile have already resulted in an announcement that the Academy proposal has been put back by two terms.
"This shows our strength," said Phil Roberts, the NUT rep, "but we're not letting up at all until we have secured a complete victory. If anything support for the campaign and the strike is growing!
We've had messages of support from Devonshire to Newcastle and school reps on the phone from other places threatened with Academy status to see if they can try a similar strike against change of employer. The support is really appreciated - please keep it coming in and sending in the petitions. It's like the whole country's looking to us to win and supporting us!"
Protestors, who included members of Unison and NASUWT, as well as a good delegation of students and parents shouted, "Our School's Not For Sale!" and discussed ways forward. The NUT group meets tomorrow to plan the next day of strike action and Unison members are also meeting to decide whether to join the strike or not.
At one point it looked like the police were sending reinforcements to perhaps move us on but the mood was resolute with chants of "Power to the poeple!" and "United front! Shoulder to shoulder!"
The rally was a great success and shows some of the support. "All the students support this campaign," said one, "and want to stay as Withins not some private Academy! Some of us have even been threatened with disciplinary measures for supporting the strike and joining the strike picket but it would really kick off if they tried anything!"
"We definitely think we can win," added a striker, "this school is our school and we're going to fight. We've been campaigning for over a year and saw off another bidder but this strike has really escalated it. it's really important people keep supporting us and perhaps other NUT groups could have similar actions. It's about time we took a stand!"
The rally ended with some speeches and determination to carry on the strike until all threats have been seen off.
This is obviously a very important strike and shows the way forward for organising in schools, taking action over class size, workload, any other issues and bombarding union leaders with the demand for a national ballot for discontinuous (ongoing preferably escalating) strike action over all these issues and pay.
Support for struggles like the Bolton strike should be used to begin to organise a network of activists to ensure rank and file control of struggles and the need for ordinary members to get organised to pressure our leaders to take the action we need and get organised at the rank and file level to take action ourselves where we can. Victory to the Bolton strike! For national ballot as soon as possible!
- E-mail messages of support to Bolton NUT conwaycoltman@yahoo.com
- For the latest news from the campaign and a petition, see here.
- Model motion:
"We send our support and solidarity to Bolton NUT members at Withins school taking strike action against change of employer and to Bolton NUT's campaign against the school closures and Academy plan."
- Send donations c/o Bolton NUT, FREEPOST, NWW8182A, Wigan, EN1 3ZZ
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
thanks
for hosting this
can readers please also visit this Save Withins school site and sign the petition and download petition to send to Bolton Freepost address Withins petition
Thanks, Jason
Some comments from a former teacher and NUT activist in Norwich
The comrade writes:
"The official 'Expression of Interest' document relating to this
academy-proposal can be found at the following link:
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/foischeme/_documents/DfES_FoI_354.pdf
On page 2 it basically says the kids are to be readied for employment in
local business. Later, in remarks about the likely curriculum-offer, the document
prioritises job-opportunities. On a cursory reading then, it appears evident
that the students will be explicitly readied for work under capital rather
than 'life', though no doubt the Diocesan side of the sponsor-team would
disagree. The document attempts to evade some of the more common charges made
against academies, for example by claiming there will be no selection, that it won't
be a 'faith' school (though it will have a Christian ethos) and that the
school will be part of the 'family' of local schools and work with them. The
proposals also make clear that the academy aims to be a 3-19 school, replacing
some local Primary provision as well as the Secondary school, and incorporating a
special unit for kids designated as having Special Educational Needs. The
business-sponsors (domiciled in Jersey, I assume for tax-reasons) are involved
in another academy-project and interested in two more. This means they are
looking to run a stable of schools. They have no qualifications for the job of
running a school beyond being successful capitalists.
The standard arguments against an academy apply:
removal of democratic accountability by restricting parent/staff
representation on the governing body and building in a majority for the sponsors;
significant disruption to the intake and systems of the other local schools;
massive diversion of public funds into what is a semi-private asset: in this
case involving the writing-off of the school's current debt (£100K plus) and
the re-siting (at as yet unquantified cost) of overhead electricity lines in
order to 'maximise the possibilities of the site' along with the usual £30-£40M
start-up money in return for nothing by the sponsors. The nominal £2M was
changed to 'up to £2M' some time ago, and hardly any local authorities have
received anything like this amount (according to Frances Beckett, who has written a
book about academies and their fraudulent nature).
Clearly there's a fight to be had here, but the Left needs to be able to
offer more than just a defense of the status quo. The final decision on an
academy's go-ahead rests with the Sec of State, not with the local authority,
though if the LA blocked the proposal that would be a big help. A lot depends on
whether the community affected can be mobilised or not."