Broad lefts and rank-and-file groups

At the National Union of Teachers conference on 3-7 April, an amendment from the rank and file network Lanac on teacher workload was lost by 41% to 59%. A wrecking amendment (delete most) to a Lanac proposal on union strategy passed only by 53% to 47%. Lanac motions usually get about a third of conference votes. This year’s votes show that an increasing section of conference dissatisfied with the mismanagement of industrial disputes, and bemused by the union leaders’ continual self-congratulation at a time when latest figures show that almost four out of ten new teachers quit within a year of...

At its February meeting the National Union of Teachers (NUT) National Executive definitively ruled out further national strikes between now and the election. NEC members who support rank and file campaign LANAC proposed that the Union call a strike for March 24, but were defeated by 24 votes to 13 with 2 abstentions. This decision effectively brings to an end the action phase of the campaign since 2010 and the mandate of the current ballot as far as national strike action goes. Local strikes and action short of strikes will continue, but after the election there will almost certainly need to...

On Tuesday the 13 January the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) branch of the PCS union voted by an overwhelming majority to call strikes over pay. The ICO has been lagging behind civil service pay for some time, with members’ salaries a grade behind what the rest of the civil service receive. This year’s pay offer was limited to a 3% rise for workers who have been in the job longer, and bumping newer workers up the pay scale. Whilst this allows management to bribe newer staff with superficially large increases in pay this is money they are contractually obliged to over time. It does...

I am standing for Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) against incumbent Kevin Courtney and right-winger Ian Grayson. I stand for a radically different way of running the union, for a union that is organised from the bottom up not just one that has “left wing” leaders at the top. Power in the workplace We can only improve the lives of members if the Union is strong at work. I want to see workplace branches recognised and given democratic power in the Union. Union power comes from workers collectively organising at a workplace level, being able to challenge...

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Articles: Breaking the pattern of defeat The crisis in Britain's biggest union Firefighters move towards national action The fruits of New-Realism Organising the rank-and-file Download PDF

Despite leftie-bashing by the Times newspaper, with the help of former General Secretary Fred Jarvis, a sizeable minority of National Union of Teachers members voted for LANAC NUT General Secretary candidate Martin Powell-Davies. Martin, who stood on a platform calling for escalated and co-ordinated industrial action against Gove’s measures, gained 27% of the vote against incumbent Christine Blower. The result was declared on 25 June. The lack of union publicity about the election was reflected in the very poor 13% turnout. It cannot have been helped by the union repeatedly marching members up...

Two contrasting views of the proposed takeover of civil service union PCS by Unite by a PCS activist and a Unite community member. PCS-Unite: no to merger! A PCS activist The annual conference of PCS, the largest civil service trade union, on 20-22 May will debate a motion submitted by the union’s Executive (NEC) on PCS merging into the big general union Unite. The motion would instruct the NEC, on completion of talks with Unite, to convene a special delegate conference to debate the terms of “merger” and decide whether to proceed to a membership ballot to authorise the “merger”. Strictly...

The outcome of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) Easter conference makes it more important than ever for delegates to build a grass-roots movement capable of challenging the leadership and building local disputes that can increase members’ confidence and capacity and speed serious national action. As the press headlines say, the conference voted against definite plans for strike action in the autumn term. There will be yet another one day national strike in the summer term. But members cannot be blamed for asking whether this new one day protest is not more of the same tokenism. We left...

The results of the elections to the NUT National Executive for 2014-16 were released on 10 April. They show significant successes for the Local Associations National Action Campaign (LANAC). Following the elections there are around eight NUT Executive members who are strong supporters of LANAC and a wider group who have a track record of supporting the rank-and-file network’s proposals to escalate industrial action in the current dispute with the government. The first priority in this election was to ensure that LANAC convenor Martin Powell Davies, a Socialist Party member, was re-elected in...