Fighting the privatisation of education in Lewisham

Submitted by AWL on 1 July, 2009 - 1:47

In Lewisham this week the consultation with governing bodies in two schools, one sixth form college and Goldsmiths College opened to decide whether the proposal to set up a Trust across all four institutions should go ahead. In this round governors will decide whether to proceed with a full consulation in September. If they are successful, Depford Green, Addeys and Standhope, Crossways Sixth Form Goldsmiths will be governed by a single appointed governing body and be taken out of local authority control.

The meeting at Goldsmiths was a promising start to what will be a strategic battle in Lewisham to stop the wholesale sell off and privatisation of our education system. If they win they will destroy education for a generation, break up union organisation and have even more control to dictate what happens in our community and to our kids.
The consultation finishes on 21 July. Lets make them feel the pain.

* Next campaign meeting: Wednesday 8 July, 4pm, Room 141, Ground Floor, Goldsmiths (near the main entrance)
* There will be leafleting outside Addeys on Monday 6 July at 3.15pm. Parents at Deptford Green will be organising leafleting at their school too.

This campaign has the potential to defeat Labour in Lewisham, firstly because unlike before where they picked schools off one by one, they are going for three and four if you include Colfe's (Leathersellers) planned takeover of Catford High. This brings a wider group of people into struggle, which at the same time makes the forces against the plan greater and more concentrated.

Secondly, we have shown through the Lewisham Bridge campaign that direct action is an effective way of mobilising opposition and in the context of Linsey, Visteon, Barrow, St Pauls Way, Haggerston as well as London Met and Tower Hamlets College, the arguments for strike action and occupations are being taken up by a wider group of people.

Because we have consistently argued that the situation at Lewisham Bridge is directly linked to Labour’s plans to privatise schools in the borough, more people are aware of this and are beginning to see the ideological basis of the attack and see through the management speak that lies about the real intentions behind the Trust.

Finally we are talking about over 500 workers in the schools and many more at Goldsmiths who are directly under threat by these proposals. It is true to say that the local union leadership has been slow to push the sort of action that is necessary to defeat the plans. However, the fact that Martin Powell Davies (Secretary of Lewisham NUT) is now calling for strike action is in part a consequence of the pressure of our campaign alongside a growing realisation amongst education workers that the consultation is a fraud and only strike action has a chance of winning. This means that we have a real chance of getting action amongst a significant group of workers. Combined with some direct action of parents a la Lewisham Bridge and students a la Barrow, Goldsmiths, SOAS and London Met and we have ourselves a heady mix of determination and action!

I would be the last one to deny the barriers that we face; anti-union laws that make effective action very difficult, a local union leadership that has been slow to take the initative and has distanced itself from actions such as our occupation of Lewisham Bridge school, as well as a general lack of confidence born out of twenty or more years of defeats in the labour movement.

But what we have working for us is that people are getting sick and tired of being pushed around and they don’t trust these people anymore. Out of Lewisham Bridge we have build an activist base that can be mobilised swiftly and effectively to build the campaigns in the respective schools, colleges and university.

So I’m feeling quite optimistic, but then I always am!

Kirstie
Hands off Lewisham Bridge occupation and Defend Education in Lewisham
(Kirstie is a member of the Permanent Revolution group)

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