of the union sould be (in the teachers case it is that it resealed the increasing politicalisation of the less contact the teacher has with the pupil.
of the headteacher in both the school and, often manifesto or paper about the union without the usually labelled Carr's Bill, but it could easily authorisation of the E.C. Le, the union bura- become the biggest weapon that Thatcher will. have been won in struggles over the last hundred On December 8th over 2,000 London teachers participated in the political strike which was called to demonstrate workers' opposition to the Industrial Relations Bill. The call for action did not made if quite clear that the executive of the come from the Executive of the NUT quite sure that all members of the union knew that it did not want any such action, but from the ILTA (Inner London What has also become apparent over the past Teachers Association) council. Several schools closed down completely, and in others many children were sent home. It was this action of over 2,000 London teachers demonstrating their solidarity with workers as workers which has given any real meaning to the decision of the NUT to join the TUC.
Within the NUT wider discussion on the Bill amongst the rank and file only started when there was a possibtlity of taking action against It. After the proposals of the Tories were publisbed, their myths and hes were revealed. This Bill was seen by many teachers not to be an attack on the "irresponsible" and the "wildents" duas liable for personal fines. The Bill would but a blatant attempt to smash any effective rank and file control of the union and consequently to shackle any effectice union.
How would this affeet the teachers? Over the the right of the employer). Even the NUT past two or three years there has developed in: the NUT a conscious rank-and-file movement.
Many young teachers have found themselves entering a job with very rigid bierarchical strue. tures and a union that often reflected those structures. (The young beacher is at the mercy equally so, in the union). Critiques of the education system have been developing and also a beads and deputies, who jealously guard their positions and have no desire to incorporate into the structure any fresh blood, leave alone the rank and flle. Our criticisms of the union have union is really a cautious appendage of these established educational structures, and has no (National Union of Teachers) which made desire or ability to lead the teachers in struggle.
Rank and File Pressures two years is that the executive can be pushed nto action; an example of this being the demon- and were running ahead of our membership. tration in London of July 1969 by London leachers in support of their Interim Pay Award. This strike was the first sertous pressure on the executive by the rank and fle in support of their the burning issue of comprehensivisation, of claim. This led to the series of strikes through the winter of 1969-70, and the award of E120 per annum. However, with the Tory Bill, chene would be posability of such a campaign; the union would be fined for breaking a signed agreement; strike actions called by bodies other thun the executive would be illegal, and agitation for such a strike would make indivialso contain the insidious clause which gives the government the right bo diccate what the rules realises that such a clause is unlikely to "Streng then the union or ensure that its structures are more democratic". (As the National Union of Seamen's rulebook is often cited as the ideal by the Tories, it is worth noting that Rule 32, clapse 5, says that no one can write a document.
cracy!! teachers fought for supporting the Dec. Sth strike. Within ILTA couneil, the two main groups opposed to each other were the ILTA officers supported by the C.P. on the one hund, and the group around the journal Rank and File in addition to other militants, on the other. The ILTA officers and their backers fought the resolution on the grounds that we should wait for the NUT executive and not indulge in political action, elc, etc. The C.P. fought it on the grounds that we were overestimating the consciousness of the teachers The leacbers should follow the TUC recommendation and have a lobby, after work. (They diture on educational aids. She apparently ignored the fact that when a lobby was called on envisages teachers as master lechnicians. (The which thousands of teachers are both conscious classes of hundreds wilb no personal contact and deeply concered about, there were less than a hundred teachers at Westminster.) The C.P. voted against the strike with the right-wing still coping with classes of over 40 (under-10s), social democrats, but they lost, 40 to 25. (The end of the suga came when King Street heard of no help. They want a drastic reduction in the to work for and not against the line on Dee. 8th (As a result, some of them came out on Dec. 8th).
December 8th was important for us insofur teachers: it was preceded by a clarification of the issues and very importantly by an educational campaigo in the local associations. In these local discussions the myth of the "a-polltical" nature of the schools and the education system Keith Joseph and his actacks on the socia is gradually being eroded.
The Bill being fought at the moment is ever wield. The NUT is ut the moment engaged vears. It Is necessary that teachers begin to see inner talke and tha amelonave with T'hatcher. basic scale payment that the teachers receive at the moment. These new scales will allow ample opportunity for the government to dissect the teachers" union by offering differential payments to different scales; pluras for the top and peanuts for the rest. Not only would this cause problems of fighting for a higher salary, but it will allow the Sec. of State to be more efficient in her proposals to cut the rate of increade in education expenditure, most of which goes on teachers' salaries. Evidence of ber preoccupation with this is the news that she is plunning to reduce the cumber of teachers being trained, and increase the expen alienation of the American college student in with teaching staff will be imported into the Britash primary classes) Por teachers who are the increused expenditure on mechanteal sids is what happened and instructed the C.P. teachers number of children they are expected to "teach"
.. classes of less than 30, and more personal work with individual children, not lest. But then this Is precisely what the Tories want to uvoid. An the crisis of bourgeois ideulugy intensifies, the better.
However, attacks on the teacbers via Carr and Thatcher are not the only ones that we must fight, the whole Tory ethos, typified by services are part and purcel of our battle. It is essential that all teachers realise that we must consolidate the gains of the working clase which themselves as purt of the struggles which the