The Brits and French Are Doing It. Why Won’t We Do It?

Teachers in the United Kingdom have overwhelmingly approved a strike action on June 30, according to the Teacher Solidarity website. Teachers in England and Wales are facing massive cuts to their pension entitlement. Under the new plan, their pension contributions may rise by more than 50%, while the retirement age may rise to 68. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) voted 92% in favor of the strike, and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) voted 83% in favor. They will be joined on the picket line by civil servants in the PCS union and the university and higher education union UCU. Other public sector unions are also considering strikes, including the largest public sector union UNISON, which is planning a strike action for the autumn.

Meanwhile, French teachers are planning to go on strike in September. The government plans to replace only half the teachers who retire this summer, resulting in a cut of 16,000 jobs.

UK Teachers Ready to Strike over Pensions

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) have voted to strike over pensions cuts, according to the Teacher Solidarity blog. The two unions, which cover the majority of teachers in England and Wales, will go on strike at the end of June over increased pension contributions and proposals to delay the retirement age to 68.

Teachers from NUT are also opposing the increasing privatization of schools and the excessive teacher workloads.

Teachers Strike Over Job Cuts

In England, teachers have gone on strike at Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, over proposed job cuts. The school plans to cut 34 staff, including up to 20 teachers, in order to reduce a £1.3 million deficit. This would slash one-fourth of the teaching staff, as there are currently 80 teachers at the school.

Teacher strikes are rare n the U.S. Here, it is typical for teachers unions to take the simplistic and wimpy attitude that they should only fight over contractual issues. They will resist violations of their contracts, bad faith by admin during negotiations and, most of all, threats by admin to cut pay and benefits guaranteed by their contracts. But when admin starts handing out pink slips due to budget shortfalls, unions typically acquiesce, arguing to their members that it is admin’s right to do so under Ed Code (so long as seniority rights are protected).

This approach treats newer teachers like fodder, throwing them in front of the train as a buffer against job cuts for more senior teachers. However, it also undermines working conditions for the remaining teachers and learning conditions for their students by increasing class sizes, cutting course offerings, and creating an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty.

I am not suggesting that we get rid of seniority rights, particularly when the alternatives currently under consideration by the Ed Deformers are so biased and open to abuse. What I am suggesting is that unions need to take a more proactive and militant approach to protecting the interests of all their members, novice and senior alike, especially in the case of job cuts, which impact everyone. We need to be willing to fight layoffs, as well as NCLB, value-added and other bogus performance-based evaluation systems, vouchers, and privatization schemes with job actions, if necessary.

British Student Gets 32 Months In the Pokey

Edward Woollard (18), the student who threw a fire extinguisher from Millbank Tower during protests last November, was sentenced to 32 months’ in prison for “Violent Disorder.” He was one of thousands of students protesting dramatic fee hikes, and among the dozens who had smashed their way into the Tory headquarters.


The judge who sentenced Woollard was clearly out to make an example of him, saying "The right of peaceful protest is a precious one. Those who abuse it and use the occasion to indulge in serious violence must expect a lengthy sentence of immediate custody.” Sure, he nearly hit a cop and the injury might have been severe, but it was most likely because it was a cop he almost hit that the judge threw the book at him.

32 months is a long sentence for an 18-year old with no previous record who injured no one by his act. Many violent offenders with records get lesser sentences, and the police who assaulted nonviolent demonstrators, including  disabled student Jody McIntyre, were merely doing their jobs.

Off With His Head

Off With His Head (image by Alaskan dude)

Ostentatious Wealth and Grandiose Ignorance  

                                                                     

Protesters chanting “Off With His Head,” attacked Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Wednesday, as his chauffer idiotically attempted to maneuver his Rolls Royce through a demonstration of thousands of angry students. Protesters threw paint, smashed a window, and hurled sticks at the royal couple, as they attempted to make their way to the theater. Throughout the ordeal, The Royal Moron continued to smile and wave, even proffering the thumbs-up, as if completely oblivious to the fact that he and his ostentatious vehicle symbolize precisely the sort of parasitic wealth that was fueling the students’ anger.

Cops Bash in Student’s Brain

The protest had started outside parliament and was immediately met with extreme police brutality. Riot cops “kettled” protesters in Parliament Square, trapping them within a police cordon, and assaulting them on foot and on horseback. Alfie Meadows, a 20-year old student, was carried away unconscious, with serious head injuries. He later had to undergo emergency brain surgery. A student with cerebral palsy was dragged from his wheel chair and roughed up, too. He told journalists that their obsession with violence was not only misleading the public (thousands of protesters had broken free of the police cordon and continued to march peacefully, without incident), but it was fanning the flames of police violence against students, by making it seem deserved.

Photo by Andrew Moss

It should be noted that millions of students have been protesting peacefully across the country against the trebling of university fees. High school and middle school age children have been joining the protests. Students are outraged not only by the fee hikes, but the host of austerity measures being hoisted upon the British people in order to pay for a budget deficit caused by government and corporate irresponsibility and greed.

The media have characterized the students as violent, anarchic and naïve. Prime Minister David Cameron said that the protesters “came determined to provoke violence. . . They must face the full force of the law.”

Yet it is the government who should take responsibility. The violence was provoked by the police, not the protesters. The cops “kettled” protesters, detaining everyone in the vicinity without charge or access to food, water and toilets, and then they assaulted them. People act outraged that protesters attacked the prince, yet if the police had done their homework, they should never have allowed the prince to drive through a mass protest.

The Escalating Class War

The extreme police violence meted out against protesters, and the government and media frenzy to justify it, all come at a time of rapidly growing popular discontent throughout Europe and the U.S. Student protests in Italy have also been savagely attacked by police, while workers and students have also been assailed in France, Germany, Spain, and Ireland in recent months.

The ruling elite recognize that they have crossed a line in terms of the brazenness and greed of their looting and pillaging. They are expecting increasing opposition and they are ready to use as much force as it takes to defend their property and their profits.  

Photo by binary ape

Will American Students and Workers take to the streets in similar numbers when the austerity measures really hit here?