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from a 'LONDON to a NATIONAL PAY FIGHT
I. M.G. TEACHERS 5 p
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The immediate cause of the summer strikes was the unresolved This sore has been problem of the London Allowance.
Despite escalating costs of housing festering since 1970. and the spiral of inflation, the London Allowance was caught in the grip of the 1972 freeze. The massive struggle which took place despite the union leadership has culminated in a situation where that same Conmunist Party and right wing leadership is now urging teachers to call off their struggles in the hope of Houghton delivering the goods. In this pamphlet we explain how the London Teachers Action Committee freed the union from the grip of the bureaucracy through its campaign of unofficial strikes.
The campaign against shortage is still continuing. Even if this offer is accepted (and we urge its rejection), and even if this leads to temporary guiet in education, it will not alter the gigantic crisis of the social services. Big struggles are In the pages of this pamphlet inevitable in the near future. the International Marxist Group explains that the experiences of the London Teachers Action Committee has begun to prepare militants in London and nationally for such struggles.
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ILS so airs ПБО More work - Less Pay en we went back to school this term to face still falling wages and a catastrophic delcine in government spending on The Houghton enquiry has been told by the NUT education. facts that it should already know: teachers are working harder for less money. According to 'The Teacher' (August 9) it would take increases of around E300 to bring teachers wages into line with white collar workers generally and up to E450 to bring them into line with manufal workers.
Even the Department of Laucation's own statistics paint a black picture. They reveal for example that nearly 308 of teachers earn less than E1700 a year and that 67% earn less than E2500 a year. made worse by declining conditions and Shrinking wages are 'Observer' of August 11 cormented that facilities.'
Thesto "Ertish education is now facing the worst financial crisis in its history". The cuts of late 1973 are now being exacerbated by the affects of inflation. In many areas local authorities complain that they can only keep yoing by reducing the number of teachers in tha schools. result of these cuts the Education Cormittee of Gloucester will have lopped off 208 by the end of this year from its previous year's figure. That is the figure but what does I Well simply that vacancies occurring after the it mean? start of this term will not be filled uless the school is absolutely dependent on them being filled; that the buildings will be colder, hot water scare, telephone calls restricted and letters unwritten It also means that children in that i go swinming! area will not even
The same insane pattern is repeated up on down the country.
In London and the South East schools are desperately short staffed whilst at the same time Department officials fore- This threat cast unemployment of teachers in other areas. has already brought thousands of teachers into action in Meanwhile in Norfolk teachers were being told that meat would be phased out of school meals to be replaced by kesp, the high protein spun fibre - courtesy of Courtanles - mace in mile long strips and flavoured to taste like anything fron steak to chicken. Sasi Capita list Crisis - Educational Chaos The prospect then for the working class and their children 10013 as term starts in September is of an education system that cannot even mark tire but which is delcining rapidly.
Declining so fast that they are being told that whole areas of education which the trade unions struggles for over the This may be the fate of the youth years are being erased. service in many areas, of adult caucation and of nursery education (where it exists that is). All this at the same time as paying swingeing rate increases to finance a
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2 declining system. How has all this come about and what can be done about it?
The massive cutbacks in housing, health and education along with all areas of social expenditure that Labour has continued from the Tories are features of the absolutely massive crisis of british capitalisn. the severity of this crisis is shown by the prediction of the National Institutu of Econonic and Social Research last March that the Labour government would fail on four major fronts: balance of payments, price stability, full employment and economic growth. the Treasury itself underlined this when in April of this year they refused, unprecedentedly to publish thuir projections for the coning year. Now (August 30) the National Institute Economic Review predicts inflation of over 168 this year and over 17% next year. (This Review prompted one caller to London Broadcasting Corporation's phone in progrenme to George Gale to wonder whether we were on the verge of seeing the overthrow of parliamentary democracy). Meanwhile unemployment continues to rise and can confidently be expected to reach l million by Christmas. In some sectors, construction and autos for exanple, recession has already begun. Seen against this background the concossions made by the Labour government to the working class pale into insignifance (The freezing of rents for one year, cutting milk and bread prices and increasing pensichs). This drastic economic decline ahs led to the sacrifice of public expenditure on a massive scale. In attempting to solve the problens of biktish capitalism at the expense of the working Icass, the Labour government has continued and contributed to a generalised crisis of social expenditure. It is in this situation that sections of the working class such as hospital workers and nurses, local government workers as well as teachers have come into intense trade union activity. The combation of declining wages and a decline in the service they provide gives a very sharp focus to their militancy. What did the NUT DoP But how did the NUT leadership face up to its responsibilities? They repeated the usual pattern of obstruction, procrastination and sabotage.
They called a hali day strike at a difficult time (first day of ter) and without any preparation, and to their surprise found at least 15,000 teachers taking to the streets on April 29 - some of then for the whole day.
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In their ballot of the membership they tried to conceal the fact that the overwhelming view was that the NUI should take action. This was confirmed when the Executive revealed that 800 schools had voted by over two thires to take strike action/I This gave the lie to Sam Fisher who had only just declared at the North Loncon Association that there were no groups of schools within any of the areas balloted that had voted by over two thirds to come out. Even after April 29 the official NUT Action Committee planned not.hing.
It did not even plan to meet until May 23. It was in this situation that ING militants and their supporters celsed the need to propine sirike soldone agrees the meeting of the Action Cormittee with a lobby of strikers and others. we explained that only this sort of action would cemonstrate the preparedness of teachers to strike and strengthen the confidence and experience of those who were already prepared to take action.
It was necessary to show that although every militant would prefer to see the Executive organise strike action, words alone would not persuade them to co so. After all they knew already that as 438 in the ballot box were for indefinite action with no lead from them. The Beginning of Action Because a centralised lead was lacking either from the union itself or from those schools that were prepared to take action, certain schools began to develop their own action. The most notable example was Helland Park. Militants in that school had pushed fee indefinite strike action but had been defeated on the issue and had compromised by calling for a mass resignation.
The publicity which this action received did not particularly widen the call for resignation but did fan the flames of discontent. More particularly it focused attention on the real way forward and contributed to the debate which opened up amongst militants concerning the problems of organsing unofficial strieks. An interesting aspect of this debate was the way in which even leading members of the International Socialist grouping working through their "Rank and File" teacher organisation were forced to enter this debate. After having caucused with numerous militants from schools all over London thw IMG teachers commission had decided that at the May 23 lobby the call should go out for an Ad hoc Action Committee to be set up. The zim of this committee
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would be to prepare the ground in the widest number of schols for uncfficial strike action. When the strikes began of course their conduct would be taken over by a strike committee elected by and of strikers: The Ad Hoc cormittee would in that situation either dissolver or take on a a support function. (Publicity, finance, etc.)
In the event and with the aid of a thunderstorm the Mander Hall at Hamiltion House was occupied.
Leading members of Is continued at this meeting their spiritec opposition to the setting up of such a committee. 8143 Indeed on the pavement cutside only moments before the occupation, a leading IS luminary had delcared petulantly that as far as she was concerned the IMG would call for "its' action committee but neither she nor any one else would attend. Well in the event they had no choice. But until the meeting inside the hall had overwhelmingly accepted and understood the need for a democratic bouy to prepare strike action (in the content of trying to force the Union to make it offlical) the IS members continued to fight their rearguard action. It was an IS resclution for example which would in practice have restricted the activity of the militants in occupation of the hall to pass resoltuions in their local associations calling on the Executive to call an official striek.
The amendment to this resoltuion, noved by IMG member, Betty Hunter of Wandsworth, clearly explained the conditions under which the union bureaucracies time and again are forced to take action by the actions of the rank and file.
She expalined that delay would only assist the government in foistering a deal on the union in the guise of the Fay Board recommendations. If this was to be prevented and a serious movement developed amongst teachers, then it had to begin immediately. silt The Role of the Internationalist Socialist Grouping The amendment was overwhelmingly accepted by the meeting, with IS members voting against, and the first preparations were made for the wave of unofficial strikes which followed.
It is important that all militants involved in the unofficial strikes last term understand clearly the role of the we make these points as International Socialist tendency. a contribution to the discussion of the way forward for next term not for any sectarian reasons. The IS members eventually acknowledged the need for an action cormittee of some kind to prepare the ground for and assess the possibility of unofficial strike action, but they saw this as a body which would come from the next Rank and File convenors meeting!
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This pointed to the centre of the contradiction which IS They were part of an organsiation teacher conrades facec. which was supposed to represent all rank and file teachers, therefore they reasoned that organisation should organise the ra nk and file.
But here they found that Rank and File were tailing behind the union militants, many of whom were not in Rank and File and some cf whom had never even heard of it!
Therefore however useful Rank and File had been as a permanently organised radical and progressive current within the NUT, it could not presume to 'take over! some entirely new action which it had not motivatad, had not initially supported and which came in the main from outsice of Rank and File.
What became clear was the misconception IS has cf the real nature cf a genuine movement of the rank and file. In the preparation of this unofffcial action, abaolute denocracy was essential. The same is truenof course of official action. DEven had the NUT Executive called official action it would still have been necessary to wrest control of the strike cut of the hands of the bureaucracy and inte the hands of those actually on strike. The misconceptions of IS teachers on this score seems to be generalised amongst other IS members. In the NALGO London weighting strike for example, what was essential was to turn the struggle of a number of branches into a unified fight. An all London body formed from the various campaigns, strike and action committees in the branches and work places should have taken control of the day to day running of the strike out of the hands of the burcaucracy:
The NALGO Action Group - dominated by the International Socialists could have played a big part in building this kind of all-Loncon organisation. again they did not understand what role such a body would or could play. DoLL
The Settlement The settlement being recommended by Hamilton House is obviously completely inadequate. The fight against civisive 'tier' systems must continue enThe dangdr of this kindlof settlement is that it falls into the trap set by the Labour They argues there is only a limitec amount of governient. nilney available. Share it cut alongst yourselves with some sections gotting more.
The bureaucracy is always calling for unity One look at this settlement shows who the real splitters are. 33U0 Lista of по eterosst 10
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In recommending acceptance the Executive are assisted by a number of factors in the present situation. In the first place the findings of the Houghton report will be presented as a major step for teachers or the road to Secondly, the election will be 'professional status'. used as an excuse not to reject the offer After all, Hamilton House will argue, if there is a change of government we may not get anything. Also they will argue that inflation cuts daily into the real value of any incrase. Better settle now and get what we can.
But we have This line lays enormous traps for the future to be clear about one thing. Even this offer represents
what the Union asked (inadequate as that is) and for this purpose the area of Inner London has been expanded. The danger of this can be seen in the introduction of a new "fringe" area. This opens the dcor to the creation of fringe areas all over the country. Throughout this whole action the inton bureaucracy has been unable to head off the movement of the NUT ra nks. So marked has this process been that they had to capitualte to the London Teachers Action Cermittee on the July 11 official strike, they were unable to co a deal over the sumer and they had to drop charges on the Wandswornh 3. The Action was Undefeated We must stress this fact: the action in London remained undefeated and despite the lying cistortions of the so-called In fact in the 3 "Workers Press", continued to develop. day period of July 3, 4, 5, over 1000 teachers took The way members responded to the unofficial strike action. half-day strike call by the Executive and tre unofficial action which led to it, showed that members wanted more than parliamentary lobbying.. The conclusion of the last stiuggle has not altered the deepending crisis in education. In acdition so the cuts in one area after another, which we have outlined, the Tories are new plenning even further cuts if they should win Their talk of "parent power" is a mask for the election. more cuts. St. John Stevas wants Local Education Authorities to stall on comprehensive plans and plans for centralisation of teachers pay are well in hand.
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Crisis Continues IsIt is clear that the outcome of the election, Tory, Labour or Lib-Tory 'coalition' will not halt the crisis.
On a national level the Hamilton House bureaucracy will attempt to deal with this crisis by conducting "reasoned" negotiations just like they did over pensions last autumn.
Whatever they do and whatever the outcome of the Special conference, a renewed struggle on teachers pay is on the This is despite any lull that will temporarily agenda. occur given acceptance of the Executive's line at the Special Conference. The depth of the crisis predetermines noa continued struggle on shortage and non-coverage.
From a London fight to a National Struggle Faced with the certainty of renewed struggle we have to seriously consider the problem of breaking out of London isolation. This is a major political question for teachers.
Any action of a London nature is strengthened when coupled with demands around national pay, sliding scale, cuts and shortages. It is for this reason that the London Teachers Action Confittee saw these questions as a major component of its work.
The best way for london teachers to win teachers nationally is through taking up the struggle on the whole question of threshold agreements, the education cuts and shortages.
Despite itself, the NUT Action Cormittee has provided an impetus to the struggle in the position it has taken on non-caverage. Local Associations have been encouraged to renew a policy of non-coverage. In many areas throughout the country the lesson of London will be vital. Really representative and denocratic bodies will need to be set up if effective action - official or unofficial - is to succeed.
The action in London proved that struggles starting in a single school need not be isolated.
The existence of support conmittees can defend, extend and develop such actiens aUE over a whole area. But of course once an action begins the task is not only to extend it among teachers but to break out of the confines of the school and turn to other sectors - in the trace unions, among parents and school students. so in any struggle that develops around This is particularly the last 'campaign' on this issue was marked by shorbage. the fact that it was not in any real sense a campaign.
This was precisely because teachers realise that there is no short term solution to this problem which is inextricably bound up with the whole issue of pay and educational expenditure. have been achieved in the shortage struggle it never had the bite of the campaign on pay.
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8 In accition to the shortage question, the affects of local authority bankruptcy and the affects of inflation can be taken up locally through conferences of workers such as that organised in Wandsworth through the Trades Council on the initiative of the local association. But as a national campaign such activities will need to be linked to the immediate question of pay. This would provide the focus fot taking such a campaign into deeper layers of teachers and the working class generally. The lessons of the action comittee and its organisation of the London Allowance struggle are crucial in the situation that opens up.
That is why the International Marxist Group has maintained the position throughout the London Allowance struggle and in all its activity within the London Teachers oction Committee that we must have a total rounded set of demands which can untie the struggle of teachers both in and out of London with the struggle of the working class generally. We must be on our guard against any attempt on the part of the union bureaucracy or of the Labour leadership to divert the struggle of teachers or any section of the working class into futile Parliamentary charaderal Wé advocate a vote for Labour as part of the process of developing the struggle of the working class, not because we believe that Labour's capitalist policies are of any benefit to the working class. There must be no questico of tha tutormist Labour leaders recapturing and prolonging theit wadibility in 'opposition'. But we cannot simply shy "Vote habour". We have to qualify this by outlining the type of siruggle, politically and organisationally, necessary to z¿vance the siruggle towards a workers sclution to the riditoo That solution can only b122 end management of industry be a society with owrkena and a socialist plan ot pruavesion. "Vote Labour but rely only on your own struggles": our demands during and after this election must be framed in that context. In the period that opens up after the Special Conference our demands on wages must be:
A E2500 starting wage A sliding scale of wages based on a workers index No more new differentials Abolition of existing differentials (graduate/nongraduate)
A flat rate increase for all teachers equal to the sum necessary to raise scale I to the new starting wage For a reduction in the number of scales and increments No incomes policy under capitalism Unity with other workers in struggle.
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