Can capitalism work? Discussion on TES website

From a discussion on the TES website.

Since the corporate fat cats and their ideologues proclaimed "the end of history" they have had virtually undisputed sway over the world. They can no longer blame "the dirty commies" for everything which goes wrong. With such extensive power they have built into their very foundations all the combustible material on the planet. As Trotsky predicted they would in fact.

We do not have a system of entrepreneurs taking risks and building up small businesses in a free environment. Massive corporations have budgets larger than many nation states and wield power over governments.

Do you trust these rich bastards to tackle climate change or the environmental consequences of their greed or would you agree with Jack London: "you cannot evade the charge that your class has mismanaged. You will talk about other things and things connected with other things but you will not answer that central charge."

To join in the discussion click here

Hypocrisy over Cuba

From http://derekmcmillan1951.blogspot.com

The Americans want free elections in Cuba and they are sending over Jeb Bush and the Florida Republican Guard to supervise them.

(Two jokes for the price of one)

Woodard Corporation ignores parents and teachers

150 to 200 parents and teachers crammed into Worthing Assembly Hall on Thursday to discuss the proposed academies at three schools - Boundstone, King's Manor and Littlehampton.

The Local Authority had the good manners to send a spokesman who was listened to in polite silence.

Woodard Corporation - the power behind the academy bid - contemptuously refused to send anybody to talk to parents and teachers. That exemplifies their high and mighty approach and is the reason parents and teachers are up in arms.

The good old days!

This is a first class post from the TES answering someone complaining that degrees are much easier than in the old days:


Yes. of course your degree was harder to get than anyones these days.

It's so much easier now. I heard of a kid who got a degree in David Cameron studies and all he had to do was text an essay in to radio 1 and he got a first. my mates BTEC in bricklaying now entitles him to a chair in classics at Cambridge university.

These days kids can take the internet in to their exams, and their parents probably. Not that they have to do exams anymore. Not like when i had to do ten fourteen hour exams in Latin Algebra and we weren't even allowed pens to write with. I had to do so much writing my arms literally fell off, literally. and everyone else's did too and if they didn't then you only got a third - but that's the equivalent of a phd today anyway.

You can do xbox studies these days - all you have to do is get to level four of crash bandicoot and they make you emeritus professor. they're giving degrees away in the streets now you just have to walk down the street and they'll give you a degree in Britney Spears studies.

I'm outraged, it's terrible any student getting a degree today should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves - they're all worthless and this is my favourite subject because it allows me to tell bull**** anecdotes about how someone I knew only turned up twice a year and still got his degree whereas I had twenty seven hours of lectures a day for nine days a week and i still only got a third because that was the highest classification they used to give out.

I particularly love telling young people that I worked harder than them and that their efforts are wasted.

I hate the idea that other people can be successful.

Woodard Corporation in Academy Conflict

WSTA has issued a press statement:

Teachers in West Sussex are planning a campaign against proposals to turn three of the County's secondary schools into Academies, starting with a Public Meeting on Thursday 7 February at 7.30pm in the Assembly Rooms, Worthing. Dave Thomas, local Secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said:
We are opposed to Academies in West Sussex because:
they undermine democratically controlled Local Authorities,
they put schools in the hands of unaccountable sponsors,
they threaten teachers' pay and working conditions,
they will introduce three more schools of a faith character, with minimal consultation and a reduction in parents' choice.
At a meeting of West Sussex NUT held on Wed 16th Jan, the following motion was passed unanimously:
'WSTA is opposed to the establishment of Academies in West Sussex. It further deplores the lack of consultation by the Woodard Corporation and WSCC with the staff and their representatives in the schools concerned, namely, Boundstone CC, Kings Manor CC and Littlehampton CC.'
The meeting was attended by NUT members from all three schools and from other schools throughout West Sussex.
The public meeting is open to parents, teachers, support staff and others with an interest in state education to allow them an opportunity to air their concerns.

Young Teachers can transform the NUT

A group of teachers who backed Martin Powell-Davies’ recent stand in the NUT Vice-President election met on Saturday January 12th . The meeting discussed what needs to be done to build action to defend teachers’ pay, cut our relentless workload and to halt the break-up of local authority education.

A leadership we can rely on

One thing that still holds us back is the lack of a fighting union leadership that teachers can rely on to build the united action we need. Martin’s campaign helped keep up the pressure on the NUT Executive to call the promised national ballot for strike action on pay. We hope that the Executive will vote to get the ballot under way when they meet at the end of January. By then the Government should finally have announced the miserly salary awards that they expect us to put up with for 2008-2010.


Building support for classroom teachers

Most teachers, struggling with the daily grind in schools, will know nothing about the debates within the Union. But they know they need support in standing up to the demands of bullying managers and the pressures of observations, league tables and performance management. Hard-pressed school reps know they need support in organising their school group and explaining union campaigns in a way that grabs classroom teachers’ attention.
Many hard-pressed Union Secretaries and officers will feel the same way. Too often left on their own to try and build school-by-school action in isolation, ground down by a rising mountain of individual casework, they also need support in building strong local Associations that can defend teachers and also to help bring in new members, especially young teachers, into activity.
It’s this vital task, of helping to develop a strong network of classroom teachers, school reps and campaigning union officers that the meeting agreed had to be our first priority.

A campaigning newsletter

We agreed to build our network by launching a new campaigning newsletter, “Classroom Teacher”, to circulate to schools, both by e-mail and as printed copies that teachers can distribute to their colleagues. It will focus primarily on the main pay and conditions issues facing classroom teachers and the campaigns we can build to defend ourselves.

The newsletter plans to be sharp and snappy, written by, and for, classroom teachers, reflecting the daily pressures we are under but also building confidence that together we can take action to turn the tide. We plan to put names to the articles reflecting the range of teachers involved in the network. At the same time, we hope to have room to include some more detailed commentary for teachers who also want to read something a bit more analytical about the problems we face. We also want to invite teachers to send in their own articles and comments and to be a real part of a growing network.

We hope that the newsletter can develop in to a larger bulletin – which will mean appealing for finances too. It will certainly be regularly produced so that ‘Classroom Teacher’ will be there in staffrooms at least every half-term for teachers to read.

A first flyer has been produced based on a Lewisham NUT newsletter “Too Much Work, Too Little Pay” which went down well at a recent national NUT Secretaries meeting. A further leaflet on the pay campaign should be out shortly.

The ‘Classroom Teacher’ network

The newsletter will advertise an e-mail, blog and website which will allow teachers to get in touch with the campaign and also post their own comments on the blog. There is also a Classroom Teacher account on youtube.

We have also set up a classroom teacher e-group which will allow members of the network to easily contact each other and exchange views and information.

We hope that teachers will forward our newsletter to colleagues and develop its circulation. We
want to make sure we know where it is being read, get feedback on what teachers have thought of it but, above all, get new teachers to join the network and write their own comments and articles.

Where there is support, we will also organise national or regional meetings around particular issues or campaigns so that we can bring teachers together and help plan a way forward. We can also produce material to be distributed at NUT Conference, although our main focus is going to be on classroom teachers rather than national NUT events.

We hope this initiative can help build a network of classroom teachers working together to defend our colleagues and to build a union ready and prepared to take action to change our pay, our workload, our union and our schools.

Contact:
classroom.teacher@yahoo.co.uk
Martin Powell-Davies 07946 445488

Defend Tommy Sheridan