The Government's new white paper
Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future is Labour's most
explict statement yet for what they have in store for
state education - it's complete breakup. What they outline is
an explict business model of education, where children are
commodities whose value in the market can be improved through
'efficiency' and 'productivity' and where 'time and motion' studies
of the classroom (read factory floor) will be used to monitor
'outcomes' (read our kids). Big brother is watching you. But
trading people in the market isn't straight forward. How do you
coerce people? Fear. Alongside the wholesale sell off of our
schools is a host of draconian measures aimed at putting us in our
place argues Kirstie Paton...
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On Saturday 27 June, beneath North London’s sweltering skies,
the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) gathered for its third
annual conference. There were some cracking speeches and some
cracking speakers.
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Yesterday (1st July) lecturers at
Manchester College took strike action against threats of compulsory
redundancy. One of the lecturers threatened with redundancy is the
UCU branch secretary David Swanson.
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NUT members at Haggerston School in Hackney are to strike
next week on Thursday 9th July against proposed redundancies.
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Those who have been fighting the privatisation of our schools
through the Academy programme are well aware that Trusts are
academies by another name. On Monday 29 June, over 60 people
including teachers, lecturers, admin staff, teaching assistants,
parents and activists from the local community agreed to launch a
campaign to defeat Labour's plans to privatise our schools.
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The third Convention of the Left will be held in Brighton on
Saturday September 26th (around 10-4.30) – at the
Brighthelm Community Centre.
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Last summer 29 people stopped a train containing 1,000 tonnes of
coal on its way to Drax power station in Yorkshire. Their trial
starts in Leeds Crown Court on Monday 29 June 2009.
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Iran has just been
through the largest period of mass mobilisation and social unrest
since the 1979 revolution, writes Stuart King
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Hands Off Lewisham Bridge called on all our supporters to
help us resist the threatened eviction on 25th June. The bailiffs
were due to arrive at 10.30 am.
By 9.00 am there were about 20 of us in the
occupation and about 20 in the park below us. The sun was shining
and our spirits were high – it was going to be a good day...writes
Eleanor Davies...
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Members of UCU today (Wednesday) overwhelmingly voted for strike
action at Manchester College. Following a ballot where
74% of members polled voted yes to strike action and 84% voted
in
favour of action short of a strike, the union announced that
members will walk out on Wednesday 1 July.
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I thoroughly recommend this book. It simply and entertainingly
explains “basic scientific principles to help everyone to become an
effective bullshit detector.”
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A revolutionary party that breaks out of the ghetto of the
French far left: that was the promise on offer at the February
launch of the new anti-capitalist party in Paris. Christina Duval
was there, listened to the debates and interviewed local activists.
This is was she made of it The French Ligue Communiste
Révolutionnaire (LCR) is no more.
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Dear Comrades, we welcome your open letter and call for unity on
the left and would like to work alongside you to achieve it. Given
the recent failure of attempts to build left alternatives, this is
not going to be easy – but it is a vital and urgent task....write
Permanent Revolution...
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After the last major school students’ strike in Germany in
November 2008, there were large demonstrations across the country
on June 17 as part of a week-long “education strike”, Johannes
reports from Berlin.
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The European election results marked a significant political
turning point in British politics. They confirmed that the Tories
will win the next election, for the first time in British history a
fascist party has made an electoral breakthrough and that the
political, organisational and numerical weakness of the left in
Britain has been revealed as terminal, not transitory...writes Mark
Hoskisson....
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The spring 2009 issue of
Permanent Revolution is now on sale for £2.50 for 60 pages of
analysis and argument on national and international issues.
Articles on Palestine-Israel, credit crunch, Lindsey refinery
strike, the new anti-capitalist party in France and the discussion
underway inside the Socialist Workers Party (UK). Plus briefings,
reports and reviews.
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The new issue has a number of related themes. We look
at how the world recession and financial crisis is impacting on
Europe, in particular within the eurozone economies. In our
Briefings section comrades from Ireland and Sweden follow this up
with reports on how the recession is leading to attacks on workers,
both on jobs and benefits. We also carry an article that looks at
the lessons of the Visteon struggle, an important fightback against
factory closures and redundancy terms....
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