On the march in London

Avenue Primary School, 3 form entry in Newham, was closed on April 24th. 16 out of 26 NUT members who were on strike met up and went on the demo from Lincoln Inn Fields to Westminster Hall. 10 of the 16 were young teachers on strike for the first time, our contingent was energetic and noisy with whistles and chants as we followed our school banner. 3 secondary teachers from Roding Valley and 8 primary teachers from other schools in Newham and Redbridge all young teachers (many of them NQTs) joined our lively group. The whole Avenue group and 2 Roding Valley teachers got into the rally and stayed to hear all the speakers, applauding loudly whenever the need for more strikes with other public sector workers was raised.

Caroline, NQT, only joined the NUT 2 weeks ago! She said people kept telling her she ought to join a union and when the NUT called the strike she thought "I'll join them because at least they're doing something!" At the rally she said "I'm so glad I joined and so glad I came today." Kat, a young teacher, brought her 13 month old son on the march and rally. She said she wished people knew that on top of loans, some young teachers like her are struggling to provide for young children. "I can't afford childcare on top of high mortgage repayments that take 2/3 of my salary - I couldn't manage without the help of my mother and aunty! I worry about how to pay my bills and buy food all the time."

Many of my young teacher members commented the next day, that they were so glad they came because if they stayed at home and only listened to the news they would only have heard the biased comments about teachers leaving them feeling isolated and demoralised! Instead they felt a new confidence and hope that unity is strength and that together with other public sector workers, NUT members can push back this government's attacks on our pay and conditions.

Louise Cuffaro, Newham NUT.

A Great Rally - but also a missed opportunity

At the end of the London march about 2,000 packed into Central Hall. The atmosphere was vibrant. Teachers enthusiastically applauded all speakers, both experienced trade union leaders and tentative young teachers. Whenever anyone made any comment that articulated the plight of teachers, cheers went up and whistles rang out. And when Brendan Barber of the TUC highlighted the Fair Deal for Public Services Campaign and said that what was needed was “action together”, it struck a chord.

Unfortunately, however, he did not follow through. He failed to commit the TUC to calling such joint action. He spoke of the 26 public sector service unions needing to “pool resources”, but went no further. He had a real chance to raise the idea clearly of a one-day public sector strike. It would have drawn mass support form teachers, got massive media headlines and sent a shockwave through government circles.

If New Labour only listens through pressure, then a TUC a one-day public sector strike would be the strongest possible pressure! A great rally, but also a missed opportunity.

Linda Taaffe, Waltham Forest NUT

The eponymous Mr Balls and the PR battle

I thoroughly enjoyed the 24th and was in a splendidly good mood after the London march. All this was swiftly destroyed by anger when I heard a load of Balls from the man himself - all that stuff about only 10% teachers wanting to strike, how we ruined peoples' lives with a one day strike, how we all earned £40,000, oh, and those endless holidays when we all sit around doing no work at all..
Can't remember which bits were actually said by Ed, and how much by the BBC and their very one-sided reporting - I can only assumed Ed had been briefing them.
I for one would gladly strike again tomorrow - the amount of casework I picked up while strolling down Whitehall is in itself proof that far too many teachers are overworked and underpaid.
We must keep up the PR battle and work swiftly to counter the half-truths, downright lies and negative images generated by Balls and his cronies. Petitions and writing to MPs etc are all very well, but please let's have more and better materials to explain simply to parents and the wider public why we need to take action. If we are to get a bad image in the national media, we need to work locally to counteract it. Off the top of my head, what about getting young teachers leaving the profession to write open letters to parents to be distributed ad school gates - letters that spell out that low pay and high workload mean that young teachers can't afford to stay? I am sure there are many other and better ideas out there - let's start collecting and distributing them NOW, so we go into the next round with more parents and public understanding why we are doing it.

London March

Good points- but how to progress this?

Jason writes:Brilliant rally in Bolton of about 150- excllent mood, militant speeches.
But I could hardly beleive my eyes in Manchester- 12-1500 on the streets. There's definitely the mood for further action and we should push for it as soon as poosible, you're right.
One tactic as you suggest is bombard the execuitve with demands for a ballot. At an 80 strong meeting of Bolton NUt we passed a motion calling for just this- and in the summer term.
But will the executive listen? Perhaps, if we get eneough associations- but even so we can't depend on them and we desperately need to get organised a genuine rank and file inititiative, workplace organisations, e-lists, getting new members and layers of activists involved.
Still harder said than done- but we should try and keep trying.
But what just might give this a real kick start this- what about electing strike committees in every workplace we can, having indicative ballots in every workplace we can, pushing for local actions- meetings, stalls, student meetings, addressing different union branches in other sectors, cross union committees.
And-crucially- pushing for ballots over local issues. Change of employer? Demand a ballot. Change of conditions or working day? Demand a ballot. Redundancies or any other job losses? Demand a ballot.
What do people think?
As an immediate step the left in the NUT should get organised and work together over these points and push for tactics that will win