Safety Last - but police spied on union members

DAWLISH, a resort on the South Devon coast, looks like a nice place to retire, and I expect Juliette Austin had looked forward to enjoying her retirement. But Ms. Austin, who as a former PE teacher had probably looked after her health, did not have long to do so. 

“AN INQUEST has been opened into the death of a 67-year-old retired PE teacher  who had been suffering from an asbestos-related disease. Juliette Mary Austin, of Elmwood Crescent, Dawlish, had been exposed to asbestos during her working life, most likely in various gymnasiums. Ms Austin, originally from Holbeach, Lincoln, had been diagnosed with mesothelioma before she died at Rowcroft Hospice on February 15., Cause of death was epithelioid mesothelioma.” http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/PE-teacher-exposed-asbestos-gymnasiums-coroner/story-26070124-detail/story.html

Asbestos campaigner Michael Lees, who as it happens lives in Devon, says 86% of schools surveyed in UK local authorities contain asbestos.
http://www.asbestosexposureschools.co.uk/pdfnewslinksLAs%20schools%20containing%20asbestos.pdf

He disputes a statement by the Department of Education in their draft report on their asbestos policy review that “We estimate that up to 75% of schools in England contain some asbestos...”

"They are wrong, and the reason is that the Government has never carried out an audit of asbestos in schools. Instead their estimate is based on the age of the buildings and their floor areas. This study confirms the need to carry out an audit of the extent, type and condition of asbestos in schools". 

There have been questions in parliament about the schools asbestos issue.


Annette Brooke MP:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the summary report of the Property Data Survey Programme, published in January 2015, how many schools were rated as being (a) good, (b) satisfactory, (c) poor and (d) bad condition. (225260)

Answer:
Mr David Laws: 
The Property Data Survey does not provide an overall assessment of schools in the manner requested. The surveyors who visited schools made an assessment of the condition of individual construction types within each block, such as different types of roofs or walls for which we hold individual records, but did not attempt to rate an entire school on a ‘good’ to ‘bad’ scale.

The answer was submitted on February 27, 2015 at 11:42

Annette Brooke MP:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the summary report of the Property Data Survey Programme, published in January 2015, what estimate she has made of the total cost of repairs necessary to bring the school estate in England up to good condition. (225207)

Answer:
Mr David Laws:  The Property Data Survey was designed to give a relative view of condition need. As stated in the report, the Property Data Survey condition need we have calculated is not the cost of addressing the need in the estate but a relative weighting of the complexity of addressing different types of condition need. Calculating the total cost of addressing the need in the estate would involve taking into account other factors, such as asbestos and structural need, which are excluded from the survey. As such we do not hold an estimate of the total cost of repairs necessary to bring the school estate in England up to good condition.

The answer was submitted on 02 Mar 2015 at 14:23.


Annette Brooke MP
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the summary report of the Property Data Survey Programme, published in January 2015, whether the cost of maintaining, repairing or replacing a school building referred to in that report includes extra costs incurred because of the presence of asbestos. (225171)

Answer:
Mr David Laws:

The information collected by the Property Data Survey Programme focused on the condition of the buildings. The surveyors who visited schools as part of the programme did not record any information on the presence of asbestos. The condition need identified through the surveys does not reflect any asbestos that may be present.

The answer was submitted on 02 Mar 2015 at 14:21.

Michael Lees comments:

"The PDSP was an audit of the condition of the school estate in England and was published on 6th February. Asbestos was specifically, and irrationally excluded.

It is extraordinary that at the end of the two year audit DfE cannot say either how many schools or buildings are in a good, satisfactory, poor or bad condition or how much it will cost to bring the whole estate up to a good condition.

See: Property Data Survey Programme Summary report

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/402138/PDSP_Summary_Report.pdf



A Derbyshire group which works to raise awareness about the dangers of asbestos,  DAST say that despite Asbestos being banned since 2000 it may still be found in any property built before that date. It is estimated that it is present in 90% of all public sector housing and schools as well as people's homes. Last year the group supported 294 people in the East Midlands who had been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, 65 of those people were from Derbyshire.
http://www.itv.com/news/central/2015-02-25/derbyshire-group-raising-awareness-of-asbestos-dangers/

Another inquest opened last week, into the death of building worker Rene Tkacik, 44, killed on the Crossrail site at Fisher Street, London, on March 7 last year, when a section of freshly sprayed on concrete, or shotcrete, came down on him. Outside the St.Pancras Coroners court I joined supporters of the London Hazards Centre and the Construction Safety Campaign, who held a vigil as Mr.Tkacic's family members arrived with their lawyers.

Safety campaigners say workers on the Crossrail project have more than once been dismissed by contractors after raising concerns about safety.  While welcoming the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into Rene Tkacic's death they would like to see a wider investigation into health and safety on Crossrail. 

At the same time the campaigners note that the government has cut the HSE's budget by 38 per cent.
In a leaflet preparing for International Workers Memorial Day on April 28, they also mention that over 2,000 people in this country die each year due to exposure to asbestos, "mostly building workers", but also "teachers and pupils are dying from exposure to asbestos in poorly maintained schools."

Lest it be thought that the powers-that-be are not paying attention to those raising these issues,  a story in the Daily Mirror yesterday reveals another angle:


Undercover cop joined construction union UCATT to spy on workers

    21:00, 2 March 2015
    By Nick Sommerlad

An undercover policeman infiltrated a union to monitor protests against deaths on building sites, the Mirror can reveal.

Mark Jenner posed as a joiner and joined construction union UCATT.

Activists believe personal information collected by the officer was used by industry bosses to blacklist workers who raised concerns about health and safety.

Major industry chiefs benefited from the notorious blacklist that has been linked to Tory-donating construction firm Sir Robert McAlpine.

Steve Murphy, UCATT’s general secretary, said tonight: “Public money was spent on police covertly joining trade unions, infiltrating groups associated with trade unions and colluding with construction employers to blacklist workers.

"This is a scandal that must be exposed.”

Mr Murphy, who has demanded an inquiry, said the Met police “operated a secret organisation that destroyed innocent people’s lives”.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “We neither confirm nor deny the identity of any individual alleged to have been in a covert role. We are not prepared to confirm or deny the deployment of individuals on specific operations.”

While undercover in the 1990s, Mr Jenner – part of the Met’s now-disbanded Special Demonstration Squad – had a five-year relationship with an unsuspecting activist, Alison – not her real name.

She told the Mirror: “It is appalling they spied on people who were arguing for better health and safety at work.”

Mr Jenner also formed friendships with at least two building workers who ended up blacklisted. Labour MP Steve Rotheram said: “It’s very sinister. We were using an officer to infiltrate legitimate trade unions.”

Mr Jenner, 51, posed as Mark Cassidy, from Merseyside, and was a member of UCATT for three years starting in 1996.

He paid by direct debit and remained a UCATT member until 1998, during a period when the union was negotiating over a series of high profile construction projects including the Jubilee Line extension and the Millennium Dome.

Jenner’s diary, left when he fled the home he shared with “Alison”, show that he monitored meetings of UCATT and other unions. Alison says that union activity formed a “large part” of his day to day work.

He also penetrated the Colin Roach Centre in Hackney, East London, which campaigned on behalf of victims of police ill-treatment.

Three months ago UCATT used Freedom of Information laws to ask the Met: “Was there a policy of infiltration of trades unions conducted by the Special Demonstration Squad?”

Scotland Yard said it was not required to confirm or deny whether it held the details requested. The force give six reasons why they could not reveal the information including national security.

Blacklisting firm the Consulting Association was paid to supply information to construction companies. Sir Robert McAlpine stumped up £10,000 that was used to help launch the organisation in the early-90s. The association was closed down in 2009.

A probe by Derbyshire police found “no conclusive evidence” that Scotland Yard shared information with blacklisters.

But David Clancy, investigations manager at the ICO, has said the blacklisting files contained specific operational details “that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services”.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said in 2013 that it was “likely that all special branches were involved in providing information”.

A second former SDS officer Peter Francis, who went undercover as activist Pete Black before turning whistleblower, has seen blacklisting files of two trade unionists he monitored and said they included details he had provided to his handlers.

The Mirror has spoken to two further active trade unionists who befriended Jenner and believe their files contain information he obtained undercover.

Jenner joined them at meetings of a small group called the Building Workers Group which was linked to UCATT and arranged pickets a construction sites where there had been deaths or serious injuries.

Steve Murphy added: “UCATT was infiltrated by the police and members have a right to know why. This sort of operation could only have been sanctioned at the highest level.

"I believe the truth rests with the Home Office. Who gave authority for the police to do this and how high did it go?”

Mr Murphy added: “The Metropolitan Police must not be allowed to hide the truth; they operated a secret organisation that destroyed innocent people’s lives. They must be held to account.

“It is increasingly clear that the only way we are going to get the full truth on the blacklisting scandal is by holding a full public inquiry which is open and transparent.”

Blacklisting firm the Consulting Association was paid to supply information to more than 40 construction companies, including Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Carillion, before it was raided by the Information Commissioner in 2009. Sir Robert McAlpine paid £10,000 to help set up the Consulting Association in the early 1990s.

Another covert police unit the National Extremism Tactical Co-Ordination Unit is known to have met with the Consulting Association in 2008, shortly before the blacklisting firm was closed down.

Handwritten notes of the meeting by Consulting Association boss Ian Kerr seen by the Mirror indicate that NECTU was set up to monitor animal rights activists but was “now expanding”.

The notes refer to the construction industry specifically and that NECTU wants to “liaise with industry”.

UCATT made a second FOI request to the Metropolitan Police about NECTU, asking for details of meetings with the Consulting Association.

Scotland Yard replied: “Searches failed to locate any information relevant to your request, therefore the information you have requested is not held by the MPs.”


    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/undercover-cop-joined-construction-union-5261174

 see also:
http://www.asbestosexposureschools.co.uk/pdfnewslinks/LAs%20schools%20containing%20asbestos.pdf


www.asbestosexposureschools.co.uk

http://www.lhc.org.uk/ 

Killer in the Classroom

MESOTHELIOMA DAY, 2014.  Vince Hagedorn, (left, in white shirt), releasing doves at St.John's Gate, in London.  Vince's partner, Carole, had died of mesothelioma not long before.

IT does not seem absolutely clear what led to the death of Jennifer Barnett. The former art teacher died from malignant mesothelioma in September last year.  Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that  develops in the lining of the lungs, or sometimes other organs, and is usually caused by exposure to asbestos fibres.

Jennifer did cut asbestos sheets when she worked on farms in her twenties. But that was not the end of her contact with the dangerous substance.   

As her husband Nigel Barnett, of Painswick, Glos, told an inquest: “She became an art teacher and worked at various schools, often hanging paintings on walls containing asbestos.”  He added: "She was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in July 2013 and I was with her when she collapsed and died at home."

Coroner Katy Skerrett said: “It is clear that there was sufficient exposure to asbestos in her occupation for me to reach a conclusion that this lady died from an industrial disease.”  The inquest heard how the deceased had chemotherapy treatment "which was palliative and eased the pain." 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teacher-died-cancer-caused-hanging-4929362

There is no cure for mesothelioma as yet. And because the killer disease works slowly, it is often detected too late for sufferers to undergo chemotherapy or benefit by surgery.

In the past we heard about asbestos-related diseases affecting miners, building workers, workers in ships and shipyards, women who made gas masks containing asbestos during the War, even wives washing their husbands' overalls filled with asbestos dust. But in more recent years we have started to learn that with asbestos present in more than three quarters of Britain's schools, teachers are a group at risk.
 
Carole Hagedorn, a foreign languages teacher from Essex, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in the Summer of 2008, after being exposed to asbestos during more than 30 years of working in schools.

CAROLE HAGEDORN    

'When, at the beginning of my career, I went into classrooms to teach year eights the perfect tense, I did not expect it to end with an industrial disease,'  she told the NAS-UWT Easter conference in 2009.

Following her diagnosis, Mrs Hagedorn had to give up teaching, and endured 18 weeks of chemotherapy. The average life expectancy from diagnosis is between six and 18 months, she said.
'I am understandably unhappy that the lack of proper asbestos control will end my life prematurely, like some sort of collateral damage or natural wastage in the education game,' she said.
Mrs Hagedorn warned: 'It is believed that a single fibre of asbestos may cause mesothelioma. There is no such thing as safe asbestos or a safe limit.

'Children are thought to be much more susceptible than adults, though we won't know for another 20 to 30 years how many will already have contracted this cancer from exposure in schools because of its long latency period.'

Mrs Hagedorn, who received a standing ovation after telling her story, called for a national risk assessment of asbestos in schools, and for it to be cleared as quickly as possible.The responsibility for protecting children and teachers lies wholly with government, she said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1170584/Asbestos-schools-kill-pupils-warns-teacher-dying-lung-cancer.html#ixzz3PjM5dlz2

In 2012 it emerged that a planned year-long survey of England's 23,000 schools would examine every aspect of buildings – from classroom decoration to whether fire alarms and toilets were in working order – but would specifically exclude asbestos, the most serious threat of all to staff and pupils.
An internal Department for Education email,d,ated September 2011, said pressure to include asbestos in the assessment of the state of schools had to be resisted due to "cost implications and the fact that asbestos management should already be carried out under existing legal requirements".

Former teachers, mesothelioma sufferers and campaigners felt the government was playing down the dangers even though Department of Education advice urged teachers to avoid pinning things on walls for fear of disturbing asbestos, and to prevent children running in corridors, slamming doors etc - all  the boisterous activity that defies admonitions and discipline in any normal school.

Sarah Bowman, who had been diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2009, was convinced she had been  exposed to asbestos at school. Brent Council admitted that William Gladstone School, since demolished, contained asbestos, but claimed any connection was "highly unlikely".

"I was 41 when I was diagnosed, You can't tell someone they are going to die at 41. I'd never even heard of mesothelioma. I had heard of asbestos and knew it was no good for you, but I didn't know it killed you. When I was diagnosed my world blew apart, I felt very alone, very scared. They know there was asbestos in the school I went to. I'll take this as far as I can. I remember one time when a kid threw a chair and it stuck in the wall and we all laughed – but now I know it's enough to disturb the asbestos, just like putting drawing pins into the wall.

"I think the Government should be more honest about the risks. They should manage it correctly and label it so that everybody knows about it.  Asbestos is 'safe if it is managed correctly', but how can it be? Kids slam doors, that's what kids do, and that's enough to disturb asbestos."

"All of the schools that I've worked in have been of a certain age and have all had asbestos" said Carole Hagerdorn. "I've had no other career so I am convinced I was exposed at schools. The worst thing about it is the shock because you don't expect to get an industrial disease from working in a school; your life changes shape, becoming a round of treatments and operations.

"The Government has played down the risks over the years. The bottom line is that it is very expensive to remove asbestos, but there has to be a phased plan of removal; working out which are the worst schools and dealing with those first. There needs to be some kind of commitment from the Government."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/asbestos-new-blow-to-victims-of-a-shameful-legacy-6296347.html

With local authorities forced to make cuts,  and many more schools removed from their control, it is blatantly obvious that government cannot shrug off its responsibility for doing something to remove asbestos from schools, and to make sure it is removed safely. Even if this goes against the grain of cuts to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and what David Cameron calls"red tape".

Carole Hagedorn died in June last year, aged 63. It's possible her life had been extended five years by undergoing a pioneering treatment that uses a deactivated cold virus to kick-start the immune system ­enabling it to target and fight the cancer. Carole and her husband Vince had made the most of this time by travelling and enjoying life as best they could.  But they did not stop campaigning.  On Action Mesothelioma Day, July 4, Vince Hagedorn spoke in London on behalf of the Asbestos in Schools campaign, and released doves in honour of Carole and the other victims.

In September it was reported that Brent council had admitted liability for Sarah Bowman's exposure to asbestos while at school, and agreed to pay her  compensation. Ms. Bowman had had better news still. After successful removal of a tumour the medics had reported no cancerous cells remained. Sarah Bowman said she was hoping to return to work. But with her solicitors she will carry on pressing for the government to inspect all schools.
http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/wembley_mother_exposed_to_asbestos_at_school_wins_payout_from_brent_council_1_3757910

Sandra Naylor was not so fortunate. In April 2013,  having been diagnosed with mesothelioma, she decided to sue her local council, but she died at the beginning of August 2014.As a child Sandra attended Calverdale High in Airdrie. Her solicitor said “The school had just been constructed when our client was a pupil there and for the first year or so she recalls workmen regularly working in the school. “It is believed that her exposure to the asbestos dust came from the work being undertaken by the workmen in various parts of the school whilst she was there as a pupil. She has no knowledge of any other asbestos exposure in her life.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/woman-sue-council-after-contracting-1807383

   SANDRA NAYLOR, of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire.  Died of Mesothelioma last year

Whether Scottish ministers have been doing any better on schools asbestos than their counterparts in London is something that needs looking at.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/389985/Silent-killer-in-the-classroom

"Workmen discovered white and brown asbestos while carrying out roof repairs to Holyrood Secondary in Glasgow's South Side during the summer holidays. The work was completed on August 8, just five days before pupils returned to Glasgow's biggest high school after the summer break".

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/parents-horrified-over-asbestos-at-city-school-176863n.25087812

Of course it is not only teachers,or pupils, that are exposed to danger in schools.

“THE family of a former school cleaner who died after coming into contact with asbestos is hoping to track down her colleagues. Mrs Routledge had worked at the old Fulwell Infants School, in Sunderland, as a cleaner from 1963 until the 1990s.

It is believed that the source of the asbestos was an old coal-fired boiler, which is thought to have been lagged with the substance.”

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/family-seek-mum-s-former-colleagues-after-asbestos-related-death-1-7001807

David Atkinson was a carpenter who may have been exposed to asbestos working on farm buildings or in a college.  He died of malignant mesothelioma.
 http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/Exposure-asbestos-led-death-Waltham-man/story-24517644-detail/story.html

On January 19, the issue was raised in Parliament.  


Asked by Helen Jones 19 January 2015 Teachers: Mesothelioma Commons221236

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of teachers and former teachers who have contracted mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos in schools.
Answered by: Mr David Laws 22 January 2015

The Department for Education is not aware of data that links the number of cases of mesothelioma contracted to occupation.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) produces statistics about the link between mesothelioma related deaths and occupation, which the Department uses to inform its policy. The HSE statistics are published online at: www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/mesothelioma/mortality-by-occupation-2002-2010.pdf

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-01-19/221236/

Michael Lees of the Asbestos in Schools campaign commented: "The Minister is being pedantic, and therefore has avoided stating that more than 291 school teachers have died of mesothelioma since 1980 and at least 158 have died in the last ten years.

"Presumably the Minister does not want to acknowledge a link between asbestos exposure at school and the subsequent deaths of teachers, support staff and former pupils. He presumably justifies his answer because HSE advise DfE that teachers are developing mesothelioma because they have been exposed elsewhere other than at school.

Some might have been, but there is extensive evidence of school teachers being exposed to asbestos at school, in some cases frequently and over a prolonged period of time. HSE do not investigate mesothelioma deaths and do not examine the evidence of asbestos exposure of teachers who have died of mesothelioma.

Whereas coroners do, and in many cases have given a verdict of death from industrial disease because of evidence of asbestos exposure at school.

See:  http://www.asbestosexposureschools.co.uk/pdfnewslinks

The government has been dragging its  heels about acknowledging the size of the asbestos in schools issue  and its tragic effects, let alone taking responsibility for tackling it.  But it now seems that relentless campaigning, growing public awareness, and perhaps the thought of an election coming, are having some effect.

Michael Lees reports:

Colleagues,

I am pleased to say that we have just heard DfE will be holding a meeting of the DfE Asbestos Steering Group on 3^rd or 5^th February “To share with you the findings of our review and discuss our proposals for our policy on the management of asbestos in schools in the future.”

I will attend along with other members of the Steering Group and will inform you of the outcome.

Best wishes

Michael

Could it be the end for Copland?

IT's almost a year since I went to a quiz night in Wembley, and teamed up with a trio of teachers. While we didn't win, I learned from them an interesting piece of information, namely that the former head of Copland School where they taught was to appear in court with five associates on charges of fraud and money-laundering.

Since the long-running affair at Copland had at one stage seen the suspension of the teachers held responsible for whistleblowing, and the school and its pupils are suffering from lack of funds, one could hardly accuse my informants of being vindictive when they nodded satisfaction that the head and his team looked like facing custodial sentences.

But this month, as teachers throughout the country joined action to defend their pensions, the news from the court and from Copland school was a bit of an education.

First,  the knighted "superhead” Sir Alan Davies and five former colleagues walked free from court on October 3, when prosecutors dropped charges that they had plotted to defraud Brent Council of £2.7m in bonuses.

Davies, 65, had been accused of authorising illegal  payments over six years while he was headmaster of Copland School in Wembley. He was said to have received more than £900,000 in “inappropriate payments” himself.

But the conspiracy charge against him and five other senior figures was dropped. Instead he pleaded guilty to six counts of false accounting between April 2007 and June 2009.

Judge Deborah Taylor sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years.

“I take into account your achievements but your dishonesty represents a very great fall from grace,” she said. He had failed to ensure transparent management at the school and had lied to protect himself. “What sort of message does that send out as head of a school when you resorted to lies?”

Davies has admitted tampering with dates on payroll forms but insisted the cash was honestly paid to and received by him. He was also acquitted of a further count of money laundering for allegedly flushing more than £270,000 of dirty money raked in from the scam from a NatWest bank account into a Spanish account in May 2008.

Davies’ alleged co-conspirators were formally cleared.They included Dr Richard Evans, 55, a former deputy head and education advisor to PM David Cameron, who had been accused of pocketing £600,000.

Also in the dock were the former chair of governors, Dr Indravadan Patel, 73, the former school bursar, Columbus Udokoro, 62, HR manager Michelle McKenzie, 53, and ex-vice chair of governors, Martin Day, were also accused of being involved in the alleged fraud on Brent Council.

Brent Council may now seek compensation through the civil courts.


Copland school was placed under "special measures" this year after an Ofsted report said it was  inadequate in almost all areas.  Headmaster Graeme Plunkett who took over in September 2010was reportedly told he would have to go. 

Teachers and students at Copland may have wondered whether Mr. Plunkett was taking blame for problems not of his making. Among the criticisms outlined by Ofsted was the state of the school building which it said provided an “unacceptable environment for learning.”

A Copland school student directly confronted David Cameron on the neglected state of the school buildings.


Dilapidated classrooms at Copland were due to be rebuilt with money from the Building Schools for the Future fund, but Tory Education minister Michael Gove scrapped that programme. Copland was the only local authority controlled secondary school in the borough but within weeks it was announced it would be converted to an academy.

Many fear Copland's  future has been settled, and it hasn't any.    

Now a correspondent calling theirself 'Mistleflower' has written in the blog Wembley Matters on October 16  drawing attention to further developments:

The cull in the summer resulted in the end in Copland losing around  60 staff, most taking ‘voluntary’ redundancy either because they were desperate to get away from the last regime’s shambolic mismanagement or they saw the way the wind was blowing with the new one (cut Copland to the bone, close it down, flog it off). Many of the teachers who left were happy, like myself, to do supply teaching rather than stay.

I now hear that Phase 2 of the process has begun. Around 50  support staff have been informed that 32 of them are to be made redundant. These include such people as library staff, pastoral support workers, science technicians, mentoring staff, caretakers, ICT technicians and, ( in the week that ex-Copland footballer Raheem Sterling was included in Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the World Cup qualifier), the football coach. Apart from the obviously essential nature of their work, people like these liaise with parents at difficult times, help motivate students, keep them on track and generally promote the social cohesion which is at the heart of any school community. ( Those wielding the axe might need  to look up those two words ‘heart’ and ‘community’).

As in July, in all of this, agreed procedures are being ignored, possibly illegally.

Phase 3, it has apparently already been announced, will take the axe to the Teaching Assistants, the staff who provide in-class support for children with special learning, language or emotional needs, ( Every Child Matters is soooo last century).

After that? Well, what remains of the place is still sitting in a very nice location and the few staff who remain can maybe get jobs helping to clear the site for the next Carpet Warehouse. One way or another, it looks like it will be an Absolute Return for someone, but clearly  not for the current kids and staff at Copland.

I don't know how much it will cost Brent to try and recover some of its money. Maybe I will meet up again with my teacher friends on Monday when I go to another quiz match - one of a series being held by the Save Preston Library campaigners, who fought Brent council over the closure of their local library, another affect of government austerity and the council's cuts.

If not there, then maybe some teachers will come to the public meeting which Brent Trade Union Council is holding on Thursday evening at the Methodist Church in Harlesden. Guest speaker is Kingsley Abrams, a member of the Unite union national executive, speaking on the fight against Austerity. Kingsley made his name as a Labour councillor in Lambeth, by refusing to vote for cuts. That lost him the Labour whip. But it could win him the Labour nomination for the Brent Central parliamentary constituency. And if Brent Labour party has the sense and spirit to nominate him he could get in.  But that's a big if, mind. 

Wednesday 23rd October

The Fight Against Austerity

Speaker: Kingsley Abrams   National Executive member, Unite the union, and Lambeth Labour Councillor

7.30 p.m., Harlesden Methodist Church Hall, 25 High Street Harlesden,  London, NW10 4NE
 

Thatcher's Claws (28) coming back via Blair's Academies?

WHEN Baroness Thatcher died earlier this year, Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell reminded people of some of the nastier side of her reign, including the anti-gay law Section 28, so called because it was introduced as a Clause 28 of the Local Government Bill, becoming Section 28 when the bill became an Act of parliament, which stated a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

Brought in on the back of the AIDS panic and with newspapers like the Daily Mail publishing sensational reports of explicit homosexual material supposedly aimed at small children, the law nevertheless aroused widespread opposition and protests, ranging from conventional mass demonstrations to dramatic actions such as lesbians abseiling into parliament and invading a TV studio.One good effect of the bill was that many "straight" left groups and individuals like myself whose attitude had been at best complacent now felt obliged to join the opposition to this reactionary measure.

There was concern at the homophobia encouraged by presenting gay people as somehow proselytising, by "promoting" their personal lifestyle, and fears that not only would support groups be hit, but education censored. Would teachers be allowed to mention famous writers who had been gay? Would they be afraid to counter bullying, or give counselling to young people worried about their sexuality?  What about pupils with a gay parent or family member?

A National Union of Teachers (NUT) statement remarked that "While Section 28 applies to local authorities and not to schools, many teachers believe, albeit wrongly, that it imposes constraints in respect of the advice and counselling they give to pupils. Professional judgement is therefore influenced by the perceived prospect of prosecution."

The Department for Education and Science issued a statement meant to reassure people that Section 28 "will not prevent the objective discussion of homosexuality in the classroom, nor the counselling of pupils concerned about their sexuality.”
But Tory Education Minister Jill Knight said: “     This has got to be a mistake. The major point of it was to protect children in schools from having homosexuality thrust upon them."

Thatcher had attacked “positive images” of gay people, saying during a speech on Section 28 that she worried: “Children are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.”

In May 2000 the Christian Institute unsuccessfully took Glasgow city council to court, claiming it was promoting homosexuality by funding an AIDS support charity.  One month later the newly devolved Scottish parliament voted overwhelmingly to get rid of Section 28, despite a campaign to keep it by millionaire transport boss Brian Souter.

Someone else who strongly defended Section 28 at this time was David Cameron. He accused Labour and Prime Minister Tony Blair of being "anti -family" and wanting the "promotion of homosexuality in schools". Cameron continued backing Section 28 when he was elected as an MP in 2003, and tried to amend its repeal, though he failed, and was absent from the vote when it was revealed. Then in June 2009, having become leader of the Tory party, and hoping to be Tory prime minister, Cameron apologised for his party introducing the law, saying it had been a mistake and was offensive to gay people.

So with Section 28 repealed, and the government supporting gay marriage, the issue would seem to be like Margaret Thatcher, thankfully dead and buried. Except it isn't. Kent County Council for one has kept its own version. And an article in Gay Star News reveals that the hated Section 28 has been given a new lease of life in the Sex and Relationships Education policies adopted by several of the schools that have become so-called Academies. The schools’ policy states while ‘objective discussion of homosexuality may take place in the classroom,’ ‘the governing body will not permit the promotion of homosexuality’.


"The schools are Castle View Enterprise Academy in Sunderland, Swindon Academy, Stockport Academy, Radcliffe School in Milton Keynes, Grace Academy in Coventry, William Hulmes Grammar School in Manchester and Bridge Academy in Hackney, London. Colston Girl’s School in Bristol are reviewing their anti-gay policy after complaints..."

Like the Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) in the hospitals, the Academies were a Tory idea adopted and introduced with enthusiasm by New Labour. Tony Blair and his education adviser Lord Adonis started the policy in 2000. For an investment of 10 per cent, up to £2 million, leaving the taxpayer to make up the rest,  rich business people or religious outfits gain control of a school's policies, curriculum, and appointments.

Among the first to get into the game was Sir Peter Vardy, whose wealth came from Reg Vardy PLC, the second-hand car business he inherited from his father. He acquired three academies for £2 million each, while public money made up the rest.  The bills included £14,039 to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for the loan of Sir Peter's brother David, and larger sums to Sir Peter's own company. Render unto Ceasar, as they say. Unlike your ordinary state school the Academies are not under the control of elected local authorities, and nor are they obliged to put work out to tender. The government has been much more generous in funding for these supposedly independent academies than for state schools.

Some academies say they believe in honouring national agreements, but others are not too keen on the teachers' unions.

Sir Peter is a Bible believer, though he denies being a creationist in the sense of thinking God made the universe in six days. His man running the Emmanuel Schools Trust, Mr.Nigel McQuoid, however says schools should teach the creation story as told in Genesis.  

Mr McQuoid also said: “The Bible says clearly that homosexual activity is against God’s design. I would indicate that to young folk.” As for those who did not agree, he told a local newspaper: “I don’t have to respect everyone’s opinion. I don’t respect the opinion of people who believe it’s fine to live with a partner. Head teachers are responsible to God and the standards of the bible. Nothing in the school should contradict the teachings of the bible.”

“If academies are to succeed,” says his colleague John Burn, “they need to be led and staffed by people who are obedient to God’s truth as revealed in the scriptures.” So, no teachers who do not hold the approved theological opinions. 

Mr Burn is one of the founders of the Newcastle-based Christian Institute, set up in 1991 to promote fundamentalist Christian beliefs, and is an outspoken opponent of the ordination of women. In September 2000, Stephen Layfield, head of science at one of Vardy’s schools, Emmanuel College, Gateshead, delivered a lecture called “The teaching of science – a biblical perspective”. It reads rather like a revivalist sermon and lays down a duty upon teachers to “do all they can to ensure that pupils, parents and fellow colleagues are reminded frequently that all is not what it seems when popular so-called scientific dogma presents itself before them.” When you find mention of evolution in a textbook, “point out the fallibility of the statement.”

- From Francis Beckett’s book, The Great City Academy Fraud, published in 2007 by Continuum.
http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/1477/schools-for-scoundrels

Tony Blair said he was not concerned about schools being run by creationists as long as they got good exam results. In fact, despite having more resources, and carrying out selection (and in the Vardy case, more expulsions), Academies have not being do so well academically. But they have kept on spreading, and receiving government encouragement, and funding.

In 2010, Vardy's Emmanuel Schools Foundation announced it was handing over management of its schools, all in the North East, to the United Learning Trust (ULT), based in Oundle, Northamptonshire. ULT was formed in 2002 as a subsidiary of the United Church Schools Trust (UCST) which has been running independent schools in the UK since 1883.

ULT, whose connections include Vodafone UK Foundation, Honda and Barclays, is the sponsor of the Swindon and Stockport Academies and the William Hulme Grammar in Manchester, mentioned in the Gay Star News report. It subscribes to a "Church of England ethos". The Grace Academy in Coventry is run by the Grace Foundation, a registered charity founded by Bob Edmiston, of the evangelical international charity Christian Vision.

In recent years we may have relaxed our vigilance with Section 28 seeming out of the way. Just now there is a storm justifiably growing over similar legislation, as well as brutal homophobe attacks, in Putin's Russia. We might also need to wake up to some quieter reactionary developments in Britain.

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/section-28-returns-uk-schools-ban-promotion-gay-issues170813

   http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publi/3/article_13149.php
 http://www.variant.org.uk/27texts/academies27.html

Class in the Country

STRIKE SCHOOL at Burston. Its stones record the solidarity which came from far and wide to help build it.

THREE weeks from now I'll be with the crowd celebrating what has been called the longest strike in British history. It happened not in Liverpool or London, Bristol or Birmingham, nor even in the coalfields, but amid the fields of rural Norfolk, and it was started by schoolchildren.

They walked out when their teachers, Tom and Annie Higdon, were sacked from the village school at Burston, near Diss, after a dispute with the area's school management committee.

Already at their previous school the couple had upset the authorities by complaining about damp conditions, and objecting to local farmers pulling children out of school when they wanted them to work on the farm. At Burston they carried on the same. Tom Higden supported the farm workers' union, writing for its magazine, and to make matters worse, he stood successfully for the parish council, in 1913, heavily defeating the local Church of England rector, Reverend Charles Tucker Eland, who came bottom of the poll.

Burston village school was Church of England, and Eland had been appointed chairman of the School Managing Body.  Living in a comfy rectory, on an annual salary of £581, compared to the farm labourers' average £35 a year, he expected the respect and deference to go with it. The village schools were supposed to turn out docile farm labourers and skivvies, with just enough schooling to thank the Almighty for their lot on Sunday. The Higdons were plainly up to something different.

One morning when children had walked three miles to school in pouring rain, Kitty Higdon lit a fire so they could dry their clothes. She was charged with having a fire lit without the management committee's permission. A further charge was raised over a complaint about an alleged beating of two Barnardos' pupils. But in the end, though neither charge could stick, the Higdons were accused of "gross discourtesy" to the management and given notice.

On April 1,1914. as this was due to take effect, and the authorities were taking over, a commotion could be heard. It was the sound of children marching and singing. Some 66 of the school's 72 children walked out on strike, marching around the village waving flags. None of them returned to the school. Instead they began taking their lessons on the village green. A marquee was set up and later when the weather was bad they moved into a carpenters' workshop. This strike school was properly conducted, with a timetable, and orderly lessons.

It had the support of parents. The authorities were not so pleased, and took 18 parents to court for failing to ensure their children's attendance at school. Collections outside the court paid the fines, and since the parents were sending their children to the school of their choice, the authorities were soon forced to back down.

As word spread, the strike school caught the imagination of trade unionists, and the interest of educationalists. Visitors came, and speakers. The authorities kept up their intimidation, and some farmers sacked their labourers, which could also mean eviction from tied cottages. But with the World War I raging both food and workers were in demand. The workers had to be re-employed.  Still, strike families who rented land from the Rector for growing food were evicted and their crops and property destroyed. The village's Methodist preacher, who held services on the village green on Sundays for families of the Strike School children, was censured by his church.

At the end of the first year of the strike, with the lease on the old workshops due to expire, an appeal was made for funds to build a new school. By 1917, a National Appeal had reached £1250 with donations from miners' and railway workers' unions, Independent Labour Party branches and Co-operative societies. The new school was opened on 13 May 1917, with the leader of the 1914 demonstration, Violet Potter declaring, "With joy and thankfulness I declare this school open to be forever a School of Freedom".

STONES preserve history of donors like the Mountain Ash and Powell Duffryn miners' branches.

The Burston Strike School continued until 1939. Tom Higdon died on 17 August 1939. Kitty, in her seventies, was unable to carry on alone, and the last eleven pupils transferred to the Council School. Kitty died on 24 April 1946. Both are buried in Burston.

Every year since 1984 there have been regular rallies at Burston to commemorate the school strike. Unite the union, which incorporates the old National Union of Agricultural Workers which became part of the T&GWU, is the main organiser, but other unions and organisations are involved.

   This year's rally, on Sunday, September 1, will be chaired by Megan Dobney of the Southern and Eastern Region of the TUC, jointly with Pilgrim Tucker, Unite community organiser. Speakers include Mark Serwotka of the PCS. Entertainment is promised from Leon Rosselson, Red Flags, and the RMT brass band. Transport is being organised from London and other areas.




With the Con Dem coalition's attacks on so many things, from the Agricultural Wages Board to education and schools, the Burston rally and the struggle it commemorates should provide inspiration, and food for thought.

 http://burstonstrikeschool.wordpress.com/want-to-know-more/

Schools for Scandal

IF Prime Minister David Cameron and Education Secretary Michael Gove were sitting a difficult examination it's easy to see how they would tackle it.  Just ignore the questions, set down what you know as the answers, and expect to pass with flying colours since you are in charge.

That might not work for students, but it's the way with politicians, and to be fair, when it comes to Education, to imagine a big difference between New Labour and Tory you would need a deficient memory. It was after all while Labour was in office that many state schools were enabled to become Foundation schools, giving them relative autonomy in spending and admissions, and that business and religious bodies were invited to run so-called Academies - a Tory idea, just like the Private Finance Initiatives for which we are now paying in the NHS, but Labour brought it in.

Giving heads and administrators in schools and colleges more freedom with their chequebooks is one way of softening up resistance to privatisation, just as the pretence that GPs are to be given the running of the NHS (when most can barely spare ten minutes to see a patient) is a cover for letting more private middlemen in, away from public gaze.

It reminds me of the big-time crook who enlists the acquiescence of someone within an establishment by promising a share of the spoils. Even a modest bribe - sorry, inducement - can be a good investment by giving the recipient a taste.

All the more credit therefore to those heads and members of the professions who are telling the government where to stick its plans.

Not all have such integrity.

A friend of mine who taught in a north London school was wondering how far the intake of pupils reflected the local demography. This led to more sensitive questions, like how the head found time and resources to run a business on the side, Part of the answer to that came from the school secretary saying she was fed up of being given extra work which was not for the school. Then as my friend and his colleagues found enough information to present to the local authority and the press, lo, the head flew off for a job with OFSTED, which inspects schools,  

A few months ago I went to a quiz night in a Wembley pub, in aid of the campaign against local libraries closing, and as my normal team-mates from the trades council weren't available I teamed up with a geography teacher I knew and two of his colleagues. We didn't do too bad, but more to the point in between rounds I learned from their conversation how a bit of whistleblowing by staff at their school would be landing their head and his deputy in the law courts. The pair have now been remanded on bail to appear in court next September.    
     
 A Wembley head and deputy head are due to face fraud charges

The Copland Community School had been a foundation school, meaning its governors had relative autonomy, until news of its shenanigans caused the Brent council to take it back in hand. Depending which paper you read the school has had problems of falling standards and discipline, or collapsing buildings.

A school student confronted David Cameron about the state of her school.  

 Tackled by an articulate schoolgirl Cameron promised to "look into your borough" - perhaps nobody had told him about arms-length foundations - but the government is still witholding funds for repairs, and of course it cancelled Labour's schools rebuiding programme, replacing it with a scheme that is now held up waiting for private capital.

However it has placed Copland under
"Special Measures"

and is taking on the teachers who exposed wrongdoing by proposing to take the school out of reach of accountable, elected local government, to 
Turn it into an Academy!

Meanwhile in the journal of the Anti-Academies Alliance, Alisdair Smith has the tale of  another
enterprising school head, one who has been identified with the rush for Academies:

'In 2002 Jo Shuter took over Quintin Kynaston School in St John’s Wood, north London. Her appointment wasn’t popular with everyone – 100 staff left in her first year, 70 in the first term – but despite such a high staff turnover (which might have raised eyebrows elsewhere) she soon acquired the unofficial title of ‘superhead’ and the approving eye of Tony Blair, who used the school to launch his Children’s Services Green Paper in 2003.

'In 2005 a BBC documentary ‘Head on the Block’, billed as an “inspirational tale about an inspirational teacher”, was due to be broadcast but it had to be pulled after it was discovered that film had been produced by her sister, Debbie Shuter, and directed by her sister’s partner.
Debbie Shuter told the Telegraph: “I am gutted about the disappointment of all those children. The fact that it is my sister is totally irrelevant…I can absolutely hand on heart tell you that the film is objective. I have reported the truth.”

'In 2007 this inspirational superhead was deemed to be just what Pimlico School needed. Pimlico had recently been failed by Ofsted and, despite vociferous opposition from staff and parents, plans had been raised to turn it into an academy.

'“I’m never frightened to say what I think,” she told the Times Educational Supplement at the time. “I’ve never doubted myself. I will not be the head of a failing school.” “Leadership is my strength and if I can make a difference to other schools then I am keen to do so.”
A few months later Shuter was named Head Teacher of the Year. Ann Barton from SOL Consulting commented on the Teaching Awards website “The girl done good… A fantastic achievement Jo Jo, and richly deserved. Onward and upward!”

'In September 2008 Pimlico School was duly re-opened as an academy and handed over to hedge fund manager John Nash (now Baron Nash and an unelected schools minister) and in 2010 Shuter was awarded a CBE for “services to education”.

'Fast forward to September 2012 and the revelation that Shuter had been suspended from Quintin Kynaston after what Patrick Lees, Chair of Governors called “serious allegations relating to the management of the school” were referred to police.

'By this time Quintin Kynaston had also become an academy so the local authority, Westminster, was left unable to intervene. Students and parents were left in limbo as the Department for Education refused to get involved saying “The suspension of the head teacher is a matter for the Quintin Kynaston Trust.”

'So what were these allegations that were so serious that a woman with a CBE for services to education had to be suspended from her job? After an eight month suspension the governors announced that Jo Shuter had received “a formal final written warning” following “a long and robust disciplinary process”. But the reasons for the written warning or remained shrouded in mystery.
That is until the BBC reported that one of Shuter’s alleged misdemeanours had been using £7000 of the school’s money to pay for her 50th birthday party.

'The full findings of the DfE internal report into the goings on at Quintin Kynaston appear damning. They include:
• Evidence that since November 2011 the Academy has spent £17,293.75 on taxi accounts including trips to some of London’s leading restaurants such as the Savoy, the Ivy, and the Wolsey,
• Overnight meetings by the Senior Leadership Team of the school were held at the five-star Landmark Hotel at a cost of thousands.
• Shuter was paid tens of thousands of pounds for consultancy work completed in school time.
• Shuter’s PA, whose salary was paid by the Academy, was used to book family holidays, schedule consultancy work, and organise the rental of her Turkish holiday villa
• Expenses were claimed more than once from different organisations
• A number of issues related to the employment of family members are still being investigated
The report notes that, as an Academy, the school was allowed to assess itself for Financial Management and Governance. Shuter as Head Teacher and Accounting Officer was ultimately responsible for the fiscal well-being of the school. The report notes that the rating the school gave itself for Financial Management was ‘Good’. The DfE report downgrades this self-assessed rating to ‘Inadequate’.'

Shuter remained Head Teacher of Quintin Kynaston, though following the publication of the DfE’s report, it seems unlikely she can remain in place for long.

Smith says part of the problem is the  cult of the personality in school leadership. Our schools are among the best in the world but they have been denigrated and our teaching standards have been besmirched. Jo Shuter was one of a number of school leaders lauded as being the new broom needed to sweep away all of the detritus and make us all shiny and new. Perhaps they felt invincible?

"But the main culprit is Gove and his obsession with privatisation and deregulation. Schools are being encouraged to run themselves on business models. Head teachers are ‘CEOs’, or “public sector entrepreneurs” who are “saving” education and “raising standards”.
In reality, academy status and autonomy for heads isn’t about raising standards, it’s about breaking up state education allowing individual heads to build small business franchises and large chains to take tens, if not hundreds of schools. This is what Gove meant when he wrote in the 2009 Tory election manifesto about a ‘supply side revolution. The next stage is running schools ‘for-profit’.

"Some are suggesting Shuter has done nothing wrong and is the victim of a media witch hunt. Well, I suggest you read the DfE report in full."

 Copland school teachers intend to strike tomorrow against the Academy scheme. All three teaching unions are in support of their members' anti-Academy stand and demand for decent funding. Brent's Labour council has urged the teachers to work as normal. It is wrong. It ought to take its responsibility as seriously as Copland teachers have done and support them against Michael Gove.

http://antiacademies.org.uk/2013/05/the-rise-and-fall-of-jo-shuter/

http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/documents/s3235/auditcommissionreport-copland.pdf

http://antiacademies.org.uk/2013/05/wembley-school-strike-action-against-academy/

"Misadventure" at the hands of the Metropolitan Police

 BLAIR PEACH

THIS blog has become a bit like a chronicle of deaths in the past few postings, but c'est la vie. We are commanded to remember, especially those left crying out for justice. Today, St.George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday for some, a friend posting on facebook reminded me of this one:

 On 23 April, this day, in 1979 the anti-fascist Blair Peach was killed by a blow to his head by an unknown policeman, a member of the Special Patrol Group. The exact identity of his murderer remains unknown. The Guardian reported that when other police "raided lockers at the SPG headquarters he uncovered a stash of unauthorised weapons, including illegal truncheons, knives, two crowbars, a whip, a 3ft wooden stave and a lead-weighted leather stick. One officer was caught trying to hide a metal cosh, although it was not the weapon that killed Peach. Another officer was found with a collection of Nazi regalia."

See also: Blair Peach killed by police  Peach, a 33-year old New Zealander, had been teaching Special Needs children at a school in the East End of London for ten years, and became chair of the East London Teachers Association in the year he was killed. He had also joined the Socialist Teachers Association and the Anti-Nazi League, which campaigned against racist and fascist activity in east London and elsewhere.

On the night he was killed he had gone to Southall in west London, where the National Front was holding a St.George's Day meeting in the town hall. Local people had petitioned the council not to allow the NF the use of the premises, but were told it was entitled to hold a meeting with the general election coming. On the night about 40-odd Front supporters were bussed in, while more than 2,000 police confronted protesters, mainly young Asians Blair Peach was struck down by a blow to the side of the head. He died later in Ealing hospital. The official verdict was "death by misadventure". Another demonstrator hit by police was in a coma for five months.

Some 10,000 people took part in a tribute to Blair Peach in Southall. In later years there were demonstrations on the anniversary of his death.

Not till April 2009, thirty years later, was the police report into what happened, by Commander Sir John Cass, released, (with officers' names redacted), after persistent campaigning for truth by Blair's family and friends, notably his girlfiend Celia Stubbs, who wrote:

  The report states what we always believed – the fatal blow was struck by a police officer from Unit 1 of the Special Patrol Group based at Barnes police station, and it is likely that it was the first officer out of the police van parked at the corner of Orchard Avenue and Beechcroft Avenue who dealt the blow. But, equally disturbing, in reading the report the deliberate untruths told by officers and their success in obstructing the police inquiry have been laid bare. The deceit and lies these officers told is a major factor as to why no policeman was prosecuted for Blair's death.

The mindset and attitude of Commander Cass, other senior Metropolitan police officers and coroner John Burton also stymied this inquiry. Cass set the scene by saying: "It was an extremely violent, volatile and ugly situation where there was serious disturbance by what can be classed as a rebellious crowd ... Asian youths appeared quite often to lose complete control of their emotions." He said "the demonstrators received orders from the Anti-Nazi League."

Of Blair, who was known to the police as an anti-racist campaigner, he stated: "If he was true to form he may have been in dispute, conflict, obstructing or interfering with the police."

Celia Stubbs 

So according to Cass, the thousands of angry young local Asians who saw the NF rally in their area as a provocation, by an organisation they associated with racial attacks, appeared to "lose control of their emotions", but they were taking "orders" from the ANL, like a disciplined force - such as the Metropolitan Police were supposed to be.
And though witnesses say Blair Peach was doing his best to restrain the youth and persuade them to stay on the pavement when he was hit from behind, it is enough for Sir John to suggest the teacher had "form" and that he "may have been" obstructing or interfering with the police. In other words, he was a "Red", so who needs evidence?   

As the Guardian noted:

From the outset, the Cass investigation appeared unlikely to find an officer guilty. He defined Peach as a member of a "rebellious crowd" in his terms of reference, adding: "Without condoning the death I refer to Archbold 38th edition para 2528: 'In case of riot or rebellious assembly the officers endeavouring to disperse the riot are justified in killing them at common law if the riot cannot otherwise be suppressed'." <>I remember my Dad, who served in India after Amritsar, telling me about the Riot Act, and the regulations that are supposed to govern the conduct of forces dispersing crowds and how much force they can use. From what he told me and from what I have seen of the Metropolitan Police in action, the soldiers like him were more resticted, and certainly less enthusiastic in breaking heads. But I suppose the scabby old imperialist lion is bound to get more savage in its lair, and the police didn't just enlist for a shilling a day, especially not in units like the SPG which consider themselves an "elite". So we may never see justice for the death of Blair Peach, any more than for the killing of student Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square five years earlier, But we are obliged to remember. As  does Bernard Regan, nowadays a leading member of the National union of Teachers:

Today 34 years ago my friend, colleague, comrade, neighbour Blair Peach was murdered whilst leaving a demonstration against the National Front. The only people in the vicinity were members of the Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group. The names of all six members of the unit have been known since that night. None have ever been charged.

At the time the NUT Executive and the TUC called for a public inquiry into what happened. None took place. The Union was united in shock and anger at what happened.
There are many friends and comrades who will have their own memories of Blair -just a few of my own all of which could be illustrated with stories reflecting his professionalism, principles,seriousness and sense of fun. We lived next door to each other, worked together in the same special school, taught the same children, were active in the Union together, took part in demos, argued about politics, shared jokes, played football on Victoria Park, badminton after school. Blair was the President of East London Teachers Association when I was Secretary. He was a committed teacher, trades unionist, anti-racist, internationalist, anti-sexist, opposed to homophobia and all forms of discrimination. He campaigned against the victimisation of the teachers at William Tyndale School in Islington, marched on demos against the fascist coup overthrowing President Salvador Allende in 1973 by Margaret Thatcher's ally General Pinochet, supported the campaign defending a gay teacher who had been outed for participating on a demonstration.

He is remembered for his stance against racism but he participated in campaigns in all these areas. It was very fitting that the Union created the Blair Peach Award. We should cherish his memory but as Blair would have said it is not enough just to say we are committed to these principles - it is important that we act on them.

Mary Seacole Must Stay!

Sir W. H Russell, Crimean War correspondent for The Times, said of Seacole: "Let England not forget one who nursed her sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them, and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead."

IT sometimes seems as though I'm asked to sign new online petitions every day, on subjects of varying importance, sometimes relying on one's general goodwill to say things which don't necessary follow, or offering background information that's either insufficient or suspect. Life is too short to bother with them all.  

When I first read that "The Government is proposing to remove Mary Seacole from the National Curriculum", I was half inclined to doubt it, though with that Michael Gove in charge of Education, and this government taking away other things we might have thought sacrosanct...Anyway,  I signed as a matter of principle, to say "We are opposed to this and wish to see Mary Seacole retained so that current and future generations can appreciate this important historical person".


 It seemed only yesterday that I was asked to sign something, not online but in person, calling for  Mary Seacole's recognition, and I have the badge to prove it. But now there is a vicious campaign against this woman, and something worse behind it.


Mary Seacole, a Jamaican woman, who became a heroine for nursing troops in the Crimean War, was used to facing prejudice in her time. Though some now say that on account of her Scottish and Creole ancestry, she "wasn't really Black", as though racists carry a colour chart, she was dark enough to have been refused passage on an American ship, and to be rebuffed by the War Office when she turned up with letters of recommendation from doctors in Jamaica and Panama.    

Hundreds of soldiers were dying in the Crimea from diseases like cholera, more than from enemy action. They were ill-clothed and poorly fed. The hospitals were insanitary and understaffed. Though Florence Nightinngale was sent out with volunteers to improve things,Mary Seacole had to raise her own resources to go out and set up her "British Hotel" to treat sick and wounded, and cater for convalescents.

The Special Correspondent of The Times newspaper wrote approvingly of her work: "...Mrs. Seacole...doctors and cures all manner of men with extraordinary success. She is always in attendance near the battle-field to aid the wounded, and has earned many a poor fellow’s blessings."

On her return to Britain in Mary was recognised as a heroine by the army and the public, and thousands of people attended a fundraising benefit in her honour in 1857. It seems to have only been in later years that her name faded, while that of Florence Nightingale was elevated to the national pantheon,  As imperialism reached its hight racial assumptions became the norm, and in the history we were taught there was no place for black people.  

 Not until modern times, when women and black people began challenging assumptions and reopening the books, revealing the inadequacy or downright bias of what we were taught, did things start to change. Immigration produced a new generation of black schoolkids and students to wonder where they and families came into the story. People watching the fight for civil rights and equality in the United States began to realise we in Britain had no right to feel smugly superior. Teachers and educationalists felt emboldened to rebel against passing on prejudice.

In 2005, Boris Johnson (now Mayor of London, then editor of The Spectator) wrote of learning about Seacole from his daughter's school pageant and speculated: "I find myself facing the grim possibility that it was my own education that was blinkered."

Mary Seacole's inclusion on the National Curriculum came as a result of a tireless campaigning to recognise someone who had become a forgotten figure in modern times. The war nurse, voted the greatest of Black Britons in a 2004 poll, was put in to the curriculum in 2007 She is the only black figure unconnected with slavery or civil rights to be included. Her name only appears in an appendix to the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum, as an example of a significant Victorian historical figure. There is no requirement that teachers include Seacole in their lessons.^[110]

But even this limited recognition is too much for today's reactionaries. It was reported at the end of last year that Mary Seacole was to be removed from the National Curriculum. We might note incidentally that the more Tories like Gove talk of "free schools" and local initiaves, the more they want to dictate what is taught, and how it is taught, and as in this case, what our children should be kept ignorant about.

As the petitioners for this black heroine say: "Her proposed removal can only be attributed to a recent backlash against Mary Seacole as a symbol of 'political correctness' by Right-wing media and commentators".  And that is putting it mildly.

In the forefront of the campaign against Mary Seacole, perhaps appropriately for a newspaper whose own history wasn't of supporting blacks but of supporting Blackshirts, is the Daily Mail columnist Peter Hitchens. If you believe him, the Crimean war nurse was only conjured up by "multiculture fanatics" out to do down the reputation of white Florence Nightingale and the British Empire. We are responsible it seems not only for poor history education but declining nursing standards. And in case you are in doubt, Hitchens slips in a reference to "our rulers", implying that Con Dem government or not, rightwingers like him are bravely resisting the dictatorship of lefties and liberals who are running our schools, and brainwashing kids, by rewriting history. 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2257668/PETER-HITCHENS-How-multiculture-fanatics-took-Mary-Seacole-hostage.html 

It is a familiar trick from Goebbels through to other far Rightists, and America's "Tea Party" and Gun Lobby. And Hitchens' hate screed is good enough reason to sign this petition and take this issue seriously.
 
As the petitioners say, "to remove Mary Seacole from the National Curriculum is tantamount to rewriting history to fit a worldview hostile to Britain's historical diversity".  They argue that "the teaching of Black historical figures is widely recognised to be beneficial to the success of Black pupils and in closing the GCSE achievement gap. Indeed it is to advantage of pupils from all backgrounds in our increasingly diverse schools and society".

And to the advantage of the public, who might otherwise have to depend on bigoted newspapers.

See petition:

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/michael-gove-secretary-of-state-for-education-keep-mary-seacole-on-the-national-curriculum

Namibia has a history and a future

TEACHERS' picket in Swakopmund

 BACK in the 1970s I was keenly following news from Namibia, with the rising struggle against South African rule, and in its forefront the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). Neighbouring Angola gained independence in 1975, with the MPLA coming to power, and it looked like Namibia could be next, though it would take time. A woman I knew from activity on Palestine, a member of Socialist Action, became a full-time professional with the Namibian Support Committee some time in the 1980s.  Unfortunately we lost touch.

It was not till much later that I heard , from comrades who had been in contact with left-wing activity here before returning to Namibia, that all was not well with SWAPO,in its leadership's attitude to democratic.rights or in its likely attitude to the workers' movement after independence. I met former SWAPO fighters who had fallen foul of the organisation's Stalinist-trained security apparatus, and spent time in its primitive detention pits.  Fortunately we had gone through enough upheaval on the Left here to realise they deserved an audience. But not everyone wanted to listen.

We also learned a little from the comrades about their people's history, the brutal impact of colonialism, and the memories of heroic struggles in which their grandparents had been involved, and of which we, even those of us with our History A-levels and degrees, knew next to nothing. I am starting to make up some of that gap with a book called "The Kaiser's Holocaust", by David Olusoga and Casper W.Erichsen, which not only describes what people in Namibia were put through but adds a dimension to our understanding of history in Europe. It is sub-titled "Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism".  I would defititely recommend it.   . 

Meanwhile, the class(room) struggle is alive and well in Namibia today, a country that exports uramium and diamonds but apparently can't pay a decent wage to teachers. Here is a report  (extract):


A HUNGRY TEACHER IS AN ANGRY TEACHER

Jade McClune and Otis Finck: The simmering crisis within the teaching profession reached boiling point yesterday when teachers resolved at two separate mass meetings in Walvis Bay and Swakopmund that, star-ting tomorrow morning, they will undertake strike action in solidarity with their colleagues in the Khomas and Hardap regions.

The entire teaching profession in Namibia has been thrown into disarray over the past week as thousands of teachers in the Khomas region went on strike last Friday to demand a 40 percent increase in their wages. Teachers in the Erongo are also no longer prepared to wait in silence and have decided to join their colleagues in the rest of the country, by going on strike tomorrow.

Negotiations over teachers' wages and terms of employment have been dragging on since April and the educators in the Erongo region have held their silence for several months while awaiting the outcome of the closed-door negotiations, but the matter has now spilt over onto the streets. The Erongo Regional Chairperson, Jonathan Tsuseb found himself in a tight corner yesterday when a mass of unhappy teachers confronted him with questions about the state of the salary negotiations during their meeting at Coastal High School in Swakopmund.

“Why can't they give us feedback on the negotiation process? Just wait until 31 October then we will take action,” said one female teacher yesterday. “We are professionals, they must treat us with professionalism,” another remarked. “If you want to strike, you must do it on your own, don't get NANTU involved,” Tsuseb fumed, and went on to say that he is not obliged to address public meetings: “Please don't call me to address public meetings, I am not elected by you!”

“You are a leader of NANTU and we are concerned about what is happening in the teaching fraternity. We are in darkness. We don't know what is going on. We want you to shed light on these issues,” one leading member of the assembled teachers asked, “What happened at the National Teachers Council (NTC) meeting this weekend?” Tsuseb revealed that the entire leadership of the Khomas regional branch of NANTU and the vice-chairperson of the Hardap regional branch were dismissed by the NTC over the weekend for organising the teachers' action, but he said that he could not convey any further information about the content of the negotiations, because of conditions of secrecy.

Tsuseb promised though that the negotiations would be concluded by 1 November and that the teachers would only then be informed of the out-come. “NANTU is negotiating for salary re-grading. There will be an improvement in your salary, but I cannot tell you by how much,” Tsuseb said, “I just don't know.” In mid-September Tsuseb had explained to The Namib Times that formal negotiations had started already on 20 June and that the outstanding issues under negotiation would be concluded by the end of September.

........

Teachers meeting in Narraville yesterday also accused the na-tional leadership of NANTU of negotiating without their informed consent and called on all civil servants to join them in their solidarity action. Teachers are also unhappy about the government's decision to unilaterally increase the cost of their medical aid scheme by 100%, as this was an issue still under negotiation. NANTU had put several options on the table. The first option was for a 10% increase for managers from director's level upwards, as well as a 14% increase for those at the level of school inspectors and downwards.

The second option was for a sliding scale of wages, linked to the rate of inflation, so that teachers' salaries would be automatically adjusted in line with inflation. The third option was for a job evaluation and wholesale regrading of posts. Tsuseb said yesterday that that government has set aside N$1.6 billion for the re-grading, but if the salary re-grading process was not completed by Thurs-day, the teachers could expect an adjustment in line with inflation. It has meanwhile been reported that teachers in the Otjozondjupa and Hardap regions have already forwarded petitions outlining their demands to the union leadership and that teachers in the Hardap Region are also demanding salary increases of be-tween 20% and 40%, as well as tax concessions to reduce the tax burden on teachers.

Teachers in the Khomas Region are demanding that their pensions not be taxed and are calling for their transport allowances to be in-creased from N$520 to N$1 000 per month. Teachers in the Hardap region are also adamant that if their demands are not met by October 31, they would resort to strike action. The Swakopmund group of concerned teachers expressed support yesterday for the demand for a 40% wage increase as a starting-point for further negotiations and are also demanding N$2000 housing allowance, an increase in their transport allowance and that their annual bonus cheque should not be taxed.

The teachers who assembled at Coastal High yesterday said that they are prepared to lay down their tools, but noted that it would be unprofessional to go on strike immediately.

“Therefore, as concerned teachers, we will go to school tomorrow (Tuesday) and let all the parents and teachers know of our decision. We must let them know that if they send their kids to school on Wednesday there will be nobody to take care of them. We will march to NANTU offices on Wednesday morning and from there will take further action,” the meeting agreed. The aggrieved teachers will meet again at Coastal High School in Swakopmund at 14:00 today to decide on the way forward.

In Walvis Bay about two hundred teachers also attended an urgent meeting to obtain teachers views and discuss concerns pertaining to delayed salary negations and information being withheld in this regard at Narraville Primary School. Those in attendance expressed solidarity and called for a unified approach with the teachers on strike in the Khomas region. They expressed support for their striking colleagues and resolved to join them by drawing up a petition in support of the demands from the teachers of the Khomas region and by going slow.

(full report see: http://www.namibtimes.net/News%20Items/a_hungry_teacher_is_an_angry_tea.htm