Monday 11 May 2009

Lewisham Bridge Primary School; Draft statement by Andy Hewett (GPTU& GL Committee member)

As the capitalist economy continues to collapse in its current period of global crisis, the only solution proposed by the government is to pump billions of pounds into the failing system, effectively privatising the profit and nationalising the debts accrued by the unregulated banks.

Yet the same profit-driven neoliberal ideology of the domination of market forces which has so spectacularly failed is being increasingly applied to what remains of our public services. State funding which has been lavished upon the private banks is not so forthcoming where it is so desperately needed for example in education. Instead private finance is being used to fund schools, leading to effective privatisation in the guise of Academy Schools and Foundation Trusts. What's good enough for the banks is evidently not good enough for the rest of us.

Schools funded by private capital and taken out of the control of Local Education Authorities are undemocratic and accountable only to themselves. These projects serve primarily to make money, not to provide the best possible education for all children. Green Party policy regarding this is unequivocal:

"The Green Party opposes City Academies and Trust Schools as we believe that schools should be governed in the interests of children and their parents, not through private individuals or businesses."

Currently there are plans in Lewisham to knock down an old primary school and build a privately funded Trust school. Despite the lack of planning permission, the pupils from the Lewisham Bridge Primary School are being bussed to another site instead of being allowed to use the perfectly good school building that exists, this is extending their school day to up to 8 hours. The education and well-being of these children and their families is being affected. Capitalism is creating a legacy of environmental devastation for their generation to inherit, it is also failing them in putting the interests of private capital ahead of their education.

For these reasons Green Left fully supports the "Hands Off Lewisham Bridge" campaign, which has occupied the school and is making a stand against the imposition of the interests of private capital over the education of their children. Green Left similarly supports all other campaigns which are standing up and taking action to oppose the privatisation of our education system, and to demand a publicly funded state education system for the benefit of all.

2 comments:

  1. 1ST OXFORD WORKING CLASS BOOKFAIR
    Saturday 20 June, 11 am - 6 pm
    Ruskin College, Walton Street, Oxford
    www.oxfordworkingclassbookfair.blogspot.com
    oxfordworkingclassbookfair@googlemail.com

    We cordially invite YOU to visit the 1st ever OXFORD WORKING CLASS BOOKFAIR! There will be books, talks, workshops, short films and more books and magazines . . .

    We plan to recover/reclaim some of the hidden history of Oxford, with its gallery of rogues, rebels and revolutionaries, to touch upon some topics of contemporary relevance to the man & woman on the street today, provide quality entertainment, discuss the big issues past and present & hopefully have a real good time to boot! - All in a relaxed and warm atmosphere!

    The range of local groups invited includes; political groups, Trade Unions, community groups, campaign groups, booksellers and history societies. If you would like to have a stall email us at the address above!

    The event will include a commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the 1909 RUSKIN COLLEGE STUDENT STRIKE, a pioneering student uprising for independent working class education, that saw students breakaway to form a radical education and self-help networks based on an alternative progressive view of what education could be. They argued that it wasn't enough for the working class to have limited extended access to higer education, but rather that they needed a fundamentally different kind of education, curriculum & pedagogy to meet their needs and the needs of the class. They were involved in the PLEBS LEAGUE (a grassroots education iniative) and set up an anti-capitalist education network of CENTRAL LABOUR COLLEGES, many of the leaders of the student uprising were miners and trade unionists who went on to be authors of THE MINERS NEXT STEP, a classic text of rank & file trade unionism and syndicalism.

    Along the way, we will learn the story of the RED SHIRTS, a group set up at Ruskin College to sabotage the attempts of Oswald Mosely's fascist BLACK SHIRTS to get a base in 1930s Oxford & consider how we fight against fascism & racism today. There will also be sessions on culture, trade union & labour history, feminism/women's liberation, ecology & climate, war & empire etc. More information about speakers, events and other happenings planned will appear on our page shortly - watch this space! Sponsors include the local I.W.W and trade unionists.

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  2. What is now going on in schools is a eugenics programme (a human breeding programme), endorsed by the government, now in place in UK schools as the 'Teens and Toddlers Sustainability Replication Programme' funded by ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) and now running nin over a dozen boroughs:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxQpft5F_k

    or go to the youtube website and search for Ark Schools, Academies and Eugenics.

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