Coventry teachers act

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Over 600 teachers in Coventry attended a meeting called by the NUT Executive to discuss action over the proposed 330 redundancies in the teaching force.

Opposition to this first major round of cutbacks was resolute and the meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of a half-day strike on Monday 11 February when teachers will participate in a mass anti-cuts lobby of the city's Labour The NAS has also supported this call to action by the NUT and will join in the protest on Monday when the city schools will be paralysed.

Solidarity

Already parents at some seventy schools have expressed solidarity with the teachers as the implications of these cuts become clear: worsening teacher/pupil ratios, lowering of educational standards and subject losses from curriculi.

However, at a time when militant and organised opposition is necessary, the NUT leadership, which has clearly been forced to adopt some kind of positive stand on the cuts following the example of Avon and Trafford NUT who face similar cutbacks, has issued a directive to : its members, reminding them that teachers are a professional force and should therefore stage a "silent and dignified protest"

Teachers should not equip themselves with • banners, slogans, chants and literature, argue the NUT bureaucrats.

At the same time, the leadership has staged .a ballot on further forms of action; the ballot form surpasses by far the complexities of any tax form, thus seeking to ensure a divided response from the membership.

Teachers must counteract this obvious • manoeuvre by organising local school meetings to mount a united call for all-out strike action.

A conscious campaign must be waged for the formation of action committees involving parents, students and school students, along with ancillary workers and other public sector unions, to provide conditions for indefinite strike action.

It is only through the united and firm action of the labour movement that local councillors can be forced to rescind their decision.