Nuustrial Nev Nut Members Hit by Union Leaders!

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Who 1S teachers have actually lined up with tionary policies.

r the for a half day strike in September official of the union,.! Mr Ray If national action against unemployment and the cuts was called by the NUT Executive it would 'increase unemployment"!

This lunatic proposition was put forward by Dick Boland, secretary of the Action Committee at a special meeting in Enfield, discuss the implementation of the decision not to teach classes of over 35 children.

Great amazement was expressed by many teachers present that Enfield is one of only three areas _ the others being Sutton and Stockport - allowed by the Action Committee to express their hostility to the government attacks on jobs and services.

This deliberate isolation caused some people in the meeting to question the whole point of their action and their chances of success.

The Executive would no doubt be glad if action in these selected NUT President Wiltshire areas collapsed so that they could use the time-honoured excuse of bureaucrats that they wanted to fight but their members "let them down"

The chairman, against the wishes of the majority of the meeting even refused to accept a motion calling for national action.

"SECRET"

Teachers in Oxfordshire can, however, take heart, as Boland assured the meeting • that action will be taken in that area but as yet it has remained a "secret" for tactical reasons!

No doubt it will be designed to coincide nicely with the sacking of the 500th teacher who is Teachers heading for the dole queues in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire can reflect bitterly on the misplaced faith their union leaders had that Labour would prevent their schools being butchered.

In Oxiordshire,.. NUT members are digesting the bitter orders that 464 jobs in the county are to be axed - 250 of them in compulsory redundancies. Their neighbours in Buckinghamshire face the closure of every single nursery school in the county and the loss of 350 jobs.

Class sizes in both counties are to be dramatically increased.

The time has not run out for a fight by the teachers but it is clear not that no struggle is to be put up by the leaders of any of the teachIt unlons.

i Oxfordshire the size of the cuts has been Known for more than *x montos and 5.000 workers, andit tearhers answered the rall threatened by the local authority.

Ana naturally, Boland didn't exclude the possibility of strike action in the (indefinite) future.

No-one can accuse the NUT Executive of inaction, however. On the contrary, it has been extremely busy, attacking the Little liford teachers for their stand against the cuts; and censuring Executive Committee members Stone and North for speaking to union members lobbying the Executive in protest against these disciplinary measures taken by the Executive Committee.

LOBBY

North and _Stone, Executive members from Inner London and Outer London apparently were condemned for not leaving the Council Chamber with the rest of the Executive on November 27, 1976 when the meeting was broken up after refusing to meet a lobby against the suspension of the Little Ilford teachers.

Further the Executive majority condemned them for playing a leading part in the meeting held by the demonstrators.

The witch-hunt was lead by NUT President, Alf Wiltshire, who The real wreckers of democratic procedures in the union of course are Wiltshire and his allies who forced through the disciplinary procedures at last year's Annual Conference.

They have since used them to threaten any member making moves towards action against the cuts. and as with the Little Ilford lined up with on the day the county council met.

Workers, some of whom had never taken union membership seriously, found themselves on the street demonstrating their refusal to allow the cuts of £3.25 millions in the education budget to go ahead.

The thousands surprised the union officials as much as the POSTPONED Faced with such large numbers on the streets outside their debating hall, the council postponed its final decision "until after the rate support grant is known" • This manoeuvre meant that the government would have to increase the rate support grant instead of cutting it, The only people to be taken in were the union officials. Secretary The south England regional the employer and suspended members from the union for taking no-cover action "without Executive permission"

"CHERISHED"

Dr. Walter Roy, newly dubbed CBE in the New Year Honours List and Executive member for Cambridge said while he had previously "cherished" the right of people to speak freely he now considered that the democratic process was being used to "destroy democracy itself" and called upon "reasonable people" to support the Executive's witch-hunt.

Wherever this letter is read out branches must be urged to repudiate it and put motions of support both for the Little Illord teachers and the EC members who backed them.

Meanwhile the Executive continues with its connivance with the ILEA against the William Tyndale 83 # .* General Secretary Jarvis at the TUC teachers, and has also prepared new attacks on the rights of members to be presented to the next conference;

POSTAL BALLOT Last year the Executive proposed to the local associations that they introduce postal ballots for elections and increase the quorum of meetings.

These recommendations were thrown out by so many associations that they are being re-introduced by the Executive as mandatory.

They can see that even more bureaucratic measures will be needed to stifle the membership's growing opposition to their reactionary policies. official of the union, Mr Ray Fox, wrote to Shirley Williams, the Education Secretary, giving their official view:

"I feel you should know that the controlling group on the council lose no opportunity in their public statements of blaming the government for these cuts.

"They say that what they are doing is simply and solely a response to government circulars. The union believes this is untrue: that nothing in government circulars would indicate cuts of this order."

This month the full extent of the lunacy of this piece of wishful thinking became clear. The rate support grant has been cut. The education cuts are to go through in full. Teachers will lose 464 jobs, 250 of them in compulsory redundancies.

Each school has now been issued with a specific number of teachers to sack. The response in the schools from hoth narents and teachers is

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SOCIALI 'RESS. Wedsesia 19k Jemaen. 197

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was reserve note tel on the emo cratic procedures"!

of Oxfordshire NUT, Mr Jack Stede as primarily a protesa!. day