Striking against academies


On 31 May NUT members at Alperton Community school in Brent went on strike against proposals to turn their school into an academy. Hank Roberts spoke to the Socialist from the picket line:

“The school governors have voted to support an academy but staff have rejected this in a ballot with a two-thirds majority against. Schools minister Gove wants to privatise our schools so they can be run for profit, not to provide education for all.

“Brent is run by a majority Labour council and the chair of the governors is a Labour Party member. I would expect the Labour council and all its members to oppose these moves. But the three main parties all support the introduction of academies so we can’t expect any support from them.

“The Labour council has recently closed six libraries and the other week turned up in the middle of the night to avoid protesters and strip Kensal Green library of its books. They even mobilised the police just in case.

“I voted for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the last elections. We need an alternative to the ‘tweedle dee, tweedle dum and dummer’ options we have now and it’s important that it is based on trade unions. I support the idea of building a TUSC alternative.”

John Boyle