Children

Children, and children's rights

Save Lambeth children’s centres!

Local parents, residents and trade unionists in Lambeth are campaigning against the latest round of cuts to children’s centres. Lambeth Council’s proposals would close five of 23 children’s centres in the borough, and cut in half the provision at another seven centres. Children’s centres are places for children to play, and, for parents, a point of access to a range of services from ESOL classes, through breastfeeding sessions, to LGBT parenting support groups. The right-led Labour Council have been running a public consultation since mid-December, which has been met with a huge backlash from...

Stop “no recourse” scandal

Lewisham NEU (National Education Union) has voted to send a motion entitled “No child should go hungry in our schools” (motion 109) to our union’s national conference this year, and is seeking support to prioritise it for debate. At present, some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in our schools are denied meals under the government’s invidious No Recourse to Public Funding (NRPF) designation. NRPF is a label the government puts on certain migrants, meaning they have no access to benefits. The aim is to leave them at the mercy of hyper¬exploitative employers, or drive them out of the...

Fake news inside the left

On 26 October, the Red London Facebook page, purportedly a site run by Corbyn-supporting socialists, posted a meme indicating that the Clarion magazine and one of its editors, Sacha Ismail, support child abuse. Sacha is a member of Workers’ Liberty, and the parent of a young child. The claim is ludicrous, reckless, and malicious. It is not the first time that Red London have smeared members of Workers’ Liberty. Who are Red London? What are their politics? What other attacks have they made on us and other socialists? Red London’s administrators have always been anonymous, but it is clear that...

Stop Brexit! Fight Poverty!

At its conference on 22-26 September Labour has the chance to galvanise its new and enthused activist layer into becoming a serious force against the Tories, their disastrous policies for working-class people pushed through over eight years. To do that Labour needs to overhaul its democracy and commit itself to a radical programme. Top of the kind of political shift Labour needs to make is on Brexit. With over 100 motions submitted by local Labour parties, it is likely that t full debate on Brexit and the demand for another referendum or “People’s Vote” will be aired at the conference...

The Third Irish Revolution?

Have you heard the ultimate “Irish” joke? In a referendum on a united Ireland the Protestant Unionists of north-east Ulster campaign for “no” on the grounds that the South is too liberal. The people no longer fear God, maybe scarcely believe in God, and refuse to listen to their spiritual advisers. The two-to-one vote on 25 May to rip up the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution — entrenched there by a referendum in 1983 — was a great empowering and liberating event for the women of Ireland, Mná na hÉireann. Legislation to allow abortion will soon follow. The yes vote in the referendum on...

Model motions for National Union of Teachers (NEU) conference

The National Union of Teachers has merged with the ATL to form the National Education Union, but will still have a separate NUT conference on 30 March to 3 April 2018 in Brighton. Local NUT associations and divisions will be discussing motions for this conference over the next month. They must be submitted by midday on Sunday 3 December. Below are some texts drafted by Workers' Liberty teachers which members may wish to use or adapt when proposing motions. After all the motions are in, a stage follows in which NUT associations and divisions choose which motions are prioritised and actually...

NZ schools go gender-neutral

New Zealand’s secondary school teachers’ union has called on all schools to offer gender-neutral uniform, toilet and changing-room options. All students should be able to “choose from a range of shorts, trousers, skirts of different lengths and styles, with both tailored and non-tailored interchangeable shirts... access to specific uniform items [should not be] not limited on the basis of biological sex or perceived gender identity”. The union also calls on schools to provide “individual toilet and shower units with lockable doors and floor-to-ceiling divisions” and “options for students to...

The right to be cool

June 2017 was the hottest June for 176 years. Across Europe temperatures went up to 38°C, and groups of school children and workers defied instructions and wore skirts to school and work to try and keep cool. In Nantes, France, a group of bus drivers asked their employer for permission to wear shorts. When this request was denied they decided to wear the only item that was authorised in hot weather — a skirt. One worker told the Guardian “Our bosses’ offices are air-conditioned, which isn’t the case with the majority of our vehicles. To spend more than seven hours in a vehicle in 50°C...

Against Borders for Children

On 14 January, I went with another member of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty to the Against Borders for Children (ABC) conference. The event was about fighting for refugee children, and was organised by ABC, a group that allies with teachers and students to fight for refugee children who are being spied on or even arrested by the government. Speakers included National Union of Teachers General Secretary Kevin Courtney and National Union of Students President Malia Bouattia, as well as representatives of various refugee rights campaigns. The main focus was on resisting the government’s...

UK school system bad for children

The Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA) rankings were published on 6 December. These put UK schools in the 20s among the 72 countries surveyed. Socialists don′t put great store by the PISA ratings, which measure different nations academic achievements by testing 15 and 16 year olds in maths, science and reading. However, the UK’s poor results do demonstrate that, even by their own standards, the Tories model for education is failing. Whilst not perfect, Finland provides a model that is more effective according to PISA and, more importantly, is less harmful to children. In...

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