PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE explains why opposing war is inseparable from defending jobs, wages and public services – and why readers should come to the London Peace Conference on Saturday June 20
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New union sets agenda for defending education
In his second article, KEVIN COURTNEY writes that teachers have natural allies in parents and other trade union members. Working with these people will have a transformative effect on how teaching is delivered
As protests erupt over Henry Nowak’s murder, ANDREW MURRAY argues that anger is being exploited to advance a wider racist and anti-immigration agenda
CARLOS MARTINEZ explains the sound case for car manufacturing co-operation with China
The National Emergency Briefing outlines the need for urgent action to address environmental crisis, says PAUL DONOVAN, warning that there’s no time to indulge the arguments of the fossil-fuel-funded climate-change deniers
Campaigners say criticism of Labour MP Stephen Morgan’s position on Gaza has been met with police intervention and cancelled opportunities for debate. HESTER WOLFE reports
The Committee for the Defence of Iranian People’s Rights warns of escalation danger in Iran war
The scale of the challenges the NEU — National Education Union — will face are immense. The Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) is a phenomenon that has introduced a number of far reaching neoliberal policies and methods into education around the world over the past decade.
Central to the GERM are ideas that include: competition between schools and teachers drives up standards; that to have competition you need a high degree of standardised testing; that education workers rewards should be directly linked to test outcomes; that private companies are better suited to this environment; and that education unions are an obstacle to be overcome.
These policies are promoted not only by national governments, but also international bodies such as the World Bank, IMF, OECD — and, not to forget, global “edu-businesses” that seek to make a profit from what is a universal human right.
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A past confrontation permanently shaped the methods the state will use to protect employers against any claims by their employees, writes MATT WRACK, but unions are readying to face the challenge
NICOLA SARAH HAWKINS explains how an under-regulated introduction of AI into education is already exacerbating inequalities