by a Haringey teacher
Teachers and support staff in the National Education Union (NEU) at Highgate Wood School have now had eight days of strike action in their fight against a package of austerity cuts that threaten to make 10% of staff redundant, extend teaching hours, and enlarge class sizes. At the root of the dispute is the change to the funding formula, introduced by the Tories and maintained by Labour, that has reduced the funding for students in inner-city schools. As a result, the school is now running at a growing deficit.
After 50 years of Labour control of Haringey, it was hoped that the newly elected Green councillors, who had pledged to defend education and fight cuts, would do something to reverse years of austerity.
Initially, Green councillors visited picket lines and publicly pledged support for the strikes. NEU members discussed with the councillors how they could end the strike by either cancelling the debt or at least accepting a longer plan for repayment that would avoid compulsory redundancies.
However, now the Green cabinet member for Children and Education wrote to the strikers to say that they could not intervene in the dispute.
Repeating almost word-for-word messages from the previous Labour council, they explained that whilst they regretted job losses and the damage done to children’s education, they were powerless to intervene, saying that with many other schools in the borough running at a deficit they cannot set a precedent by bailing out Highgate Wood School.
This is not what people in Haringey voted for when they rejected Labour in hope of the Greens’ promises of change. Now there is anger and a sense of betrayal from the strikers.
This is the first test of the new council and will now doubtless be repeated in many other sectors where Haringey Labour has presided over cuts in public services for years. The school strikers are determined to force the Greens to stick to their promises by intervening to put an immediate end to the redundancy process currently under way, and instead agree a new plan with school management that will preserve jobs and learning conditions.
Working-class communities deserve better: we need councils that are willing to stand up and fight, with budgets based on need not notional ‘debt’ for supplying key public services. And school staff need national strike action to secure fair funding for education!