Education workers

A couple of Education workers in Preston SF plus there's a student who's in AF. I'll let them know.

I've been hearing some nasty sounding stuff about education maintenance allowance (EMA) and also Connexions (which seems to be involved with checking students' immigration status alongside it's usual advertising function).

I'm doing by teacher-training in Blackheath/Greenwich at the minute, it's alright. I went to an EWN meeting in Belfast at crimbo but there was a mix-up (I turned up to the wrong place) and it was pretty much cancelled anyway.

Two af-northers are teachers. A couple are students. Two of Manc anarchists are students.

Maybe we should start a Manc EWN?

http://libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7023

this thread refers to the meeting I was on about

i kinda work in education- i have research funding for four years (yoink!) and it is effectively a salary.

EWN souds interesting- what is it all about? i'm not big on my history.

i like the sound of it in a kind of 'we aren't too keen on havin all these hierarchical relationships in education' kind of way, but am i in the right area or is it more like solfed/trade union kinda stuff?

i'm interested.

EWN again to restate, is a anarcho-syndicalist intiative. Aside the fact we have a growing political membership in this sector, I also think, since considerably a high number of us are in HE, and big changes are happening (Student fees/funding) its important we start to produce something, and give some support to who we can find working in HE.

I'm FE. Not an anarcho-syndicalist - would I even be allowed in then?

Stuff I'd be interested in discussing:

casualisation/closures/pay

academies/business partnerships/sponsorship

EMA/connexions

I've written stuff about city academies and business partnerships before for HI.

Don't see any reason to do a newsletter or producing other material until there was decent networking/information sharing going on already.

clearly AFers are not syndicalist. However, is that a good reason for not working together? I'd think we'd need to thrash out what we were doing. I suspect that there's a lot of common ground worth working on.

To be honest, I don't see the point of a network devoted to one industrial sector if it's going to be tied to a specific ideological viewpoint. A network shouldn't be a matter of the AF and solfed working together on something, it should be a group of people interested in discussing issues directly related to working in education (inc students), the effects of policy - curriculum changes, restructuring and possible ways to resists those changes - and more bread and butter stuff about things happening to individuals. That sort of discussion isn't necessarily limited to an anarchist viewpoint, let alone a specific group. It's likely that it'd be set up by people in those groups or unaffiliated people close to them, but I'd see it as a failure if something as fundamental as this remained in that mileu.

i like the idea, but i agreew with catch- it shouldn't be explicitly anarcho- XXX

however, i'd be happy to join in the fun. i'm currently critiquing my university's academic code of conduct in one of my essays at the moment on activism and academia so i'll whack it up here when it's done, that is, if anyone fancies trawling through it

Do we need some kind of face to face meeting? There seem to be a load of us in the NW, for example.

Are Solfed totally committed to being in a purely anarcho-syndicalist set up or are they interested in a broader church (not catholic though )?

There should be scope for a bulletin.

In our school - in Oldham - we've just had a victory of sorts over pay, by being prepared to threaten strike action. Other schools are going on strike.

SolFed have a workplace/industrial strategy agreed by the whole organisation. http://libcom.org/hosted/sf/strategy.htm Any Networks would be working to that strategy.

There may be a high number of education workers in SolFed, but there are also more education workers in my workplace than the combined membership of all three national federations. Hence my interest being limited to something broader in scope in terms of the politics of its members, but very focused on the areas it targets. I got the impression that JDMF's original post was addressed to education workers in general.

I don't know much about the original EWN, what happened to it?

nah that makes loads of sense, and the more I think about it the better an idea it sounds.

I dont like the way some of the posts on here sound. The logic is they make out if you organise collectively with other like minded individuals around a political platform, you are being sectarian because wait for it.....they dont agree with your politcs Really the answer to that is simple......

Im all for SF allowing non-members joining industrial networks (as equals), but thats if they abide by a working practice. Anarcho-syndicalism, seems to be a dirty word on this thread, Im not too bothered about the theory, but rather the working practice. Otherwise it just seems a rehash of the previously failed workers networks from the past few years. I mean what are you aiming for? Another email list....

Frats

What's wrong with what's being said? The EWN gets discussed on an open public discussion board. A couple of people show interest, but say they are not anarcho-syndicalist. What's wrong with that?

I've always been interested in the work of the EWN, but have felt that being in the AF means that Solfed members would not welcome my working along with them in it. After all, there's our aims and principles as a problem.

Broadly, I think we need a network to co-ordinate workplace based resistance and to spread work related anarchist communist propaganda. I have no interest in just having an email list or a discussion group.

I see little problem with Solfed's industrial strategy - having just read it - though you know from other threads I would have problems with any attempt to set up a permanent organisation to mediate between capital and labour (which is what I presume the strategy actively does not intend to do). We could discuss how that happens by accident at another time.

In Spain, FAI members are also CNT members. Our last international meeting was held in the offices of the Madrid CNT.

If my interest is not welcome, fine.

Don't want to derail and this is probably another discussion but I think this highlights the problem in the UK. The AF is so anti-syndicalist without having any industrial strategy of it own. It therefore has to coat-tail the SolFed initiatives while complaining that they are too syndicalist in nature. Of course our industrial strategy includes reference to revolutionary unions, what would you expect from an an anarcho-syndicalist organisation? We could just leave it vague and mutter stuff about one day a spontaneous ad-hoc workplace council will form when necessary but in the meantime stick with the labour party linked reformist unions but we don't think that is any sort of strategy at all.

In Spain and elsewhere syndicalism is recognised as a valid means of advancing anarchist ideas in the workplace.

Steve, I'm not trying to coat-tail anything. In any event, I realise that my interest is not welcome. So I'll not bother.

Hi

That's the trouble with you lot, too much job security for your own good.

Love

LR

Hi

I was trying to encourage a bit of unity, even if only through your mutual hatred of me.

Love

LR

JDMF can't you see??

SF want anarchistic unions

AF want anarchistic workplace resistance groups.

It's simple.

(If you call it a "union" it means you want it to be an intermediary of capital and labour. That's what the word *actually* means. No really. Sorry for the sarcasm, I'm a bit pissed. I just find this all very funny.)

okay so this was a nice thread and has descended into god knows what...

so let's get back from the metanarrative for a second...

can i ask is this an initiative that is taking off soon? will it be on the solfed website? how far down the line isit?