Hull NUT delegate (personal capacity) DELEGATES voted to maintain the National Union of Teacher's (NUT) boycott of SATs and to pursue militant policies on a number of other issues at the union's conference held over the Easter weekend.
The increasing confidence amongst large numbers of members was evident throughout the four day conference.
Many recognise that the government is weak and therefore can be confronted and indeed defeated. On a number of important issues pressure from the organised left resulted in progress being made on union policy.
The results of the national executive elections were announced just before Easter. They showed increased votes for the left although there was no overall breakthrough and the left only gained one extra place on the executive.
But this year's conference confirmed that the left in the NUT is one of the largest and most affective of any union. Carol Regan, a leading member of the Socialist Teachers Alliance (STA), was elected vice president of the union.
Anti union laws
Conference opened dramatically with the first debate being on the Tory anti-union laws. Socialist Outlook supporter, Roy Leach, moved the successful motion that called for a campaign to repeal all anti-union legislation and for the union to refuse to co-operate with anti-trade union legislation.
The executive attempted unsuccessfully to take all the key points out of the motion.
This is the first time the left has managed to get such a motion passed at NUT conference. The injunction against NATFHE's March 1 strike clearly had a significant impact on the thinking of NUT activists.
George Wiskin, speaking for the executive, even resorted to lying when he claimed that only a handful of very small unions had such a policy. As a Socialist Teachers Alliance (STA) bulletin pointed out, calling UNISON a very small union stretches even the most liberal imagination.
Whilst there should be no illusions that NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy is going to lead action against the law nevertheless the passing of this motion is an important victory for the left.
Need for national action The key task for teachers is to force the union into national action against the Tories. The best option was a national fight on pay. Unfortunately the left was unable to commit conference to national action against the 2.9% imposed pay award.
Similarly the executive and their supporters managed (just) to vote down a fighting policy for next year's claim.
Their margin of victory - 325 votes in a card vote of 150,000 - shows now close victory was. The left should now campaign for a special salaries conference to show the union has clear policy for next years claim.
Despite the narrow defeats on pay, the conference did provide a number of possibilities for national action.
Section 11
campaign The government intends to reduce the level of Section 11 grant from 75% to 50% by 1995/96. Section 11 payments are used to fund teachers for students where English is a second language. The cut in funding will have a severe effect in many areas including areas such Tower hamlets and Birmingham. Rank and file radicalisation puts NUT leaders under pressure It represents a national attack and needs a national response. A national day of action will now take place in the summer term and accompanied by local strike action.
Class size
It was agreed to call a lobby of parliament to start mobilizing members behind a serious campaign in support of the union's objectives for smaller class sizes.
This follows the executive's failure to implement last year's policy that aimed to get the campaign moving twelve months ago. A significant change has been the success of a very small number of schools who have fought and won on this issue.
Education policy The main motion on education policy was moved by Socialist Outlook supporter Gill Lee. The motion clearly exKeith Sinclair joining the onslaught on the platform plained that while the Dearing review has addressed some problems of workload it has left the fundamental principles of Tory educational policy in place.
It was agreed that the boycott policy should continue until standard national tests are abandoned. This debate was important in bringing out the ideological implications of the changes in government policy and ensuring that the umon membership understands the limitations of the Dearing Review.
The fight against racism and fascism Affiliation to the ANL and ARA were reaffirmed although the executive did manage to squeeze through an amendment restricting support to ANL to those of its activities that were 'peaceful'.
Teachers Against the Nazis organised a large rally with Esther Bronstein, a Holocaust survivor, speaking. She also addressed conference making a significant impact on all present and the intention is to hold follow-up meetings around the country.
The strengths and weaknesses of Teachers Against the Nazis mirror those of the ANL. On the one hand, energetic antifascist activity, on the other hand a method of operation where all decisions appear to be made by the SWP with the lack of democratic structures.
The left The NUT left is large and well organised. This is helped by NUT conference being a large conference of over a thousand delegates.
There are two left organisations - the STA and the smaller Campaign for a Democratic and Fighting Union (CFDU). The two groups worked fairly well together at this conference. A joint slate was agreed for the Conference Business Committee and this led to the slate winning three of the four available places.
Much of the friction surrounds the position of the SWP, who are the single largest tendency within the NUT left. The SWP are members of the STA but played very little role within the organisation of STA at the conterence. for unity between the STA and believes there is no principled reason why the members of both groups could not be united in needed is a united left tendency that includes all those currently in both groups and those who could potentially be attracted to There are clearly a number of areas where all the left should be able to work together in the coming months. Most of those areas of work are obvious from the key debates of conference as outlined. Another area is the election for NUT general Secreconference must therefore be very positive. On a number of issues the NUT has improved its formal policies.
The job of the left over the next tew monthe 1e to linite to force the national executive to