Class War in
Coventry
by Matthew Jones COVENTRY'S Labour Council ave proposed a huge packag
I cuts in education using th excuse of falling roles.
According to the Labour Group leader hip and the council officers the council has to close schools to maintain educational standards! In reality they are trying to save millions of pounds to avoid confrontation with the Tory Government. However, the Labour Group were badly burned by the reaction to the last school closure they carrried out at Bell Green Primary School.
At Bell Green they went for a quick quiet closure, giving parents only eight days notice of a closure minute being put before the education committee on July 1, 1983. The reaction from parents, the NUT and the Labour Party forced the council to grant at least a semblance of consultation, setting back the decision by five months to the December Council meeting.
The issue decisively split the Labour Party and the Labour Group between those fighting the cuts and those implemeting cuts or allowing them to be carried out. After the December council meeting four councillors were expelled from the Labour Group for abstaining (!) n protest at the decision
The campaign reached its peak with two occuptions of the school in June and July 1984 by the parents, the Labour left and local striking miners. Finally the council evicted the occupiers by force in a four hour operation involving thirty police and half a dozen bailiffs. The final rearguard action included camping in a tent in the school grounds, successfully demanding that the building be properly secured.
The fifteen month campaign left the council with its feeble excuses stripped away. The rubbish about falling rolls has been exposed as a cover for creating a precedent for future closures and - as a profitable sideline — selling the site.
This time round the council have been more cautious in their approach. In October 1984 they issued a "cosultative" document "Future Choices" listing three choices:
—Do nothing and allow educational standards to fall;
Seek more money;
Find money within our budget by taking out surplus pupil places..
No mention of fighting the government: just a meek acceptance of Tory cuts and waffle about the wonders of closing schools. Or as one local rag put it: "No Future; No Choice!" As it was a "consultative" document the council awaited the replies. They came flooding in, with all but a handful strongly against closing schools. The council issued them in the huge "Responses to Future Choices" and ignored all of them.
The council bided their time, the whole what more could you ask?" thing being an exercise in keeping parents, teachers and the Labour Party Juessing until February 1985 Then 'working party" consisting of eight of the worst traitors in the Coventry labour movement and one Tory issued the cuts document "Future Choices — Meeting the Challenges".
Surprise was expressed by some in the Labour Party at this particular Tory putting his signature on the same sheet of paper as these types; but no matter. The proposals are drastic, with the closure of: three comprehensives (including the two newest schools in the city); two primary schools; one infant school; and, worst of all, four special schools.
In addition, threee infant and junior schools are to be merged with the closure of buildings; two nursery annexes are to close and the four single sex schools are to go mixed with present catchment areas split into four.
In primary schools the effect will be overcrowding; already 41 out of 117 city primary schools have average class sizes of over thirty and by the council's own figures, numbers in primary education are rising now!
The proposed redrawing of secondary school catchment areas has created havoc, with parents shuffling their kids about, trying to grab a place at the "best" schools. For the first time secondar schools' catchment areas could be set no geographically, but by groups of primary schools.
In secondary schools, the proposal will create three grammer schools out of the remaining thirteen LEA schools. Of the other ten, the closure of Barr's Hill and Birley Park would concentrate the city's black school students in two "ghetto" schools. By looking at the proposed catchment areas it is also clear which schools the council want to close in the next round of cuts.
By the time they've finished the lones dirty work, LEA schools are going to have over 1,500 pupils each.
The unkindest cut of all comes in special education, with the closure of four schools and the virtual ending of provision for children over 13. In accordance with the Tories 1981 Education Act the council intend turting children with special needs out into the mainstream system, which is already unable to cope with current conditions.
The reaction to the document has been immediate and massive. Action Groups Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 32
"See how much better you can do without going to college? You've got a job, you're working in the great outdoors... have sprung up around all the threatened schools, as well as parents and teachers: these have also involved secondary school students organising themselves. The council of course is playing it clever; the plan is still in the "consultative" stage, they can look for weak points and try to play off one school against the other until the crucial votes in June.
So far, thousands of parents, staff and pupils have been to meetings to hear the councillors and officers' stock answers, their insistance that the decisions have been made on "educational" grounds, and their refusal to give any further information on the schools. The Action Group have prepared their own detailed cases in defence of their schools, demolishing the coucil's argument as the Bell Green ¿ducation Action Group did. Particularly in the case of the secondary schools this has been highlighted by stunts in their own areas and in the centre of town, involving staff, parents and pupils.
The NUT held a general meting on February 27, shortly after the production of the working party document and the 250 teachers present voted unanimously to ballot on a ½ day strike against closures on March 22, an unprecedented result. The ballot was 75% in favour, with even the special schools returning a majority for the action, again, an unprecedented result.
The NUT managed to get support from NUPE, who took a day's strike, NATHE NAS/UW were instructed by their na. NAS/UWT However, tional leadership not to strike so as not to be seen following in the NUT's footsteps!
in the run up to the strike, the NUT and he Bell Green Education Action Grour organised a joint meeting of the Action Groups to form a co-ordinating committee. On March 22 itself, there was a good turnout from despite bad weather, with banners from schools all over the city, including many not under direct threat. The union turnout was poor, with none of the council manual workers represented and only two delegations from the private sector: GEC APEX and Massey Furguson Joint Shop Stewards.
The Action Groups Co-ordinating Committee has endorsed a move for a city wide strike on June 11, the day of the Council vote. The pressure must be put on the Trade Unions not to abandon the schools under threat as they did at Bell Green.
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