It’s becoming increasingly clear that the most militant trade unions have education reformers in their sights.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the most militant trade unions have education reformers in their sights. A month of industrial action is due to begin at the end of March, culminating in a series of demonstrations to coincide with the royal wedding, and free school proposers can expect to be at the business end of these protests.
The NUT’s opposition to the coalition’s education policy is hardly surprising, but the involvement of other trade unions in this battle is more perplexing. The keynote speaker at a recent rally in Acton to oppose the West London Free School was Bob Crow. What business is it of the RMT if a group of parents and teachers want to establish a new secondary school in west London? Similarly, the GMB recently started campaigning against the Bolingbroke Academy, a proposed new free school in Wandsworth.

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