You would think that an organisation such as the Anti-Academies-Alliance would represent a wide range of views and would draw together opponents to the Academy programme from diverse political and social backgrounds. But in fact those running the organisation have a very narrow agenda and share the same very specific political allegiance. In fact the three founding members of the organisation, unknown to many of the well-meaning foot-soldiers of the Alliance, are all activists of the Socialist Workers Party.
It would be worrying enough to discover that anyone involved in the education of our children was a member of the SWP, but in fact these three activists have very senior and influential positions in the most extreme of left-wing politics.
One of these three is Nick Grant, a teacher from Ealing who is paid by the taxpayer to act as a full-time official with the National Union of Teachers. Another of the three is Alasdair Smith, a history supply teacher and the president of the Islington branch of the National Union of Teachers in north London. While the third is Ken Muller, a sixth-form college teacher and assistant secretary of the same Islington branch of the National Union of Teachers. Mr Muller has also stood as a candidate for George Galloway’s extreme leftwing Respect party. Yet another leader in the Alliance is Hank Roberts, a union activist and president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
These men present themselves simply as concerned parents and keep their political agenda and activities quiet. That’s not surprising since even Labour voters might find it difficult to place their complete confidence in men who are also members of the Socialist Workers Party. Naturally the Alliance works closely with the NUT, since those leading it are all activists in the NUT, even if they keep this fact rather secret.
Toby Young, one of the driving forces behind a Free School project in West London, has found himself subject to personal attacks by members of the NUT. His experiences led him to say that the state schools system is “the last redoubt of the hard Left”, adding: “There’s almost nothing they won’t do to hang on to it. It’s politics at its most brutal and cut-throat.”
Smith, the National Secretary of the Alliance, insists that his organisation was “a broad-based campaign of teachers, parents, support staff, governors and others who are concerned about the Government academies programme” with support from the major political parties as well as the SWP.
He states that, “My membership of the SWP is not a secret, nor is my qualified teacher status.”
“Michael Gove’s suggestion that AAA is an SWP front is untrue and intended to distract attention from the growing concerns about his policy from many parents and teachers.”
Whether his membership of the SWP is a secret or not, it clearly indicates that the NUT and the SWP share many policies and agenda positions, and that their objection to the Free School movement is motivated by extreme leftwing politics rather than practical concerns.
So Toby Young’s experiences led him to say that the state schools system is “the last redoubt of the hard Left”?
Then he is even more naive than I had thought. Local government, incorporating the education and social services systems, is the Hohenzollern Redoubt, the Hitler Bunker, of ‘progressive socialism’.
Dependant on the state for nourishment. Unionised into institutional ‘equal’ mediocrity and rightly recognising that if a culture of meritocracy replaces it they will be exposed for the intellectual dross they are, many teachers will fight tooth and nail to ensure their pupils grow up to be even more stupid than themselves.
Isn’t the SWP the ‘party’ that believes Plod aint capable of investigating accusations of rape against their ‘Officers’ and that they should deal with it themselves?
Not surprisingly, many of those committed young things find themselves on their backs with a rather unpleasant old activist on top claiming it’s somehow his right.
Must be true if its in The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/22/swp-cover-up-rape-complaint
Seems that not only the BBC is full of pervs.