Letter to the Editor: Along with other NEU members from the Forest, I attended a rally in Gloucester. 

I wrote this piece as soon as I got home. A Summary Of The Rally In Gloucester Last Wednesday. 

“The gathering assembly is a buzz of laughter and conversation. 

Hands are shaken and hugs are shared. Old friends, meeting up after years apart, exchange experiences with new acquaintances from around the county. 

According to Downing Street, which, like the Palace, is a talking inanimate object that represents the views of the ruling establishment, these people are ‘spoiling the lives’ of our children by going on strike. 

Not one of the hundreds assembled would agree. 

They have all committed themselves to do their best for the children they teach. 

If they are angry, which most of them are, it’s an anger that is focused mainly on a government which has demonstrated hypocrisy, duplicity, incompetence and outright hostility towards people working in schools. 

Grumbles of micromanagement and intense work overload rumble in the discussions, but the main focus is on pay and the strangulation of education budgets. 

Downing Street, or more precisely, the rich people in government, should take the blame for ‘spoiling the lives’ of children. 

The anger is real, but the overwhelming mood is one of shared solidarity and unity of purpose. 

Government ministers grimace as one after another is exposed as a liar or a cheat… or both. 

Teachers in Gloucester are demonstrating with smiles on their faces. 

The home-made placards mixed humour with anger. “Tax Zahawi! Pay our Schools!” “Tax the Super Rich to Fund Our Services.” 

A science teacher made a placard depicting the atomic particles in a diagram…”Proton, Neutron, Electron, Moron,” the last particle being next to a photograph of the education minister.” Smiles abound. The demonstration moves off on its short march around the city centre. 

The Stroud Red Band leads with a version of Bandiera Rossa and the Forest Samba Band follows behind, bashing marching rhythms from a variety of percussion instruments. 

But the applause is for the marchers, mainly striking teachers with delegations from the PCS and other trade union bodies. 

The support is tangible. 

Pizza workers come to take photographs and give thumbs up. 

Shoppers clap and some engage in conversation. 

“I support what you’re doing. I hope you win,” declares one elderly shopper. 

“Half a million to strike…” warned the Daily Mail…

“This is a general strike in all but name,” claiming that it represented “a return to the dark days of lockdown” for our children. 

Like most hysterical propaganda the headlines contain an element of truth. 

It is likely that half a million are on strike today, but a graph plotting strike days against time over the past 60 years shows today’s strike as a significant, but minor, blip in comparison to the level of strikes in the 60s and 70s. 

It is clear from the demonstration that many workers have little or no experience of strike activity. 

A few have been on early morning picket lines but most have not. 

One or two repeat the mantra that striking is a last resort, but others argue for “upping the ante” to make the rich pay. 

Zahawi has become a focus, but I hear no discussion on the super profits of the energy companies or the international oligarchs. 

I’m with those who speak for upping the ante and intensifying the action. 

I take the view that, in order to be effective, the strikes will have to be generalised across unions and workplaces and better coordinated from the grass roots. 

This is an opportunity to begin a reversal of the government’s twin strategies of diverting wealth away from working people at the same time as strangling the public sector. 

The government is aware of the weakness of their own position and the unpopularity of their arguments, which is why they are introducing even more legislation to inhibit strikes and demonstrations. 

Teachers, and every other worker, will hopefully recognise that being nice when confronted with a nasty, ruthless opponent is unlikely to end well. 

Our side will have to hit them harder if we want to win. 

There’ll be plenty of smiles if we are successful.

P Jones, via e-mail