Annual General Meeting of

Islington National Education Union

Thursday 19^th May 2022

5.30pm

Meeting Agenda

(copies can be downloaded from the foot of the page)

AGM – Fixed Business

1. Welcome and Installation of New President (Terry Sullivan)
2. Minutes of Previous AGM 24^th March 2021 and UGM of 9^th March 2022 and Matters Arising Minutes can be found at Previous minutes
3. Islington Officer Elections – Election results to be circulated at the meeting
4. Rule Changes : None submitted
5. Accounts – To be circulated at the meeting
6. 2022/23 Local Subscription Fee

     7.Nomination for vacant Inner London National Executive seat (This must be a woman)

Guest Speaker – Robin Tear – Chair of  London Region International Solidarity Network and recent winner of the NEUs Blair Peach award will speak on Care4Calais

8.      Motions submitted by Members

a)      Care4Calais (See Below)

b)      We Demand Better  (See Below) – Jess Edwards NEU Executive Member for Inner London will join in discussing this motion.

c)      No More Exclusions – practical action!  (See Below)

d)      No School based police officers (See Below)

A     A)  Motion on Care4Calais

Islington NEU recognises the fantastic work done by NEU members visiting Calais to support Care4Calais with distributions and warehouse work.

We note the report from Human Rights Watch, “Enforced Misery:The Degrading Treatment of Migrant Children and Adults in Northern France” which documents repeated mass eviction operations, near-daily police harassment, and restrictions on provision of and access to humanitarian assistance.

The authorities carry out these abusive practices with the primary purposes of forcing people to move elsewhere, without resolving their migration status or lack of housing

Care4Calais are currently distributing 485 food parcels per week at a cost of £15 per parcel. This is a cost of £7275 per week or £378,300 per year.

Islington NEU agrees to:

i)        Donate £500 to Care4Calais

ii)      Encourage members to take part in /organise a delegation from the district to Calais

iii)    Continue to show solidarity with refugees wherever possible and commit to raising refugee issues in schools.

B) We Demand Better

Islington NEU welcomes our union’s recent national conference decision to prepare members for an indicative ballot on continuing and deepening real pay cuts as an ongoing result of austerity, inequitable tax increases and rocketing inflation.

We also welcome the WE DEMAND BETTER demonstration called by the TUC and supported by other unions, including the NEU on Saturday 18^th June and endorse the TUC statement backing the demonstration that: “Working people have had enough. Everything’s going up but our wages. Join the trade union movement in London to tell this government: we DEMAND better!

We agree:

1.       That building for this march and the following pay ballot should be a key priority for Islington NEU, its officers and school reps.

2.       To encourage school NEU groups to hold meetings in the coming weeks to mobilise for the demonstration and start preparing for the pay ballot in the autumn term, and to send an officer or Committee member to attend the meeting, where possible, to outline the issues behind them. Decisions by school groups to attend the demonstration together, possibly with their own banner, marching behind the Islington one will be very welcome.

3.       To place a bulk order of flyers, posters and sticker for the demonstration and distribute them to schools as a matter of urgency.

4.       To organise a street stall on Sat 21^st May at the Angel - as part of a London-wide initiative - to hand out leaflets and to petition in support of the march and the campaign. We welcome the decision at April’s Islington Trades Union Council meeting to encourage members of other trade unions in the borough to join the vent with their own publicity materials.

5.       To support and encourage members to attend an Islington or North London mobilising meeting for the 18 June demonstration should one be organised - as discussed by Islington Trades Union Council at its recent meeting.

6.       To organise, when appropriate, a borough rep meeting to promote the We Demand Better union campaign and the ensuing strike ballot.

7.       That building for the demonstration and next term’s pay ballot need cannot just be left to Islington NEU officers but that we should seek to involve as many reps and members as possible.

C) No More Exclusions - practical action!

1. That we have previously passed a number of motions committing to working to end school exclusions in Islington Schools, and also to supporting the work of No More Exclusions (NME), a Black-led anti-racist organisation working to build an abolitionist grassroots movement in education.

2. NME has published a new guide to abolishing school exclusion in the education system: “‘What about the other 29?’ and other FAQs: demystifying abolition in the UK education system” (Jan 2022).

3. NME is also carrying out a programme of monthly community stalls in areas of high exclusions around London. The Islington stall took place in March.

4. There has been a dramatic increase in exclusions from Islington schools in the wake of the pandemic.

This union branch resolves:

1. To promote NME’s guide “‘What about the other 29?’ and other FAQs: demystifying abolition in the UK education system” by publishing an electronic version on the website.

2. To purchase (cost price) and send copies to every union rep in every school – to encourage conversations on this issue in every staff room.

3. To write to other local NEU branch secretaries with a model motion and to encourage them to do the same.

4. To promote future No More Exclusions community stalls and encourage members to attend.

2. That any conversation around crime must be placed into the context of a decade of

5. In some areas, including Islington, local Copwatch groups have been set up to monitor the activities of the police.

9.         School and Workplace Reports

10.         AOB