1.       Conference amendments. The following amendments to conference motions were all agreed.

 

Motion 15: The Economy

Insert after sentence:  "Conference reaffirms its policy of "no cuts" - to pay, jobs, pensions or services.”

"Conference condemns the statements by Labour leader Ed Milliband and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls that in office they would maintain the bulk of the Coalition government's spending cuts and austerity measures and that they support the pay freeze, and its effective two year extension, on public sector workers.

Conference affirms its solidarity with workers elsewhere, in Greece in particular, who have shown that resistance to austerity is possible. Conference instructs the executive to investigate how the Union can offer practical solidarity to Greek workers in their struggles against austerity - for example by sending an NUT delegation to Greece, twinning school union groups in Britain with teachers in Greek schools.

Add at end of final paragraph:

Conference further instructs the Executive to press the TUC to call another national demonstration against cuts and austerity, preferably to be held in the autumn.

Add a final paragraph at end of whole motion:

"Conference further instructs the executive to commission and produce as quickly as possible a pamphlet for members spelling out the case against the government's, and the Labour Party’s, economic agenda and putting the case for the kind of alternative outlined above.

 

Motion 17: Trade Union Rights

Add before Conference calls on the Executive:  "Conference recognises that there may be times when trade unionists are justified in taking action in defiance of the anti union laws in order to effectively defend their interests."

 

After  “Conference calls on the executive…”

Add new point 6: “Campaign for the repeal of all anti union laws."

 

Motion 41 - Academies

Add to Conference notes; insert new points 6, 7 (and re-number)

6.             the rapid development of free school proposals is creating of a market of competing schools that threatens    to de-stabilise existing school     provision.

7.             the increasing involvement of big business such as Barclays Bank in backing the    academy and free school    programmes

In old point 10 – delete after ‘campaigns’ and insert

                “especially campaigns against ‘forced academies’, such as the Downhills campaign in Haringey and the          Montgomery campaign in Birmingham.”

 

Add new point 12

12.          that there are new opportunities to build broader alliances against the privatisation and marketisation of     state education.

 

After Conference instructs the Executive to;

Delete point iv) and replace with

iv.             initiate a call for the establishment of a National Campaign for Education (NCE), opening immediate  negotiations with other education stakeholders with a view to creating a new broad alliance with a  focus on progressive, democratic and comprehensive education. The aim should be to organise a launch conference before the end of 2012.

 

Add new point vii) and viii)

vii.           work with other stakeholders to provide resources for a research institute that will gather together to  support the aims of the NCE;

viii.          organise a secondary and primary academies and free schools reps conference to consider how to  campaign for a return to democratic accountability.

 

 

2.       Pensions.

 

Islington Teachers Association congratulates the union's leadership and all members on the pensions campaign so far. We endorse the call for continuing the campaign to defend our pensions through further strike and non-strike action, beginning with a one day national strike on 28th March.

We believe that the campaign must develop after the Easter break with more strikes, both regional and national.

This action should include at least a further national strike (preferably two days) in the summer term as well as rolling, regional action - where possible coordinated with other

unions. We recognise that all aspects of the campaign will need to be reviewed after the 28th March and endorsed by the union's national conference at Easter.

We nevertheless believe that members should know before 28th March the outline of the planned action in the summer term, and call on the union's executive at its meeting

on 14th March to agree and then publicise this outline to members.

We agree to send this motion to the general secretary with a request that it be circulated to all executive members in advance of that meeting.

 

3. Workfare

We congratulate all those, including the Right to Work Campaign and Youth Fight for Jobs, who have organised protests against the government's disgraceful "workfare" scheme.

We also totally condemn the witch-hunt launched by Tory papers like the Telegraph and Mail against the Right to Work Campaign and individuals within it.

We stand in full solidarity with the Right to Work Campaign and in full support of the protests.