Glasgow parents fight school closures with direct action

Posted on May 6, 2009
Filed Under News, Uncategorized

By Katherine McMahon

In Glasgow, the city council have voted to shut down 23 primary schools and nurseries. The motive is nakedly stated as £3.7 million per year of savings, and there is no plan to build new schools - all the children from these schools will simply be moved into other schools, with class sizes reaching over 40. This means that the plans affect not only the children from the closed schools but also those in the receiving schools - which adds up to nearly a fifth of all primary school children in the city. The standard of education in the city will drop; children will have to take buses to school; communities will be broken up.

These communities are in uproar. The overwhelming message is that the schools belong to the communities, and they will not allow them to be taken away. The council did a “consultation” in which 95% of responses were hostile to the plans. Pushing forward anyway, the council then faced occupations in 4 of the schools, 2 of which lasted for 15 days during the Easter holidays, and two of which saw parents sleeping on roofs. Several demonstrations were held outside the council chambers in the run-up to the decision, including a 24-hour vigil the night before. The sense of community and ownership that has been created and strengthened by the resistance is obvious at every demonstration as parents, teachers, children and supporters yell together: “Whose schools? OUR SCHOOLS!”

The next steps are already being taken. The campaign seeks to challenge the council’s decision at the Scottish parliament and in court, and within four days of the decision another demonstration - this time joining hands around the schools - was taking place. If the time does come that the schools are physically closed, I can’t imagine these parents letting go without a fight. “We’re down but we’re not going to give up,” one mother said. “I’m willing to dance with the devil to make sure my son has a school to go to here.”

Education at all levels should be a public service. The tactics of the campaign have been based on this idea - occupations are a form of protest, but more than that, they have the effect of reclaiming space in a more general way. The occupations in our universities were about the immediate issue of Palestine but had the wider message that universities should be run democratically, with students having a say in how they’re run; in the same way, the Save Our Schools campaign has addressed the huge threat of schools closures and the wider issue of who should control our public services. These are the same issues that we, as university and FE students, face; it is imperative that we link up with these struggles which are based on the desire to control our own lives, and to put people before profit.

We must stand shoulder to shoulder with the campaigners in the fight to come; as one parent says: “Far from being defeated, we are defiant. The Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign has a whole raft of protests planned…. Our defiant message is: ‘Labour can vote to ignore the public, to shut our schools, but we shall not be moved’.”

For a model motion to put to student unions and trade union branches, or more information, email katherine.a.mcmahon@gmail.com