OCCUPY FOR 27 MAY 1976 No. 152 WEEKLY PRICE 10p As the summer approaches, thousands of newly qualified teachers have discovered the bitter truth: three years or more of training have been for nothing-they have no jobs. While schools remain under-equipped and classes overcrowded, they are being consigned to the dole queues.
Now they are fighting back. It started in Scotland, where all eleven colleges were occupied within days.
Now the occupations have spread to England, with more to come following the call of the National Union of Students for the take-over of every teacher training college.
The fight of the student teachers is the fight of all workers for a better education for their children. It is part of the fight of all workers for the right to work in the face of the Labour Government's attack on jobs and the social services.
The occupations have shown that students and workers will fight Labour's policies if given a lead in action. What a contrast to the half-hearted mobilisation by the Communist Party and the official lefts' for the day of action against unemployment on 26 May.
Student teachers should make sure that they turn out in force for the lobby of the recall TUC on 16 June, for it has been the TUC's collaboration with the Government's pay deals which has allowed Labour to get away with its attacks on education housing, health and social spending.
By taking their struggle to the unions not only will they win support for their demands - they will give concrete assistance to all those workers fighting against the Tory policies of the Labour Government.
----- pull-quotes -----
LOBBY RECALL TUC JOBS STUDENT TEACHERS SHOW OCCUPATIONS are spreading like a prairie fire through the teacher training colleges of Britain.