News from Nowhere Club/
IWCE Network
supported by Labour Heritage
http://iwceducation.co.uk/
http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNHome.html
8pm Saturday 12 April
Plebs Magazine
IWCE Network
supported by Labour Heritage
http://iwceducation.co.uk/
http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNHome.html
8pm Saturday 12 April
Plebs Magazine
Colin Waugh
Plebs
The Ruskin College 'strike' of 1909
The Ruskin College 'strike' of 1909
Independent workers' learning existed across the C20
but can the Plebs
ideal of politically committed education be realised today?
The Epicentre,
Leytonstone, E11 4LJ
http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNfindus.html
info@newsfromnowhereclub.org.uk
0208 555 5248
07443 480 509
RaHN Notes circulated for a similar
meeting held on Feb. 11 2009
Plebs League, Ruskin
College strike and independent working-class education
The
historical events of a hundred years ago are still mulled over, and
concerned the responsibility for post school education. In those
years, the unions in this country were extending their activities beyond
the realm of skilled workers and seeking to ensure a proper adult education for
those many less skilled who missed out on secondary schooling.. Many
of those with high ability wanted university style education as befitted
their capacities, in order to take part in the expansion of unions in
workplaces but this corner was being dominated by university
authorities. They tried to extend
conventional education which directed working class students away from
the labour movement.
The few dozens workers students at Oxford resisted the takeover move in 1909. They used the traditional methods and went on strike, making the issues a national one. After a few months , when the academics did not back down, the students established the Labour Colleges system. Classes were run in numerous cities , correspondence courses were soon set up and the adult education system divided down the middle as the conventional teachers kept to their intentions. They continued with the-middle-of-the-road Workers Education Association, the bitter rival of what was to become the National Council of Labour Colleges (NCLC), with its own college in Tillicoulty, Scotland. This continued right up to 1964, when the TUC took over the residue in numerous cities.
The more aggressive unions, especially the miners, called on their financial and political resources. They sent full time students to the NCLC and their members received correspondence sheets and other materials for a decade or so. Then the situation was complicated by the divisions within the labour movement as the political party adopted conventional parliamentary procedures but many of the rank and file supported the Communist Party and the new Russian society. Readers may have their own views on the fate of the USSR but the struggle still continues for education free from open capitalist influences.
Colin Waugh who is active on the Post 16 Educator journal, has written a booklet to tell more fully the story above. Today education is not totally subject to strong influences from powerful institutions in society but many union members feel that the old master institutions are still very influential. And there is still alienation Many children grow up without any personal knowledge of how, when and where unions can act to benefit workplace members , let alone the higher reaches of current society.
The few dozens workers students at Oxford resisted the takeover move in 1909. They used the traditional methods and went on strike, making the issues a national one. After a few months , when the academics did not back down, the students established the Labour Colleges system. Classes were run in numerous cities , correspondence courses were soon set up and the adult education system divided down the middle as the conventional teachers kept to their intentions. They continued with the-middle-of-the-road Workers Education Association, the bitter rival of what was to become the National Council of Labour Colleges (NCLC), with its own college in Tillicoulty, Scotland. This continued right up to 1964, when the TUC took over the residue in numerous cities.
The more aggressive unions, especially the miners, called on their financial and political resources. They sent full time students to the NCLC and their members received correspondence sheets and other materials for a decade or so. Then the situation was complicated by the divisions within the labour movement as the political party adopted conventional parliamentary procedures but many of the rank and file supported the Communist Party and the new Russian society. Readers may have their own views on the fate of the USSR but the struggle still continues for education free from open capitalist influences.
Colin Waugh who is active on the Post 16 Educator journal, has written a booklet to tell more fully the story above. Today education is not totally subject to strong influences from powerful institutions in society but many union members feel that the old master institutions are still very influential. And there is still alienation Many children grow up without any personal knowledge of how, when and where unions can act to benefit workplace members , let alone the higher reaches of current society.
The
subject is wide open for debate…
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