Hardline union bosses have planned a day of protests against schools reopening – and Jeremy Corbyn has backed them
HARDLINE union bosses are planning a day of protests to prevent schools from reopening – and Jeremy Corbyn has backed them.
They will ramp up their war by descending on town halls to furiously demand council chiefs and headteachers cave to their demands.
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Activists in the Healthworker Coronavirus Activists Group – backed by a string of unions – vowed to "resist" the plan to get kids back to class.
In a fiery online rally held on Wednesday night, they accused Boris Johnson of putting lives at risk.
And their special guest speaker, Mr Corbyn, 70, vowed to join the fight againt schools reopening.
Speaking from his Islington home to activists via zoom, he fumed: “There should not be a return on June 1 to schools, unless the NEU [National Education Union] tests have been met.
"They have my support in doing that and I will continue to make that case for them.
“Looking beyond them, I'm not quite sure when this will all be over but I suspect it will not be over any sudden moment.
“But I do think we are going to have to do things in our society. Covid has exposed the inequality in our society.
“It has also exposed a lack of values of so much in our society.
“Who is more important in the midst of a Covid crisis - the migrant worker who cleans the hospital, cleans the bus or cleans the train, or the hedge fund manager who speculating against the NHS and against our economy in the future?
“I think you all know the answer to that.”
New Corbynista MP Nadia Whittome and PCS union leader Mark Serwotka also railed against the government at the rally.
Karen Reissmann, an NHS nurse and former election candidate for the hard Left Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), hosted the meeting on Facebook.
She issued a rallying cry for activists to bombard town halls with protests next week to try to thwart schools opening.
She raged: “Next Thursday on 28 May there will be a ‘We stand with schools’ day of action.
“We are looking for people to drop banners, have cavalcades, have socially distanced protests outside town halls.
“Lot of councils are now saying they are not prepared to open schools because it’s not safe. We want all the councils to do that.”
She added: “On June 1 we want the maximum solidarity with those teachers and school workers and parents who are going to resist being forced into school, and putting their lives and our lives at risk.”
Ministers want primary schools to gradually reopen from June 1 as long as scientists give it the final approval.
They have warned that poor and disadvantaged kids risk seeing their education and life chances hammered if they don’t get back to class soon.
But hardline teaching unions have slammed the plan, and dozens of councils in England have warned they could open later than June 1.
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