Lambeth College March for Further Education: Lambeth college workers and supporters from around the country marched to a rally in Brixton on Saturday 17th May 2014 against plans to ‘restructure’ the college, selling off most of it Brixton campus to allow a so-called ‘free school’ to be set off, and attacking the pay and conditions of the academic and service staff.
As well as cutting the pay to staff, increasing their working hours and cutting holiday and sickness benefits, the management were also setting out to break the power of both the lecturers union UCU and Unison which represents service workers at the college.
Lambeth College management had recently spent tens of thousands of pounds to get an injunction against the UCU after a 95% vote for a strike in a ballot with a 70% turnout. A re-ballot was expected to result in even greater support for a strike.
Unison appeared to be slightly less supportive of its members who had called unanimously for an indefinite strike at meetings, forcing them to have a time-wasting and bureaucratic ballot about whether they wanted a ballot, rather than an immediate strike ballot.
The planned Trinity free school was not needed in Brixton which according to the council already had a variety of good schools with space and although the proposal was for a “non-selective school with a Catholic ethos“, was not supported by the Catholic diocese who feel it would have a negative impact on existing Catholic secondaries in the area. It appeared to be aiming to promote right-wing and anti-science views on evolution.
The UCU recognised that the dispute at Lambeth was not just a local issue but one of national significance; if Lambeth could get away with doing this, other colleges would follow their lead. Representatives from colleges across London and the Midlands and further had come with banners to support the protest.
It was also widely seen as an attack on trade unions, and among speakers at the rally in Brixton were Ian Hodson, the general secretary of the Baker’s union BFAWU and Labour MP John McDonnell.
There were further strikes and the dispute only ended in January 2015 after the college management offered limited concessions to existing lecturers. Trinity Academy, approved by Michael Gove, opened on the old Lambeth College site in September 2014 with only 17 pupils but now has over 600.
Lambeth College became a part of the London South Bank University Group on 31 January 2019 as part of South Bank Colleges established by LSBU to operate further education provision (16-19 yrs) in the area.
Wikipedia comments: “While the dispute was not fully resolved, it prompted a dialogue about staff concerns and led to investments in the college’s facilities, including a redevelopment of the Brixton campus, the construction of the new Nine Elms campus, and, now, a re-build of the Clapham campus (planning permission granted in February 2024).”
Much more on My London Diary at Lambeth College March for Further Education.
Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos
All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.
