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Sally Hunt, general secretary}{\b\f285\fs28 , \line speech to 51¸£Àû Congress  2010
\par }{\f285 
\par Congress,
\par Sally Hunt, general secretary.
\par You know, we could have filled that film one hundred times over with the work you do.
\par _____________________________  
\par Yet at the very time we need it most, it seems that education and learning are out of political fashion.
\par _____________________________  
\par What kind of government would cut colleges and universities by \u163\'a31.5bn while giving \u163\'a38 billion pounds of tax giveaways to big business?
\par _____________________________  
\par 
\par Let me state for the record....
\par I DONT agree with Nick..... 
\par Or his new best friend George.
\par Or any other member of this government which has decided to prioritise the rich....at the expense of the poor.... 
\par ....and which seems to prefer ignorance to education.
\par _____________________________  
\par I want to start by acknowledging what's been on everyone's mind during this our fifth Congress as a unified trade union. 
\par As our country struggles to find its way out of recession, we meet here at a challenging time for education, for 51¸£Àû and for the whole labour movement.
\par There are of course questions of strategy and tactics that we have debated this week. 
\par _____________________________  
\par They are vital to the conduct of this campaign or that.
\par _____________________________  
\par But in this transformed political situation the real question is:
\par What kind of a society do we want to argue for;
\par To campaign for;
\par And to live in.
\par _____________________________  
\par The level of cuts across further and higher education mean many of you will be anxious not just about the union\rquote s future...but about your own position too. 
\par We are all wondering not just about
\par Our own students; 
\par Our own institutions:
\par Our friends and colleagues faced with the sack. 
\par But about our children and grand children too.
\par ___________________________  
\par How much will an education cost by the time they are grown up?  
\par _____________________________  
\par In the modern age, the promise made by each generation to its successor was to increase opportunity and expand learning.
\par 
\par Well, this second great depression and the pathetic response to it by our political leaders has broken that covenant.
\par _____________________________  
\par But this union is still here.
\par _____________________________  
\par And we have risen to challenges like this before. 
\par _____________________________  
\par For ninety years or more, from the earliest days of trade unionism in colleges and universities, people like us have stood in our shoes and wondered what the future would hold. 
\par _____________________________  
\par 
\par Back in the 1920s we made a choice.
\par We decided that to organise for better pay and conditions for ourselves....would go hand in hand with organising for a better education too.
\par _____________________________  
\par We\rquote ve stood for opportunity over elitism through two world wars; 
\par We\rquote ve seen society transformed by mass education; 
\par We\rquote ve taken the worst that Mrs Thatcher could throw at us;
\par We\rquote ve even seen politicians who benefited from free education break that covenant with the next generation.
\par _____________________________  
\par 
\par I raise the memory of those who came before not from sentimentality.  
\par _____________________________  
\par Rather to remind us that our challenges while great are nothing new. 
\par _____________________________  
\par Our predecessors organised to achieve trade union recognition. 
\par We will organise to defend it.  
\par _____________________________  
\par Our predecessors organised to win decent pay and \endash  yes \endash  decent pensions.
\par We will organise to retain those hard won benefits.
\par _____________________________  
\par And our predecessors organised to win access to education for all.
\par We will organise to 
\par Defend courses, 
\par Defend provision 
\par And 
\par Defend jobs.
\par _____________________________  
\par We will not accept the attack on education being implemented by the current government.
\par _____________________________  
\par Nor will we stand back while students with the ability to benefit from education are stopped from doing so and told to accept their lot in life.
\par WE \endash  no one else \endash  WE...
\par ....recognise our responsibility to work together to:
\par Defend education;
\par Defend our members; and 
\par Defend our vision of society. 
\par _____________________________  
\par Because at this most challenging time for our members; for our students; for our union we choose TO ACT.
\par _____________________________  
\par And history shows that working together we can win. 
\par The lesson for us is to stand together so that we may rise together. And we will.
\par The day Congress began I counted more than one hundred institutions making cuts \endash  
\par Slashing courses; 
\par Sacking staff;
\par Usually both. 
\par _____________________________  
\par That number will multiply no doubt, but let us take a moment to celebrate what it means to be a member of 51¸£Àû.
\par _____________________________  
\par At Kings College, at UCL, at Leeds, at Tower Hamlets, Northumberland College and many more we have fought the employers to a standstill.  
\par _____________________________  
\par Our actions have saved jobs.  
\par We have members still putting bread on the family table today because of the union.
\par _____________________________  
\par That\rquote s something worth being a part of.
\par _____________________________  
\par Now at Sussex University and The Manchester College \endash  here in this city - we face the worst of the worst.  
\par Employers who don\rquote t even pretend to talk to the union, and we will need all your support too there.
\par Today, our union faces a challenge and a choice once more.
\par At time of such insecurity and vulnerability, there has never been a greater need for a strong union to stand up for staff in further and higher education.
\par But the question we need to answer is: how will this union and our people win in this new political environment we find ourselves in?
\par _____________________________  
\par We know that this new Coalition government is \endash  for better or worse - here to stay. 
\par _____________________________  
\par We also know that when you have a government that says 
\par "No" to child trust funds; 
\par "No" to university places; 
\par "No" to the young persons\rquote  guarantee; 
\par "No" to adult learning; and 
\par \ldblquote No\rdblquote  to comprehensive education 
\par You have a government which has an ignorance policy where its education policy should be.
\par _____________________________  
\par And we should say "no" to that government.
\par _____________________________  
\par The new coalition\rquote s philosophy is that the only solution to the new challenges we face is to cut public services, including our colleges and universities. 
\par _____________________________  
\par In Downing Street, they may call it the Big Society. 
\par _____________________________  
\par But a better description would be every man and woman for him or herself. 
\par The Big Society allows us to say tough luck to those whose university places are cut.
\par It says get on your bike to the millions who have lost their job. 
\par It says don\rquote t dream to mums and dads who just want their kid to have a better chance than they did.
\par _____________________________  
\par It is actually a society founded on ignorance, not knowledge. 
\par A throwback to a supposed golden age which never actually existed.  
\par _____________________________  
\par And it won't work. 
\par _____________________________  
\par In cutting spending on education and learning it ignores our history. 
\par _____________________________  
\par It ignores the fact that it has been government investment which has made our universities the envy of the world.
\par _____________________________  
\par It ignores the fact that it is only through further education that people can retrain and reskill.
\par _____________________________  
\par And it ignores the fact that a modern society and economy needs everybody to be better educated not just a lucky few.
\par 
\par 
\par We stand for something different.
\par _____________________________  
\par In the film that preceded my speech Joe Baden describes selling \ldblquote education as a means to education \endash  not to anything else\rdblquote .
\par _____________________________  
\par And we say education encourages all that is best in our society.
\par _____________________________  
\par It increases democratic engagement.
\par It promotes a sense of mutual regard.
\par And it underpins the idea that everybody has a stake in the country.
\par _____________________________  
\par 
\par So I am clear that in the face of this political attack, it's not enough just to say "no" to the Lib-Con policy of ignorance over education. 
\par _____________________________  
\par We must also have a strategy that meets these new challenges.
\par _____________________________  
\par I don\rquote t have all the answers but I do know where I think we should start.
\par _____________________________  
\par First, we need to form a broad coalition with our students. 
\par _____________________________  
\par A real coalition aimed at creating divisions within the government and increasing our influence on the opposition.
\par _____________________________  
\par That will mean working together with NUS \endash  listening to others - rather than always dictating our own agenda.
\par _____________________________  
\par But the rewards are substantial. My aim is to hold to account every MP who pledged not to increase the cost of education.
\par _____________________________  
\par We will remind them that politicians who campaign on an anti fees ticket and then abstain when they are increased will never be trusted again.
\par In this case at least \endash  abstinence will not make the voters\rquote  heart grow fonder.
\par _____________________________  
\par Second, we need to win the argument with the public that universities and colleges matter.
\par _____________________________  
\par Too often we are the first for the axe because the politicians think they can get away with it.
\par Yet society depends on what you do.
\par _____________________________  
\par Our doctors, nurses and teachers are trained in colleges and universities.  
\par Our engineers and architects are too.  
\par What we do to give people a second chance affects crime rates, personal health, well being and improves community cohesion.
\par _____________________________  
\par Through Make Education Count, and working with our sister unions, we can and must make the case for education, and against ignorance.  
\par _____________________________  
\par Third, we must focus on increasing our power within the workplace.
\par _____________________________  
\par This union\rquote s record in defending members is second to none. 
\par _____________________________  
\par Our membership is growing because people know that we will always do our best by them.
\par But the next wave of cuts will test this union\rquote s organisation to the limit. 
\par _____________________________  
\par We have to be ready for whatever is thrown at us.
\par _____________________________  
\par That is why we are investing so much in organising, recruitment and training.
\par _____________________________  
\par And why having a sound financial basis for the union is so essential.
\par _____________________________  
\par Congress, this year because of people like you, thousands have been given the opportunity to learn; to better themselves; to provide for their family.
\par Yet government wishes to turn that tap off. 
\par _____________________________  
\par Why?
\par Shouldn\rquote t we be spurring innovation and creating jobs by investing our resources into universities and colleges - not cutting them? 
\par Shouldn\rquote t we be supporting communities to provide opportunities not closing adult education centres?
\par And shouldn\rquote t we be expanding education for the most vulnerable not closing people\rquote s options down.
\par _____________________________  
\par This is a time to fuel genius and the innovation within our people not snuff it out for the sake of a new seat on the front benches.
\par Congress, our vision is one that gives every person the opportunity to make the most of their lives. 
\par _____________________________  
\par At this Congress we have put that vision into policy and practice.
\par _____________________________  
\par Yet we also know that in the coming struggles it is the heart of this union that will be tested as much as our policy or political strategy.
\par _____________________________  
\par In the face of government and employer hostility it has always been \endash  IT WILL ALWAYS BE - the ability of members acting together that has allowed our union to achieve its aims.
\par 
\par That is as true today as it ever has been.
\par _____________________________  
\par As educators and trade unionists we have always stood for all that is best in our society.
\par _____________________________  
\par Now at this crucial moment in the union\rquote s history, we in this room stand as a bridge between a past hard won and a future uncertain.
\par _____________________________  
\par Our job is nothing less than to defend education.
\par _____________________________  
\par Together WE can do it.
\par _____________________________  
\par Thank you.
\par }}