Really Useful or Really Useless Knowledge: the Tory Government & Teacher’s pay rises
Really Useful Knowledge was a term used by radicals in the 1830s (and popularised by the social historian Richard Johnson in the 1970s). It looked beyond the useless or ‘useful’ knowledge that was promoted by early supporters of market capitalism. It asked why so many were poor in a wealthy society. It looked at whether people were paid properly and the labour theory of value and grappled with theories of exploitation.
Fast forward two hundred years and teachers in the NEU taking action over years of real world pay cuts.
The Prime Minister claims the NEU claim cannot be afforded. Indeed the Times (Editorial 1st February) argues that if the NEU demand was conceded it would again raise doubts about the British economy. It does not dispute by the way that teachers have suffered pay cuts. It just thinks it must be lived with.
So much for really useless knowledge.
Really Useful Knowledge might take as its starting point that according to the IMF Britain is the worse performing major economy in Europe. The IMF’s interest is to check no bit of capitalism is getting into serious trouble because if it does, as in the 2008 crash, consequences can flow.
The Government thinks teachers and every other worker are to blame for the state of the economy because people don’t work hard enough. In reality the Government has failed to invest in the public sector and in industry (which was meant to be a key part of Brexit)and it has squandered public funds in sinecures and contracts for its mates.
Then came 44 day Truss who crashed the economy, almost caused DB pension schemes to fail and saw interest rates rise meaning more costly mortgages for many people.
Truss is still claiming that the Tory must go for growth. By this she means the growth of profits for her mates at our expense. Hence wage claims must be rejected.
The answer to all this is not more Hunt/Sunak austerity but victory for teachers, train drivers, University workers and civil servants taking action to secure a living wage. Such really useful knowledge will not be found in a Times Editorial
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