Schools across England are due to “reopen” Monday June 1st for Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils.
The timing of the reopening has raised eyebrows among teaching unions, not least because the group selected (children between four and six years old) are felt to be the ones least able to handle the new sterile regime of social distancing in schools, a fact that’s immediately obvious to literally anybody who has ever seen, heard, lived with or been a child of that age. Teachers are concerned about their physical safety, with the scientific jury still out on the transmission of coronavirus by children. The Government failed to consult with unions prior to the announcement, and the unions reacted. The National Education Union (NEU) released a statement refuting the Government’s claims about teacher safety and advising their members to work from home.
Enter the Daily Mail. Having cheerily cropped a stock photo of any offensive minorities, the front page of the May 15th edition goes into a bombastic rant about the “row between teachers and unions” and accusing the unions of being “happy to gamble with children’s futures.” The phrasing is odd, because it somehow pits teachers and teaching unions as being separate, opposed entities, instead of you know, the union literally being comprised of thousands of actual teachers. The intent is obvious of course, made even more explicit by the Mail’s plea to the “silent majority” of teachers who are “better than that” to “find their voice.” The Mail wants readers to feel that unions are blocking recovery, are holding children back and drive a wedge between unionised and non-unionised teachers.
None of this is new, of course. Union bashing by the press, and the divisive tactics used to do so, is well documented. What’s interesting is that the very same outlets which speak of the need for national unity and ‘blitz spirit’ in the face of coronavirus are the very first to attack national workers – primary school teachers of all people – at the first sign of any dissent or questioning from the government line. At a time when the press are urging people to come together in solidarity, the very unions doing the grassroots work to bring people together are attacked more mercilessly than ever. If the Mail were serious about creating unity, they wouldn’t run divisive campaigns on their front page.
This episode offers a window into what the post-corona media landscape may look like – the same, but worse. Any naïve hope of genuine solidarity seems to have already slipped away, instead we see a continuation of insularity, nationalism, and, of course, union bashing.
- Gerald Winstanley, Senior Writer
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