· Redundancies (voluntary and compulsory) in the region of 30 "full-time equivalents” (i.e. about 50 people) across teaching and support staff

· The loss of 1,000 of our 3,000 ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students. The need for ESOL here is huge: last year there were 800 on our waiting lists.

· Withdrawal of college ESOL classes from up to 11 Outreach centres on estates and in the community. Outreach students are almost all women, most of whom are only able to attend classes because they are near home. The plan is that the provision at the low levels will be provided by charities, mosques and churches, who can bid for government money to hire their own, (isolated and low paid) teachers.

· Attack on our working conditions and working culture - in the weeks before the cuts were announced, a leaked email from Senior Management referred to the need for a ‘culture change’ at the THC. Clearly this just the beginning of the attacks to come, with the recession used as an excuse to force the business and skills agenda further into a place with a tradition of creative and critical education.

A brilliant campaign was fought against the plans before the end of term. Alongside the ongoing negotiations between local UCU (University and College Union) reps and the management, we accomplished much in 30 days:

· Walkout by staff and students at one site

· Esol and other students created campaign materials including petitions, posters and banners, and wrote thousands of letters to the Principal

· A demonstration and rally of 750+ people through East London

· One day strikes organised so as to bring people normally isolated at different workplaces together for mass meetings

· Non-cooperation and mass disruption of a training event we were forced to attend, resulting in its cancellation

What has characterised the campaign was creativity and spontaneity; people not waiting to be told what to do, but just taking the initiative and getting things done; this and the fact that everyone was affected and therefore united in sadness and anger. At THC we were used to thinking we were lucky to have a relatively decent employer. With this illusion smashed overnight, the strength of solidarity was amazing.

We succeeded in lowering the number of compulsory redundancies, but there are still 13 people at risk as we head into the new academic year. With management refusing to withdraw the redundancies, we are committed to all-out, indefinite strike action. We are supported by our national union and today after last minute talks got nowhere, UCU notified the college that the strike is going ahead.

This is an exciting prospect for anarchists and political activists, but the truth is that for the workers it is also a scary time. We have been so strengthened by the amazing solidarity we have created within the college, now we need the support from those outside as well. As hundreds of people also face the prospect of weeks without income, we also need money. Support of any kind and donations and contributions are most welcome!

Mass pickets from 7:30am, 27 August at 3 main college sites.

Contact:

Rebecca  rbdurand@hotmail.com

Roberto - 07905223954

John – 07967893664

UCU strike committee c/o LARC 62 Fieldgate St , Whitechapel E1 1ES

 http://defendjobsandeducation.posterous.com/

 http://tinyurl.com/Facebook-THC