A rallying cry echoed through the Brighton Centre last month, delivered by Daniel Kebede, general secretary of Britain's largest teaching union. 'For the crime of organising low-paid women workers – how do we plead?' he shouted. 'Guilty!' responded hundreds of activists. 'Our only crime is wanting to organise,' he continued. 'For that we should be proud to be guilty, for the arc of moral justice is on our side.'
Thus began what is expected to be one of the most chaotic periods for schools in recent history, orchestrated by the left-wing National Education Union (NEU). Over 500,000 members are set to walk out nationwide after Christmas over pay and conditions, disrupting exam classes and forcing parents to scramble for childcare. These include newly recruited teaching assistants, librarians, and dinner ladies – the 'low-paid women workers' referenced by Mr Kebede at his annual conference.
Insiders argue that while concerns about staff pay are valid, Mr Kebede is using the strike ballot, planned for autumn, as a vehicle for his own political ends. 'Daniel has a Marxist agenda,' says former NEU rep Peter Block. 'At every opportunity he will stir up trouble. I don’t think he’s interested in teachers’ welfare. It’s about maximum disruption – to cause chaos to the system to undermine it.' Raphael Kessler, another former rep, agrees: 'Daniel is a disrupter. Much of it is not actually about education. He’s been steering things in a more militant direction than I have been comfortable with.'
The scale of planned damage is evident from recent local strikes. This month, pupils and parents at Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone, east London, held a counter-protest after 45 days of strikes in four years. Teenage girls confronted teachers on the picket line, accusing them of having 'no sympathy or consideration' for disrupting GCSE mock exams. Some teachers smirked, clapped, or turned their backs while the girls shouted: 'Teach or quit!'
One NEU member says: 'The Socialist Workers Party [SWP] has infiltrated the union, making it militant far-left. Striking should be a last resort, but Connaught is in an area where reps are obsessed with strike ballots. They’ll ballot at the drop of a hat – it’s ridiculous.' An anonymous academy trust chief executive recalls an NEU official threatening a strike ballot by letter without prior discussion. 'He knew nothing about the school. The ballot was threatened before I’d seen any issues, which turned out minor. It was clearly a predetermined tactic.'
Heads’ union ASCL has reported an increase in members being 'targeted in a way that is personal and vindictive.' Mr Block adds: 'They are very good at whipping up sentiment and finding something to latch onto. They see it as a political necessity to stir things up, with their own agenda overriding everything else. If they cared about pupil welfare, they’d campaign more about failing schools and slipping standards. But they’re not interested in day-to-day issues. Teachers who don’t want to strike can be intimidated by cries of “scab”. It’s hard to swim against the tide.'
He believes the union will be 'emboldened' by Labour’s softening of ballot rules. 'It seems insane. There will be even more chaos.' An investigation has unveiled tactics NEU activists use to ensure nationwide disruption. Jess Edwards, an influential London district rep on the Connaught picket line, revealed a blueprint to radicalise members. 'We need to put the whole union on a war footing this term to win that ballot,' she wrote in Socialist Worker. 'It means flooding schools with material now, saying get ready to fight… It is time to set a course for strikes – and fight for our class.'
The NEU is recruiting 'industrial organisers' for £58,000 a year (pro-rata), with a job advert seeking someone to 'build power' and encourage 'targeted industrial campaigns.' Teaching experience is not required. Additionally, the NEU aims to maximise pain by recruiting non-teachers like classroom assistants, librarians, and dinner ladies. Earlier this year, it withdrew from a TUC agreement not to actively recruit these support staff, boosting membership. Primary school teachers, usually less militant, are also likely targets this summer.
The union is grooming Gen Z newly qualified teachers with a New Professionals and Young Workers conference next month. It is also resurrecting its 'School Cuts' campaign, planning banners and leaflets at school gates to highlight funding disputes. Coupled with boosted support worker membership, this could mean the worst disruption for schools in recent memory.
The NEU says strikes can be stopped if the government improves its offer of a 6.5% pay rise over three years, which it claims is insufficient against inflation and not fully funded, forcing schools to cut jobs. Former teacher John Blake, a classroom rep a decade ago, says while teachers feel 'genuine anger and frustration', striking is often 'counterproductive'. 'Until the NEU presents a coherent proposal that accounts for other government pressures, strike action won’t get them anywhere. This is another round of people who enjoy creating trouble, and those who pay the price will be front-line teachers, pupils, and families.'
Militant ringleader says Britain is racist... and teachers should work from home
Daniel Kebede, leader of the militant NEU, is an avowed Marxist who claims the education system is 'institutionally racist'. Born to a white British mother and an Ethiopian father who fled the Mengistu regime, he grew up in West London. The racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 profoundly affected him. His family later moved to a 'predominantly white area' in Northampton, where he experienced racism that fuelled his activism. In Year 9, a geography teacher scolded him for being disruptive, saying: 'You’re not in the jungle now.' 'I can remember being physically shocked by that,' he told the Talking Race podcast in 2020. It led him to join his first protest march aged 17 against the National Front.
Kebede studied law at the University of Wales before working at a primary school in North Tyneside. He joined the National Union of Teachers (precursor to the NEU) in 2013, rising through the ranks. He won the union’s Blair Peach award for anti-racism campaigning in 2017, joined the national executive in 2019, became NEU president in 2021, and was elected general secretary in 2023. He has firm links to the left of the Labour Party and was in a relationship with Corbynite MP Laura Pidcock, with whom he has a six-year-old son.
In 2019, at a Socialist Workers Party’s Marxism conference, he said the British education system was 'fundamentally and institutionally racist' and the national curriculum was 'whitewashed by powerful white men' teaching a 'little-Englander, white-saviour narrative'. In 2022, he said strikes were about 'taking back control of an education system from a brutally racist state'. Last year, he suggested full-time teachers should be able to work one day a week from home. However, he has reportedly tried to tone down his radical language since 2023.
