The political and trade union organization of English teachers of the National Union of Teachers: 1979-1984

Abstract

This article analyzes the political and trade union organization of English teachers, focusing on the activism of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) between the late 1970s and the mid-1980s, a period marked by the intensification of the Cold War and the rise of neoliberalism in the United Kingdom. The study seeks to understand how the NUT moved beyond the boundaries of corporate unionism and assumed an international political role, linking the defense of public education to the struggle for peace and social justice. Grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, the research is based on the analysis of primary sources, including annual union resolutions, issues of The Teacher newspaper, and the pamphlet Education for Peace, complemented by specialized literature and international reports on armaments. The investigation demonstrates that the NUT developed a trade union praxis guided by emancipatory values, transforming the educational sphere into a field of cultural and political resistance against militarism and the austerity policies of the Thatcher government. It concludes that the union’s activities exemplify the transition from corporate consciousness to an expanded class consciousness, expressed in the organization of the International Peace Conference in 1984. This historical experience reveals that teacher unionism, when linked to universal ethical and political projects, can become an instrument of social transformation and a concrete expression of international solidarity among education workers.