Well done to the members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Tower Hamlets College who organised a very successful meeting last night in Bethnal Green. It was so good that even comrade Adrian of the Permanent Revolution massive thought it was great. He is a man who would find something to complain about if revolution broke out in several advanced capitalist countries, he won £20 million on the lottery, Emmanuelle Beart asked him out and there was free beer in every pub all on the same day. That’s how good it was.

At issue is the defence of free entitlement to English lessons. This will be replaced by fee remission available only to people receiving means-tested benefits and tax credits. As Paul Mackney pointed out, to get fee remission you have to fill out a very complicated form in English.

This is almost a return to the Victorian era but with a bit more racism. The plan is to replace public sector teaching with private companies. These will deliver a much more work focussed range of language. Where the private companies don’t fill the breach you can bet all sorts of barmy churches will.

The meeting was an impressive example of how trade unionists can organise a campaign both to defend their jobs and a service to potentially vulnerable people. Well over 100 people packed the hall. These were predominantly Bengali users of the service, plus a number of the affected staff and concerned local revolutionary socialists. Among those on the platform were a Lib Dem councillor, Respect’s Oli Rahman and an impressively confident and articulate ESOL student.

On Saturday of next week there is a march from Whitechapel’s Altab Ali park to Hackney Town Hall. It assembles at noon, leaves at one and will converge with similar marches from Hackney and Islington. For those inclined or able to help out there is a leafletting session at 11am (or is it 12?) this Saturday at Whitechapel. You can get resources and information here.