I have just watched the Chinese film Dijiu tianchang (So Long my Son) on BBC iPlayer. It stands out as a remarkable Chinese film. It has lots to say about the pernicious effects of the one-child policy in China. Especially interesting from the point of view of Anti*Capitalist Resistance supporters are the brilliantly presented scenes picturing the reaction of working-class Chinese to the dismantling of large parts of the state-owned sector of the economy in the 1980s, marking in the eyes of many the transition from deformed workers’ state to a form of capitalism, or from state capitalism to full-blown normative capitalism. Above all, the film is imbued with a deep humanism and an optimistic belief in the resilience of the human spirit under a cruel and exploitative political regime.
Above all, the film is imbued with a deep humanism and an optimistic belief in the resilience of the human spirit under a cruel and exploitative political regime.
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Already the backsliding begins. ITV news is reporting that the Government has changed one point in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. They have accepted that academies will retain their ‘freedom’ to set their own pay scales for teachers. So the criteria in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions document will only apply to teachers in Local Authority schools. Why have the Government climbed down on this issue? It’s not as if this is a major financial problem for academies. But what will be the next change/climb down by the Government? Will academies be exempt from the National Curriculum? Will Local Authorities be able to build schools according to the needs of their communities or will all new schools, as at present, have to be academies?