Teachers' union attacks 'McCarthyite' Whitehall memo

The Government is adopting "sinister McCarthyite" tactics towards any union leaders it disagrees with, the leader of Britain's biggest teachers' union said yesterday.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, disclosed the contents of a secret internal memo sent to all civil servants at the Department for Education and Skills aimed at cutting contact with the NUT because of its refusal to sign a deal on modernising the profession. He told his union's annual conference in Harrogate that the memo was a "disgrace", saying it smacked of "creeping McCarthyism" and "a sinister lack of tolerance and the rejection of democracy at the heart of government".

In the memorandum ­ which he told delegates had been leaked to the union by a civil servant ­ staff at the DfES are told: "In terms of future relations with them [the NUT], colleagues right across the Department are asked to check with ... before accepting NUT invitations, arranging meetings with the NUT or including NUT members on e.g. advisory, project or working groups."

Staff were told that they should contact senior supervisors in all cases "where there are existing contacts with the NUT and any current requests for plans for meetings with them of any kind".

In a stinging personal attack on Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education ­ who boycotted this year's union conference ­ Mr McAvoy added: "He cannot cope with the concept, the very idea, that there can be any disagreement with the views that he and ministers hold."

Mr McAvoy said he had written to the TUC to lodge a formal complaint about the Government's behaviour in the hope that other unions might seek to persuade ministers to abandon the policy.

He warned other teachers' unions that had signed the agreement with the Government on modernising the teaching profession: "You must worry every time you criticise the Government whether you'll be thrown off the bus. Your capacity to act as free and independent trade unions is fettered. Your comments have to be moderated to be acceptable to Government even though they no longer reflect your judgment."

The Government, he said, was acting like a "totalitarian state" which required unions to come to heel.

Mr McAvoy, who won a standing ovation from all sectors of the union for the first time in his 14 years as general secretary, promised the Government that the union would deliver "traditional, old trade union industrial action".

A spokesman for the DfES said: "We are working more closely than ever with those unions who have chosen collaboration not conflict. We have said before that the conduct of the NUT conference does not encourage positive dialogue and that it serves only to damage the reputation of teachers. This year has been no exception."

Yesterday delegates backed industrial action over the Government's modernisation package ­ supporting action against oversized classes and covering for colleagues after more than one day's absence.

The action planned is more moderate than that put forward on Monday. Delegates said they would refuse to take classes only if they had been doubled up to allow staff time off for marking and preparation. In the agreement, teachers are guaranteed 10 per cent of time away from the classroom for marking and preparation.