Academies (state schools owned and run by private sponsors on a non-profit basis) are a key element in Labour's education agenda. Proposals to set up Academies, in most cases by taking over existing schools, have provoked local campaigns of opposition in many areas. Replacing a Local Authority with an Academy entails a process of consultation.…

This paper arises from a recognition that in England a new phase in neo-liberal education is emerging whose apparent attractions may encourage illusions and disarm opposition, that responding to it from a socialist and/or Marxist perspective requires, as always, not just an alternative vision but a strategic conception, and that little has been…