ABSTRACT
The nature of the new school was in doubt. Campaign speeches of the Labour Party and reports and articles in the media frequently referred to the occupied school buildings in Croxteth as a ‘community school’, a ‘school taken over by its community’, and to the campaign as a fight ‘of the community’ against the government. The local activists were questioning their original, taken-for-granted assumptions about the purposes of schooling: employability and discipline. They were also, as a result of their involvement, perceiving linkages between schooling and political activity. The occupation of Croxteth Comprehensive resulted in a dependency on the Labour Party which was linked to the Action Committee solely through its leaders. Communication barriers existed between the leadership and the rest of the activists in a way which limited the influence the latter could have had on the crucial decisions made after the electoral victory of May 1983.
