WHEN SOCIALIST Party member Linda Taaffe was defeated in elections for the national executive (NEC) of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) earlier this year, the NUT right wing declared that never again should a Trotskyist be elected to the NEC.
They must be bitterly disappointed now. Linda Taaffe has been re-elected to the NEC in a by-election in outer London! In a high turn-out for a by-election, Linda led the poll through both stages of the count:
| Name | First round | Second round |
| Linda Taaffe | 2115 | 2411 |
| Roberts | 1785 | 2193 |
| Gow | 1066 | – |
The Left and the Socialist Party see this as a big victory. The right-wing claim that teachers are not prepared to fight. But Linda’s election material and campaign, which concentrated on the struggle against performance management and performance-related pay as well as the need to fight for increased London Weighting allowance, completely disproves this.
