NUT general secretary election: Standing For Change

NUT general secretary election

Standing For Change

Martin Powell-DaviesIN THIS year’s election for National Union of Teachers
(NUT) general secretary, classroom teachers will be voting for change.

Martin Powell-Davies

Teachers want a change from the years under outgoing
general secretary Doug McAvoy’s leadership. Our pay and conditions have
deteriorated, our working lives are harder and education is more unequal. But
that means winning a change from a leadership that has failed to stand up for
teachers and education for so long.

I stand for that change. That’s why I have been winning the
support of classroom teachers at Local Association (branch) meetings from
Liverpool to Leicester, Bristol to London. That is why I am confident of
winning support from members in the ballot this June.

From the outset, I launched my campaign with a clear
programme on workload, pay and pensions, testing and remodelling. These
proposals, based as they are on discussions in staff rooms and union meetings,
have struck a chord with teachers.

Many young teachers are angry at a government that has lied
about war and has certainly lied about education. We need to attract them into
our structures so that the NUT becomes a fighting, campaigning union.

Electing a new leader like myself from a new generation,
pledged to be a "teachers’ leader on a teacher’s salary", in touch
with the demands of classroom teachers, will help make that change. My approach
will encourage thousands more teachers to vote in this election.

If that is combined with a clear call between Ian Murch and
me, the two candidates standing for change, to transfer votes to each other, it
will secure the new leadership we need.

For more details of the campaign, contact Martin on 07946
445488 [email protected]

 http://elect-martin.tripod.com