Martin Powell-Davies, member of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) national executive
Members of the teachers' union NUT on the 26 March TUC demonstration , photo Suzanne Beishon

Members of the teachers’ union NUT on the 26 March TUC demonstration , photo Suzanne Beishon   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

The election results for the NUT national executive for 2014-16 have seen a further loss of support for the ‘Broadly Speaking’ (BS) group on the right of the union. Just as significantly, the two gains for the NUT Left were made by supporters of Lanac, the Local Associations National Action Campaign.

Phil Clarke won the Kent and East Sussex seat. Phil’s victory, alongside the election of Jane Nellist in the West Midlands, the re-election of Peter Glover in Merseyside/Cheshire and my successful campaign to hold my seat in Inner London, means that there will be four Socialist Party teachers on the new NUT executive. They will form part of a bloc of around eight consistent supporters of Lanac together with others who may support our calls for escalating action. Liam Conway won the NEC seat in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire

Our successes could have been even greater. As well as Liam and Phil’s victories, Lanac supporters came close to winning further seats from the BS group in both Cheshire/Merseyside and in the Manchester area.

Lanac was formed at the 2012 NUT annual conference by delegates angered at the lack of a clear calendar of strike action to defeat the attacks on teachers’ pensions. As the union has continued to hesitate in the face of further attacks on pay and conditions, Lanac has continued to build support.

These election results reflect a growing mood among NUT members that the union has to act far more decisively to defend teachers and education. They also suggest that the outcome of June’s general secretary election, which will be a contest between myself and the existing NUT GS, Christine Blower, is certainly not a foregone conclusion.