Socialist Party member Martin Powell-Davies recently stood in the election for vice-president of the National Union of Teachers. He polled the second-highest number of first-preference votes but eventually finished third in the final count. It is now important to make sure Martin is re-elected to the NUT executive in the election next term. For more see: electmartin1.blogspot.co.uk/
This is edited from Martin’s blog: “I am happy that my vote, even if not enough to win, showed such a strong level of support for my stand and for the national action that we have been campaigning for.
Without the backing of any of the major ‘blocs’ in the Union, and without any other candidate calling for a transfer to me, to poll 7,665 first-preference votes is a real success.
That support could be glimpsed from the 38 nominations that I received to stand in the first place, and from the supportive comments from teachers unknown to me posted on Facebook and Twitter.
One simply said, “if Gove doesn’t like him, that’s good enough for my vote”.
The support from Lanac, the Local Associations National Action Campaign, was key to me standing in the first place.
Above all, my support was built on the underlying anger of classroom teachers at Gove’s attacks and I hope that they saw me as a candidate who was serious about organising the action necessary to stop them.
We now urgently need to reinstate our national action. We face an onslaught from a government determined to steal back all the gains of the past.
This election is just one moment in a continuing movement that we have to build if we are to stop those attacks.”
