Over 10,000 votes for Martin Powell-Davies in NUT leadership election
Socialist Party member Martin Powell-Davies received 10,470 (27%) votes in the election for the general secretary of the NUT teachers’ union. The current general secretary, Christine Blower, was expected to win and did so with 28,428 (73%) votes.
Martin Powell-Davies, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
Martin commented on the result:
“I am pleased that the strength of support for my candidature represents a real achievement for my campaign.
After the Local Associations National Action Campaign (Lanac) voted to back my stand in February, I only had three months to gather the nominations required.
That first target was achieved but, although outnumbered five-to-one in local association nominations, the three-to-one vote in the actual election records a closer margin when it came to members’ votes.
My support was generated by a campaign that sought to reflect the anger of classroom teachers at the conditions they face – and a frustration among many NUT members that the union was failing to campaign with sufficient clarity and determination to oppose the ongoing attacks on our pay, pensions and conditions – and on education as a whole.
Even my opponents acknowledged that my election materials were well-received in schools. Some certainly feared that the final margin of Christine’s victory might be tighter still.
My demands for clear campaign goals and for a clear calendar of strike action struck a chord with teachers at every meeting that I was able to address.
To secure over 10,000 votes, despite all the disadvantages facing my campaign, is a real achievement. I believe that my campaign has helped make sure that the union has responded by sharpening its campaign messages.
My campaign has also helped keep up the pressure for maintaining strike action on 26 March and now 10 July – action which must now be built for as strongly as possible.”
Former NUT general secretary Fred Jarvis has attacked Lanac in a new book which says the left is “plotting” a “union takeover”.
But Lanac, founded in June 2012, is growing as rank-and-file teachers see the need to escalate action to stop Gove’s ‘reforms’.
Far from being some shadowy organisation Lanac has a clear democratic structure giving all affiliated NUT Associations a vote at its steering committee.
In attacking Lanac and other more long-standing left organisations in the union, Jarvis is also attacking the NUT as a whole and aiding Gove and all the politicians who want to attack teachers and dismantle state education.
