Elect Martin Powell-Davies: 

Defending Teachers, Defending Education

Home

18 January 2004

WHY I HAVE DECIDED TO STAND FOR GS

VOTE FOR A CHANGE

In this year’s General Secretary elections, thousands of NUT members will be looking to see if there is a candidate who is going to offer a change – a change from the years when the pressures on teachers have only got greater, a change from a Union leadership that has failed to stand up to the relentless attacks on teachers and education. I believe that I am the candidate that can best make that change.

There is huge discontent amongst ordinary teachers at the conditions we face. Yet, when it comes to NUT elections, most members throw their ballot paper away. Most aren’t convinced that any of the candidates will make a difference. I have decided to stand for General Secretary to make sure that there is a real debate in this election. I am standing so that I can set out a clear alternative to the failed leadership of the past and, most of all, because I want to help provide a new leadership for the future – a leadership that will be prepared to stand up for teachers and education.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

I will not be like the other candidates in this election. All of us have plenty of experience of Union activity, of representing and negotiating for members. But I am the only one:

• who has spent the last decade combining consistent campaigning with classroom teaching.

• who knows from his own experience exactly what New Labour’s infamous “relentless pressure” has been like.

• who has launched his campaign with a clear pledge that I would be a “teachers’ leader on a teacher’s salary”

• who has issued a clear campaign programme that says exactly what I think the Union should be doing (see the campaign website for a list of my 12 – point programme for teachers).

I am offering something different, something that is already getting an enthusiastic response from classroom teachers.

MY OPPONENTS

The existing NUT leadership has failed teachers. During Doug McAvoy’s time in office, our pay and conditions have got worse, our lives have got harder, education more unequal. Even when the Union has taken the right stand in words - on SATs, on Performance Pay, on the “Workforce Agreement”- they have failed to follow them up with the actions needed to defend NUT members.

John Bangs and Steve Sinnott have been part of that failed leadership. They offer no way forward for teachers. Steve Sinnott’s election would move the Union further away from any prospect of action to defend teachers. Instead, I believe he would move to settle our differences with the Government and the leaders of the other teacher unions – but at the cost of ditching our principles and at the expense of the pay and conditions of classroom teachers. John Bangs, NUT Assistant Secretary, is Doug McAvoy’s preferred successor. He might continue with opposition in words to some of Labour’s damaging policies but, as under Doug McAvoy, those words would not be matched with action.

Vote MURCH 2

Ian Murch wants to change the Union. He has opposed the current leadership in his many years on the NUT National Executive. It is vital that they are defeated. That is why I would be calling for teachers to vote MURCH 2 so that my votes could be transferred to Ian if needed when the ballot is counted.

However, while calling for a new “strategy”, Ian has not yet spelt out exactly what this will be. Unlike me, he has not launched his campaign with a clear programme of the actions he would call for to defend teachers. He has not yet shown how he will distinguish himself from John Bangs and Steve Sinnott - who will also be presenting themselves as competent union men and promising to improve things for teachers. He has not shown NUT members how he has been in-touch, and will stay in-touch, with teachers.

SPLITTING THE VOTE ?

Failing to offer such a clear alternative is the greatest risk of defeat for those of us who want to change the Union, not the fact that there will be more than one opposition candidate. Unless more teachers are enthused to vote, and to vote for a new way forward, teachers will be left without the leadership they need once again.

I believe that it is my approach, my programme, my record over the years, that will provide the clearest appeal to NUT members looking for a candidate who will change the Union. I believe that, once elected, I will provide the firmest leadership, appealing over the heads of the current majority on the National Executive to classroom teachers, NUT Conference delegates and local Association officers so that we can also win a new National Executive leadership as well.

This is why I am standing to win in this election, and why I think I can win. Whatever happens, my stand will encourage more teachers to vote for a new way forward for the Union. So, even if I were to receive fewer votes than Ian, my campaign and my clear call for a transfer of votes to him could improve Ian’s chances when the votes are finally counted. Of course, the reverse is also true, and so I hope that Ian will also be calling for a transfer to me.

PLEASE NOMINATE MARTIN

No trade unionist can afford to take the question of “unity” lightly. But, as we know from our debates with Steve Sinnott, it depends what that unity is based on. Both Ian and I want to change the Union. So calling for a transfer of votes to each other would show a real unity of purpose. However, it is already clear from the initial campaigning materials that Ian and I will have distinctly different approaches to this election. Now these need to be put to the test.

At the nomination stage of the election procedure, Associations should not be afraid to allow those different approaches to be debated. A clash of ideas and a contrast of approaches can only help hammer out a way forward for the Union and encourage more teachers to attend Association meetings.

In conclusion, I hope that as many Associations as possible will invite me, or another speaker from my campaign, to their hustings meetings so that members can hear what we have to say. I am confident that my ideas will strike a chord with teachers – and hopefully gain a nomination as well.

Martin Powell-Davies, 18^th January 2004.