11.11.09
UPDATED 12.11.09 Further
updates
EXCLUSIVE by Mark Watts
“NUJ Left” candidates stood successfully in the last round of
elections for the ruling council of the journalists’ union without declaring
their political affiliation.
An investigation has found that the SWP-inspired “NUJ Left”
fielded candidates last September for each of four seats on the national executive
council (NEC) of the national union of journalists (NUJ), representing London
members.
Three failed to declare that they were “NUJ Left” candidates
– Tom Davies, Pierre Vicary and Barry White – in their election
addresses and campaign e-mail circulars.
However, the other candidate, Alan Gibson, did declare, saying: “I
have taken on convenorship of the ‘NUJ Left’... I am a strong
believer in candidates for union election proclaiming their political affiliations
and am a long-standing member of the socialist workers party.”
The revelation undermines the charge of “Mc-Carthyism”
by “NUJ Left” over the unmasking
of Richard Simcox as the far-left political group’s candidate in the
current election for editor of the Journalist. Simcox failed to declare
this allegiance in his campaign material, including the “election address”,
that was sent via the union to the electorate.
The three candidates who failed to declare in last September’s
elections were elected to NEC seats, while Gibson – who did declare
– lost.
Davies had also commented online in the current election in support
of Simcox, and criticised the unmasking of the “NUJ Left” candidate,
without de-claring his own allegiance to the political faction.
The Trotskyist group, the socialist workers party (SWP), helped to
re-launch “NUJ
Left” last Novem-ber as a vehicle to take control of the NUJ.
Today’s fresh revelations prompted one “NUJ Left”
member, Chris Wheal, to write on an online forum: “You have named three
NUJ members as having won elections because they did not openly declare their
membership of the ‘NUJ Left’. I'm not sure one of those is actually
a member or supporter at all. I'd double check that if I were you.”
I responded:
“First, let’s get right what I actually said, which was that four
‘NUJ Left’ candidates stood in September for four NEC seats representing
London members: Tom Davies, Alan Gibson, Pierre Vicary and Barry White. Three
who did not declare that fact were elected, and one (Alan Gibson) who did
declare was not elected.
“You will be amazed how many times I checked it, Chris. And it
is a little silly to say that you are not sure that I am right about one of
the three because you could have checked it out for yourself. It was very
easy. All you had to do was a Google search. Try it now. You will find this
leaflet,
and this,
and indeed, most reliably of all, this.
Or did ‘NUJ Left’ falsely claim one of them as its own?
“Now, if you, as you say, are ‘one of the many misfits
within this grouping’, ie ‘NUJ Left’, but did not know that
one of these candidates was an ‘NUJ Left’ candidate, what chance
do you think the ‘ordinary’, ie non-politicised voters had? How
many of them would have done some background research on the candidates, rather
than just rely on the mass of election material distributed to them?
“As you know, I have written thousands of words on the subject
of ‘NUJ Left’ during this election campaign. No one, including
you, has so far pointed to a single inaccuracy. Your posting was 223 words,
and it contained that howler.”
Mark Watts – freelance journalist, broadcaster and FOIA
Centre co-ordinator – is standing in the election on the basis that
the new editor of the Journalist should be an independent
journalist at heart – not a politicised activist. He is not a member
of any political party or group. The Channel 4 news presenter, Jon
Snow, and
an army of other
eminent journalists
from all corners
of the media industry, and from across the UK and Ireland, have backed his
election bid.
Comment
on this article
Why Greenslade was wrong
about ‘NUJ Left’
Revealed: SWP helped to
re-launch ‘NUJ Left’
‘Hanky panky’
in NUJ election revealed
Union staff campaign for ‘NUJ
Left’ candidate
NUJ extends voting period
following request
Four election candidates
seek vote extension
NUJ peer raises election issue
in parliament
Watts unmasks ‘NUJ
Left’ candidate in circular
C4 News anchor Jon
Snow backs Watts for editor
Former BBC political
reporter supports Watts
Top journalists back
Watts election campaign
More journalists
support election bid by Watts
Watts campaigns for independent
Journalist
FOIA
specialist in election for Journalist editorship
Journalistic background
of Mark Watts
Comments
on Journalist election (7)
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