‘The alienation from establishment politics just got deeper’, is the main theme of the draft report on the May elections from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), now available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025-results-report.pdf.

With the detailed results of the 155 anti-cuts, anti-austerity candidates that stood in the elections on May 1st – including the 105 candidates who used one of the TUSC-registered descriptions on the ballot paper – the report will be debated at the next meeting of the TUSC all-Britain Steering Committee taking place on Wednesday May 7th before a final version is published on the Candidates’ page. ■

The local elections on May 1st, covering almost one-third of voters in England, will be a no choice experience for those who make it to the polling station – except in the modest number of seats, just under ten percent of the council wards or divisions with elections, where at least there will be a choice of an anti-cuts, anti-war candidate available.

One hundred and three of these, contesting seats in 21 local authorities in England, are using one of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) descriptions on their ballot paper, plus a candidate for the Mayor of Doncaster.  In addition there are at least 26 other candidates who are appearing on the ballot paper as independents or on behalf of a local community party, who are either former Labour Party members – or, sometimes, councillors – who are also standing in opposition to Keir Starmer’s austerity and war agenda.  And then there are a further 14 standing for other left-wing parties. 

If you really do think that it is time to vote for something different, and you are in one of the seats where there is a chance to do so, why not start on May 1st?

The final list of candidates using one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper on May 1st can be found at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Candidates-final-update.pdf.  This is one fewer than in previously published notices due to the sad death of the TUSC candidate, Karen Seymour, in the Mansfield North division of Nottinghamshire County Council – a committed socialist who had consistently stood in district and county seats in the town since 2011.  The re-scheduled vote there will now be held in June.

The further record of other anti-cuts and anti-war May election candidates is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Left-Indy-candidates-on-May-1.pdf. 

With nominations closed for the local elections taking place on May 1st it is now officially confirmed that the sixth-biggest bloc of candidates – behind Labour, the Tories, Reform, the Lib Dems and the Greens – are those using one of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) descriptions on their ballot paper.

The number of seats up for election in the 23 councils with scheduled contests this May is 1,641, with by-elections taking place in some other councils too.  In total there are 102 candidates who are using a TUSC-registered description in these contests – around six percent of the seats – plus a TUSC candidate for the Mayor of Doncaster.  The full list is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Candidates-final.pdf, with the council candidates presented in a regional breakdown.

Most of the candidates appear on the ballot paper with the description Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition next to their name but a number are using the new Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate descriptor, including two former Labour councillors in Doncaster.

Every candidate using a TUSC description is committed to stand up to the austerity establishment parties, including Reform, who have all shown themselves to be virtually indistinguishable when it comes to representing the interests of working class people.  The TUSC core policy platform for the May council elections – the minimum ‘six guarantees’ that candidates commit to – can be found at https://www.tusc.org.uk/21300/18-12-2024/our-six-guarantees-for-the-may-2025-local-elections/. 

The summary, however, is simple – every one of them will be a stop the new austerity candidate in the May 1st polls.

This is the highest number of trade unionist and socialist candidates that have stood in this four-year election cycle since TUSC’s formation (with elections previously in these seats in 2021, 2017 and 2013) – and the Starmer government is only nine months old.  The resistance is growing.  ■

There are other candidates who will be taking a similar stance on May 1st who, while not on this occasion appearing on the ballot paper with a TUSC description, will be supported by our coalition.  These include a number of candidates appearing on the ballot paper as ‘Independent’ – amongst the 550 or so independents standing this year – who could be properly described as anti-cuts and anti-war candidates.  We are currently collating information on these and will publish as comprehensive a list of alternative candidates as possible before polling day.

The campaign to offer a challenge to the austerity establishment parties in the elections taking place in Doncaster on May 1st has gathered momentum in the past week.

The acclaimed film-maker and playwright Ken Loach, producer of well-known films and documentaries such as Kes, Cathy Come Home, and I Daniel Blake – and many more dealing with social issues such as poverty, homelessness and workers’ rights – has sent a message of support to Tosh and Nikki McDonald who are standing as Independent Trade Union and Socialist candidates in the Town ward in the Doncaster city council elections.

Tosh is the former president of the train-drivers’ union ASLEF, and Nikki a former public sector trade union rep, and previously Labour councillors for the Town ward.

Ken Loach wrote: “Tosh and Nikki McDonald have long been committed to improving the daily lives of ordinary people.  They understand how to get things done, after great experience in political struggles and their work in their trade unions.  They stick to their principles, unlike Starmer’s Labour party, and they are the real opposition to the dangerous newcomers, led by Donald Trump’s ally Nigel Farage”.

“I am pleased to support Tosh and Nikki McDonald in the coming election – let’s ensure they win!’’

Tosh and Nikki say: “Both of us are former trade union representatives and have lived in Town ward since November 1999.  We have previous experience as councillors for this area, but we resigned from Labour in early 2021, as under Starmer it no longer represented working people so we finished our term as Independents until May 2021”.  

“Now we are back!  We are ready to give you, again, the full time help (being early retired) that you deserve.  As ‘Independent Trade Union and Socialist candidates’ we are fully free from Labour’s divisive local party politics and can concentrate fully on tackling the council issues that affect us all daily”.

“We stand for peace and love NOT war and hate”.

Mayoral challenge on

Tosh and Nikki are two of the eleven candidates standing for council seats using one of the TUSC-registered descriptions on the ballot paper in May, alongside Andy Hiles who is standing in the contest for the Doncaster city mayor taking place on the same day.

Andy says “I grew up supporting the 1984/85 miners’ strike, am a painter and decorator by trade, have worked in the building industry most of my adult life, and always been an active trade unionist representing members in the workplace”.

“I’m now a benefits advice buddy representing people at appeals and tribunals.  I’m standing for mayor to offer Doncaster people a working class and socialist alternative to the establishment parties and Reform”.  The challenge is on. ■

Andy’s insert in the election booklet that will be sent to every Doncaster voter for the mayoral contest can be read at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Doncaster-booklet-insert.pdf

And a public meeting with Andy Hiles, Tosh McDonald, and the former Labour MP Dave Nellist (1983-1992) – who only took a workers’ wage when he was in Westminster not the bloated MPs’ salary – has been organised for Tuesday 22 April, 7pm, at C-View Centre, Church View, DN1 1AF, to which everyone is welcome.

Anthony Wedlake, a Wrexham county borough councillor for Coedpoeth and formerly a Labour councillor, has announced his resignation from the party and will now instead sit as a councillor of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

Councillor Wedlake considers the cutting of disability benefits from the most vulnerable to fund a huge growth in spending on arms as a defining step of Labour moving away from a party for working class people with little to choose from the Tories.

He said: “The Labour Party under Keir Starmer’s leadership has been moving further and further from the core values Labour is meant to represent. I have been concerned about the direction of the party for some time, but to take money from the poorest in our society to spend on armaments is the final straw. I cannot in all conscience remain a member of a party that attacks the working class. I have not left Labour so much as Labour has left me”.

“I believe that we need a new party of the working class that will stand up for the rights of working people and fight the austerity policies of all the other parties: Labour, Tory, Plaid and of course Reform – all of whom would cut spending on services for working people while the richest 1% amass colossal wealth. That is why I will be sitting as a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition councillor”.

“I will continue to represent the people of Coedpoeth to the best of my ability, and I believe that is best done by leaving a party committed to cutting public services and benefits and instead fighting in their interests as a TUSC councillor”.

“It is also clear that being an independent councillor on Wrexham council means coalition with the Tories which is clearly not an option for me.”

Dave Warren, secretary of TUSC Wales, welcomed Anthony as a TUSC councillor: “I am delighted to welcome Anthony Wedlake to our ranks. I believe that there are many sincere activists in the Labour party who are coming to the conclusion that Labour can no longer be regarded as a party that fights for working class people. A new party based on the trade unions and committed to socialist policies is needed, and TUSC is the first step towards that objective”.

“TUSC Wales welcomes any other Labour councillors who cannot stomach Labour’s commitment to austerity, nationally and locally, to come under the TUSC umbrella. We will be campaigning for a new workers’ party to contest the Senedd and Welsh council elections in 2026 and 2027".

Anthony Wedlake has called a public meeting of the Wrexham Trade Union and Socialist Coalition on Wednesday 9 April at 7-30 pm (Venue TBA). All members of the public are welcome. ■

Over one hundred candidates have been accepted by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee to use one of the TUSC descriptions on their ballot paper in May’s council elections after the latest meeting of the committee on March 24th – and, while the official nomination deadline is coming up fast, there’s still time for more.

This year there are only elections in 23 councils after the government, in a completely undemocratic move, cancelled polls in nine councils pending re-organisation plans.  Millions have been denied the chance to vote, on who should run their local services and on how their local councils should be organised – and what they think of the government’s new austerity agenda!

But that still leaves 1,600 seats or so being contested in the scheduled elections on May 1st, and in some council by-elections elsewhere, and in 101 of them there will be a clear socialist and trade union alternative to the establishment parties – plus a TUSC candidate in the contest for the Mayor of Doncaster.

The last time these particular seats were up for election, in 2021, there were 60 candidates who used a TUSC description on the ballot paper (and just 31 in this election cycle before that, in 2017).  The greater interest in standing this time is another sign of the growing conviction that a new, mass, working class alternative must be built – and that you have to start somewhere!

And there’s still time for more trade unionists, anti-cuts community campaigners, protesters at the latest vicious attacks on disabled people – and socialists from different parties or none – to join what will be the biggest working class left-of-Labour challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘Continuity Tories’ New Labour party in May.

The final deadline for the steering committee to consider candidate applications is March 30th with the TUSC National Election Agent – Clive Heemskerk, at [email protected] – needing to receive completed applications by then. But that will be really cutting it fine so applications should be sent in as early as possible. 

The form to use a TUSC description can be downloaded at https://www.tusc.org.uk/2025-application-form-cllr/ (if you are having difficulty opening this link, try copying it into your browser).

The current list of candidates planning to stand in May’s elections using one of the TUSC descriptions is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Candidates-to-25-03-24.pdf  Most candidates will appear on the ballot paper with the description Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition next to their name but a number are using the new Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate descriptor, including two former Labour councillors in Doncaster. ■

A previous Labour councillor who left the party in protest in 2022 has been re-elected to his old seat in the West London borough of Hounslow in a significant rebuff to Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘Continuity Tories’ Labour government.

A by-election in Hounslow’s Syon and Brentford Lock ward on March 6th saw the former Labour council cabinet member Theo Dennison win 615 votes – a 33.5% share of the poll – as an Independent candidate, beating the Labour party on 603 votes, and with the Green Party third on 218, ahead of the Tories (150), Reform (149), and the Liberal Democrats (102).

Labour’s vote fell from 1,463 in the last election in May 2022 (37.8%) in which Theo, also standing then as an Independent after twelve years as a councillor in the area, had come in at second place with 822 votes (21.2%). 

No matter how it will be spun by Labour, this is a symptomatic defeat.  No wonder the government was so keen to cancel elections in nine councils due to go to polls on May 1st!  And the Tory councillors in those authorities too, who backed Labour in this undemocratic act.  In Hounslow the Tory vote also fell, from 14.9% in 2022 to 8.2% now.

“The local elections taking place on Thursday May 1st should be about choices”, is the opening line of a new campaign leaflet published today by the all-Britain Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee.

“Should we fund our public services properly or stand aside while the super-rich get ever richer?”, the leaflet goes on (see the PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Local-elections-leaflet.pdf).  “Should those we elect represent our interests?  Or put the top 1% first – the tiny minority who own more wealth than all the rest of us together in the ‘bottom 80%’?”

“The establishment parties don’t give us that choice though”, it continues.  “After 14 years of Tory policies, what real change is being offered by Keir Starmer’s Labour government?  It has even weakened its promise to curb the ‘non-dom’ super-elite, who live here but pay less tax than us.  Meanwhile Reform, also led by millionaires, are Tories on steroids, only concerned to divide working class people so that it’s harder for us to fight back”.

The leaflet, aimed for areas where there will be candidates using one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper in May, explains why TUSC candidates are different.

“TUSC was set up by the late Bob Crow”, it says.  “A legendary trade unionist, no one could doubt whose side he was on!  And we’re continuing that tradition in May’s elections”.

As the scale of the Tory meltdown unfolded last July, the highlight of the election night coverage was when the news came through that Jeremy Corbyn had won a stunning victory in Islington North constituency, standing as an Independent candidate against all the establishment parties. 

And then there was the news that four more Independents had also won in Blackburn, Birmingham Perry Barr, Dewsbury & Batley, and Leicester South – and others had polled impressive votes elsewhere – in a wave of protest at the complicity of Starmer’s Labour Party with the slaughter of the Palestinians in Gaza.

The message was clear.  The grip on political representation of parties which uphold the capitalist system and the inequality, oppression, war, and climate destruction inherent in it – over the interests of the working class and poor in Britain and internationally – could be broken.  The challenge to do so was on.

With the government at last confirming which English local council elections are going ahead on Thursday 1st May, the first set of candidates using one of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) descriptions on their ballot paper have been approved by the TUSC all-Britain steering committee.

Under Britain’s election laws, candidates are only allowed to use a description other than the word ‘Independent’ – and a distinguishing emblem next to it rather than a blank space – if that description has been registered with the Electoral Commission by a recognised party.  TUSC is registered with the Commission and has eight descriptions available to use, including for the first time the words, Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate.

TUSC is an inclusive umbrella alliance with its banner available to be used on the ballot paper by every working-class fighter prepared to stand up to the capitalist establishment politicians at election time.

The only qualification for prospective candidates who wish to use a TUSC-registered description (and the option of an emblem) is that they endorse the TUSC core policies platform for the relevant election.  These are a list of minimum commitments that voters could expect from someone elected while using the TUSC banner – while leaving room for every candidate, whether from the various parts of our coalition or an independent individual socialist, to keep control of their own campaigns. 

The core policies platform for the May 2025 local elections – ‘our six guarantees’ – are to:

1. Oppose all cuts and closures to council services, jobs, pay and conditions; or their privatisation or transfer to social enterprises or ‘arms-length’ management organisations which are the first steps to their privatisation.

2. Reject council tax, rent and service charge increases for working-class people to make up for cuts in central funding.

3. Vote for councils to use their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid making cuts in their 2025-2026 budgets and demand from the Labour government the additional funding needed to make up any future shortfall.

4. Refuse to co-operate with any commissioners or ‘envoys’ appointed by the Labour government to attempt to impose cuts on local services.

5. Support only democratically debated local Climate Emergency plans that create new employment, build flood defences, reduce emissions and improve air quality and the local environment, while protecting the jobs, pay and living standards of all workers.

6. Fight for united working-class struggle against racism, sexism and all forms of oppression.  Back all workers’ struggles against government policies making ordinary people pay for the crisis.

To date there are 22 candidates who have been authorised to use a TUSC description, contesting seats in three local authorities in England.  The list is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Candidates-list-to-25-01-29.pdf.

The next steering committee meeting to discuss candidate applications will take place on February 26th, with completed application forms needing to be received by the TUSC National Election Agent – Clive Heemskerk, at [email protected] – by Saturday 22nd February in order to be placed on the agenda for this meeting.

The form can be downloaded at https://www.tusc.org.uk/2025-application-form-cllr/ (if you are having difficulty opening this link, try copying it into your browser). ■

Working class socialist campaigner Anne McAllister is standing for the North East Ward in a Glasgow City Council by-election on 20th March.

A long-standing Easterhouse campaigner, Anne McAllister says: "I'll be standing once again for the North East ward as the candidate of the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (Scottish TUSC). This working-class community desperately needs a fighting socialist councillor”.

“I have a long record of campaigning, from helping to successfully defeat the bedroom tax locally, to supporting workers' picket lines at postal sorting offices and cleansing depots”.

“If elected, I would campaign for the council to set a no cuts, needs budget, utilising all financial powers and uniting with the trade unions and the community, to demand the funding lost in austerity from the Scottish and Westminster governments”.

“We need a socialist society, where no one is cold and hungry. I'll also be fighting for the nationalisation of the energy companies and supermarkets to bring down bills”.

“Vote Scottish TUSC for a £15 an hour minimum wage and benefits that meet the cost of living". 

Trade unionist backing 

Anne’s campaign has won the strong support, in a personal capacity, of Chris Sermanni, the secretary of Glasgow City Unison, the largest branch of the public sector workers’ union in Scotland.

Chris says: "I'm supporting Anne as, unlike the SNP, Labour and the Greens, she is opposed to all austerity and attacks on the working class”.

“Our city suffers growing food bank queues, long health and care waiting lists, rising homelessness, and underfunded services.  Close to a billion pounds has been cut from Glasgow in the last decade with the SNP, Labour and the Greens all voting for cuts”.   

“Anne is standing to voice the need for a new mass workers’ party based upon the trade unions.  All socialists, trade unionists and community campaigners should support her”. 

Contact Anne's agent Matt Dobson on 07927-342-060 ■

The government has finally announced which English local council elections will go ahead on Thursday 1st May, in a statement made by the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner to parliament on February 5th – just seven weeks before nominations open.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which in September last year published a directory of the council elections that were statutorily scheduled for May, has now produced a revised edition, available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Elections-2025-directory-revised.pdf.

A casual attitude to democracy

The uncertainty about the May polls was caused by the announcement in mid-December that the government was planning to merge many districts councils into larger, less accountable, single bodies – known as unitary authorities – and increase the number of directly-elected mayors.  In doing so it gave the option to county councils facing elections in May this year to apply to postpone those contests if they could show they could carry out re-organisation plans by 2026. 

In the event elections have been cancelled for seven county councils and two unitary authorities, justified by Raynor as avoiding “an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money”.  But why would elections be a ‘waste of money’? 

The fact is that over five million people in these council areas have been denied the chance to vote – both on who should run their local services now, and on how their local councils should be organised in the future. 

The whole process illustrates again the casual attitude to democracy of Keir Starmer’s continuity-Tory New Labour government – and, indeed, all the capitalist establishment parties. 

The Tories shadow minister Kevin Hollinrake said that the “mass postponement” was a “worrying day for democracy” – but all bar one of the councils that had applied to cancel their elections were Tory-led! 

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey denounced the cancellation of elections as “denying voters a chance” to kick councillors out of office in May – ignoring the tiny detail that the Lib Dem-led Oxfordshire county council had also applied to postpone its elections (but was turned down by Rayner). 

The revised TUSC directory sets out where the electoral battleground will be in May.  Now the job is to get the biggest-possible number of trade unionists and anti-cuts community fighters onto the ballot paper to make sure the establishment politicians don’t go unchallenged. ■

A conference of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is taking place this Sunday, February 2nd, from 11am to 1-30pm on Zoom. 

The event is open to all and meeting ID details can be got by registering at bit.ly/TUSC25conf.  There is no conference fee but donations to support TUSC’s work are always welcome, and can be made at https://www.tusc.org.uk/donate/

The conference has been convened under the heading, ‘Fighting for a new party under the Starmer government. And what role for TUSC?’, as the need for a working class political alternative to the Tory-lite New Labour government becomes clearer by the day.

The following platform speakers from the constituent components of TUSC will introduce the single plenary session, alongside a representative of Collective, a network involving key supporters of Jeremy Corbyn from his time as Labour leader who are now seeking to build the foundations for a new left political party.

Dave Semple, PCS Vice President (personal capacity)

Hannah Sell Socialist Party general secretary

Suzanne Muna Unite NEC member (personal capacity)

Andrew Jordan The Collective secretariat group

Tom Allen TUSC Individual Members’ section

Tom Porter-Brown Socialist Students

The event will also discuss how to achieve the biggest possible socialist challenge at the first widescale electoral test of the new government, the local elections to be held in May 2025, including what the minimum core policies platform should be that candidates will need to commit to in order to use one of the TUSC names and emblems on the ballot paper.  There will be plenty of time for thoughts, contributions and questions.

The conference agenda document, including a draft platform for the May 2025 elections – our ‘six guarantees’ – is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Conference-agenda-document.pdf ■

“Exactly which English local council elections will go ahead on Thursday 1st May is still unclear at this point”, says the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national election agent, Clive Heemskerk, responding to the latest government announcement on January 15th about the fate of May’s polls.

But, he adds, anyone considering standing against the establishment parties in any of the 31 councils originally scheduled for elections this year, who wants to use one of the TUSC descriptions on their ballot paper, “shouldn’t hold back from sending in their TUSC candidate application form” as soon as possible.

An attack on democracy

Labour’s English Devolution White Paper, published in mid-December, proposed a wholesale re-organisation of local government, signalling its intent to merge many districts councils into larger, less accountable, single bodies – known as unitary authorities – and increase the number of directly-elected mayors.  It also gave the option to county councils facing elections in May this year to apply to postpone those contests if they could show they could carry out re-organisation plans by 2026. 

TUSC is a coalition with an all-Britain steering committee which reflects its character as an inclusive alliance. 

The steering committee includes official delegates from the trade unions and socialist organisations currently participating in the coalition and other individual leading trade unionists, with their own constituency within their union but not officially representing it on the committee, sitting in a personal capacity.

Other individuals who are independent socialists, but who are not members of a constituent organisation, also have places on the committee, elected by the TUSC individual members. The current Individual Members’ reps are Pete McLaren and Tom Allen, whose 2024 candidate nomination statements can be seen at https://www.tusc.org.uk/20288/15-02-2024/tusc-individual-members-representatives-elected-to-steering-committee-for-2024/.

If you want to stand as an Individual Members’ representative on the TUSC steering committee you can self-nominate by submitting a maximum 250-word candidate statement to Clive Heemskerk at [email protected], by 12 noon, Monday 27th January.

The statements will be made available at the TUSC conference on Sunday 2nd February and there will be an online ballot held subsequently if the number of nominations receives requires one.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee has agreed the agenda and timetable for a conference to be held on Zoom on Sunday February 2nd.

The conference has been convened under the heading, ‘Fighting for a new party under the Starmer government. And what role for TUSC?’, as the need for a working class political alternative to the Tory-lite New Labour government becomes clearer by the day. 

The event will also include a discussion on how to achieve the biggest possible socialist challenge at the first widescale electoral test of the new government, the local elections to be held in May 2025. 

The October meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee agreed a new TUSC report examining the broad financial position of the 32 local authorities that will form the ‘election battleground’ for the first scheduled ballot box test of the Starmer government in May 2025.

With the Tories controlling the majority of these councils, against the backdrop of Labour’s new austerity agenda it will be even more necessary for anti-austerity campaigners – between now and the May elections – not just to say ‘no cuts’ but to explain how councillors could defy the government and defend local public services if they wanted to. 

The TUSC report – entitled How Much Reserves Have They Got? and available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2025-Reserves-Report.pdf – provides the detail for the battleground councils to supplement previously published TUSC material on how it is possible to prepare a no cuts People’s Budget if the will is there (see especially the 55-page briefing document at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/450.pdf).

Below we publish extracts from the introduction to the report by Clive Heemskerk, the TUSC National Election Agent. ■

It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the passing of Joe Simpson, the deputy general secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA) and a firm friend of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) over many years.

Determined to take the fight against the ban on prison officers’ right to strike onto the political plane, and resist prison cuts and privatisation plans too, Joe stood as a TUSC candidate in the 2012 Greater London Assembly elections and joined the TUSC all-Britain steering committee in the same year, sitting in a personal capacity.  He also stood as a TUSC parliamentary candidate in the 2015 general election.

Joe was an implacable opponent of Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ and its policies defending the interests of the capitalists against the working class – policies continued under Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband – but saw the possibilities of change in a socialist direction under Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership.  In the same spirit, the TUSC steering committee as a whole agreed to recalibrate our electoral activity during this period, not contesting either the 2017 or 2019 general elections.

But with Starmer’s ascent to the leadership in 2020 and the revival of ‘New Labour’ in its new guise, Joe enthusiastically agreed to speak at the conference to relaunch TUSC in February 2021, held on zoom during the Covid pandemic.  

The loss of his voice in defence of working class interests is a painful blow to us all but others will have to come forward to pick up the banner. ■

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist adds: "Joe was a true giant of the workers' movement, a man of immense strength both physically and in his convictions.  His dedication to militant trade unionism and socialist change was unwavering.  He inspired all who knew him.  It was a privilege to work alongside him, both locally and nationally.  His loss will be deeply felt within the trade union and socialist movement".

The September meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee discussed the latest developments regarding ‘the Collective’ network, planning for the next round of scheduled statutory elections that will take place in May 2025, and two upcoming council by-elections in Coventry and Dundee which TUSC will contest, including the TUSC chairperson Dave Nellist fighting his old council seat in Coventry’s St Michaels ward.

For the item on TUSC’s discussions with the Collective, a network of ‘those on the left who seek to build the foundations for a new political party’ including important figures from Jeremy Corbyn’s time as Labour leader, the steering committee had before it a briefing document (at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TUSC-Briefing-on-the-Collective.pdf) produced by the TUSC national agent, Clive Heemskerk. 

This gave a report of the discussions of the Collective attended by TUSC from before the general election which have developed further with the production in August of a draft strategy document by the core group, entitled Beyond GE24: Rebuilding a Mass Socialist Movement as a Foundation for a New Left Political Party. 

This is still very much an early draft before publication – and so only a summary has been given in the TUSC briefing – and what degree of support there is for its proposals is still to be determined.  That obviously affects how viable or not it is to form a new party to a set timetable in early 2025.  Or whether, as the TUSC representatives argued, a systematic campaign to establish the need for a new party in the trade unions, alongside continuing local community struggles and ongoing social movements, is more likely to achieve our shared goal. 

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has published its annual directory of the statutory elections for the year ahead, this time the English local council elections scheduled to be held on Thursday 1st May 2025 (available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Elections-2025-directory.pdf).  These contests will be the first big electoral test of the Starmer Labour government and its ‘tough choices’ Austerity 2.0 agenda.

The dire financial situation facing councils and the vital local public services that they provide made it onto the pre-election ‘shit-list’ prepared by Starmer’s advisors of the early problems that an incoming government would have to deal with.