Last week’s meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee approved the first batch of candidates to contest the local council elections in May – and appealed for further candidates to come forward to build on the momentum created by Dave Nellist’s challenge in the Birmingham Erdington by-election on March 3rd.
The February 16th meeting, the first steering committee since the recent TUSC local elections conference, also finalised the TUSC core policy platform for May. Under the title, ‘Vote for a socialist recovery from the Covid crisis!’, the ten minimum core policies which every council candidate using the TUSC name on the ballot paper will commit to can be found at https://www.tusc.org.uk/17627/22-02-2022/tuscs-core-policy-platform-for-the-may-2022-local-elections.
The first set of candidates for May include executive council members of the UNISON public services union and the National Education Union (NEU), and members of the UNISON Local Government Service Group Executive and the PCS civil servants union Ministry of Justice Group Executive. There are also four former Labour council candidates from the Jeremy Corbyn leadership years, who are now standing as TUSC candidates in May. The full list is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/463.pdf
A local storm in Birmingham
Despite a virtual boycott by the national mainstream media, and particularly stormy February weather, the campaign for Dave Nellist in the Birmingham Erdington by-election is getting an enthusiastic response.
A couple of local media stories, linked to below, give an idea of what is possible when an alternative is offered to the establishment parties:
https://spotlight-newspaper.co.uk/politics/02/16/erdington-election-2022-key-candidate-profiles/
The latest information on the by-election, and details of how you can lend your support in so many different ways, can be found at the campaign website – www.nellistforerdington.com – or by e-mailing [email protected]
But, as Dave himself has said, possibly the most important support that individual trade unionists, socialists and working class community campaigners can give, will be to continue the campaign after March 3rd, by being a candidate where that is possible in the largest possible anti-austerity challenge in the May local council elections.
The date of the next TUSC national steering committee to consider candidate applications is on March 9th and application forms must be received by Saturday March 5th to guarantee that they can be processed at this meeting. The form is available on the website at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/454.doc