The 4 May elections in England will see contests in 229 councils.  The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) will be standing candidates in hundreds of seats to say that there is an alternative to Tory and Labour public service cuts and council tax rises.  

Published below is a shortened and edited version of the opening contribution made by the TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist to the discussion on the core policies platform (the common ground between all those who want to stand as TUSC candidates in the May local elections) at the TUSC conference on 4 February:

“There should be nothing inevitable about the poverty and suffering that has impacted working-class families by the cost-of-living crisis”.

“We know that trade unions are winning victories against individual employers.  But there is another force within society that could be part of the working-class fightback: local government itself.  As someone who spent 14 years as a Socialist Party councillor on Coventry City Council, I took inspiration from several battles of the past”.

“For example, Poplar council in east London in 1921.  There, Labour councillors defied the government, the courts, and the Labour Party leadership.  They called for the council to receive more income to tackle the area’s high unemployment, hunger and poverty, and to raise council workers’ wages, including equal pay for women workers.  Three of the policies in the TUSC platform for May’s elections (see below) directly echo their struggle”.