“Don’t just protest on May 7th, it’s our chance to vote for socialist change”, is the headline of a new campaign leaflet published today for May’s local elections by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee.

“The local elections are a chance to protest at Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government”, the leaflet starts. “But opposing Starmer is easy”, it goes on. “Almost every other candidate on May 7th will say they do too. So the elections should also be about what kind of change we want to see”, listing some of the ways that properly funded council services can change lives.

“The establishment parties don’t give us that choice though”, it continues, “as they put the interests of the wealthy 1% elite first”, starving councils of the funding they need.

The leaflet, aimed for areas where there will be candidates using one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper in May, explains why voting for a TUSC candidate sends a different message – “a chance not just to protest on May 7th but to vote for socialist change”.

The six TUSC guarantees

TUSC is an alliance of working-class fighters prepared to stand up to the establishment politicians at election time.  Each candidate has their own independent record and views as a trade unionist, a community campaigner, an anti-war protester, or a socialist supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party, which is only standing in a limited number of seats this year (and, where they are, there will not be a candidate using a TUSC description on the ballot).

But all candidates who use a TUSC description are pledged to the TUSC six guarantees, what voters should know that any councillor elected under the TUSC banner will do:

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

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

3.Vote for councils to set no-cuts budgets and demand from the Labour government the money to make up any shortfall.

4. Refuse to co-operate with any commissioners sent by government to try to cut local services.

5.Support only democratically debated local Climate Emergency plans that create new employment, build flood defences, 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, including against refugees and asylum seekers. Back all workers’ struggles against government policies making ordinary people pay for the crisis. ■

The leaflet is one-sided only, allowing local candidate and campaign details to be printed on the reverse.  Supplies are available to candidates gratis via the TUSC National Election Agent.  But donations are encouraged (at https://www.tusc.org.uk/donate/), so that the message can be spread as widely as possible – there can be an alternative.