The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee has welcomed a new petition launched by leading trade unionists calling on the Green Party leader Zack Polanski to mobilise his party in the struggle against local council austerity.

The petition – launched by 20 current and former members of trade union executives, at https://c.org/r55nStyRBm – makes an opening appeal to Zack “to ensure that in this year’s local council elections no candidate shall appear on the ballot paper on behalf of the Greens who has not made a public commitment to vote against all cuts and closures to council services, jobs, pay and conditions should they be elected as a councillor on May 7th”.

These are the first set of elections being fought since Zack Polanski won the Green Party leadership last summer denouncing the ‘system rigged for the rich’ – and, with local public services still facing an unbearable funding squeeze, opposing all further cuts and closures should be a no-brainer.

As the petition says, while “we cannot expect Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, the Lib Dems, the Tories or Reform to join the struggle to defend local public services… we should not expect anything less from those who have spoken against the establishment’s austerity agenda”.

The trade unionists’ petition further asks that Zack Polanski “instructs all current Green Party councillors to make the same commitment for future council budget-making meetings, including in the 40-plus local authorities where the Greens are presently part of the council administration”. The Greens do have a substantial presence in local government and if their hundreds of councillors were to take such a stand – and a protest movement organised to back them up – who could categorically say that Starmer and the chancellor Rachel Reeves wouldn’t be forced into another U-turn?

The central battle remains to get the trade union leaders to build on the heroic resistance of those like the Birmingham council bin-workers fighting wage cuts and poorer services, but a widescale councillors’ rebellion would open up a new front. That’s why the trade unionists’ petition to Zack Polanski deserves all our support... (continued)

The latest meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee, held on December 10th, welcomed the successful launch of Your Party at its Liverpool conference at the end of November.

There were different views expressed, inevitably, between the different components of the TUSC coalition on various aspects of the conference, and the foundation process of Your Party more generally.

But, once again, the steering committee was united in pledging to help in any way it can to take forward the fight for a new, mass party of the working class – and, in particular, to discuss with the Your Party interim leadership agreed at the conference how best to maximise the opportunities provided by the elections in May next year to build a working class, socialist anti-austerity alternative to the establishment parties... (continued)

The November meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee was the first opportunity for the different component parts of TUSC to share their thoughts on the Your Party founding documents that were published on October 17th.

The documents, signed-off by the six-strong Independent Alliance group of MPs – Shockat Adam, Jeremy Corbyn, Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan, Iqbal Mohamed and Zarah Sultana, who are acting as the temporary stewards of the party’s founding – can be accessed on the Your Party website at https://www.yourparty.uk/founding-documents/ and have also been brought together by TUSC for ease of reading into a single pdf at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/YP-founding-documents.pdf.

In the steering committee discussion assessing the prospects for the party, which had now reached a reported membership of 50,000, a number of criticisms were aired of the foundation process so far. But there was also recognition that the potential is still there for a democratic, socialist, working-class party with trade unions at its core to be the possible final outcome.  And that on this basis it was still vitally important for TUSC to help towards this goal in any way that it could... continued

A ‘Wales Trade Union Conference on the Crisis of Political Representation’, hosted by Cardiff Trades Council on 18 October, pledged to support only candidates and parties that will stand up for the working class.

That was the main conclusion reached by over 50 trade unionists from 11 unions who attended the conference backed by five trades councils in Wales, the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union executive, the civil service union PCS Wales, and a long list of trade union branches, along with Disabled People Against Cuts and the campaign group ACORN.

The conference was promoted as a forum for trade union reps and members to discuss “the way forward for our movement after 15 years of austerity, cost-of-living crisis and racism”. It was prompted by deep concerns over Labour’s continued austerity programme, its scandalous attacks on the Birmingham bin workers, and its shameful response to the horrifying massacres in Gaza. It was originally conceived before Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn’s announcements about a new party, but the developments concerning Your Party obviously gave this event even greater relevance... (continued)

As Keir Starmer’s Labour government prepares for yet more austerity in the Autumn Budget, while Reform continues its rise in the polls, the need for a new working class alternative becomes ever more urgent.

But the moves to a new party suffered a setback in mid-September as disagreements within ‘Your Party’ emerged, inevitably amplified by the establishment media. And, while the show is now back on the road with membership opened (at https://in.yourparty.uk/users/sign_up) and the founding conference set for the end of November, the reconvened ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ meeting on Monday 13 October was aptly timed to discuss the role of the organised working class in these developments.

With over 570 registrants and over 300 screens taking part, including a number of watch parties, hundreds of trade unionists tuned in to discuss the way forward. And if you missed the meeting you can catch a video of it at https://youtu.be/NrkKi845lGk.

A successful Holyrood 2026 conference took place on Saturday October 4th in Glasgow on the theme of building a trade union, socialist and working class election challenge for the Scottish Parliament election next year.

Despite Storm Amy causing major transport problems, and with Glasgow’s main train station closed entirely, 80 people turned up the conference from all eight Scottish parliamentary electoral regions. 

The conference had been prepared over the last five months by a Conference Organising Committee. Decisions around speakers and the democratic organisation of the conference were reached by consensus at the COC.

The committee was made up of representatives from the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (Scottish TUSC), Socialist Party Scotland, the Scottish Left Alternative (SLA), the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), Collective Scotland (set up by activists around Jeremy Corbyn) and vitally, trade union reps in a personal capacity from Dundee City Unison, Glasgow City Unison, and the Unite Housing Association branch as observers. The Communist Party of Britain declined participation. 

A motion was discussed, debated and mostly agreed by the organising committee to put to the conference (see the final agreed version at the end), bar the final bullet point on where to stand on the demand of an independent socialist Scotland. This was further discussed in a lively and democratic debate at the conference which, at its end, agreed overwhelmingly to "help prepare a united socialist, trade union and working-class election challenge in as many parts of Scotland as possible for next May”... (continued) 

As meetings of Your Party supporters take place around the country one of the immediate tasks we face is to get ready for the elections that will be held on 7th May next year – now just over six months away.

Having said that, working out exactly where there will be elections in 2026 is not as straightforward as it sounds!  Yes, there will be contests for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd in May.  But whereas every autumn for over a decade now, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has produced a directory of the council elections to be held the following spring as a planning resource for local campaigners, this time, however, no such certainty is possible.

That’s because Keir Starmer’s New Labour Mark II government is imposing ‘reorganisation’ plans on local government, in the biggest changes in England since the 1970s – to make it easier, they hope, to carry out their austerity agenda to cut and privatise local public services by weakening local democracy.  They are pushing through the merger of district and county councils into larger and more remote single bodies and increasing the number of directly-elected ‘super mayors’.  In doing so, 66 councils that have scheduled elections for May 2026 but which are affected by reorganisation, may have them cancelled.

The same thing happened this year with nine council elections that should have taken place cancelled just weeks before polling day.  So for a second time in two years a full picture of where local elections will be held in England in May will not be clear until February or March.  This casual attitude to democracy is in itself another example of the increasingly authoritarian character of the Starmer government, and how it tries to hide from a reckoning with the electorate.

What we do know, however, is that elections will definitely take place for all 32 London borough councils and 40 other Metropolitan district and district councils.  And that also on the same day there will be Mayoral elections in Watford and the London boroughs of Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newhamand Tower Hamlets. 

So our estimate is that May 2026 will see, as a minimum, at least 3,452 councillors elected in 1,537 wards.  And we have listed the councils concerned in what this year is a (very) Provisional Directory of the May 2026 Local Elections, available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Provisional-2026-elections-directory.pdf  

There may eventually be more elections than we have included here as definitely on, probably many more.  But what there certainly will be is a significant enough electoral opportunity for Your Party supporters, trade unionists, anti-war protestors and working class community campaigners to organise to give their verdict on the Starmer government and put forward at the ballot box the socialist alternative that we need... (continued)

The thousand-plus strong ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ meeting on July 21st, addressed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana just days before their mould-breaking call for a new alternative under the temporary banner of ‘Your Party’, is reconvening on Monday 13th October to discuss the next steps in the fight for working class political representation.

The moves to a new party did suffer a setback in mid-September with public disagreements amplified by the establishment media.  And, while the show is now back on the road with membership opened (at https://in.yourparty.uk/users/sign_up) and the founding conference set for the end of November, there is still work to be done, especially in the trade unions.

The July meeting agreed a series of follow-ups to discuss what needs to be done in each individual union to make sure that trade unions and trade unionists are at the core of a new anti-austerity and anti-war party.  

Ten meetings have been held in August and September – again with over a thousand trade unionists registering – with the general format being to work out model motions for union branches tailored to the particular situation in each union, with further meetings planned to assess progress later in the autumn. 

A round-up of the model motions or other action points at each of the union-specific follow-ups is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Model-motions-round-up.pdf .

But Monday’s reconvened meeting will be a chance for an all-union perspective to be debated, including hearing some of the arguments that have taken place in branches on the new party, and with the Independent Alliance group of MPs who are overseeing the formation process of the party invited to explain the progress so far. ■

Trade Unionists for a New Party – recall meeting

What now for the new party project? Time for a trade union-led reset?

Monday 13th October, 6-30pm

Register at https://bit.ly/ReconvenedTU4NewParty

● If you missed the original meeting on July 21st, hosted by Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP (1983-1992) and now the chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), you can watch the video at https://youtu.be/fTTmB-itr4U?si=CS3s5DEUioGeUzUg

The latest meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee confirmed its backing for Your Party and urged TUSC supporters to join up (at https://in.yourparty.uk/users/sign_up) to help ensure that a new political voice for the working class can be firmly established.

This follows our statement in July warmly welcoming the moves to a new party to that point (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/21778/17-07-2025/tusc-offers-full-backing-to-moves-towards-a-new-party/) which included the independent responses of the different component parts of the TUSC coalition and its steering committee.

One question that has been raised however, since the Your Party membership portal was opened on September 24th, is what should TUSC supporters make of the website wording that to join, “you must be over 16, resident in the UK, and you cannot be a member of another national political party”? 

Many parties, in fact, have similar disclaimers that set the broad boundaries of their organisations, with details of how this applies spelt out within their constitutions. The Green Party does, for example, but with an exception allowing members of other parties to stand for the Greens, or Green Party members to stand for other parties, “in cases of joint candidacies”.

Even the undemocratic Starmer Labour Party has procedures – a decision of the party conference or its national executive committee “in pursuance of” a conference decision – to declare parties or political organisations “ineligible for affiliation” or “inimical with the aims and values of the party”.  And, of course, it has a dual membership agreement and electoral arrangement with the Co-operative Party, itself an independent party registered with the Electoral Commission.

Your Party, on the other hand, at this stage has not agreed a constitution – including any stipulations that may be made about dual membership, affiliations etc.  And, as far as elections are concerned, TUSC has a proven record of standing aside in the 2017 and 2019 general elections when Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party.  We only resumed our electoral activity in 2020, after Starmer’s ascent to the Labour leadership.

No TUSC supporter then, the steering committee was agreed, should be deterred from joining Your Party and playing their part in realising the goal of our coalition from its formation in 2010, for the re-establishment of socialist, working class political representation in a new mass workers’ party. ■

On 23 September, a meeting of transport union RMT activists was organised by London Underground Engineering Branch, Bob Crow’s old branch and the largest in the union with 3,200 members, under the title Your Party – What Is The Role Of The RMT?

The meeting was addressed by two former Labour MPs: Jeremy Corbyn, now an Independent MP, who along with Zarah Sultana has announced the launch of ‘Your Party’; and Dave Nellist, now chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). 

The RMT could play a significant role in getting a new working-class based party off the ground. After being expelled from the Labour Party in 2004 for supporting Scottish socialist election candidates, the RMT under Bob Crow’s leadership continued to campaign for an anti-austerity working-class political voice. Bob helped to initiate the No2EU-Yes to Democracy campaign against the neo-liberal policies of the European Union in the 2009 EU elections and then TUSC itself in 2010.

The RMT was formally represented on the TUSC steering committee for ten years from 2012. The RMT was also the first union to support Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2015, with the biggest donation to his campaign after Unite, despite not being an affiliated union. And it was, of course, an RMT predecessor union, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, that was a key initiator of the Labour Party back in 1900!

It was therefore very important that this discussion took place between Dave, Jeremy, and reps, activists and leading figures in the union... (continued)

A conference to discuss how to achieve a working class, trade union and socialist election challenge for the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026

Saturday 4th October, 1pm

At The Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JP

Convened by a Conference Organising Committee made up of reps from the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (Scottish TUSC), Collective Scotland, Socialist Party Scotland, Your Party Scotland, Scottish Left Alternative, the SSP plus leading trade unionists including from Glasgow City UNISON, Dundee City UNISON and others.

Register for the event here and details will be emailed to you.

Around 50 members, reps and activists attended a meeting for Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members interested in Your Party on Tuesday 9 September.

This meeting was another in a series of follow-ups to the national trade union meeting on 21st July, chaired by Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP (1983-1992) and now the chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), and addressed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana shortly before they made the ‘Your Party’ announcement that has since then quickly gathered such massive support.

Former union Vice President Dave Semple chaired the meeting, which was addressed by current National Executive Committee (NEC) member Fiona Brittle, as well as receiving a specially recorded message from Jeremy Corbyn.

Key themes included the need for a workers’ party, with a basis in the trade unions, and the need for an active anti-austerity, pro-worker, socialist political strategy on the part of PCS.

PCS policy, agreed by the union’s delegate conference, is that the union can stand and support candidates who back the union’s campaigning programme: to “stand or support candidates in national elections that would help to defend members’ jobs, pay, pensions and public services”.  PCS has never stood a candidate but has occasionally supported Labour candidates – including some who have voted for cuts that harmed our members.  That needs to change, and now the opportunity is there... (continued)