On 31st August members of the retail and distribution workers’ union USDAW joined a Zoom meeting to discuss how we build support in our union – one of the biggest Labour affiliated unions – for a new party of the working-class.

This meeting was one of 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 then quickly gathered such massive support.

Iain Dalton, secretary of the USDAW Broad Left, speaking in a personal capacity, introduced the discussion outlining the anger of union members at the policies of the Labour government, such as cutting pensioners’ Winter Fuel Allowance.  This had been demonstrated by the near unanimous condemnation of this move at this year’s USDAW’s annual delegate meeting (ADM).  The government has also attacked disability benefits, failed to repeal the two-child benefit cap, and betrayed the WASPI women over their pensions, all against union policy as Iain pointed out.  No wonder the question was raised at the ADM of the accountability of the USDAW group of MPs to union members and the policies we agree.

In fact Keir Starmer’s leadership has suspended Labour MPs who have voted for USDAW policies, such as scrapping the two-child benefit cap.  And former USDAW equalities officer Ruth George was blocked from standing again for her seat as a Labour candidate.  USDAW members will be rightly asking why are we giving support to Labour MPs who have not backed us on these issues, Iain argued, and not to elected representatives from the workers’ movement who have supported our policies?... (continued)

On 20th August, members of general union GMB met online to discuss how we build support across our union – one of the biggest backers of Labour – for a new party of the working-class, with a socialist programme and rooted in the trade unions.

This meeting was a follow-up 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.  Almost 50 GMB members signed up for that meeting.

At the ‘GMB for a new party’ meeting in August, there was agreement that Labour no longer acts in the interests of GMB members, and enthusiasm for a new, socialist party.  Although our numbers at this first meeting were modest, attendees represented a wide range of regions and sectors, from 17 GMB branches, and most were activists with positions as branch reps or officers, including some regional council members.  This indicates the potential to develop a successful GMB campaign for a new workers’ party.

The meeting was chaired by Gareth Bromhall, a delegate on the Swansea and Wales Trade Union Councils (TUC Cymru – speaking in a personal capacity).

We started with a short video message from Jeremy Corbyn, and then Gareth introduced the proposed model motion (see below).  He emphasised that many Labour MPs in the GMB Parliamentary Group are not voting for GMB policies, and that a new party must “unequivocally” be based in the trade unions.  GMB has over 500,000 members, and together all unions in Britain have just under 6.5 million members, making us a formidable force in society.

A good debate ensued, with contributions from a majority of those present... (continued)

Over 70 members of the National Education Union (NEU) joined a Zoom call on August 18th as part of the round of individual union meetings to bring together ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’.  

Not only was this a great turnout at a time when education staff are on holiday, the thorough and wide-ranging discussion also reflected the enthusiasm and determination to campaign for the NEU to play its part in building a new workers’ party.

The meeting was introduced by Sheila Caffrey, one of several NEU National Executive members at the online meeting.  Sheila explained that the meeting had been called as a follow-up to the over 1,000-strong July 21st cross-union Zoom initiated by Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP (1983-1992) and now the chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which was attended by both Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana shortly before they made the ‘Your Party’ announcement that has then quickly gathered such massive support. 

Sheila reminded everyone of the role played by education workers during the COVID pandemic, both in supporting children and our communities, but also using our collective trade union power too.  She listed just some of the attacks that have been made by the Labour government, including worsening child poverty with the continuation of two child benefit cap and their attacks on both disabled people’s and trans people’s rights.  Sheila added that they “have continued Tory education policy of underfunding, underpaying and undervaluing education and education workers” and that the long record of attacks, cuts and privatisation of education showed that the need for education workers to have a political voice and genuine representation was long overdue. 

Sheila referred to the democratic structures that already exist in unions like the NEU to allow members to discuss and elect delegates to share views, experiences and policies, and argued that a new workers’ party should work like this too.  “We need a new party that not only has education workers but workers from across all sectors and communities being able to discuss and create policies that will support our lives, our services and our workplaces” and that “the collective voices of unions are essential to this”. 

One shared aim from the many individual contributions to the discussion was to encourage as many NEU members as possible to take the arguments for a new workers’ party into NEU structures, at school, district and national levels... 

At the successful meeting of Trade Unionists For a New Party on 21st July hosted by Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP (1983-1992) and now the chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the over 1,000 people present agreed to organise follow-up meetings for members of the respective unions represented to discuss concrete steps towards a party based on the unions.  

Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana both attended and spoke at that meeting (a full video can be seen at https://youtu.be/fTTmB-itr4U?si=CS3s5DEUioGeUzUg) and their ‘Your Party’ campaign (www.yourparty.uk) has attracted over 700,000 sign-ups since its launch three days later.

April Ashley and Jim McFarlane, Unison NEC members acting in a personal capacity, called the first ‘Unison 4 a New Party’ meeting to discuss the concrete steps we need to take in our union.  Around 70 of us attended on 18 August.  Jeremy Corbyn sent a video message of support for the meeting at Dave Nellist’s invitation, stating that “workers’ rights are at the core of what we believe in”. 

In opening the meeting and moving the motion (see below) April raised that as only 16% of Unison members currently pay into the affiliated political fund (Labour Link) it is clear that most members no longer see Labour as a party that represents their interests.

Andrea Egan, who is standing as general secretary of Unison against the current right-winger Christina McAnea, sent apologies for the meeting, hoping to attend in the future.  April and other speakers felt it important that the call for a review of Unison’s relationship with the Labour Party and for the union to use its political fund to only support MPs who follow union policy form a prominent part of Andrea’s election programme.  If elected, we would also urge her to work with Jeremy, Zarah and the other suspended MPs so that they can represent Unison’s policies in parliament...

On 14th August 40 activists in the University and College Union (UCU), from workplace reps and rank-and-file members through to National Executive Committee (NEC) members, met online to discuss the next steps in the fight for our union to have a voice in a new party of the working class.  

This was a follow-up to the online ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ meeting called by Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP (1983-1992) and now the chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), on 21st July, addressed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, which over 1,000 trade unionists attended.  A full video of that meeting can be seen at https://youtu.be/fTTmB-itr4U?si=CS3s5DEUioGeUzUg.

In chairing the UCU follow-up and proposing a model motion for UCU members to take into their branches for discussion, National Executive Committee (NEC) members Duncan Moore and Marco Tesei explained that since UCU passed motion 63 at the union’s annual congress in May, major developments in the struggle for independent working class politics have come apace.  This meeting was for UCU members to discuss how to campaign for UCU to engage in the formation of a new party.

UCU, like many other unions, has never been affiliated to Labour.  The union’s current rules state that no part of the funds of the union or of any branch shall be used for affiliation to any political party.  For UCU to affiliate with a new party would require a change to our rules, achievable only by a two-thirds majority vote at congress.

But the UCU rule book is clear that the union can spend the political fund in any way that Congress or the NEC deems to be in the interests of UCU members.  Currently UCU spends members’ money lobbying parliament and campaigning, and to have a stall at Labour Party conference.

UCU congress motion 63 called for the union to invite Jeremy Corbyn and the other independents (now including Zarah Sultana) to a meeting of our national executive to discuss how they can support our union’s fights in parliament, and for UCU to encourage our own members to stand in elections to campaign for our union’s policies.

Since the announcement of a new party, implementation of motion 63 has become urgent, as the question of the new party’s structure and what role the trade unions can have within it are debated over the next few months.

The ‘UCU for a new party’ meeting resolved to raise the motion in all our branches and also agreed to contact our relevant NEC members (by sector and/or region) to ask about progress on motion 63, to keep the pressure on the leadership.

Follow-up meetings to the ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ campaign launch on July 21st to plan detailed work in individual unions have now been held for members of Unite the Union, the Communications Workers Union (CWU), the University and Colleges Union (UCU), UNISON, the National Education Union (NEU) and the GMB.

A report of the 220-strong meeting of Unite activists has been published at https://www.tusc.org.uk/21880/12-08-2025/unite-for-a-new-party-meeting-sets-union-specific-campaign-plan/.  Below is the report of the CWU meeting, with others to be posted here in the coming days.  

The first follow-up meeting to the successful ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ campaign launch on July 21st was held last week for members of Unite the Union.

Over 220 Unite activists attended a ‘Unite for a New Party’ call to discuss the details of what needs to be done in this currently Labour-affiliated union to make sure that it can be at the heart of the new anti-austerity and anti-war party that is in the process of being formed.

Chaired by the Unite member and former Labour MP Dave Nellist, the meeting opened with a video message of support from Jeremy Corbyn, stressing the importance of trade unionists in realising his and Zarah Sultana’s recent call (at www.yourparty.uk) for a “new kind of political party”. 

The next speakers, present in a personal capacity, were the Unite Executive Council member Suz Muna and the Unite convenor of Birmingham Labour council’s Waste and Environmental Services workers, Matt Reid.  Suz explained the historic decision made at the Unite policy conference in July for the union to “discuss our relationship with Labour”, after the council announced the effective fire-and-rehire of refuse workers striking against pay cuts of up to £8,000 a year, with Matt reporting on the latest developments ‘from the frontline’.  The meeting pledged its continued solidarity with the bin workers in this defining struggle.

Debating tactics

Discussion then turned to the details of what needs to be argued for in a union that at this point is still affiliated to Labour, centred around a model motion for union branches that had been circulated in the meeting’s calling notice (see below for the text).

There was general agreement with the tactics proposed, with arguments made illustrating some of the different issues involved.  For example, Dave Reid from Cardiff Trades Council, and an officer of Cardiff General Unite branch, reported on the trades council’s initiative, now supported by three others in Wales, to convene a conference in October to discuss how unions can ensure there is a workers’ voice in the 2026 Welsh Senedd elections. 

But because it has been posed as a discussion, he explained, in line with the Unite conference decision – and with a speaker invited from Labour to debate how workers can be politically represented (let’s see if they turn up!) – there is no constitutional bar to Unite branches sending delegates even under the current rules.

But there was debate too about the tactics proposed.  Phil Smart, the branch secretary of Unite WM6070, asked why, with the union’s objects including “to have a strong political voice fighting on behalf of working peoples’ interests… so as to promote a socialist vision” (Rule 2.1.4), the Executive Council couldn’t use its powers under Rule 13.6 “to amend the rules between Rules Conferences” itself as Starmer’s Labour was so obviously not delivering? 

Other speakers accepted that such a move was possible.  However, given the requirement that 75% of the Executive Council would have to agree, they argued that a membership campaign which gathered such support to compel the EC to take this step could also achieve the convening of special policy and rules conferences, which would result in a more deeply-rooted and long-lasting change in the union’s political strategy. 

The main task though, everybody agreed, was to take the arguments to every corner of the union.  And in that light, with the next Executive Council being held in October, it was agreed to reconvene the meeting in the autumn to assess progress, with all instances of the model motion being passed in branches and other union committees to be notified to Dave Nellist at [email protected]

A short video of Dave, Suz, Matt and Jeremy’s contributions to the meeting is available at https://youtu.be/XfHQPjdnsG8.  ■

Following the successful ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ meeting on July 21st, as promised a series of follow-ups are being organised to discuss what needs to be done in each individual union to make sure that trade unions and trade unionists are at the heart of the new anti-austerity and anti-war party that is in the process of being formed.

Over one thousand trade unionists, on Zoom and via a live feed, attended the July 21st meeting, which included contributions from Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana MP just days before they made their mould-breaking call for a “new kind of political party” – which has since gathered 700,000 sign-ups!

Initial follow-up meetings to work out the details of what to do next have been organised for Unite the Union members (on 7th August), the Communications Workers Union (11th August), the University and Colleges Union (14th August), Unison (18th August), and the National Education Union (also August 18th).  Registration details for each are listed below.  And watch out for union specific meetings for PCS, RMT, GMB, USDAW members and others in the coming weeks. 

And if you missed the July 21st meeting, 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 ■

Trade Unionists for a New Party follow-up meetings registration details:

UNITE – Thursday 7th August, 6-30pm – https://tinyurl.com/Register4TUnewpartymeeting

CWU – Monday 11th August, 6-30pm – https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/0efJqg1aQpK6OrRXM26EEw

UCU – Thursday 14th August, 6-30pm – https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CEcTKiXORvCvos4mvoaG0g

UNISON – Monday 18th August, 6-30pm – https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Ev3wZqjLTYeiygpZdcWNYw

NEU – Monday 18th August, 7-30pm – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/-MtXgZKBQJiuvBES8F7XxA

The call by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana on Thursday 24 July for a “new kind of political party” to challenge ‘the rigged system’ has met with a phenomenal response. 

Within 24 hours over a quarter of a million people had signed up “to be part of the founding process” of a new party – more than the memberships of Reform (229,000), the Conservatives (131,000), the Liberal Democrats (90,000) and the Greens (65,000). 

If you haven’t done so already, you can read Jeremy and Zarah’s statement and sign up at www.yourparty.uk  Labour’s claimed membership, within target now, is 309,000.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) fully supports moves towards the establishment of a new working class party and will do everything we can to take this process forward. 

A full statement from the TUSC all-Britain steering committee, agreed before Jeremy and Zarah’s 24 July declaration but even more relevant now, is at https://www.tusc.org.uk/21778/17-07-2025/tusc-offers-full-backing-to-moves-towards-a-new-party/

Trade union campaign

One immediate next step we identified in our statement was to push forward the campaign calling for urgent discussions across the unions to establish a political voice for working people (see the online petition at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty).

And on July 21 over a thousand trade unionists attended a meeting – on Zoom and via a live feed – to discuss next steps to ensure that trade unionists and trade unions are at the core of a new party.

Hosted by the TUSC chair Dave Nellist, the meeting featured contributions from Jeremy and Zarah and executive committee members from Unite, UCU, NEU, Unison, the PCS, and others.  If you missed it, you can watch the video at https://youtu.be/fTTmB-itr4U?si=CS3s5DEUioGeUzUg

And look out for the follow-up meetings that will be organised for individual unions in the coming weeks.

BFAWU bakers’ union statement

Another speaker on July 21 was the president of the BFAWU bakers’ union, Ian Hodson.  And the day after the meeting the union’s executive council issued a statement on the creation of a new political party (at https://www.bfawu.org/statement-on-the-creation-of-a-new-political-party/).

The BFAWU, which disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 2021 after 119 years of membership, welcomed “the stirrings of a new political force.  A party that could speak in our voice [and] fight our fights”.

“But it must be built the right way”, the statement went on. “Not by coronation but through collective decision-making” and putting workers “at the centre”. 

“We’re not here to follow”, it ended.  “We’re here to lead”.

Jeremy Corbyn concluded at the 21 July meeting that “there’s 1,000 people on this call, 1,000 people with 1,000 ideas.  And they’ll all be good ones, they’ll all be inclusive, they'll all be determined, and they'll all, above all, be about bringing a change in our society”.

It’s on!  The fight for a new workers’ party with socialist policies is under way. ■

Over one thousand trade unionists – on Zoom and via a live feed – attended the meeting held on July 21st to discuss next steps in a campaign for unions to be at the core of a new working class party to challenge Keir Starmer’s continuity Tories New Labour.

Hosted by Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP (1983-1992) and now the chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the meeting featured contributions from Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana MP.  While executive committee members from Unite, UCU, NEU, Unison, the PCS and others, focused the discussion on what needs to be done to ensure that trade unions and trade unionists can take the lead in building the new anti-austerity and anti-war party so desperately needed.

If you missed the meeting, you can watch the video at https://youtu.be/fTTmB-itr4U?si=CS3s5DEUioGeUzUg

Follow-up meetings will be organised for individual unions in the coming weeks but in the meantime an online petition, at this point supported by over 1,800 trade unionists including 43 current and former union executive committee members, can be signed at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty   

And a template to print out paper versions of the petition to use at meetings, demonstrations or for individual discussions with other trade unionists can be downloaded at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Petition-template-update.pdf

Youth walkout against Trump

Meanwhile, Socialist Students, which is one of the constituent organisations of TUSC, has made the front page of the US Time magazine – or, at least, the top of the Time website landing page for a day! 

In a feature on how people ‘across the pond’ are responding to Trump’s UK visits, the Time article highlighted a planned September 17 nationwide Youth Walkout Against Trump in schools and colleges with, as they write, hundreds “already signed up, according to Socialist Students, the organizers of the protest”.

Adam Gillman, Socialist Students’ national organiser, is reported as saying “we can send a powerful message to young people and workers in America that we stand with them against Trump – not with Starmer, who issued the invite for this state visit”.

And “Lauren, a student from the Welsh town of Wrexham” – which happens to be the home city of two TUSC-supporting councillors – is also quoted: “These walkouts are a chance to stand up to Trump, as well as our government who welcome him with open arms, and all other leaders who uphold this corrupt system”.  And building support for the idea of a new party as we do.

Socialist Students is a campaigning organisation with a presence in over 60 schools, colleges and universities.  If you want to be part of the walkout campaign, sign up at https://socialiststudents.org.uk/youth-walkout-against-trump/

Can you help TUSC and its work?

TUSC, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, fully supports the moves towards the establishment of a new working class party, including an offer to hand over its legal registration with the Electoral Commission to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana if that would speed things along (see the full statement from the TUSC all-Britain steering committee at https://www.tusc.org.uk/21778/17-07-2025/tusc-offers-full-backing-to-moves-towards-a-new-party/).

Can you help us in all this work?  Donations can be made at https://www.tusc.org.uk/donate/  And, if you are not a member of one of the constituent organisations of the coalition but want to participate in it, you can join the TUSC individual members’ section, with their own representatives on the steering committee, at https://www.tusc.org.uk/join/  The time to get involved is now. ■

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee has offered its full backing to the recent moves made towards the establishment of a new political voice for the working class to challenge the continuity Tories of Keir Starmer’s New Labour party.

At its first meeting since the dramatic announcement on July 3rd by the Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana that she was resigning from Labour to work with Jeremy Corbyn to found a new party, the TUSC steering committee agreed to help in any way it can to make a new working-class party become a reality.

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, also a former Labour MP (1983-1992) from Coventry South, said:  “From its beginning TUSC has been conceived as ‘contributing to the hard, long-term task of rebuilding political representation’ for the working class – in the words of the 2012 RMT transport workers’ union AGM resolution that saw it officially join the TUSC steering committee – not as the finished broader vehicle that is needed but rather a lever to help bring it about”. 

“Our activity has always been aimed to help develop the self-confidence of the working class that it is an alternative power to the tiny capitalist elite who rule our society.  And that it has the capacity to create and build its own democratic mass workers’ party to realise that power politically”.

“It is from that starting point that TUSC has been involved in some of the discussions that preceded Zarah Sultana’s announcement on July 3rd.  And it is on that basis too that we will enthusiastically contribute what we can to the process of getting a new party off the ground”.

“One immediate step we will be pushing forward is the campaign initiated in May by senior trade unionists – now with 41 current and former members of trade union executive committees signed up – calling for urgent discussions across the unions to establish a political voice for working people (see the online petition at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty)”.

“Another will be to offer support to councillors prepared to come over to a new party; in a situation where Labour’s continued austerity agenda for local government means that a fighting, no cuts strategy – which TUSC has pioneered since its inception – will be vital to marking out a new party and its representatives as completely different to the establishment politicians”.

Party registration offer

Dealing with the next practical steps to be addressed, the TUSC national election agent Clive Heemskerk added: “Establishing a new workers’ party able to bring together trade unions, anti-war protestors, working class community campaigners, environmental activists, young people fighting for a future, and the already existing groups of independent councillors, is a process and not something to be achieved in one act”. (continued)

The prospect of establishing a new political voice for the working class to challenge the continuity Tories of Keir Starmer’s New Labour party is now closer than ever!  On Thursday 3rd July the MP for Coventry South Zarah Sultana announced her resignation from the Labour Party and her intention to work with Jeremy Corbyn to help found a new party.

Trade unionists will be critical in building a new party and shaping it to make it not just for, but of, the working class.  It is the unions, the already existing mass organisations of the working class, who possess the resources, mass membership, and social cohesion necessary to reach millions of people across all working-class communities and burst the Reform bubble.

After the elections in May this year, which saw gains everywhere for Reform, a number of senior trade unionists started a petition calling for the unions to take the lead in building a new working class party.  To this point the petition has been signed by 41 current and former members of trade union executive committees and over 1,600 trade unionists from all levels of our movement.

Now, after Jeremy and Zarah’s announcement, it is necessary to discuss the next steps to be fought for in every union, with a national Zoom meeting organised on Monday, 21st July, at 6:30pm to begin the job.

Get involved!  Sign the petition online at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty  And register at https://tinyurl.com/Register4TUnewpartymeeting to receive a link to the meeting.

A template to print out paper versions of the petition to use at meetings, demonstrations or for individual discussions with other trade unionists can be downloaded at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Petition-template-update.pdf ■