Two Labour councillors on Spelthorne borough council, Veena Siva (representing Staines ward) and Jenny Vinson (Staines South), have announced their resignation from the Labour Party and opened discussions with TUSC.

They have been joined by the chair of Spelthorne Labour Party, Sue Bryer, who has also resigned from Keir Starmer's new New Labour party. In a press release the three explained their decision:

"After a great deal of agonising and soul-searching, we have been left with no option but to resign from the Labour Party".

Following the publication at the end of last year of the TUSC draft core policy platform for the May 2021 local elections (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/17426/22-11-2020/tusc-sets-out-core-policies-for-may-2021-local-elections) a number of individuals and organisations have taken up the opportunity to comment.

One question that has come up can be summarised in the blunt heading the correspondent gave to her e-mail: "you have ignored pensioners in your draft council election policies".

Obviously that does not refer to the core policies that every TUSC candidate must commit to of opposing all cuts and closures to council services or their privatisation. But specifically measures to right the injustice suffered by women in particular from the raising of the state pension age by both New Labour and Tory governments.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee has agreed the agenda and timetable for a local elections conference to be held on Zoom on Sunday February 7th.

The conference has been convened under the heading, 'Fighting back against Starmer's new New Labour - including at the ballot box!', starting at 11am to conclude by 1-30pm.

Platform speakers from the constituent components of the TUSC steering committee, the RMT transport workers' union, the Socialist Party, the Resistance Movement and the Individual Members' representatives, will introduce the single plenary session.

As the Tories discuss their public spending cuts plans to make working class people pay for the Covid crisis the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee has set out the core policies TUSC candidates will be committed to fight for in next May's local council elections.

TUSC is an electoral coalition, offering the opportunity to trade unionists, community campaigners, socialists and others to stand candidates under a common anti-austerity banner distinct from the mainstream, establishment politicians.

The core policies are the minimum basis on which someone can stand as a TUSC candidate rather than 'Independent' - the only legal alternative if you are not endorsed by a registered political party - which doesn't say whether a candidate supports austerity and cuts or not.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee today condemned the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party, and pledged to fight Keir Starmer's 'resurgent Blairism' - including at the ballot box next May.

At the same time it welcomed new members to the coalition steering committee from the national executives of five different trade unions - and the former Labour MP Chris Williamson, who was himself suspended in 2019, and prevented from defending his Derby North seat as a Labour candidate in last year's general election.

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, also a former parliamentary colleague of Jeremy Corbyn when he was an MP from 1983-1992, said:

The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee has organised a conference on November 7 to prepare a socialist challenge for the Scottish parliament election in May 2021.

We are inviting trade unionists and trade union organisations, socialists and socialist organisations who are interested in helping to build that election challenge to take part.

If you would like to participate and/or your organisation would, please let us know.

Organising locally. Photo Bob Severn

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee, meeting on October 7th, has issued an appeal to those considering standing under the TUSC banner in next May's elections to start organising locally now as best they can within the Covid restrictions.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee today called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to stand up to the Tory government and refuse to carry out any more cuts as a new funding crisis faces the city's Transport for London (TfL) authority.

TUSC, co-founded in 2010 by the general secretary of the RMT transport workers' union the late Bob Crow, has consistently argued that local authorities have the potential power to compel the Westminster government to provide the necessary funding for decent public services. And sitting at the centre of the city's arteries there is no more powerful local authority than TfL led by the London Mayor - if only there was the political will to fight.

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, a Labour MP from 1983-1992 and a former backbench colleague of Jeremy Corbyn, said:

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee, meeting on September 2nd, has agreed to resume standing candidates in elections, starting in the contests scheduled for next May.

TUSC was established in 2010 to enable trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists from different parties and none, to stand against pro-austerity establishment politicians under a common banner and an agreed platform of core policies. Within that framework hundreds of TUSC-authorised candidates had stood in elections, polling over 375,000 votes between them - until 2018.

TUSC had already re-calibrated its electoral activity after the unexpected but warmly welcomed victory of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2015.

The November 2018 meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition national steering committee has agreed to suspend all TUSC electoral activity until further notice.

The TUSC name and logos can still be used in campaigning activity by local TUSC groups and the coalition's component organisations, but from now on the legally required certificates of authorisation needed for the TUSC name and emblem to appear on election ballot papers will no longer be issued by the TUSC national election agent.

This decision follows a period of discussion within TUSC around proposals submitted over the summer by the Socialist Party, one of the founding organisations of the coalition, to re-set the role of TUSC three years after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/425.pdf).

Fighting council cuts

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has published its third annual report on the level of reserves held by Labour-led councils across Britain. This is a series started following the September 2015 election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader on an anti-austerity platform.

Presenting a statistical profile of all the 125 Labour-led councils in England, Scotland and Wales, the report reveals "the substantial resources of the local state under the control of the Labour Party" - which, the introduction argues, would make them "a potential counter-power to the Tory government" if councillors were prepared to fight.

The TUSC report, entitled How much reserves have they got?, is available as a downloadable PDF by clicking http://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/427.pdf

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) directory of the elections taking place in May 2019 has now been published.

This directory, an annual production of TUSC which has previously been referenced by the House of Commons Library, provides a breakdown of the councils with statutory elections scheduled for the year ahead, the number of councillors up for election, and the current political control in each council listed.

It also includes a list of Labour councillors who signed the Open Letter in support of Owen Smith's leadership coup attempt against Jeremy Corbyn in 2016 who are councillors in local authorities with elections next May.

The directory is available as a PDF, by clicking http://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/426.pdf