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)

The Napo For A New Party meeting on 1 September was the first of its kind since members had met to discuss how to build support for Jeremy Corbyn’s policies in the union when he was leader of the Labour Party.

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 since then quickly gathered such massive support.

Napo represents workers in probation and family courts.  The meeting had a variety of attendees, with new young members alongside current and former vice-chairs and National Executive Committee members, retired members, and both probation and family court workers.

Attendees were keen to express anger at the Labour government.  Labour has continued Tory austerity, harming all public services including probation and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass).  It has kept the repressive Tory anti-union laws that sabotaged Napo's ballot on industrial action.  We were just short of the 50% turnout threshold, but with over 90% backing strike action and 97% favouring action short of strike!

And members added that Labour has continued the horrendous Tory attacks on refugees and asylum seekers, diving headfirst into the racist rhetoric that was discussed at last year’s Napo AGM, with a panel on opposing racism.

Next steps in the union

The meeting mainly focused on practical aims.  Napo’s 2025 AGM on 16th-18th October will have a motion going to it from the Family Court Section that directly calls for discussion with other trade unions on establishing a new voice for the working class, Motion 21: ‘Enough is Enough – We Need New Political Representation’ (see below).

We agreed to build support for Motion 21 in our branches and to hold another online meeting to follow up on progress.  We also intend to hold a Napo For A New Party meeting at the AGM itself.

More Napo members have joined the group since that meeting, making it clear that the question of working-class political representation will be a feature at the AGM and in the union going forward... (continued)

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national chairperson, the former Labour MP Dave Nellist, today praised the Socialist Students organisation for their campaign to organise walkouts in schools and colleges on Wednesday September 17 in protest at the obscenity of the Trump state visit to the UK.

“TUSC is a coalition of trade unionists, independent socialists with their own individual members’ section, and different organisations; including Socialist Students, which joined TUSC after their conference voted to do so, in 2024”.

“TUSC’s usual practice is to leave it to the component parts of our coalition to advertise their own successes but Socialist Students really should be congratulated on the campaign they have organised since Trump’s visit was announced in July, culminating in the Wednesday walkouts and protests in schools and colleges from Plymouth to Carlisle and all points in between.  As people in Gaza starve to death, and thousands are shot as they queue for food, Trump was invited to Britain by Keir Starmer to feast at a luxury banquet at Windsor Castle.  That obscenity could not go unanswered and Socialist Students rose to the challenge”. 

“When I was an MP I supported the 1985 school student strikes organised against Margaret Thatcher’s notorious cheap labour Youth Training Scheme – being denounced by the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock for doing so – and the Socialist Students’ campaign continues that tradition.  Once again young people are showing what needs to be done”.

For more information check out the Socialist Students website at https://socialiststudents.org.uk/  ■

Online meeting after the walkout: discuss the next steps

Sunday 21 September 12pm

Zoom meeting ID: 859 2586 9207

The latest meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee was dominated by discussion on the next steps that could be taken to consolidate Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s call to establish “a new kind of political party”.

While it is not straightforward to move from the three-quarters-of-a-million or so ‘Your Party’ sign-ups to a democratically organised, mass vehicle for socialist, working-class political representation, the opportunities to do so are clearly there. 

Work must proceed urgently and the steering committee agreed to push on with the ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ campaign that has seen hundreds of trade unionists meet over the summer to discuss details of what to do in their own unions, following the 1,000-plus all-union meeting hosted by the TUSC chair, Dave Nellist, on July 21st (check out the meeting video at https://youtu.be/fTTmB-itr4U?si=CS3s5DEUioGeUzUg).

The 2026 elections

Another immediate task, the committee agreed, was to help to get the new party ready for the elections that will be held on May 7th, 2026.  This discussion centred around a briefing document prepared by the TUSC national election agent, Clive Heemskerk, Ideas About The Next Local Elections, available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ideas-about-the-2026-local-elections.pdf.

The main point emphasised was the enormous possibilities that are there.  The new party could win seats in the Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd and councillors in almost every one of the seventy-plus English local authorities with elections in 2026.  In some councils it could expect to hold the balance of power after the May 7th polling day.  And even, in some of the authorities that are up for election in this particular four-yearly cycle, win majorities and form administrations.

This, however, the meeting agreed, represents both an opportunity and a challenge.  A substantial presence in local government for the new party could be a powerful bridgehead, a catalyst force, for a movement against the Austerity II agenda that the Starmer government is set on, compelled by the perilous position of British capitalism to further attack public spending including local council services.  But only if the new party and its candidates are clear on what needs to be done... (continued)

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.