The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is meeting on 23rd January under the heading, 'Preparing the 100% anti-austerity and socialist challenge for the Scottish elections'.

Keynote speakers at the opening session include Sean Hoyle, the newly-elected national president of the RMT transport workers' union, and PCS civil servants union vice president Cheryl Gedling (personal capacity).

Scottish TUSC conference - Saturday 23rd January

At the Renfield-St Stephens Centre, Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JP

Registration opens at 12.30pm

What can councils do in the face of government cuts to funding for local public services? Actually, they could do a lot to throw back the Tories' austerity agenda - if councillors had the determination to fight.

A new briefing pack has been produced by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) drawing together notes, documents, transcripts of speeches, etc of four cases where rebel councillors showed how it would be possible for councils to fight back and not implement the Tory cuts.

Under the title, Preparing a No Cuts People's Budget, the 43-page pack is available as a downloadable PDF at http://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/355.pdf

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in Tower Hamlets is hosting a joint meeting with the Tower Hamlets Independent Group, the main opposition group on Tower Hamlets council, to draw up plans for an anti-cuts People's Budget for the East London borough.

The meeting is at 7pm on Thursday 14 January at the Alpha Grove Community Centre, Alpha Grove, E14 8LH (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/17155/17-12-2015/tower-hamlets-peoples-budget-meeting).

A PDF of the joint leaflet produced by TUSC and the Tower Hamlets Independent Group can be downloaded at http://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/352.pdf

The Southampton People's Budget takes place on Saturday 9 January, 2pm

The Meon Suite, James Matthews Building, Guildhall Square, Southampton, SO14 7NN

All welcome, Full Access

Speakers include:

Sean Hoyle, RMT National President

Published below is an appeal from Dr Yannis Gourtsoyannis, member of British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee National Executive:

"Junior Doctors across England will be commencing industrial action on Tuesday 12 January. We are opposing this government's attempt to impose an unsafe new contract on the medical profession.

"It is our view that the proposed contract represents an existential danger to the NHS as an institution.

Southampton Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) have launched a consultation for a People's Budget for the city, in contrast to the new round of cuts being proposed by the Labour-led council.

A questionnaire has been produced (click http://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/351.pdf) for community groups, local trade unions and Southampton residents generally to say what they would like the council to do to improve life in the city.

Respondents are also asked whether they would support Southampton Labour council refusing to carry out further cuts; whether they think the council should use its reserves and borrowing powers to protect jobs and services; and whether they would actively support a campaign to restore government funding to Southampton.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national chairperson, Dave Nellist, a former Labour backbench colleague of Jeremy Corbyn in the 1980s, was interviewed on Radio Four's The World Tonight programme about the repercussions of the vote by 66 Labour MPs to support airstrikes in Syria.

Dave responded to the charge that pro-war MPs have been 'bullied' for their position by opposing all personal abuse but making the clear case for the right to deselect Labour MPs, and the need for other far-reaching changes in the Labour Party, for it to carry out Jeremy Corbyn's anti-war and anti-austerity policies.

The interview, broadcast on December 3rd, can be heard by clicking below.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) Fleetwood Town councillor Simon Roberts has been leading the opposition to plans by the Labour-led Lancashire County Council to make further devastating cuts to local public services.

A local paper picked up Simon's support for a protest at the county council's next full meeting on December 17, reporting that the £65 million cuts include "the removal of bus subsidies, funding for the Knott End ferry and Fleetwood Museum, among many others".

In total, it went on, "the latest cuts will cost the equivalent of 367 full-time jobs and include closing 40 libraries, withdrawing funding from five museums, axing of £7.5m bus service subsidies, £2.8m reductions in the highways budget and a major shake-up in the way the council delivers its remaining services and the closure and sale of many council buildings".

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has responded to the Comprehensive Public Spending Review by calling on Labour-controlled councils to come together and resist George Osborne's latest cuts to vital local public services.

Dave Nellist, a former Labour backbench colleague of Jeremy Corbyn who is now the chair of TUSC, said:

"If Osborne can be forced into a U-turn on his tax credit cuts by the House of Lords he can be made to retreat on his new draconian cuts to local council funding. But it will need a determined fight by Labour councillors".

After the recent decision of the Scottish government to restore the right to strike to Scottish Prison Officers, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has received an appeal from the Prison Officers Association (POA) national executive committee member Michael Rolfe to step up the campaign for the same right to be returned to prison staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

TUSC's core policies, the platform on which we fielded candidates at the May general election, included explicit support for action to "reinstate full trade union rights to prison officers" including, of course, the right to strike (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/policy ).

Michael writes: "Please could you post the following to your page so that people can sign the petition?

Leicester is facing severe cuts to its fire services - with the city's Labour councillors accepting the cuts without a fight. The directly-elected Labour Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, sits alongside a Tory as vice-chair of the local fire authority which is pushing these cuts through.

A sham 'consultation' exercise is currently being carried out to axe fire services by £1.5 million a year. In concrete terms, this represents a one-third reduction in firefighters and the closure of two local fire stations: Leicester Central, the busiest fire station in the city, and Kibworth, which serves a more rural and isolated population.

Response times would be at least doubled and with the fire service unable to provide an effective emergency response in the case of a large fire, lives will ultimately be lost if these cuts go through.

Southampton council meets on 18 November in the next round of council budget consultations. Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) supporters will be lobbying the council to defend jobs and services and back Jeremy Corbyn's call to stop cuts.

Services currently under threat include six libraries in the city. Just £250,000 would keep them open and protect librarians' jobs. NHS walk-in services in Bitterne have recently closed, despite a five-year long TUSC campaign. Just £120,000 would fund the nursing staff to re-open services there.

While these essential services suffer, Southampton council has found £2 million to complete its corporate arts centre project, now home to a new Nandos restaurant.