The June meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee included a detailed discussion, the first in a series, on how to develop the coalition following the TUSC campaign in May's elections.

Also on the agenda was a plan for a TUSC National Election Fund appeal - with the aim being to meet the costs of election deposits for candidates in the 2016 contests for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Greater London Authority and the three council Mayoral elections taking place next year, in Liverpool, Salford and Bristol.

The meeting confirmed the date of the TUSC conference to discuss the 2016 elections as September 26th, to be held at London's Student Central venue, Malet Street, WC1E (11am to 4-30pm).

Kevin Bennett

Around 50 activists from across the region attended a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) North West conference on 27 June, to assess the post-election situation and make plans to build TUSC going forward. Meeting on the same day for their conference, Scottish TUSC sent us a message of solidarity which was well received.

Kevin Bennett

TUSC councillor Kevin Bennett from Warrington introduced the discussion, with the memorable line that "it's like the Tories decided to usurp the tale of Robin Hood, except this time the Sheriff of Nottingham is the hero! And it seems Andy Burnham agrees!" The main theme to emerge from discussion was that TUSC has achieved significant momentum from our landmark election challenge this year, and must keep this up against a backdrop of international crisis, developments in Greece, and the Tories' war on the poor and organised workers while Labour remains in turmoil.

Daren Ireland, the regional organiser of the RMT transport workers' union, one of the constituent organisations of TUSC, outlined the essential organisational steps to take - building finance through standing orders with only ten months until next year's local elections; pushing TUSC in the trade union movement and winning the unions to a position of support for a new mass working-class party; building and strengthening local groups operating on an open and federal basis welcoming all individuals and groups; and standing at least 500 candidates in May 2016 when around 2,200 councillors face election across England.

No to austerity! An election broadcast on behalf of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

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The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee held its first post-election meeting this week. Against the backdrop of a Tory-majority government committed to accelerated austerity, albeit one with the lowest ever share of support amongst the total electorate (24.4%), the need the build on the TUSC campaign to develop a socialist electoral alternative was recognised by all.

The meeting agreed a vote of thanks to all the 748 candidates - and their agents and campaign teams - who contested the elections on May 7th under the TUSC umbrella, polling a combined total of 118,125 votes.

A detailed report of the TUSC results was accepted and is now available, in PDF format, at www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/338.pdf

As predicted yesterday, over 100,000 votes were cast for TUSC candidates in Thursday's elections (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/17091/08-05-2015/results-still-coming-in-but-tusc-set-to-poll-100000-votes-for-bold-no-cuts-message ). We're currently at 108,416 votes but, with more local council election results to be collected in, we are still not able to give a final tally.

One thing is clear however - TUSC is making a mark in councils across the country, which will be vital in the anti-austerity struggles to come.

Leading the way is Leicester with 4,440 votes cast for TUSC council candidates, just ahead of Coventry on 4,389. While the Leicester rebel councillors Wayne Naylor and Barbara Potter were sadly unable to hold their seats in a contest overshadowed by the general election, the anti-cuts challenge has laid firm roots across the city. Barbara polled 3,028 votes in her stand for the directly-elected city mayor.

With many councils not starting their local elections count until Friday morning, collecting in all the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) results has been a painfully slow task. But, while the figures are far from complete, we can confidently say that over 100,000 votes were cast for TUSC candidates in Thursday's elections.

The best TUSC parliamentary votes were recorded by Dave Nellist in Coventry North West, polling 1,769 votes, and Jenny Sutton in Tottenham, with 1,324 votes. There were also good scores recorded in Bethnal Green & Bow (949 votes), Liverpool Riverside (582), Barnsley Central (573), Walsall North (545), Leigh (542), Leicester East (540), Salford & Eccles (517), and the other Coventry seats, Coventry South (650) and North East (633).

But actually the parliamentary votes are just a small reflection of the support - including electoral support - for TUSC's socialist, anti-austerity message.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is standing in 135 parliamentary constituencies today and 619 candidates in the English local council elections. Gathering in the results will be a big job. How and when we plan to report them on this website is explained below. But there are also other things to look out for on election night, as the 2010 election showed.

TUSC was formed just twelve weeks before the 2010 general election, with the aim of providing a common banner for trade unionists, socialists and working class community activists to contest elections. One of the early pioneer candidates was Bill Rawcliffe, who was the RMT senior steward at the Jarvis Rail services company. Bill only decided to stand, after a mass meeting of rail engineering workers, when Jarvis went into administration on March 25th and made 1,200 workers redundant while the Labour government stood by.

The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition held its election manifesto launch on Friday - and got some decent coverage too.

BBC Scotland TV cameras filmed candidates campaigning in Glasgow (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1axZ5-ZWAU ), highlighting TUSC's £10 an hour minimum wage policy but also our stand for the public ownership of the banks, utility companies and major industries such as oil.

The need for public ownership of the major sections of the economy was also the theme of a more extensive interview with Scottish TUSC spokesperson Philip Stott on BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive programme (listen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW1tpbbzlS0 ) where TUSC's position in the election as the '100% anti-austerity, 100% socialist' alternative got through.

David Wallis

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has received the following message from David Wallis, Bob Crow's cousin and also a member of the RMT's London Taxi branch:

"I would just like to wish all the TUSC candidates good luck in your campaigns over the next two weeks.

"I have had lots of conversations in my London taxi discussing TUSC and it's been very reassuring that people have listened and taken away what we stand for. I hope that I have been able to turn some heads.

Chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, Dave Nellist, speaking on the BBC's World at One radio programme on the 21 April 2015.

Nominations for the 2015 elections closed on April 9th with the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) having in place 135 parliamentary candidates and 619 candidates contesting seats in the local council elections also taking place on May 7th.

Full contact details of our parliamentary candidates and their local campaigns can be found on our new election website at tusc2015.com/tuscs-general-election-challenge while there is a complete candidates' listing at www.tusc.org.uk/candidate

So it's official. TUSC will have the sixth biggest presence on the ballot papers issued in less than four weeks' time - but you wouldn't know that from any of the establishment media outlets.