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

If you liked our broadcast, join us here: http://tusc2015.com/get-in-contact/

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.

Watch out for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition broadcast on Friday April 17th..... BBC2: 5.55pm... ITV: 6.25pm... BBC1: 6.55pm... Channel4: 7.55pm

The Con-Dem government has inflicted five years of savage austerity on working class people. Unfortunately there is no prospect of this changing beyond the general election, as the leadership of the Labour Party has made it clear that a Labour government would not mean an end to austerity.

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates explain why they are standing in the local and parliamentary general election 2015