Representatives of twelve different campaign groups and socialist organisations met in Birmingham on Saturday 3rd February in a Convention to Organise a Working Class Challenge at the General Election. 

Initiated by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) last year with an appeal to different organisations to discuss the possibility of a joint election challenge to both the Tories and Sir Keir Starmer’s rehashed Tony Blair-style ‘New Labour’ party (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Invite-to-organise-convention-October-2023.pdf), TUSC was joined as a co-host of the Convention by the Socialist Party, the registered political party System Change (formerly Resist), the Campaign for a Mass Workers Party, the TUSC Independent Socialists group, and the Socialist Students organisation, with a presence on forty campuses across Britain. 

Joining them in Birmingham – in person and on zoom given the ASLEF train drivers’ strike – were representatives from six further organisations.  These included the registered parties, the Social Justice Party and the Workers Party of Britain, the newly-formed Transform party, and the Organising Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance (OCISA) campaign group, who are promoting a single independent left candidacy for Sir Keir Starmer’s Holborn & St Pancras constituency seat. 

Representatives of twelve different campaign groups and socialist organisations are meeting this weekend (on Saturday 3rd) in a Convention to Organise a Working Class Challenge at the General Election. 

An agenda document has now been released by the Convention Arrangements Committee, which is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Convention-Agenda-document.pdf.

The Convention will start with an opening session which has been given the title, ‘Do we want a common election challenge? And is it possible?’.  Participating in this discussion will be the Convention co-hosting organisations – the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the Socialist Party, System Change (formerly Resist), the Campaign for a Mass Workers Party, the TUSC Independent Socialists, and Socialist Students – alongside the newly-formed Transform Party, the Social Justice Party, the Workers Party of Britain, and the Organising Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance (OCISA) campaign group who are promoting a single independent left candidacy for Sir Keir Starmer’s Holborn & St Pancras constituency seat.

The January meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee approved the first batch of candidates to contest the local council elections on May 2nd, kicking off the year in which a general election must be called – if, indeed, as is possible, it isn’t actually held on the same May 2nd date.

Thirty-eight candidates were agreed at the January 10th meeting, a record for TUSC at this early point in the nomination process, reflecting a growing determination that Sir Keir Starmer’s Tory-lite New Labour party should not be left unchallenged at the ballot box. 

An initial agenda has been agreed for the 3rd of February ‘Convention to Organise a Working Class Challenge at the General Election’, with seven organisations now committed to attending and others still consulting members through their appropriate structures.

The premise of the Convention has always been that a general election challenge by trade unionists, socialists and campaign groups to Sir Keir Starmer’s new New Labour party is a politically legitimate goal to organise towards.  So a debate on whether there should be candidates standing against Starmer’s Labour at all will not be part of the agenda. 

But the scale and character of the challenge, including whether a common stand is feasible or desirable and how it would be organised, are matters for discussion.  And that’s what the Convention agenda has been set to achieve.

Following the declaration in November by the Scottish government that it “will not co-operate with establishing any minimum service orders here” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67344306), Sheffield city council has become the next public authority to state that it will use “the discretion not to issue work notices” in the Tories’ new Minimum Service Levels Act, in order to defend workers’ right to strike.

This was the result of a debate initiated by the socialist councillor Sophie Wilson at the full council meeting held on December 6th. 

Sophie, a Labour Party parliamentary candidate in the 2019 general election who now sits as an independent in the 84-seat authority, had submitted a motion to commit the council not to issue ‘work notices’ in any disputes that it is involved in.  These are the notices employers are empowered to issue to individual workers by the Minimum Service Levels Act to instruct them to continue working during a strike.

Sophie’s motion also called for the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to pledge that “an incoming Labour government [would] reverse fines and other measures taken against any union under the terms” of the Act.  With a union potentially losing its protection from liability and subsequent claims for damages from non-compliance with the Act, or facing action for contempt of court, realising such a commitment would be an important blow against the anti-union law.

Outline details have been agreed for a broad Convention of campaign groups and socialist organisations considering standing candidates in the general election – to organise a common working class challenge for the contest that will take place at some point in 2024.

The Convention date has been set for Saturday 3rd February, in Birmingham at a venue to be announced.

The TUSC all-Britain steering committee had invited around thirty campaign groups and socialist organisations to co-host a gathering to discuss an election challenge (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Invite-to-organise-convention-October-2023.pdf) and had received replies from organisations representing 14 of them by the time of its meeting on November 22nd.

Five organisations so far have agreed to be Convention co-hosts – the Socialist Party, System Change (formerly Resist), the Campaign for a Mass Workers Party, Socialist Students, and the TUSC Independent Socialists section – with the Social Justice Party and Just Stop Oil still consulting, and the interim committee of the new Transform Party not in a position to make a decision before their now-completed inaugural conference on November 25th. 

A Convention Arrangements Committee (CAC) has been agreed, composed of the five organisations and the TUSC officers – which, however, is still open to those who subsequently decide that they wish to co-host the event.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has announced the core policies platform that every candidate who wants to stand for the coalition in the May 2024 council elections has to accept as their minimum commitment to voters.

The council elections that will take place on 2nd May next year will not be another routine set of polls for seats in the local town hall.  They will be the last round of local elections before the general election, that must be called no later than December 2024 – if the contest to decide who will end up in Number Ten Downing Street is not, as it could be, held on the same day.  

Whenever the general election is actually held, the councillors that we elect in May 2024 will effectively be our communities’ negotiators with the new government – for the funding we need to protect, improve and expand our vital local public services.  

But this will be against the backdrop of a funding crisis for councils – and the clear signalling from the Autumn Statement debates that all the establishment parties in parliament will continue the austerity squeeze on public spending.

That’s why every vote for a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) council candidate, and every additional volunteer prepared to stand as a TUSC candidate, will be the clearest possible counter-signal we can give in the May local elections – whoever ends up in Number Ten, we want fighting councillors in our town halls!

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) stood in the by-election for the Mayor of Hackney that was held on November 9th.

The TUSC candidate was the national trade union organiser Annoesjka Valent who, before taking up her current position, worked for nearly seven years for the council and represented Hackney workers as a local shop steward. 

Labour retained the Mayor’s position with a 49.8% vote share but its actual vote fell by 17,575 from its score in the regular election in May 2022.  By-election turnouts are generally lower, but Labour’s vote was still down – by 4,121 – from a previous Hackney mayoral by-election in 2016, when it also won a 68.9% vote share. 

The Green Party was the main beneficiary of the discontent with Keir Starmer’s Labour that this result showed, coming in second.  But local TUSC supporters were happy with Annoesjka’s very creditable 1,265 votes, a 3.4% share, in TUSC’s first showing in a mayoral election in Hackney and the first in the borough run under first-past-the-post – rather than the previous supplementary vote system of first and second preferences.

Below is a report of the campaign by Brian Debus, the Hackney and Islington TUSC convenor. ■

With Keir Starmer showing every day that a government he leads will be another version of Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ complete with its Iraq war-style echoing of US foreign policy – the latest example being the suspension of the Labour MP Andy McDonald after his speech at last week’s mass demonstration against the war on Palestine – the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has issued an urgent call for a broad convention to organise a working class challenge at the forthcoming general election.

The TUSC all-Britain steering committee meeting on 25th October agreed to invite all campaign groups and socialist organisations considering standing candidates at the general election to co-host a convention to discuss details.  TUSC has previously contacted more than twenty campaign groups and socialist organisations to discuss their thoughts about the general election.  

The aim is not for another debate on whether an election challenge is a good idea or not, but to get down to practical organisation.  The time for decisions is coming.

The letter of invitation is printed below, and is also available as a PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Invite-to-organise-convention-October-2023.pdf  ■

The Labour Party’s Manifesto at the 2019 general election, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, committed an incoming government to “immediately suspend the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen, and to Israel for arms used in violation of the human rights of Palestinian civilians”.

A Corbyn-led government, the Manifesto went on, would also strive to “secure justice and accountability for breaches of human rights”, listing, as an example, “the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip”. 

More broadly, the Manifesto said, “Labour is committed to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution – a secure Israel alongside a secure and viable state of Palestine”. 

“There can be no military solution to this conflict”, it continued, and “all sides must avoid taking action that would make peace harder to achieve.  That means both an end to the blockade, occupation and settlements, and an end to rocket and terror attacks”.  To press for a resolution, “a Labour government will immediately recognise the state of Palestine”. 

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is on the ballot paper in the by-election for the Mayor of Hackney taking place on November 9th – but immediately faced censorship of its message by the Labour-run East London council.

The TUSC candidate is national trade union organiser Annoesjka Valent who, before taking up her current position, worked for nearly seven years for the council and represented Hackney workers as a local shop steward.  Since moving on she has still been involved as a Hackney resident in local struggles against council cuts.

But when TUSC handed in our text for the official Mayoral address booklet, that goes to every household in the borough, our effort to contrast Annoesjka’s record with that of the Labour candidate, councillor Caroline Woodley, was censored by the council.

There are many examples of slashed council jobs and services made by the right-wing Labour council as it has implemented budget cuts worth over £200 million since 2009.  But one particular case was the attempt made in 2021 to close down the Fernbank and Hillside children’s centres – led by the council cabinet member responsible, Caroline Woodley. 

So, in making the point in our Mayoral address – in the original wording – that this election “will decide who negotiates for our borough with both the Tory government and a likely Keir Starmer-led Labour government” implementing austerity, we asked: “Will our borough be best represented by the Labour candidate who tried to close Fernbank and Hillside children’s centres? Or by the TUSC candidate, a member of the Socialist Party, which supported the campaign that saved them and has fought every cut?” 

What could possibly be wrong in saying that?  Unless you want to obscure the role of local Starmer-supporting Labour councillors in passing on Tory cuts and what that says about how they will act in the future?  And that’s what the amendments forced on the TUSC election address did.

As Annoesjka says: “As Mayor I would be a shop steward fighting for the residents and workers of Hackney, not a manager passing down austerity from the Tories or Starmer’s Labour”.  And, despite the obstacles, that will be the message that the TUSC campaign will deliver!  ■

You can check out Annoesjka’s election address – as finally approved by the council! – at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Hackney-mayoral-address.pdf

And go to https://www.tusc.org.uk/donate/ to make a donation to the campaign, putting in the message bar, ‘Hackney Mayor’.

‘What’s the point of another Labour councillor in Waltham Forest?’, is the message heading the election leaflet of Nancy Taaffe, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in a forthcoming by-election in the Higham Hill ward in the east London borough.

The Tories only have 13 out of the 60 councillors in Waltham Forest, with Keir Starmer’s Labour holding an overwhelming majority in the council chamber with 45.  So why vote for one more “to go along to meetings and put their hand up to cut our services and jobs”, as the TUSC leaflet says. 

Instead, it goes on, “why not vote for a socialist fighter who has campaigned to save libraries and youth services, who campaigns for council homes instead of blocks of expensive flats, and who isn’t afraid to stand alongside workers striking for a pay rise?”  That’s the TUSC candidate in the 26 October by-election, Nancy Taaffe.  (The full text of Nancy’s leaflet can be viewed at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Higham-Hill-TUSC-leaflet.pdf).

Nancy, and other TUSC supporters in Waltham Forest and elsewhere, don’t just turn up at election time but are out there, week in, week out, supporting strikers – or striking themselves! – and campaigning on every issue affecting working class communities.  But we are also prepared to challenge the establishment politicians at the ballot box too.  Why not join us? Go to https://www.tusc.org.uk/join/ or https://www.tusc.org.uk/donate-to-tusc/ to make a donation to our work.