The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee meet on Wednesday 4th February to approve another round of parliamentary candidates. Including those agreed by the Scottish TUSC steering committee (nine so far), there are now 72 TUSC candidates in place for May's general election.

The candidates approved this week included rebel councillor Kevin Bennett (see www.tusc.org.uk/17054/29-01-2015/enough-is-enough-another-rebel-councillor-links-up-with-tusc-to-fight-austerity), who will now be standing for TUSC in the Warrington South constituency.

Also agreed as candidates were Dave Pitt, the West Midlands regional chair of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), standing in Dudley North; and RMT members Ted Woodley, contesting Birmingham Erdington, and Richard Andrzejak, standing in Chatham and Aylesford. Richard becomes the second RMT member to contest a seat in the north Kent Medway council area. He joins the local RMT branch Young Members Officer Dan Burn who is standing in the Rochester and Strood seat of UKIP MP Mark Reckless - showing in action how the trade unions can offer a working class political challenge to the right-wing party.

The packed 2015 Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition conference was opened with an address from former Labour MP Dave Nellist, who announced that TUSC would be standing 100 MPs and 1000 councillors at the general election in the biggest left of Labour campaign for 60 years.

This edition of Russia Today's Going Underground, published on youtube on 28 Jan 2015, covered the 'Rise of UK's Syriza' - a reference to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

This short edit shows presenter Afshin Rattansi's interview with Clive Heemskerk, TUSC's national election agent.

Dave Nellist, chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), outlines why you should vote TUSC on 22 May 2014.

This is a re-post from the Portsmouth TUSC youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/TUSCPortsmouth

Building the alternative to austerity starts with you! On May 22nd, every voter in Portsmouth will have the opportunity to vote against cuts.

Kevin Bennett speaks at the TUSC conference, January 24, photo by Senan

Kevin Bennett, Warrington's rebel Labour councillor, has announced he has reached the end of the road in trying to fight austerity as part of the Labour Party. His announcement was carried in the local Warrington Guardian, under the headline, 'Enough is enough' (see http://bit.ly/1K7nqYn )

Kevin was indefinitely suspended by the council Labour group in April 2013 after voting against the council's cuts budget. A 70-strong lobby of trade unionists and community campaigners took place outside the suspension meeting in support of Kevin's courageous stand.

Kevin explained at the time that "the cuts are hitting my ward badly, I'm getting calls and emails from people asking me to help them but I feel my hands are tied.

Steve Bell's Guardian cartoon on the party leaders' TV election debate row that flared up in the New Year was typically pointed. It depicted the four austerity party leaders in a line - Cameron, Farage, Clegg and Miliband - with the Greens, in a dig at Cameron's previous 'cut the green crap' comments, an unpleasant presence for them all (see gu.com/p/44q9f/tw).

See more details about the conference here

Over 40 people crammed into TUSC's North West regional conference on Saturday 22 November, to map out plans for TUSC over the next year.

Trade unionists, students, community campaigners, socialists and activists from across the region contributed to the discussions.

The former Liverpool Labour city councillor Tony Mulhearn, recently selected to fight Liverpool Riverside at the general election for TUSC, introduced the first discussion. "A madness is infecting politics", said Tony, in the vacuum created by no mass voice for working-class people, and expressed in the rise of UKIP, the return of fraudster minister Laws to political prominence, while unions like the PCS face a massive assault on their basic right to organise.

Join the one thousand and one hundred campaign! To become a TUSC candidate go to the Candidates page on our website at http://www.tusc.org.uk/candidate

The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee is meeting in early December to get down to details on plans for the 2015 Westminster elections. This follows a successful 70-strong conference in November of Scottish TUSC to discuss the way forward following the independence referendum.

Despite the huge working class vote in the referendum for Yes, which was a revolt against austerity and the political establishment, the cuts juggernaut has continued. That's why the conference voted unanimously to stand candidates in the 2015 Westminster elections on an uncompromising anti-cuts platform

In the days running up to the conference a series of shocking reports emerged about the scale of the planned cuts to public services in Scotland.