The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has announced its support for George Galloway’s ‘insurgent campaign’ against the establishment politicians in next week’s Rochdale by-election.

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, a former Labour MP backbench colleague of George Galloway from 1987-1992, said:

“On February 29th there is no other choice that trade unionists, socialists, and all those that want to  protest at the slaughter in Gaza, could make in the Rochdale by-election than to vote for George Galloway, the only anti-war, pro-Palestinian, anti-austerity alternative to the establishment parties appearing on the ballot paper”.

“The recent Kingswood and Wellingborough by-elections showed the hatred that exists towards the Tories but there was not enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer’s Tory-lite New Labour Mark II party.  That would have been shown in Rochdale too, even if Labour had not withdrawn its support for its own candidate after the official nominations had closed”.

TUSC calls on Green Party not to stand against Jeremy Corbyn if he runs for MP

The left-wing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC)¹ today issued an Open Letter to the Green Party² calling on them to declare that they will not stand a candidate in the Islington North parliamentary constituency if Jeremy Corbyn decides to contest the seat independently of the Labour Party at the next general election.

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, a former Labour backbench colleague of Jeremy Corbyn from 1983-1992, said:

“It is clear that the move instigated by Sir Keir Starmer to debar Jeremy from standing again as a Labour candidate is not just about rejecting him as an individual but his radical policies too”.

“As the Open Letter from the TUSC steering committee to the Green Party co-leaders argues, in a situation where the Labour Party under Keir Starmer is not an alternative to the Tories but an alternative Tory Party, how other parties respond to a prospective independent candidacy by Jeremy Corbyn will say volumes about them too”.

On May 23rd a social media announcement was made under the heading, 'Statement on the Change of Relationship between the People's Alliance of the Left (PAL) and TUSC', effectively excluding the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) from the series of zoom meetings that have been held under the name of PAL since May 2021.

A report on this development, drafted by the TUSC representative at the PAL meetings, was presented to the TUSC All-Britain Steering Committee meeting held on June 15th, which agreed to publish it as a statement of record.

Starmer candidates will have to 'look over their left shoulder' in May 5th council elections

The left-wing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is fielding over 250 candidates in May's local council elections in a move, it hopes, that will make the candidates of Sir Keir Starmer's revived Tony Blair-style New Labour party 'at least have to look over their left shoulder' as they consider carrying out Tory-lite austerity policies in the council chamber.

Launching the TUSC local election campaign, the TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, a former Labour backbench colleague of Jeremy Corbyn from 1983-1992 and the third place finisher in the recent Birmingham Erdington by-election, said:

"Faced with the biggest drop in living standards in sixty years it's more than time for a fightback -starting in the town hall".

"Local authorities are responsible for over one fifth of all public spending. The 125 Labour-led councils alone control budgets of at least £82 billion. On top of that they have usable reserves of just under £20 billion and borrowing capacities that could boost their spending power".

How will Unite's clash with Labour effect the Birmingham Erdington by-election?

Speaking on a live Facebook broadcast yesterday evening, Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite the Union, suspended the union's funding to the Labour Party whilst the Coventry bin strike against a Labour council continues.

She said: "So let me be very very clear. Until this strike is settled the remaining financial relationship with the Labour Party is now under review. There will be no Labour politician in the Midlands who will get one single penny from my members or any practical support of any kind while this strike is going ahead".

Former MP colleague of Jeremy Corbyn to stand in Birmingham Erdington by-election

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) today announced that Dave Nellist is to contest the forthcoming Birmingham Erdington parliamentary by-election on behalf of the left-wing alliance. During his time as a Midlands Labour MP from 1983-1992, Dave was a backbench parliamentary colleague of Jeremy Corbyn.

Dave, who was the MP for Coventry South East for nine years and later, for 14 years, a Coventry city councillor for the Socialist Party from 1998 to 2012, was well-known during his time in parliament for only taking an ordinary worker's wage, giving away over half of an MP's bloated salary - currently £82,000 a year - to trade unionists and working class campaigners fighting to defend their livelihoods and communities.

After Labour's conference: join with TUSC to organise for the May 2022 elections

The first meeting after the Labour Party annual conference of the All-Britain Steering Committee of the left-wing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) took place on October 6th. The meeting agreed that Labour's Brighton gathering marked a definitive break with the promise of fundamental change that had been offered by the previous Jeremy Corbyn leadership.

In response TUSC is issuing a call for the largest possible anti-austerity and socialist intervention to be organised in the local council elections scheduled for May 2022 - as a vital next step in the fightback against what is so clearly now a return to Tony Blair's New Labour politics.

President of 'big four' Labour-affiliated trade union joins TUSC committee

Amy Murphy, the outgoing President of the fourth-biggest Labour Party-affiliated trade union, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), was today welcomed as a new member of the national steering committee of the left-wing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

Amy, who is retiring as union president in April and will sit on the TUSC committee in a personal capacity, said: "The government is continuing with its aggression towards trade unions while big businesses are reaping in the profits with one hand as they viciously attack terms and conditions and inflict pay cuts and freezes with the other. They are culling their workforces, firing and re-hiring whilst hiding behind the pandemic, and with no or very little opposition".

Corbyn suspension: TUSC fights 'resurgent Blairism' as second ex-MP joins coalition

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee today condemned the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party, and pledged to fight Keir Starmer's 'resurgent Blairism' - including at the ballot box next May.

At the same time it welcomed new members to the coalition steering committee from the national executives of five different trade unions - and the former Labour MP Chris Williamson who was himself suspended in 2019 and prevented from defending his Derby North seat as a Labour candidate in last year's general election.

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, also a former parliamentary colleague of Jeremy Corbyn when he was an MP from 1983-1992, said:

"The ruthless decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn is the clearest signal yet that under Keir Starmer's Labour the interests of Britain's capitalist establishment will be in safe hands if and when they decide to move on from Boris Johnson's inept premiership".

Transport for London funding crunch: 'It's time to stand up to the Tories'

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee today called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to stand up to the Tory government and refuse to carry out any more cuts as a new funding crisis faces the city's Transport for London (TfL) authority.

TUSC, co-founded in 2010 by the general secretary of the RMT transport workers' union the late Bob Crow, has consistently argued that local authorities have the potential power to compel the Westminster government to provide the necessary funding for decent public services. And sitting at the centre of the city's arteries there is no more powerful local authority than TfL led by the London Mayor - if only there was the political will to fight.

The TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, a Labour MP from 1983-1992 and a former backbench colleague of Jeremy Corbyn, said:

"The coronavirus pandemic has drastically reduced TfL's finances but not society's need for a reliable, accessible and safe public transport system for London. For example, TfL transports a quarter of a million children to school every day - how would the city function without that service?"

The November 2018 meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition national steering committee has agreed to suspend all TUSC electoral activity until further notice.

The TUSC name and logos can still be used in campaigning activity by local TUSC groups and the coalition's component organisations, but from now on the legally required certificates of authorisation needed for the TUSC name and emblem to appear on election ballot papers will no longer be issued by the TUSC national election agent.

This decision follows a period of discussion within TUSC around proposals submitted over the summer by the Socialist Party, one of the founding organisations of the coalition, to re-set the role of TUSC three years after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/425.pdf).

Statement on the sentencing of the Derby TUSC agent for electoral fraud

Chris Fernandez, the local election agent for eight Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates at the 2016 council elections in Derby, was yesterday sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for charges of electoral fraud.

After a two-and-a-half week trial in December Chris had been found guilty on 12 out of 14 counts of misleading voters into signing the TUSC candidates' nomination papers.

The case made by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was that a significant number of electors had signed believing that they were backing a petition against the closure of Derby's Moorways swimming pool and not a local election nomination form.

The TUSC national election agent, Clive Heemskerk, present at the sentencing, said: