A Guide for TUSC Candidates and Agents

Guide for Candidates & Agents 2021

Posted: 8 December 2020

TUSC has produced a summary guide for candidates and election agents looking to contest the local council elections taking place in 2021 on Thursday May 6th. This is available as a downloadable PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/432.pdf and prospective candidates and agents are encouraged to read it before submitting an application form.

The guide contains information on the official regulations governing the elections, based on publications produced by the Electoral Commission, along with some tips and pointers drawn from the previous experience of TUSC election campaigners.

It also includes information on the procedures agreed by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition national steering committee on how to become a TUSC candidate.

TUSC annual report on Labour councils - 'How Much Reserves Have They Got?'

Council reserves report 2018-19

Posted: 31 October 2018

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has published its third annual report on the level of reserves held by Labour-led councils across Britain.

Presenting a statistical profile of all the 125 Labour-led councils in England, Scotland and Wales, the report reveals "the substantial resources of the local state under the control of the Labour Party" - which, the introduction argues, would make them "a potential counter-power to the Tory government" if councillors were prepared to fight.

The TUSC report, entitled How much reserves have they got?, is available as a downloadable PDF by clicking https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/427.pdf

For more information on how councils' reserves and borrowing powers could be used to produce an arguably legally-compliant no cuts budgets see the TUSC briefing document, Preparing a No Cuts People's Budget, at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/355.pdf

Campaigning against council cuts - resources for TUSC groups

Posted: 26 November 2016

The November meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee agreed the text of a new model letter to local government union branches, following up the letter to Labour councillors agreed last month (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/17319/20-10-2016/tusc-agrees-new-appeal-to-labour-councillors-to-join-the-fightback).

The letter to council workers is available as a Word document (at http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/388.doc) so it can be adapted by local groups.

The model letter to Labour councillors is also available both as a Word document (at http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/383.doc) and as a PDF (at http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/389.pdf).

Printed supplies of the letter to Labour councillors, with some space for local details to be overprinted, can be posted out - 300 copies for £3 - to local groups. These can be used on stalls, but particularly to give out at local council 'consultation' meetings, anti-cuts protests, or Labour Party meetings.

The TUSC briefing document, Preparing a No Cuts People's Budget, is also available online at http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/355.pdf

Preparing a No Cuts People's Budget - briefing pack available from TUSC

Posted: 12 January 2016

What can councils do in the face of government cuts to funding for local public services? Actually, they could do a lot to throw back the Tories' austerity agenda - if councillors had the determination to fight.

A new briefing pack has been produced by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) drawing together notes, documents, transcripts of speeches, etc of four cases where rebel councillors showed how it would be possible for councils to fight back and not implement the Tory cuts.

Under the title, Preparing a No Cuts People's Budget, the 43-page pack is available as a downloadable PDF at http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/355.pdf

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