Organising for a People's Budget: the TUSC Campaign Pack

Posted: 13 September 2021

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) All-Britain Steering Committee is asking all TUSC groups, individual members, and affiliated organisations to organise campaigns for a local People's Budget for their council area.

As society moves on from a Covid-crisis footing, a local People's Budget campaign could play an important role in bringing together trade union branches, campaign groups and community organisations to fight at a council level for what communities will need in the 'new normal' - not the cuts to public services that Tory policies will inevitably demand.

The Organising for a People's Budget Campaign Pack provides model material, letters of invitation and campaign tips to allow every local group or even just an individual TUSC member to get cracking.

It is available both as a PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/451.pdf and in Word format (at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/452.doc) to allow adaptations to be made to fit the requirements of local campaigns.

Essential reading from TUSC: The Preparing a No Cuts People's Budget briefing

Posted: 13 September 2021

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) All-Britain Steering Committee has republished the Preparing a No Cuts People's Budget briefing document we first produced in January 2016.

The new briefing document is available as a PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/450.pdf.

Now Sir Keir Starmer has revived Tony Blair's New Labour, once again working class voters face being effectively disenfranchised. But the crisis of local public services has not gone away and the need for a fighting alternative is even greater. The re-published TUSC briefing, new and updated, is a contribution to building that alternative.

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The TUSC directory of future elections

Posted: 4 June 2021

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) directory of the elections taking place in May 2022 has now been published, available as a PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/448.pdf.

This directory was an annual production, referenced once as a resource by the House of Commons Library in 2016, until the TUSC All-Britain Steering Committee decided to suspend its electoral activity under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party in late 2018.

But after the relaunch of TUSC in September last year in response to Keir Starmer's revival of Tony Blair-style New Labourism (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/17410/04-09-2020/back-at-work-tusc-to-stand-in-elections-again-against-pro-austerity-politicians) publication has been resumed.

The directory provides a breakdown of the councils with statutory elections scheduled for the year ahead, the number of councillors up for election, and the current political control in each council listed - a tool for forward planning in the battle to get a socialist, anti-austerity alternative onto the ballot paper next May.

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