The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition’s All-Britain Steering Committee has produced a summary guide for candidates and election agents looking to contest the local council elections taking place in 2024 on Thursday May 2nd.  This is available as a downloadable PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TUSC-Guide-for-Candidates-Agents-2024.pdf   

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. 

As well explaining the official election rules, the guide also includes information on the procedures agreed by the steering committee on how to become a TUSC candidate. 

There will be just over 2,000 councillors elected in May 2024 – see the TUSC elections directory for where the elections are (at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2024-Elections-Directory.pdf).

These will be the last council elections before the general election – if both elections are not, in fact, held on the same day.  With no deposits needed to stand in a local election, the question is: why couldn’t YOU be on the ballot paper to help build an alternative to the establishment parties?  The guide shows how it can be done.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) directory of the elections taking place in May 2024 has now been published, available as a PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2024-Elections-Directory.pdf. 

The directory, an annual production referenced once as a resource by the House of Commons Library, 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.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee has published a first edition of a campaign pack, Organising for the General Election,available both as a PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/General-Election-Campaign-Pack-July-2023.pdf, and in Word format at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/General-Election-Campaign-Pack-July-2023.docx.

This first edition, published in summer 2023, includes guidance on establishing a local TUSC general election planning steering committee, a model letter to local trade union branches to join a delegation to lobby the local Labour prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) – and a model letter to PPCs asking for them to receive a delegation – and guidance on the 2024 local elections and the general election.

Updates to the contents and further additions will be made during the year, with inserts already planned on organising debates on Labour’s policy forum outcome, election fund-raising, People’s Budget campaigning in a pre-election year, Labour and the Minimum Service Levels Act, social media campaigning, and suggestions on how to approach the Greens.  So keep checking the website.

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/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/450.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.

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/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/451.pdf and in Word format (at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/452.doc) to allow adaptations to be made to fit the requirements of local campaigns.