The following article is a comment piece from the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC)
Strong rumours have emerged that Rachel Reeves intends to impose an additional £5bn in welfare cuts on top of the £3bn cuts to disability benefits proposed by Rishi Sunak and continued by Labour. Truly, Continuity Tories.
Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement that UK overseas aid will be halved to boost spending on arms from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5% is unlikely to be the final decision. NATO may soon settle on a 3% target, while senior retired UK generals advocate for a 3% to 4% target in the media, and Donald Trump has called for European countries to allocate 5%. Such targets indicate tax increases, cuts to public spending, or further borrowing of billions each year.
More austerity is coming.
We need an electoral challenge that prioritises spending on services, not war. Without such a challenge from trade unionists and socialists, Farage’s Reform UK could gain traction and risk solidifying an electoral platform for right-wing populism. Can you assist us in mounting that challenge?
May elections 2025 – the first major electoral test for the Starmer government
The TUSC have already approved candidates in 10 of the 23 council areas where elections will take place on 1 May 2025. However, we need more. We need to spread the anti-austerity and anti-war message as broadly as possible.
The final full TUSC steering committee meeting to consider applications for May takes place on Monday 24 March. Please submit applications using this form [download] to our national agent, Clive Heemskerk, at [email protected] by Friday 21 March, to ensure the necessary authorisations can be dispatched to election agents.
An independent socialist identifier is now available
According to Britain’s election laws, candidates can only use a description on the ballot paper next to their name, other than the word ‘independent’, if that description has been registered with the Electoral Commission. One in 12 of the seats being contested in May is currently held by ‘independents’—yet many are secretly Tories.
Is the Independent label clear enough to differentiate genuinely independent candidates fighting for working class people and their communities, from others using the word to hide their often right-wing views?
TUSC has now successfully registered Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate, and that descriptor is available to anyone (with or without the TUSC logo) willing to sign up to the six guarantees all candidates support. A full explanation can be found here and also here.
Other election resources from the TUSC
“Should we fund our public services properly or stand aside while the super-rich get ever richer?”, our new leaflet says:
Should those we elect represent our interests? Or put the top 1% first – the tiny minority who own more wealth than all the rest of us together in the ‘bottom 80%’?
“The establishment parties don’t give us that choice though”, it continues:
After 14 years of Tory policies, what real change is being offered by Keir Starmer’s Labour government? It has even weakened its promise to curb the ‘non-dom’ super-elite, who live here but pay less tax than us. Meanwhile, Reform, also led by millionaires, is Tories on steroids, only concerned to divide working class people so that it’s harder for us to fight back.
The leaflet, aimed at areas where candidates will use one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper in May, explains why TUSC candidates are different. “TUSC was set up by the late Bob Crow”, it says:
A legendary trade unionist, no one could doubt whose side he was on! And we’re continuing that tradition in May’s elections.
The leaflet is one-sided, allowing local candidates and campaign details to be printed on the reverse. Whilst supplies are available at no cost to candidates, donations are welcomed, including from regions where there aren’t elections this year, allowing the message to be spread as widely as possible.
We also have two by-elections approaching in Glasgow and Lincoln. There is a crowdfunder for Anne McAllister in Glasgow here, and donations to Nick Parker in Lincoln can be made on the national website.
TUSC: campaigning in earnest
In all our local campaigning activities over the next seven weeks, we will organise meetings, street stalls, and various activities while posting on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, and Facebook. Let all that work inspire others around the country.
You can donate to TUSC here.
Featured image supplied
