TUSC candidates in the May elections

Below is the list of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates standing in the various elections taking place on May 5th.

There are 276 candidates, comprising of 231 local council candidates contesting seats in 55 local authorities in England (plus three mayoral candidacies), 16 candidates contesting seats in nine authorities in Scotland, and 26 candidates contesting seats in five authorities in Wales. The council candidate list for England is broken down into regions.

TUSC’s core policy platform for the May 5th 2022 local elections

Vote for a socialist recovery from the Covid crisis!

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has a policy platform for the May 2022 local elections which every candidate using the TUSC name on the ballot paper is committed to fight for in the council chamber if they are elected. These ten core policies are listed below. But this policy platform is a minimum, not a limit to the issues that TUSC candidates will be campaigning for in their communities.

TUSC is an inclusive umbrella alliance, enabling fighting trade unionists, working class community campaigners, social movement activists, and socialists in different parties or none, to stand together in elections under a common name and logo on the ballot paper, while preserving their own identities and ability to highlight any particular policies and issues that they may wish to campaign on.

TUSC candidates are there linking up with those taking action against climate change; workers in any sector fighting for a pay rise like the NHS workers campaigning for 15%; women combating street harassment; housing campaigners fighting evictions; and anti-racism activists, to name but a few.

TUSC councillors would be at the heart of any struggle that is a step towards a society in which people can enjoy life to its fullest without the fear of unemployment, homelessness, poverty and discrimination.

But there has to be a defined ‘bottom line’ before somebody can use the TUSC name and logo on the ballot paper and the core policies are that – an absolutely unequivocal commitment to resist the austerity measures that we know are coming from the pro-big business establishment politicians seeking to pass the costs of the Covid crisis onto the working class.

TUSC stands for a socialist recovery from the Covid crisis. So somebody who will not pledge that if they are elected they will go into the council chamber and vote against cuts, closures, privatisation and other austerity politics cannot be a TUSC candidate. None of the establishment parties require that from their candidates but we do.

TUSC is an inclusive umbrella, not an exclusive one, available to be used by every working class fighter prepared to stand up to the capitalist establishment politicians at the ballot box. Every trade unionist, anti-cuts campaigner, community activist and all those who want to see an alternative to austerity politicians can become a TUSC candidate. But voters should know that any councillor elected under the TUSC banner will:

• Oppose all cuts and closures to council services, jobs, pay and conditions. We reject the claim that ‘some cuts’ are necessary to our services or that the Covid crisis is a reason for attacks on working class people’s living standards.
• Support all workers’ struggles against government policies making ordinary people pay for the crisis – no to fire and rehire.
• Fight for united working class struggle against racism, sexism and all forms of oppression.
• Use councils’ powers to begin a mass building programme of eco-friendly affordable council homes to tackle the housing crisis.
• Fight for local Climate Emergency plans based on genuine democratic debate that create new employment, reduce emissions and improve air quality and the local environment, whilst protecting the jobs, pay and conditions of all workers.
• Reject council tax, rent and service charge increases for working class people to make up for cuts in central funding, support a redistributive revenue raising system to finance local council services, and demand central government restores the cuts in funding it has imposed.
• Vote against the privatisation of council jobs and services, or the transfer of existing council services to social enterprises or ‘arms-length’ management organisations which are the first steps to their privatisation.
• Use all the legal powers available to councils to oppose both the cuts and government policies which centrally impose the transfer of public services to private bodies. This includes using whatever powers councils retain to refer local NHS decisions, and to initiate referenda and organise public commissions and consultations in campaigns to defend public services.
• Refuse to co-operate with commissioners sent by central government to attempt to impose cuts on local services.
• Vote for councils to refuse to implement austerity. TUSC councillors will support councils which in the first instance use their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid making cuts. But we argue that the best way to mobilise the mass campaign that is necessary to defend and improve council services is to set a budget that meets the needs of the local community and demand that government funding makes up the shortfall.

Search your region region for your local candidate

Councils in England

Eastern

East Midlands

London

Northern

North West

Southern

South West

West Midlands

Yorkshire

Councils in Scotland

As explained in the How TUSC Functions rules (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/449.pdf ), TUSC supporters in Scotland organise autonomously, with their own Scottish TUSC Steering Committee that approves candidates in Scotland.

Councils in Wales

Find out more… LINK