An alternative to endless cuts - Nick Wrack

 An alternative to endless cuts - Nick Wrack.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is standing candidates across England, Wales and Scotland on May 3.

We are facing an international crisis of capitalism and all three main parties aim to make the working class pay for it.

Unless there is a completely new direction in British politics we will see people working until they drop, while decent education and healthcare become the preserve of the well-off.

Jobs and services are being trashed and everything we hold dear is in danger of being destroyed.

The working class has been left without effective political representation.

The working class needs elected representatives who aren't afraid to take on the rich, big business and the bankers.

Who aren't ashamed to support workers when they have to take strike action to defend jobs, pensions and pay.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition's election campaign is supported by three general secretaries and thousands of rank-and-file trade unionists and socialists who want an alternative to the three-party consensus of austerity, cuts, privatisation and war.

The Labour leadership has endorsed the austerity measures of the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, saying they will not reverse the cuts and backing the public-sector pay freeze.

In other words, Labour will continue with essentially the same austerity policies, which means that millions of ordinary people will suffer while the millionaires carry on as before.

Labour supports privatisation, PFI and the anti-union laws introduced by Thatcher.

And when millions of workers were forced to take strike action to defend their pensions, Miliband, Balls and other Labour leaders queued up to condemn them.

The remarkable victory of George Galloway in Bradford West showed that Labour cannot take its working-class voters for granted. Labour is paying the price for supporting Tory policies and war.

There are now millions of working-class voters who are fed up with Labour.

Trade union members are increasingly questioning why they pay money to a party that doesn't support them in return. The tanker drivers are only the most recent example.

While most trade union members continue to vote Labour, it isn't with any enthusiasm. It's because there is no viable alternative.

That alternative has to be built.

Tusc is based on a very simple proposition - ordinary people should not be made to pay for the economic crisis they did not cause.

Tusc candidates are committed to opposing all cuts to council jobs, services, pay and conditions. We reject the claim that some cuts are necessary.

Tusc rejects increases in council tax, rent and service charges to compensate for government cuts.

Tusc councillors will vote against the privatisation of council jobs and services, or the transfer of council services to "social enterprises" or "arms' length" management organisations.

In other words, Tusc will act to protect the people it represents.

Success will not come easily to a new, small party. But a beginning has to be made.

In London, voters will have a chance to cast just one of their three votes for a party that is different from all the rest - one that rejects the austerity agenda that the rest all support.

Who knows? Despite its lack of profile and resources Tusc may just cause another upset on May 3.

The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition demands:

- Jobs with a living wage for all

- Fully funded public services

- No Cuts

- No to privatisation

- Cheap, efficient and safe public transport

- Equality for all

- No to racism

- Affordable homes for all

- Free Education

- People before Profit

Tusc - who's standing?

- Tusc is standing 133 candidates in 39 councils in England and Wales as well as 17 on the London list.

There are also 38 candidates standing in nine Scottish councils as the Scottish Anti-Cuts Coalition, a name registered by Tusc.

The coalition is mounting strong regional challenges across the country - with 18 council candidates in Coventry, where Tusc chairman Dave Nellist is standing for re-election, 13 in Southampton, 10 in Portsmouth and Liverpool, and eight in Rugby.

Michael Lavalette is standing again in Preston. Former Liverpool Labour councillor Tony Mulhearne is standing as the Tusc candidate for mayor of Liverpool.

Transport union RMT's national executive has given the go-ahead to allow any RMT branch that wants to to back Tusc candidates.

Former RMT president Mick Tosh is a Tusc candidate in Portsmouth and current national executive member Daren Ireland is a candidate in Liverpool.

Other candidates include Steve Roberts, Chair of Warwickshie Fire Brigades Union, who is a candidate in Rugby.

- Tusc is standing candidates for the London Assembly. If it wins 5 per cent of the vote on the London-wide list (the orange ballot paper), Tusc will win a seat.

It is not standing a candidate for mayor or in any constituency seat.

The Tusc election challenge in London has the official backing of the RMT national executive and the London region of firefighters' union FBU.

It is backed by three trade union general secretaries - the FBU's Matt Wrack, the RMT's Bob Crow and Steve Gillan of the Prison Officers' Association.

Supporters of Tusc include Michael Mansfield QC, the Stephen Lawrence family solicitor Imran Khan, film director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty, children's author Michael Rosen and ex-soldier Joe Glenton.

The London list is headed by RMT president Alex Gordon and includes national executive members from the NUT, FBU, UCU and Unison. The list also includes rank-and-file activists and blacklisting victims like construction worker Mick Dooley and Tube worker Steve Hedley.

Tusc is also supported by the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party and the Independent Socialist Network.

Nick Wrack is on the Tusc national committee and is a candidate for the London Assembly.

This article first appeared in the Morning Star on 19th April:

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Link: TUSC Independent Socialist Network

Link: TUSC