Monday 30 April 2012

Vote TUSC this Thursday against all cuts!

This Thursday you can vote for an anti cuts candidate across the country. A vote for TUSC is not a wasted vote. Every vote we get is a vote against cuts from all parties.

Total number of TUSC council candidates: 132
Councils in which TUSC candidates are contesting a seat: 38
In addition there is the TUSC list of 17 candidates for the Greater London Assembly, and the TUSC candidate for the mayor of Liverpool, Tony Mulhearn.
This compares well with last year’s elections. Then there were a total of 174 candidates, standing in 50 councils, who contested the local elections under the TUSC umbrella. However, in 2011 there were elections in 279 councils (all in England) with 9,396 seats to be filled. So last year TUSC fielded a candidate in 18% of the councils where there were elections and contested 2% of the seats.
This year there are elections in just 128 councils in England, with 2,407 seats to be filled. In England TUSC are standing 118 candidates (5% of the seats) in 34 of the local authorities where there are elections (27%). In Wales there are 14 TUSC candidates (out of the 1,224 seats vacant) in four of the 22 Welsh councils with elections.
In Scotland, all 32 councils are up for election, with 1,222 seats (proportionally elected in multi-member wards). There are 38 candidates standing in nine Scottish councils as the Scottish Anti-Cuts Coalition – a name registered by TUSC and made available to candidates in Scotland, in accordance with the TUSC mandate to enable trade unionists and anti-cuts campaigners to contest elections without having to appear on the ballot paper as ‘Independent’ or with no ‘party description’.
Aswell as this we have a sitting Cllr Dave Nellist who in coventry is standing under the banenr socialist alternative who needs your votes too he has a fantastic record of standing up for ordinary people and deserves your votes.

You may still think labour stand for you and won’t be as harsh like the Tories but reality has shown this is just not the case any longer.

The old phrase we got to vote labour to keep the Tories out is not washing so much now. It has been shown when labour have got control of councils they have voted for cuts just like the Tories. There is very little difference any longer

So why not vote TUSC then if labour Tories and lib dems all would be voting for cuts.

TUSC candidates would not vote for cuts under any circumstances we’d reject rises in council taxes and reject outsourcing and privatisation.

TUSC cllr’s would represent ordinary people and not put their own interests ahead of the working class they would demonstrate this by only taking the average wage of a skilled worker in their area they would not financially benefit from the position like other parties elected representatives do.

As I have blogged about previously there is no need for any cuts and the cuts are simply to make the working class pay for a crisis not of the making.
I’d urge everyone who can vote TUSC to do so but not only vote TUSC join the socialist party and join the fight back against austerity the fight for a change of society which we are starting to build.

Do not take labours word when they say they care for you and your vote matters to them it doesn’t all that matters to them is to get elected to continue pocketing a nice salary. For them it’s a career move for TUSC candidates it’s about defending ordinary people from the attacks of the Tories under capitalism.

The deeper this crisis gets under capitalism as it will do the more people will look for an alternative. TUSC will be there offering that and we will be standing more broadly year on year.

This year the RMT union backed by Bob crow is officially backing TUSC in the local elections and the mayoral election in Liverpool where our comrade Tony Mulhearn is standing and has a good chance we feel.

I think last year people wanted to give the lib dems a kicking and did that I think now we may find a difference with the cuts really starting to take affect people may be willing to take that step now to move away from labour and vote for something different. It is a hard inertia to break those traditional labour voters to see that their vote isn’t helping and is voting for cuts to changing to vote for us is a tough job but during this election I have spoken to many who are considering switching. Whether they ultimately will or not when they get into the ballot box will be the test from last year. Last year we got a fantastic response on the doorsteps and our vote was poor but this year we have had a similar response but we can’t tell if people will come out and vote for us.
It is difficult to tell what that objective shift in consciousness will be what will get those who may never have voted and don’t normally vote would come out in support of a socialist alternative. Our ideas are having an echo but whether it’ll translate into votes it is hard to tell at this stage. But it is important we do stand though and don’t just give labour the credibility of appearing anti cuts as they are not and we are doing well to point this out. Still more needs to be done to convince people of labours record and how they will vote for cuts and ultimately no different from Tories in terms of policy. Whether it’s a Tory or a labour cllr making your cuts matters little to people on the sharp end of cuts. But people will want to see an alternative increasingly so. A change is coming please be part of it on Thursday and vote TUSC where you can.

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