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.

Supporting Tony Mulhearn for Mayor in Liverpool a genuine working class fighter

This may as well as regional local elections and London assembly elections Liverpool and other cities will be electing their first ever mayors of their cities. Whilst as socialists we are not in favour of a mayor system in a Bonapartist regime.

But as Liverpool never held a referendum on whether to have one or not and over ruled the people of Liverpool as the Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition we felt it would be right to stand and not give Joe Anderson the current leader of Labour run Liverpool city council, a free rerun on the position. To not challenge him on the cuts affecting the city of Liverpool would have been a tragedy.
Whilst Geoerge Galloway has been getting alot of attention recently due to his election win another class fighter with a proud record is looking to create a similar ripple in Liverpool this may.

Tony Mulhearn has entered the race to be Liverpool's first elected mayor. The veteran socialist and trade unionist, former District Labor Party president and one of the leaders of the socialist council in 1983-87, has announced he is seeking nomination to stand.
Tony said:
I intend to provide the real anti-cuts alternative to council leader Joe Anderson's vision of savage cuts today and pie-in-the-sky promises for the distant future.
Tony is standing on a clear anti-cuts platform, as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
TUSC is backed by union leaders such as Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and Chris Baugh, assistant general secretary of the PCS. It is also backed by the Socialist Party of which Tony is a member.
Tony explained:
There is no need for these cuts. There is a £120 billion tax gap of evaded, avoided and uncollected tax.
The UK holds £850 billion in banking assets. There is some £170 billion lying in the banks uninvited.
The bankers continue to gorge themselves with obscene bonuses. Then there is the latest smash-and-grab raid orchestrated by George Osborne against our pensioners to fund tax cuts for his millionaire friends.
The money is there and none of these cuts need to be made. Liverpool's public services face obliteration unless and until we stand up to this government and demand they return the £120 million they have stolen from our city's funding so far.
The elected mayor will hold greater powers than currently held by the council leader.
Tony added:
If elected I would use all the powers at my disposal to fight for everyone suffering under this relentless assault masterminded by the Con-Dem government and unfortunately carried out by my Labour and Lib Dem opponents and their associates in the council chamber.
• I will seek to take back in-house the vital council services that have been handed out to the privateers.
• I will propose the immediate lifting of threats to services for our children and young people and some of the most vulnerable people in our city, contained in the latest council budget.
• I will propose the reversal of all the cuts made.
• I will seek to use any new funds coming into the city to support our young people at college who are suffering the loss of their Education Maintenance Allowance, and to create real jobs.
• I will demand that Liverpool's councilors abandon their policy of implementing the cuts demanded by the Con-Dem millionaires' government which represents the bankers, hedge fund managers and others who leach on society.
• I will call for a broad city-wide campaign to defend our libraries, our hospitals, nurses etc. The NHS is now at grave risk from a government determined to open it up to private health companies whose first priority will be to maximize profits for shareholders.
Tony is not standing alone. Candidates from TUSC are seeking nomination for council.
Tony said:
I am proud to urge support for trade unionists, young people and socialists who intend standing for the council as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
All the parties in the council chamber have shamefully voted to carry out eye-watering cuts decided in Whitehall and Westminster by the bankers' best friends.
I and my colleagues in the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition say the bankers brought on this crisis, let them pay for it!

Just like in the 80’s Tony has declared like all other TUSC candidates if elected he will only take the wage of a average skilled worker. Not profiting from a elected position he will look to be a voice of workers on the inside giving ordinary people a voice and exposing the corrupt system of capitalism .

Finally, Tony issued a challenge to his former Labour colleague Joe Anderson and the other candidates:
Let us debate the issues in front of the public, in April, in a city centre venue open to all and free of charge.
To all those who can get involved in Toni’s election campaign, you are invited to a campaign meeting to be held in the Liverpool pub (upstairs), James Street, Liverpool on Wednesday, 4 April 2012 at 7.15pm
Tony Mulhearn can be contacted for comment on 07939 098 455, or via his campaign team Alec 07411 362 448 and Dave 07969 511 796
TUSC website: www.tusc.org.uk