Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Vote for a socialist recovery from the Covid crisis! - Fight for no cuts/needs budgets
Scottish TUSC core policies for May's council elections
The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) Steering Committee is publishing this draft of the core policies TUSC candidates will be committed to fight for in the Scottish local council elections that will take place in May 2022.
Scottish TUSC is an electoral coalition, offering the opportunity to trade unionists, community campaigners, socialists and others, to stand candidates under a common anti-austerity banner distinct from the mainstream, capitalist establishment politicians.
Having such an alternative on offer in May's contests, in which all 32 Scottish local councils will be holding elections, is even more vital in a situation where the pro-capitalist establishment parties are united in seeking to make working class people pay for the effects of the Covid crisis, through continued cuts in public services, wage “increases” that fall way behind inflation, rising prices, and increases in taxes, rents and mortgages. Council spending accounts for around 14% of the GDP of Scotland.
A minimum commitment
The Scottish TUSC core policies are the minimum basis on which someone can stand as a TUSC candidate rather than appearing on the ballot paper as 'Independent' - the only legal alternative if you are not endorsed by a registered political party - which doesn't say whether a candidate supports austerity and cuts or not.
The individual candidates and different organisations who do decide to use the TUSC name and logo will almost certainly campaign for and promote far more issues than those covered in the core policies, which their individual election material will explain.
But they will all fight to implement the core policies. Voters will know the minimum they can expect from any councillor elected under the Scottish TUSC banner.
TUSC conference on February 19th
The core policy platform below, agreed by the Scottish TUSC steering committee, is still a draft document, now out for discussion within the different component parts of TUSC before final adoption at the conference.
This will include a discussion of the platform at the Scottish TUSC local elections conference, to be held on zoom on Saturday 19th February, from 2am to 4-30pm. Zoom details are zoom.us/join Meeting ID Meeting ID: 893 5145 0986
Comments on the draft platform are welcome from the constituent organisations and local Scottish TUSC groups for circulation prior to the conference - and also from individuals and organisations not yet participating in TUSC. These can be sent to the Scottish TUSC steering committee via scottishtusc@gmail.com by Monday 14 February.
Draft core policy platform for the May 2022 local elections - Vote for a socialist recovery from the Covid crisis! - Fight for no cuts/needs budgets
The Scottish 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 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.
Scottish 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.
Scottish TUSC candidates are there linking up with those taking action against climate change; workers in any sector fighting for a pay rise; women combating street harassment; housing campaigners fighting evictions and for rent control; and anti-racism activists, to name but a few.
Scottish 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 Scottish 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.
Scottish 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 Scottish TUSC candidate. None of the establishment parties require that from their candidates but we do.
Scottish 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 Scottish TUSC candidate. But voters should know that any councillor elected under the TUSC banner will:
· Vote for councils to refuse to implement austerity. Scottish TUSC councillors will support councils which in the first instance use their reserves, prudential borrowing powers and other financial measures 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.
· 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. For pay rises that at least cover inflation and a £15 an hour minimum wage without age exemptions.
· 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. For the building of 150,000 new council homes in Scotland and rent controls to end spiralling costs.
· 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. Opposition to so called 'green' austerity and taxes on working class people such as congestion charges, new parking levies and road tolls. Invest in road maintenance
· Reverse cuts and invest in road maintenance Nationalise transport, including local bus services, under council control. Nationalise the energy companies, including the renewable energy sector, and carry out a socialist transition with guaranteed jobs for fossil fuel 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 based on income 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. Bring the care sector into public ownership under democratic working class control.
· Refuse to co-operate with commissioners sent by central government to attempt to impose cuts on local services.
· Support the democratic right to a second referendum on Scottish independence
Contact Scottish TUSC at scottishtusc@gmail.com
Website www.tusc.org.uk
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