Sheffield TUSC election launch, 10.4.12, photo by Alistair Tice (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
Sheffield election launch: ‘The main parties are rubbish – put them in the bin!’
No to all cuts – vote ‘TUSC against Cuts’
The Sheffield TUSC local election launch at Sheffield town hall on Tuesday 10th April used three wheelie bins full of rubbish to represent the three main parties as rubbish.
It was a stunt to illustrate how Tory, Lib Dem and Labour are all parties committed to the austerity cuts agenda, and are making ordinary working-class people pay for the economic crisis caused by the greed of the bankers and speculators.
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates, if elected, will support trade union and community campaigns against cuts in jobs and services, as part of building a mass campaign to force more funding for councils from central government.
Radio Sheffield and the Sheffield Star newspaper covered the protest.
TUSC is standing five candidates across Sheffield in Burngreave, Graves Park, Gleadless Valley, Walkley and Hillsborough.
‘TUSC against Cuts’ candidates spoke outside the town hall, outlining their manifesto policies:
- No to all cuts in jobs and services. End privatisation
- Restore EMA and fund youth services
- Stop care home closures and privatisation.
- Oppose fire service cuts in South Yorkshire
- Defend our NHS – oppose Lansley’s Health Bill.
- Restore weekly bin collections. Support the Veolia refuse workers.
In a press release, Alan Munro, TUSC candidate for Gleadless Valley, said: “The official New Labour opposition is not the real opposition – how can they be when they themselves presided over the growing gap between rich and poor! No, the real opposition in my eyes comes from the protesters such as the Occupy movement, strikers and all those standing up to the government. We stand with them”.
Chaz Lockett, TUSC candidate in Walkley, one of three young TUSC candidates, added: “George Galloway’s byelection victory in Bradford West shows how fed up people are with the tired old policies and tired old politicians of the three mainstream parties.
“Young people will not be another lost generation and are looking for a radical anti-capitalist alternative – TUSC has young candidates that have been involved in the Jarrow March for Jobs 2011 and the student protests against tuition fee rises and to restore EMA.”
