Plymouth TUSC plans for 2014 elections


Ryan Aldred, Plymouth Socialist Party branch secretary

On Thursday 16 January Plymouth’s Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) meeting of 2014 took place in preparation for the May elections where 19 seats are up for grabs.

TUSC has held a number of meetings in Plymouth in recent months and has been steadily gaining support and momentum.

Our latest candidate to step forward, James Waghorn, has already been dragged through the courts a number of times over an outstanding council tax bill.

This has accrued due to the Labour-led council’s implementation of the vicious Con-Dem cuts meaning a 25% reduction in council tax benefit.

Thursday was the first time James came to a TUSC meeting and he decided there and then that he would be more than willing to stand as a no-cuts candidate in the upcoming elections.

We now only need five more candidates to challenge every seat in the Plymouth area.

With Labour already cutting £30 million and putting up no resistance to the £65 million cuts to come, it will be easy to find others who are angry and desperate to build an alternative to austerity.

We have a broad spectrum of people ranging in age from 22 to 93 years, men and women, lecturers and students, retired, working, unemployed and under-employed all standing as candidates.

There was an energy of defiance exuding from Thursday’s meeting and it was clear that our diverse mix of candidates and supporters are determined to mount a serious challenge at the May elections.

So whether it is the Tories happy to push their ideological cuts agenda or Labour who will put the cuts through “with a heavy heart” we in Plymouth are taking to the wards to canvass and rally working class people to reject their consensus and call for no cuts!