24-hours to go – Help spread the TUSC message


TUSC bulletin no.6 to TUSC supporters, 6th May 2015, from TUSC chair Dave Nellist

Whether this is your first bulletin, or your sixth, thank you for your support and all you have been able to do in spreading the news that there is a genuine 100% anti-austerity electoral challenge in the local and general elections on Thursday.

TUSC is a young organisation; barely five years old. Despite being the sixth largest party in terms of nearly 800 candidates standing for local and parliamentary seats – more than the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the DUP put together – we’ve not received truly proportionate coverage from the broadcast and print media. And frankly the elections for local councillors, a crucial part of TUSC’s work, have been disgracefully ignored by the national media.

Despite that, many local campaigns have managed to get the anti-austerity message out.

But in the last 24 hours there will be little opportunity to use the broadcast or print media. But we can still make an impact in social media.

So, if you can, here’s four last-minute ways to help:

Job Number 1:

With only a couple of days to go to the local and general elections we’ve organised a new TUSC Thunderclap scheduled to go out on the morning of election day. This not only asks people to vote TUSC, but to join us in the building of a new political voice for the millions not the millionaires.

Could you sign up to this new Thunderclap using Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr (all three if you use them!).

The aim is to find over 500 people by 8am on Thursday morning to promote the #TUSC Thunderclap to potentially hundreds of thousands of people on election day. If you can help please go now to thndr.it/1bVxkSJ (Then share, email and retweet).

Job Number 2:

Do you use Twitter or Facebook – can you tweet or post our main election pledges over the next 36 hours?

  • #TUSC Pledge1: Trade union rights to fight low pay – £10NOW – scrap zero hour contracts http://www.tusc2015.com
  • #TUSC Pledge2: Mass council home building, immediate intro of new controls on rents and landlords http://www.tusc2015.com #GE2015
  • #TUSC Pledge3: Scrap student fees – grants not loans – free education as a right for all http://www.tusc2015.com #GE2015
  • #TUSC Pledge4: Democratic public ownership of #NHS, #rail, public services and utilities, and the banks! http://www.tusc2015.com #GE2015
  • #TUSC Pledge5: End cuts and austerity – plan society in the interests of the millions not the billionaires http://www.tusc2015.com #GE2015

Don’t tweet or post all at once – people don’t necessarily retweet or share when a bunch comes through altogether. Try and separate the messages by 5/10 minutes at least. And then a couple of hours later, repeat. Let’s see if we can get #TUSC trending.

Job Number 3:

Can you email friends, family and workmates and point them to our new elections website which lists almost all of our nearly 800 candidates standing for council or parliamentary seats. They might not know there’s a candidate near them. The site is at: www.tusc2015.com – and you can also find our general and local council manifestos there.

And if you missed our TV election broadcast, you can see it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcEMrCTVRdg

It got the votes of Sandy and Sandra from Channel 4’s Gogglebox!

Job Number 4:

Lastly, TUSC is run on a shoestring. We don’t yet have an office. We don’t yet have any full-time staff. But we are in this for the long term. 115 years ago people were told ‘don’t split the Liberal vote, you’ll let the Tories in’. Workers decided they needed a new party then, and we need one now.

Whatever combination of parties form the next coalition after Thursday, for us austerity continues, particularly in local council services. Many areas of the country face council elections next year. We managed to find 630 candidates for council seats this year in 117 towns and cities – including 22 former councillors with over 200 years of service between them.

In 2016 we aim to build on that, and stand even wider. But we can only do that with your help. If you could make a generous one-off donation to our election fund please go to http://tusc2015.com/donate-to-tusc/ , or if you’d like to commit to a smaller, but regular sum to help TUSC grow, go to: http://www.tusc.org.uk/recurring

Finally, if you live in an area where this year there wasn’t a TUSC candidate – how about you in 2016? Be the candidate worth voting for!

Once again, many thanks for all your help, and if you’re a candidate or an agent on Thursday – Good Luck.

Regards,

Dave Nellist, National Chair, TUSC

@davenellist