Around 5,000 council seats are up for election on 7 May, including every seat in London. There are elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments too.

The elections will give millions of working class and young people a way to express their anger at Starmer’s Labour. They also represent an important opportunity to get socialist ideas out there, and a chance to point in the direction for what the trade unions should be doing – forging a new party of the working class, one which can cut across the rise of Reform and the far right.

Help get socialists on screens

If a set of candidates for a party registered with the Electoral Commission exceeds a threshold of 840 candidates, it qualifies for ‘fair media coverage’. That means the chance for a socialist electoral broadcast along with participation in regional debates and discussion shows on TV and radio, and national news coverage of a manifesto launch.

Which is why the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which the Socialist Party is part of, has put the call out for candidates to help achieve that threshold. TUSC could be a banner which brings together those currently planning on standing anti-war, anti-cuts independents, various socialist groups, and Your Party activists. Candidates simply commit to the ‘six TUSC guarantees’, including opposing all cuts to council services and fighting all forms of oppression.

Without breaking through the media blackout, even the best local results risk being buried in the ‘others’ column while Reform and the Greens claim the ‘alternative’ narrative.

The first 200 candidates are ready to go… and you?

So far, just under 200 candidates have been approved by the TUSC steering committee. An appeal has been made to various other existing socialist organisations to step up to the plate too. But time is tight, the deadline for nominations paperwork to be submitted to local councils is 9 April.

If you are an anti-cuts fighter, a trade unionist, anti-war protester – and want to help get socialism onto the ballot paper and our screens in May – apply to join the TUSC stand: tusc.org.uk (The next opportunity to submit a candidate application to the TUSC steering committee is 28 March)

  • Read the report from the TUSC steering committee in full at tusc.org.uk