Come to Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition conference
- Saturday 4 February, 11am-4.30pm, Room B34, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX
- For more details including the TUSC policy platforms see tusc.org.uk
Amanda, West Midlands Socialist Party member and trade unionist
The strike wave sweeping the UK, across education, health, civil service, postal and many more sectors has been an inspiration. In February and March, I will be proud to be taking strike action with the National Education Union, alongside teachers across the country who are calling for decent funding and pay after more than a decade of austerity. The Tories in power have made our living standards worse. However, the decision to make cuts is a political one, so it is not enough to fight on the trade union front alone – the working class needs political representation.
Many workers might be tempted to vote Labour to get rid of the Tories. However, it is clear that Keir Starmer wishes to separate the Labour Party from working-class struggle and from the anti-austerity legacy of Jeremy Corbyn. Not only has he refused to commit to meeting striking workers’ demands, he has also punished MPs who have been on picket lines. His solution to the record numbers of patients on NHS waiting lists has been to propose allowing the private sector to make even more profit from our ill health. He has also refused to recommit to abolishing tuition fees if Labour came to power, stating that all Labour’s pledges need to be fully costed and affordable.
If Starmer is unsure where the money will come from to improve the lives of the working class, perhaps he should look to the record number of billionaires in the UK! Last year, their combined wealth rose to £653 billion and is still rising. Even some of that money could fully fund education, health, transport and other public services which have been crippled by austerity and privatisation.
Neither the Tories, who thousands of us are striking against, nor Labour, will put forward the policies needed to reverse the vicious attacks on public services, pay, pensions and more.
This is why the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is campaigning to build a political voice for working-class people. TUSC is an electoral alliance of socialist organisations (including the Socialist Party), trade union and community activists. It is holding a conference at Birkbeck College in London on Saturday 4 February, to prepare for standing in upcoming local and national elections. TUSC’s no-cuts platform will form the basis of the policies to be agreed at this meeting.
In a time of heightened trade union struggle, and continued attacks to our living standards, there has never been a better time to participate in this important event and fight for a new mass party of the working class.
