Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition 2023 conference
Schedule
Sat Feb 04 2023 at 11:00 am
Location
Birkbeck, University of London | London, EN
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Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) conference 2023Saturday 4th February, 11am to 4-30pm
Room B34, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX
See www.TUSC.org.uk for more info
The conference registration fee is £10 waged and £2 unwaged or low-waged, for both in-person and Zoom attendees, and there will be a capped pooled fare of £15 (which means that if your transport costs are greater than £15 you can get the difference back, although please do what you can to keep the costs down).
For zoom access email [email protected]
to register and you will be sent zoom codes the day before the event. https://www.tusc.org.uk/donate
The conference, open to all TUSC supporters to attend, will discuss plans for both the general election and the local elections taking place in May 2023.
Under the title, ‘Starmer’s heading for Number Ten: What should we do at the general election?’, the opening session of the conference will include a broad discussion on what attitude trade unionists and socialists should take to the next general election, that must be held no later than the end of 2024.
This will be followed, in the afternoon, with specific sessions on the TUSC core policy platforms - a list of minimum commitments that voters could expect from someone elected under the TUSC banner while leaving room for the candidates from the different parts of the coalition to control their own campaigns.
There will be two draft platforms to discuss - for the May 2023 local elections and, separately, the minimum core policies TUSC candidates would stand on in the next general election.
The core policies platforms
The local elections will see over 7,900 council seats contested (see the TUSC directory of the May 2023 elections at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/473.pdf). With local authorities responsible for over one fifth of all spending on public services, these elections are an important arena to fight for the socialist policies needed to meet the cost-of-living crisis. That is the theme of the draft core policy platform agreed by the TUSC all-Britain steering committee in October, previously published on the website and now available as a PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/484.pdf
The general election platform was finalised by the steering committee at our December meeting after a series of discussions, using as a ‘default’ baseline the TUSC core policies for the 2015 general election (TUSC did not contest the 2017 and 2019 general elections with Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour leader). If there was not agreement reached under the TUSC ‘consensus rule’ to any proposed changes, the default was the policy that was agreed in 2015.
The new text, however, is still a draft, open for discussion and debate, and can be read at https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/485.pdf.
Suggested amendments to either of the policy platforms for discussion at the conference should be sent to the TUSC National Agent, Clive Heemskerk, at [email protected], by no later than Friday 27th January.
Electing the Individual Members’ reps on the TUSC steering committee
The conference will also see the election of steering committee members representing the individual independent members of TUSC.
TUSC is a coalition with an all-Britain steering committee which reflects its character as an alliance. It includes official delegates from the trade unions and socialist organisations currently participating in the coalition and other leading trade unionists, with their own constituency within their union but not officially representing it on the committee, sitting in a personal capacity.
Other individual members of TUSC who are not members of a constituent organisation also have places on the committee, and these are the people elected by the individual members at the TUSC conference.
If you want to stand as an Individual Members’ representative on the TUSC steering committee please submit a maximum 250-word candidate statement to Clive Heemskerk at [email protected] - also by Friday 27th January.
The statements will be published on the TUSC website and all those attending the conference on February 4th who are not otherwise members of one of the constituent organisations will be able to meet during the conference lunchbreak to make their choice.
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Where is it happening?
Birkbeck, University of London, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays: