Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in the May 2022 elections. Dave Nellist writes:

"Last week, Unite's policy conference in Liverpool took a major step to challenging pro-austerity councils and budgets. A motion proposed by the union's local authority section leadership included:

"Conference is therefore extremely concerned, disappointed and our members are angry that Labour Councils continue to make cuts and privatise our services. We also note the negative role played by Labour councillors on the boards of organisations which tender for services.
Conference agrees that Unite must now adopt a policy calling on Labour Councils to set legal, balanced no cuts needs based budgets."

Unite throws down the gauntlet. And TUSC, which has led the way in calling for no cuts, needs-based budgets, is now preparing the widest challenge of anti-austerity candidates for May 2022. 

Those local elections, scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 5th 2022, are for all 32 unitary councils in Scotland and the 22 single-tier authorities in Wales. In England, there are scheduled elections for all 32 London borough councils, 34 Metropolitan district councils, and 82 district councils.

Also on the same day, there will be Mayoral elections in Watford and the London boroughs of Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets. The South Yorkshire Metro-Mayor position established in 2018 is also up for election in May 2022.

The local elections in Scotland, Wales, London and Birmingham – and Harrogate, Huntingdonshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme and South Cambridgeshire – are ‘all-up’ contests, with every councillor up for election, usually in multi-seat wards. Most other elections will be for one-third of the councillors in single-seat contests but some may be ‘all-up’ elections following ward boundary changes or council reorganisation.

Of the 202 councils holding elections next May, 88 are currently Labour-led, with Labour holding an overall majority or are the largest party in a coalition administration.

There are still ongoing boundary reviews and council re-organisations to be factored in, but a current estimate is that May 2022 will see 6,751 councillors elected in 3,949 wards, a bigger electoral test in terms of local council seats to be contested than in 2021.

TUSC agents, and potential TUSC agents, are invited to this important briefing meeting on Wednesday which will deal with some of the practical organisational tasks needed for the People's Budget campaigns and the preparation for the 2022 elections.

More information on People's Budgets and full listings of the 2022 elections are available at:
https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/450.pdf (Preparing a People's Budget)
https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/451.pdf (Campaign Pack)
https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/448.pdf (Directory of Elections)."

 

 

Martin for NEU Deputy General Secretary

 From this Week's "Socialist":

 

I am standing to be National Education Union (NEU) deputy general secretary because our union needs clear and determined leadership if we are going to withstand the serious challenges ahead of us. More than any other candidate, I have the experience, skills and campaigning record that can make us a stronger team.

Years of funding cuts, pressure from school inspectorates Ofsted and Estyn, and 'exam factory' conditions have already taken their toll. Now teachers and support staff face further attacks from a government hoping to make us pay for their failures.

Making a stand on safety has shown that we can succeed when we act decisively. I'll work to win more gains in future.

As deputy general secretary, I will work to build a union that has the confidence, strength and organisation to defend the pay, jobs, safety and working conditions of education staff and, in doing so, defend education as well.

Every candidate will propose changes that could improve our conditions, and pupils' learning conditions. But the key question is, how can they be won?

The NEU has not been slow to make demands. Our problem has been that they have too often been ignored by employers and ministers. Our 'five tests' for Covid safety were not met - putting our health and safety at risk. For years, we've complained about unreasonable workload, but it keeps getting worse and now we face a 'pay freeze' - are our demands for improved salaries going to be ignored too?

School safety

Throughout the pandemic I have consistently argued that to defend school safety we would need to use our collective strength. The New Year 'U-turn' showed what we could achieve. Now we need to make more gains.

I am standing to be a deputy general secretary who works to bring our union together - in our workplace groups, districts and branches, alongside the staff and other resources paid for by your subs - with a belief that we can, and must, succeed in winning our demands.

As a member of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) national executive from 2010-15 and then NEU London regional secretary from 2016-19, I have experience of working within the union at its highest levels.

I have been active within the NUT, and now the NEU, throughout my working life. I became a science teacher, and soon a local union officer, in London in the 1980s.

As Lewisham NUT Secretary for over 20 years, I doubled local membership and supported hundreds of colleagues. I have organised many successful campaigns, opposing cuts and academisation, defending pay and workload.

I am still a teacher and local NEU officer today, now in north west England, experiencing the pressures on members at first hand. I am regularly invited to put our case across to the press and media.

In short, my record shows that I can be a deputy general secretary that can be relied on to provide clear leadership.

What I stand for:

• A union that builds the workplace strength that ensures we are a force to be reckoned with. Launch union-wide training for NEU reps and officers on how to successfully win collectively
• Reverse the privatisation of education. Oppose academisation. Campaign for local authority supply pools. Return all schools to democratic local control, staffed under nationally agreed pay and conditions
• A union that supports NEU reps and officers to defend members, individually and collectively. Improve our strategies for organising, recruiting and training reps, and advising our caseworkers
• A union leading the battle against discrimination and inequality in schools and communities - end performance pay. Educate and organise against racism, sexism, disability discrimination and LGBT+ oppression
• Action to protect the health, safety and welfare of staff, and our communities, from Covid-19. Coordinate ballots for action short of strike action and strike action to win union demands
• A union that recruits and organises all education workers working in our schools and colleges. Win negotiating rights for support staff colleagues. Provide supply staff with the support they need
• No to a pay freeze, no to cuts - fund schools and colleges to fully meet needs. Bring the public sector unions together to defend members' incomes, conditions and jobs
• A genuinely democratic union - where members are 'listened to', not just 'talked at'. Build a vibrant inclusive union that values its staff but is led by its elected representatives, its national executive members, local officers and workplace reps
• End excessive workload - and end the high stakes testing that drives so much of it. Win a national contract that sets a limit on overall working hours, not just 'directed time'
• A deputy general secretary that stays in touch with the problems that members are facing. I will be listening to you. I will not accept more than a teacher's salary for carrying out my role