The Con-Dem government has inflicted five years of savage austerity on working class people. Unfortunately there is no prospect of this changing beyond the general election, as the leadership of the Labour Party has made it clear that a Labour government would not mean an end to austerity.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) argues that working class people should not pay for a crisis that we did not cause. That was why TUSC was set up in 2010, co-founded by the late Bob Crow, to show that there is a clear left-wing alternative to policies of public sector cuts, privatisation, militarism and environmental degradation.

TUSC has accepted from its start that there will be some Labour candidates who share our socialist aspirations and will be prepared to support measures that challenge the austerity consensus of the establishment politicians. But it is also committed to standing candidates or supporting others if that is the only way a working class anti-austerity socialist alternative can be articulated at election time.

Our coalition, of trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists, is united on the need for mass resistance to the ruling class offensive, and for an alternative programme of left-wing policies to help inspire and direct such resistance:

Public ownership, not private profit

Stop all privatisation, including the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). Bring privatised public services, industries and utilities back into public ownership under democratic control, with compensation only on the basis of proven need.

No to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and all secret austerity treaties.

No cuts – for quality public services

Re-nationalise all rail, bus and ferry services to build an integrated, low-pollution public transport system. Take Royal Mail back into public ownership to guarantee our postal services. Bring prisons, probation, and all other parts of the justice system back into the public sector.

For a high-quality, free National Health Service under democratic public ownership and control.

Stop council estate sell-offs and build high-standard, eco-friendly, affordable council housing.

No to academies and ‘free schools’. Good, free education for all, under democratic local authority control; student grants not fees.

Jobs, not handouts to the bankers and billionaires

Bring banks and finance institutions into genuine public ownership under democratic control, instead of giving huge handouts to the very capitalists who caused the crisis.

Tax the rich. For progressive tax on rich corporations and individuals and an end to tax avoidance.

For massive investment in environmental projects.

Employment and trade union rights

Repeal the anti-trade union laws, reverse attacks on facility time and the right to collect subs by check-off for trade unions, particularly in the public-sector.

Support the TUC’s demand to increase the minimum wage to £10 an hour, and for it then to rise in line with inflation or wages, whichever is higher.

Scrap zero hour contracts. Guaranteed hours and full employment rights for all. Cut the working week to 35 hours with no loss of pay.

Invest to create and protect jobs, including for young people.

Solidarity with workers taking action to defend jobs, conditions, pensions, public services and trade unions. Reinstate full trade union rights to prison officers.

Protect our environment – stop global warming

Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions – otherwise climate change, caused by capitalism, will destroy us.

Invest in publicly-owned and controlled renewable energy. Oppose fracking.

Move to sustainable, low-pollution industry and farming – stop the pollution that is destroying our environment. No to profit-driven GM technology.

Produce for need, not profit, and design goods for reuse and recycling.

Decent pensions and benefits

Abolish the bedroom tax.

Reverse cuts to benefits; for living benefits; end child poverty. Scrap benefit sanctions.

Restore the pre-Thatcher real value of pensions. Reverse the increases imposed on the state retirement age, creating jobs for younger people.

Stop the attacks on disabled people

Promote inclusive policies to enable disabled people to participate in, and have equal access to, education, employment, housing, transport and welfare provision.

Support measures to ensure disabled people receive a level of income according to needs. Equal pay for equal work.

Democracy, diversity and justice

Welcome diversity and oppose racism, fascism and discrimination. Defend the right to asylum, repeal the 2014 Immigration Act and all racist immigration controls.

Ensure women have genuinely equal rights and pay.

Full equality for LGBT people.

Defend our liberties and make police and security democratically accountable.

For the right to vote at 16.

Solidarity not war

No to imperialist wars and occupations!

Justice for the Palestinians, lift the siege of Gaza, recognise the state of Palestine.

No more spending on a new generation of nuclear weapons, huge aircraft carriers or irrelevant eurofighters – convert arms spending into socially useful products and services.

An independent foreign policy, based on international solidarity – no more being a US poodle, no moves towards a capitalist, militarist United States of Europe. No to austerity and anti-working class policies, whether from the EU or Britain.

Socialism