Left-wing party TUSC vows to make banks pay

A LEFT-WING party set up just before the last general election will launch its manifesto today, including an end to cuts and austerity and a pledge for public ownership of the banks and railways.

By The Newsroom Friday, 10th April 2015, 8:17 am

TUSC believes there is no discernible difference between the major parties. Picture: AFP/Getty

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Alliance (TUSC) has over 130 parliamentary candidates standing in England, Wales and Scotland as well as around 600 in local elections.

The party was co-founded by the late Bob Crow of the RMT rail union in 2010, with a number of socialist groups. The party says it wants a democratic socialist society run in the interests “of the millions not the billionaires.”

Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Sign up Thanks for signing up! Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting...

It pledges to give new rights to trade unions, fight for a £10 an hour minimum wage and scrap zero hours contracts. TUSC also wants a mass council home building programme and immediate introduction of rent controls, would scrap student fees and wants public ownership of the NHS, railways, public services, utilities and banks.

Dave Nellist, a former Labour MP, who chairs TUSC, said: “The thing about the four biggest parties is how little difference there really is between them - Labour, Tory, Lib Dem and Ukip all intend to ‘balance the books’ after the bankers crashed the economy by making ordinary people pay - not the bankers.

“Our starting point is that TUSC is 100 per cent against austerity. This is a rich country, the fifth richest on the planet. It’s just that the wealth is in the wrong hands - in the hands of a few millionaires and billionaires.

“Whilst we’ve had £80 billion worth of cuts in public services, in jobs and in living standards in the last five years, bankers and the top people in the finance industry have had £80 billion in bonuses. They’ve had recovery, we haven’t.

“The rich should pay to sort out the economic mess, not the ordinary people of England, Scotland and Wales. That’s what makes TUSC different.”

SEE ALSO

FOLLOW US