TUSC steering committee debates coalition structures, the EU, and new election fund appeal

The June meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee included a detailed discussion, the first in a series, on how to develop the coalition following the TUSC campaign in May's elections.

Also on the agenda was a plan for a TUSC National Election Fund appeal - with the aim being to meet the costs of election deposits for candidates in the 2016 contests for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Greater London Authority and the three council Mayoral elections taking place next year, in Liverpool, Salford and Bristol.

The meeting confirmed the date of the TUSC conference to discuss the 2016 elections as September 26th, to be held at London's Student Central venue, Malet Street, WC1E (11am to 4-30pm).

The conference will be open to all individual members of TUSC and will discuss the draft platform of core policies for the 2016 local elections. This will be discussed by the steering committee at its July meeting, and will then be open to amendment at the conference.

Developing TUSC's structures

For the item on developing TUSC and its structures, the meeting had in front of it two discussion papers and proposals for rule amendments from, respectively, the Independent Socialist Network and the Socialist Party. The representative of the RMT transport workers' union present at the meeting also spoke on the union's position as agreed at its annual conferences (AGMs) since 2012. The two papers, plus the resolutions agreed at the RMT AGM's in 2012 and 2014, are available at Structure Review 2015-1

It was agreed that the steering committee would consider specific amendments to the current How TUSC functions rules (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/16861/14-11-13/How-TUSC-Functions ) - which could be a complete re-write of the current rules if that was what was felt to be required - and to continue the discussion at future meetings.

TUSC and the EU referendum

A briefing paper with initial proposals on how to conduct a discussion on reaching a TUSC position on the EU referendum was presented to the meeting (see EU briefing). But with insufficient time left, it was agreed to re-table it at the July meeting, with views to be canvassed on the proposals made.