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Monday 3 December 2012

Rugby TUSC FUND RAISING SOCIAL- December 8th All Welcome

Organised jointly with Rugby Against the Cuts and the local Stop The War Coalition, this annual event takes place on Saturday December 8th, 8.30pm onwards at 25, Epsom Rd, Rugby CV22 7PF £4/2 entrance Foods from around the world, music, raffle, political conversation (!) all included. Please bring a bottle

Tuesday 13 November 2012

NEW BILTON BY-ELECTION - details of last minute campaign

Sat Nov 10                  11am               STALL AND MASS CANVASS/LEAFLET by Co-op, Lawford Rd and leaflet from Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
SUN OCT 11 2.30pm CANVASS AND LEAFLET   Meet at Hollybush Pub, Lawford Rd
 
Mon Nov 12               6pm                                        Half Moon, Lawford Rd
 
Tues Nov 13               2pm                                        Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
                                    6pm                                        Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd

Wed Nov 14 TUSC Rally to support Europe Day of Action against Austerity 1pm Rugby Clock Tower
 
Wed Nov 14               2pm    Eve of poll leaflet                   Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
                                    6pm    Eve of poll leaflet                    Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
 
Thurs Nov 15                        ELECTION DAY!               Activity all day – Polling Day leaflet to deliver and door knocking all canvassed voters.
Meet at Hollybush at 12 noon, 2pm and 4pm or phone 07881 520626 on the day whenever you are available
STREET MEETINGS/USE OF LOUD HAILER FROM 12 midday - phone 07881 520626 on the day if you can join us

Sunday 28 October 2012

TUSC SELECTS RUGBY SECRETARY PETE McLAREN TO CONTEST NEW BILTON BY-ELECTION ON NOV 15

The New Bilton by-election was called at very short notice. We have embarked on an ambitious campaign as we strive to put out our anti cuts message and build TUSC in the area. Please come and help us

SUGGESTED TIMES AND DATES FOR RUGBY TUSC ELECTION LEAFLETING, CANVASSING AND STALLS IN NEW BILTON

DATE TIME MEETING PLACE

Mon Oct 29 2pm Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd

Wed Oct 31 6pm Indian Community Centre, Edward St

Fri Nov 2 2pm Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
6pm STALL by Co-op, Lawford Rd and leaflet from Hollybush pub,

Sat Nov 3 11am – 2pm STALL AND MASS CANVASS/LEAFLET
Corporation St, along from BP garage
towards traffic lights

Tues Nov 6 2pm Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd

Thurs Nov 8 2pm Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
6pm Indian community Centre, Edward St

Sat Nov 10 11am – 2pm STALL AND MASS CANVASS/LEAFLET by Co-op,
Lawford Rd and leaflet from Hollybush pub

Mon Nov 12 6pm Half Moon. Lawford Rd

Tues Nov 13 2pm Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
6pm Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd

Wed Nov 14 2pm Eve of poll leaflet Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd
6pm eve of poll leaflet Hollybush pub, Lawford Rd

Thurs Nov 15 ELECTION DAY! Activity to be announced – phone 07881 520626

Please also phone if you want to take leaflets away to deliver in your own time – otherwise, hope to see you during the next couple of weeks as above

All of this will cost us money! We hope to do a follow up leaflet in selected areas, a limited delivery leaflet in Polish, and an eve of poll. All donations gratefully received. Please make cheques out to Rugby TUSC and send them to me preferably at home or to Rugby TUSC, PO Box 4123, Rugby CV21 9BJ

Pete McLaren TUSC Candidate New Bilton, Rugby

Tuesday 9 October 2012

RUGBY TUSC GETS INVOLVED IN LOCAL ANTI ACADEMIES CAMPAIGN

Plans are afoot to turn both Newbold Riverside Primary and Oakfield Primary into Academies with very little consultation. An Action Group was set up at Newbold Riverside, and they contacted us to ask TUSC to get involved and, initially, to leaflet all parents at Oakfield Primary to inform them about a Public Meeting which has been organised for both Primaries on MONDAY OCTOBER 15th, 7.30pm, at The OAKFIELD CLUB, Bilton Rd
LEAFLETING WILL BE AS FOLLWS:
Tuesday October 9th 2.40pm Oakfield School Main Entrance on Oakfield Rd
Wednesday October 10th 2.40pm Oakfield back entrance, which is across Merttens Playing Fields, which is off Merttens Drive

Monday October 15th (Provisional - please check web site) Reminder Leaflet outside Oakfield School Main entrance

PUBLIC MEETING AS PART OF THE ANTI ACADEMY CAMPAIGN
MONDAY OCTOBER 15th 7.30pm Oakfield Club, 32 Bilton Rd

Wednesday 29 August 2012

PROPOSAL ON TUSC’S STRUCTURE TO RUGBY TUSC, suggested by Pete McLaren

The structure of TUSC at present is as agreed at the Conference in July 2011 in the Framework document from the Steering Committee (SC) and the Motion from Rugby TUSC

Relevant extracts from the SC’s Framework Document

(v) We also confirm that, as a federal ‘umbrella’ organisation, participating organisations will continue to be able to produce their own supporting material, subject to electoral law, as has been the practise successfully adopted in our election campaigns to date, which allow different organisations and local campaigns to collaborate under a common banner.

2. Structure and election organisation

(i) TUSC shall continue to have a Steering Committee, comprised of one representative of the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, and the TUSC Independent Socialist Network, plus in a personal capacity, Bob Crow, Craig Johnston, Owen Herbert, Brian Caton, Nina Franklin, Chris Baugh, John McInally and Nick Wrack. The steering committee will operate by consensus.

(ii) The adherence of further organisations will be subject to the approval of the steering committee. The steering committee can also agree to expand its membership to other leading trade unionists as it decides.

(iii) TUSC supporters in Scotland shall continue to organise autonomously, with their own Scottish TUSC Steering Committee.

(iv) Local TUSC steering committees will be established, where possible, for local government areas and parliamentary constituencies where it is planned to contest seats on whatever broadly similar basis is appropriate for each.

(v) The participants in TUSC recognise that this structure remains only an interim arrangement and that discussions must continue to take place on the best way to organise the coalition as it develops in the future. Future conferences of TUSC shall make provisions to include debates on this issue.

3. Candidates

(i) Candidates from organisations participating in the Steering Committee and the Scottish TUSC Steering Committee can expect to have their nomination papers for elections authorised by the coalition nominating officer as TUSC candidates if they so request. They can also stand, if they wish, under the existing registered electoral name of their organisation.


Relevant extracts from Motion from Rugby on the future development of TUSC

TUSC has the potential to become a significant political force. This meeting confirms its determination to build on these (its) foundations, and ways of doing that should include:

* Building TUSC branches up and down the country.

In order to make the necessary progress and ensure further development, TUSC agrees to broaden out its structure at national level to welcome representation from local TUSC branches as well as trade union branches, political organisations and independents supportive of TUSC.


To summarise what was agreed:

• TUSC will have a federal structure which enables participant organizations to produce their own election materials and stand under their own existing registered electoral title if they so wish, whilst collaborating under a common banner

• The Steering Committee will include representatives of the supportive political organizations – the SP, SWP and ISN (to represent independent socialists) – and named individual trade union leaders/supporters

• The SC can decide whether to also give representation to additional political organizations and additional leading trade unionists

• The SC operates by consensus • Local TUSC Steering Committees will be established, where possible, in all wards/constituencies where TUSC is contesting elections

• TUSC should be building branches up and down the country

• TUSC will broaden out its structure at national level to include:

o Representation from local TUSC branches o Representation from trade union branches

o Representation from political organizations supportive of TUSC •

It was recognized these were interim arrangements and that discussions would continue to take place on the best way to organise the coalition as it develops in the future, with debates on the issue at all future TUSC Conferences.

To develop TUSC further, as a starting off point the structural position agreed at the July 2011 Conference should be implemented in full as soon as possible. This includes:

• Establishing local TUSC branches and/or local TUSC Steering Committees

• Devising methods to allow for representation of TUSC branches, trade union branches, and supportive political organizations on the Steering Committee
In concrete terms, this should include the following actions:

• In all wards/divisions/regions/constituencies that TUSC wishes to stand a candidate, the Steering Committee should do its best to ensure, through local organizations where possible, that a meeting takes place to discuss possible candidates, by inviting all local supportive trade unionists, political parties and independent socialists to attend. This meeting would be encouraged to make a recommendation to the Steering Committee

• The Steering Committee should actively encourage local political organizations, trade unionists and independent socialists to set up local Steering Committees. Achieving this should become part of the process of candidate authorization, and such local Steering Committees should subsequently be encouraged to become TUSC branches and continue campaigning between elections

• The SP, SWP and ISN and any additional groups represented on the SC, along with supportive local trade unionists, should be asked to open up informal discussions with each other at local level with a view to establish a TUSC branch, or at least a local Steering Committee, before the next General Election

• In terms of further broadening representation on the SC, as has already been agreed, the following steps should be taken:

o Those TUSC branches that do exist should be asked to meet together and elect two representatives to the SC to represent, and be accountable to, those local branche

o Local trade union branches should be encouraged to affiliate to local TUSC branches, where their rules allow, or nationally if no local TUSC branch exists. All such affiliated local trade unions should be entitled to representation on the SC, with a limit of two representatives per trade union

o The SC should make it clear all political organisations supportive of TUSC will be welcomed onto the Steering Committee and able to elect a representative to sit on it

At this stage of its development, it should be agreed that TUSC’s structure remain federal, and its SC continue to operate by consensus. Organisations represented on the SC would continue to have one vote/veto each, and it will be for the leading members of trade unions on the SC to decide whether or not their members would be likely to support actions and activity agreed

As TUSC evolves into a more permanent organization, the following steps will be considered over the next few months:

• Affiliation of trade unions and political organizations to TUSC nationally, with affiliation fees related to size of membership, with recognition made of ability to pay

• How the significant role individual leading trade unionists have played in the development of TUSC can be maintained within any developing structure

• Introducing individual membership of TUSC at national level, with fees set to an amount likely to encourage supporters to join

• The election of functional officers, answerable in the first instance to the SC, and through that to Conference, to ensure tasks agreed by Conference are implemented

• Suggesting to political organizations that are part of TUSC that, in order to build TUSC as a political organization in its own right, they should stand under the most appropriate TUSC registered electoral title unless local circumstances strongly dictate otherwise, in which case they should prominently promote TUSC and their support for it in election materials

The SC to report back to the next TUSC Conference the progress that has been made on all these suggestions

Pete McLaren 07/08/12

Wednesday 25 July 2012

TUSC National Conference Sat Sept 22nd London

The Conference, which is open to all TUSC supporters, has the following provisional Agenda as agreed at the TUSC National Steering Committee on June 18th: SESSION ONE: Open Forum “Building working class political representation against the austerity consensus” Speakers: RMT (15 minutes) to promote their pro-TUSC Conference position; Mark Serwotka invited (15 minutes) to explain the implications of the PCS ballot decision to stand anti cuts candidates Political groups who are part of TUSC (7 minutes each): the SP, SWP and ISN SESSION TWO: For Councillors who will stand up to the Con-Dems – including local government policy Invited Speakers (all 5/7 minutes each): Kingsley Abrams (Labour councilor suspended for abstaining on cuts vote); Two Southampton Labour councilors who voted against cuts; Cllr Michael Lavelette (SWP); Tony Mulhearn (SP: TUSC Liverpool Mayoral candidate); Cllr Pete Smith (Walsall DLP) SESSION THREE: ‘Reviewing TUSC’s structures’: The structure commission report and plans for further discussion. Introduced by: Clive Heemskirk (SP) and Pete McLaren (ISN) The following actions were also agreed: • A four page broadsheet including the RMT resolution would be produced • There would be a pooled fare, capped at £10 • Deadline for resolutions/submissions on TUSC’s Structure or Policy would be midnight Monday Sept 3rd - send to cliveheemskerk@socialistparty.org.uk or wsmcmahon@yahoo.co.uk

Monday 18 June 2012

Rugby TUSC plans ahead


Rugby TUSC met on June 14th and began its preparations for the 2013 County Council elections.  Candidates were selected, and it was agreed to liaise with TUSC supporters and anti cuts campaigners across Warwickshire, suggesting the setting up of a Warwickshire Regional TUSC Co-ordinating Committee.  In a separate, but related development, it was further agreed to launch a Rugby TUSC Newsletter for wide distribution, and a draft format was approved.  The Newsletter should be ready before the next Rugby TUSC Meeting on Thursday July 19th

Tuesday 29 May 2012

MEMBERS OF RUGBY TRADE UNIONIST AND SOCIALIST COALITION TO BE IN BBC QUESTION TIME AUDIENCE - and gains publicity for it on Page 2 of Rugby Advertiser


Question Time is coming from Rugby this Thursday (May 31). “As soon as they heard, members of the Rugby Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) applied for invites”, spokesperson Pete McLaren informed us.

“As Secretary, I asked for a group ticket for ten Rugby TUSC members

“Individual members of Rugby TUSC separately applied as members of TUSC.  In the event, so far, three members of Rugby TUSC have been successful in their applications and will definitely be in the audience, hoping to ask a question or to be consulted over responses from the Panel.   It is possible the BBC will contact additional members tomorrow, the final day for informing applicants whether they have been successful.

“The three TUSC members appearing on the programme are:

Dave Goodwin  RMT Health & Safety Rep and TUSC candidate in Hillmorton in 2011 and 2012

Ally MacGregor TUSC candidate in New Bilton 2012

Clive Dunkley  TUSC agent and candidate in Brownsover 2011

“As Secretary, I am really proud that members of Rugby TUSC have been invited to be in the Question Time audience – as members of TUSC.  It is a recognition of what we have achieved locally in just fifteen months, further evidence that we have something to offer, that we have a very different message to that of the establishment parties – a message that is increasingly being acknowledged and accepted,” he concluded.

BBC Question Time is broadcast at 22.45 on Thursday

Friday 11 May 2012

CONTINUOUS CAMPAIGNING PAYS OFF: TUSC MAKES ITS PRESENCE FELT IN LOCAL ELECTIONS


MEDIA RELEASE ISSUED MAY 8th: parts of it appeared in a feature on the Local Elections in the Rugby Advertiser 10/05/12

Members of Rugby TUSC, standing as Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts, were pleased with their performance in the Borough Council Elections last week.  “We doubled our vote compared to last year, despite only standing in one additional ward,” spokesperson Pete McLaren informed us.  “This gave us an average of 10% across the eight wards we contested, an increase of 2.8% on last year.  We are steadily being seen as a serious Left party, and this is posing a serious challenge to Labour.  Last week, in the wards we both contested, TUSC gained one vote for every three Labour votes: last year the ratio in Rugby was 1:4, and nationally this year it was 1:9.

“Two direct examples of this can be seen in last week’s results in Rugby.  Labour would almost certainly have won a seat in Eastlands without our presence – their only candidate polled just 70 votes less than the third elected Lib Dem councillor, and TUSC polled 223 votes.  The same happened in Rokeby & Overslade, where our votes almost certainly stopped Labour gaining a second seat.  We are not targeting Labour, but the Party’s move to the right makes it vulnerable to a socialist challenge, and we will continue to mount one.

“The reasons for TUSC’s progress are quite clear.  We fought a very energetic campaign.  In most of our wards every single elector received our main leaflet, many received a second one, and some had an Eve of Poll reminder.  One elector in rural Brandon told me it was the first time in 20 years he had received a local election leaflet from any party!  

“We also talked to hundreds of people, on stalls and on their doorsteps.  The anti cuts message certainly resonates.  More importantly, Rugby TUSC has campaigned on a number of issues in the 14 months of its existence – against youth club and library closures, on behalf of St Cross, against cuts to welfare benefits, supporting the Jarrow March against unemployment, and opposing cuts to bus services.  We do not only appear once a year at election time: we see elections as just one aspect of putting our message across

“TUSC nationally also saw improved results, averaging 6.2% across the 40 Local Authorities its 134 candidates contested – up from last year’s 5.2%.  TUSC endorsed Councillors were elected in Preston and Walsall.  Our Mayoral candidate in Liverpool came 5th out of 12, beating the Tories and UKIP, and finishing less than 4% off 2nd place.  TUSC has continued to make progress locally and nationally – it is becoming a force to be reckoned with,” he concluded.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Rugby TUSC proud of the publicity it has generated, in particular over the last two months

Rugby TUSC reports that 16 articles or letters have been written promoting it in the local media in the last two months, over half of them during the election period

Saturday 5 May 2012

RUGBY TUSC DOUBLES ITS VOTE: increases its % from 7.2 to 10%


RUGBY TUSC ELECTION RESULTS 2012
Turn out per ward in brackets in Ballot Papers Issued column

WARD
TORY
LAB
LIB DEM
GREEN
INDEP
TUSC
BALOTT PAPERS ISSUED
VOTES CAST *
% TUSC
BENN 
Bert Harris
258
820
180
252

177
1504 (27%)
1691
10.5


255
824
175








256
819



















BILTON
Steve Roberts
1134
643
373


299
2012 (39%)
2473
12.1


1004

397








968




















EASTLANDS Rob Johnson
326
497
567


223
1870 (28%)
1870
11.9


300

810








340

722


















HILLMORTON Dave Goodwin
662
451
207


119
1627 (39%)
1791
6.6


706
534
255








804
427
334


















NEW BILTON Ally MacGregor
406
683

195

141
1442 (26%)
1497
9.4


390
630

241







334
709



















NEWBOLD & BROWNSOVER Bill Smith
415
649

173

145
1340 (26%)
1434
10.1


467
628

155







465
576



















ROKEBY & OVERSLADE Julie Weekes
613
615
491
205

125
2231 (37%)
2062
6.1


612
564
504








557
496
372


















WOLSTON & THE LAWFORDS Pete McLaren
839
894
833
481

361
324
289
1820 (34%)
2402
12.0












TOTALS





1518

15220
10.0


* This column is the sum of the top vote of each party’s candidates in the ward. It’s a simplification. It would be a complex statistical analysis to try to include the facts that there were varying numbers of party candidates and varying numbers of votes cast on each ballot paper.
The TOTAL VOTE of 1518 compares with 758 last year.  Our % has risen from 7.2% of the electorate to 10% in 2012
Geoff Dewhirst/Pete McLaren  05/05/12