Brighton TUSC and the Nov 30 public sector workers strike and march and rally at the Level

Brilliant stike action today nationally and locally in Brighton... around 6,000 to 10,000 strikers (depending police estimates or organisers' estimates) marched through Brighton and at the rally at the Level heard lots of speakers such as Phil Clarke (Secretary of Lewes, Eastbourne and Wealden NUT, Chair of Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition, and TUSC activist), and Pip Tindall (Brighton Benefits Campaign, UNISON and Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition activist, and TUSC candidate for the Westbourne Ward byelection on 22 December for the Brighton and Hove City Council Vacancy) address the crowd of many thousands.

The march was spurred on not only by anger at the ruling class attack on workers' wages, conditions, benefits and pensions, but also by the Chancellor of the Exchequer/ Finance Minister George Osbourne's class war financial statement in parliament of 29 Nov- not one penny taken from the pockets of the rich, billions taken from the pockets of the working class, especially from the poor...

Here are some pics from the rally at The Level

PRESS RELEASE: Anti-cuts candidate in Westbourne by-election!

'Ex-Green candidate, Pip Tindall, stands against all cuts in Westbourne by-election'

Now a member of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), Pip Tindall is standing in the Westbourne by-election, due to take place on 22 December.

Pip, who is an NHS worker, trade unionist and welfare rights campaigner, stood as a Green Party candidate for East Brighton in the May 2011 local elections. She had signed the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition pledge to oppose all cuts and give a political voice to a mass campaign to have central funding reinstated for public services in Brighton and Hove.

When the Greens were elected and Pip saw they intended to administer, rather than fight, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat cuts, she and husband, Paul Tindall, left and joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

"The Green Party says it's opposed to cuts, but that’s just so much hot air if they won’t fight them when they get the chance. I was horrified when I realised that the Greens in Brighton intended to hand down the cost of the banking crisis to those least able to afford it - the public service users of Brighton and Hove.

The working class is being forced to pay for the bankers’ greed. We need an inclusive political voice to say ‘NO to all cuts’ which the Greens and ‘too far, too fast’ Labour can’t offer - only TUSC is proposing a serious alternative to slash and burn austerity."

Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition election pledge

During my election campaign I pledge to:

• Publicise the fact that public service cuts are wholly unnecessary and driven by political dogma;
• Publicise the fact that alternative and just sources of income are readily available to central Government to fund public services;
• Work for the anti-cuts vote to be maximised;
• Work proactively and vigorously with ward and city anti-cuts campaigns;
• Oppose all use of discrimination and division to promote a cuts agenda.

If elected I pledge to:

• Oppose and vote against any attempts to set Council budgets which will result in cuts to public services and local jobs or a worsening of terms and conditions for council staff;
• Oppose and vote against any attempts to cut or privatise individual public services;
• Oppose any above inflation increase in council tax and instead campaign for a progressive national tax system where the rich pay more;
• Propose an alternative ‘no-cuts’ budget which could involve use of reserves and/or council borrowing powers and a campaign against the government to replace the funding they are cutting from local government;
• Fully support industrial action taken by trade unions to defend their members’ jobs, terms and conditions from cuts;
• Use my position to argue against all cuts and support and publicise campaigns against privatisation and cuts in jobs, services or benefits.

More to follow...