TheSocialist Green Unity Coalition was an electoral alliance formed by leftist parties and political organisations in Great Britain prior to2005 parliamentary election[1] after theRespect Unity Coalition (which the SGUC constituent organisations regarded as little more than a vehicle for theSocialist Workers Party) rejected requests to discuss an electoral arrangement to avoid clashes in 2005. It was established in September 2004,[2] named in November 2004[3] and publicly launched in February 2005.[4] After the 2005 election the coalition continued to operate as a liaison and co-ordinating body but has not extended its remit much beyond electoral co-ordination.
Participating organisations included theSocialist Party and the Alliance for Green Socialism (standing under their own name),Alliance for Workers' Liberty,Socialist Unity Network (both standing asSocialist Unity) and theDemocratic Socialist Alliance, whose candidates in 2005 were also members of theUnited Socialist Party.[5] Many of these organisations were in the previous Socialist Alliance before they voted to support the established of theRespect Unity Coalition and dissolve the Socialist Alliance.
All the SGUC member organisations campaigned on a common platform including calls for an end toprivatisation, for defence of thewelfare state, an end to poverty and forfull employment.[1] The SGUC also gave greater priority than most of its individual members to the question of the environment and building a sustainable economic system - largely due to the influence of the Alliance for Green Socialism.
The Socialist Party contested the 2005 election asSocialist Alternative inBootle,Brighton Kemptown,Bristol North West,Cardiff South and Penarth,Coventry North East,Coventry South,Leicester West,Lewisham Deptford,Newcastle East and Wallsend,Sheffield Heeley,Stoke-on-Trent Central,Swansea West,Wakefield,Walthamstow,Wythenshawe and Sale East.[6]
Coalition members stood against theGreen Party in some constituencies (because the Green Party would not negotiate an electoral arrangement to avoid such clashes) but agreed not to compete with theRespect Coalition or theScottish Socialist Party. It received over 12,000 in 2005 votes and did not come close to winning any seats and only succeeded in holding its deposit in one seat,Coventry North East, where its candidate was formerMilitant MPDave Nellist.
Socialist Alternative Party
Alliance for Green Socialism:
Democratic Socialist Alliance - People Before Profit
Socialist Unity Network
Following the election, the coalition agreed to remain in existence for future elections and to run a campaign in support of fair pensions. It stood candidates in the2006 United Kingdom local elections.[7]
The SUGC went into decline following the 2005 General Elections. As of January 2010, the Socialist Party's continuing membership of SGUC is unclear as they have allied themselves with the TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) from which other SGUC members (notably the Alliance for Green Socialism) had withdrawn. The Alliance for Green Socialism stood candidates under their own name in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 respectively.
This, and a lack of recent electoral activity, suggests that the SUGC has been dissolved.