Meet the Bristol mayor candidate: Tom Baldwin

Tom Baldwin has already been up for hours, on the picket line at Bristol Water where workers are striking over a proposed pay freeze.

Meeting mid-morning in Greville Smyth Park, he predicts there will be plenty more actions by employees across different industries in the coming months as the impact of the pandemic and economic downturn continue to hit workforces across the city.

“This election is about the idea that working class people need a voice,” says the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the running to be mayor of Bristol.

Baldwin is no stranger to the world of politics, and only he and Marvin Rees from this year’s nine candidates for the top job in City Hall also stood in both previous mayoral elections in 2012 and 2016.

His message now is the same as it was five years ago when he stood on an anti-austerity platform, but perhaps with a renewed urgency in the wake of the pandemic and its impact on jobs and services.

“We have seen tens of millions of pounds worth of cuts by the Tory government but then implemented by councils, including Labour,” says Baldwin.

Tom Baldwin believes working class people need a voice – photo courtesy of Tom Baldwin/TUSC

Wandering up from the park towards North Street to get a coffee, he comments on the creeping spread of gentrification in south Bristol, where he has lived since he first came to the city to study physics in 2001.

Baldwin says his time growing up in Trowbridge was generally pretty happy and comfortable and that while his parents might not share his politics exactly, it was from them he got his values.

It was during his first term at the University of Bristol that he joined the Socialist Party and found his true vocation. Exactly 20 years later, he is still fighting for the cause and is employed by the Socialist Party, as well as chair of the Bristol area Unite Community branch.

“I have always had a passion for social justice and equality and I found my heart in the party that was not just looking to change that aspect but change society,” says the 37-year-old.

“One where we do away with capitalism and build a socialist society where the majority get to decide how resources are used.”

Seemingly impervious to the chilly April air – all that time on picket lines will do that – Baldwin holds his takeaway filter coffee as he sits on a park bench and speaks passionately about the possibility of creating a different society that works for all.

“Particularly since the right-wing have captured the leadership of Labour, people are without a voice,” he argues.

In 2017, Bristol City Council passed £100m worth of cuts, with a further £34.5m to follow in 2018 in a bid to plug a £108m hole by 2023. The current administration argues the alternative to implementing the Government-imposed cuts was to put forward an illegal budget, which it says could see Westminster seize power anyway.

To this, Baldwin retorts: “It’s better to break the law than break the poor.” But he argues, there are other options. “The council has the power to borrow and they have reserves,” says Baldwin.

“Really, the solution is winning back funding that’s been stolen from the council. That requires an active campaign to take on the government. If we link up with other cities to do that, it would be very effective.”

He adds: “One thing the pandemic has changed is the ability to find money. It’s not a question of the availability, it’s a question of priority and the politicians putting it forward. Councils should be places of resistance against the Tory government.”

The TUSC candidate concedes the country is politically a long way from his ideal socialist society but argues more people are realising that the current system doesn’t work for “ordinary people”. He adds: “I’m inspired by the struggles I see daily with ordinary people standing up for themselves.”

While opposing austerity is front and centre of his manifesto pledges, Baldwin, who is a member of Acorn, also has plans for tackling housing and transport issues.

On housing, the key thing, he says, is making more homes affordable and “stop private landlords taking the piss”. While public ownership of buses and trains so they are “run as services rather than profit-making businesses” is at the heart of his transport proposals.

Tom Baldwin was been among the speakers at Bristol’s fourth Kill the Bill protest – photo by Ellie Pipe

The week before this interview, Baldwin was among the speakers on College Green at the fourth ‘Kill the Bill’ protest in Bristol.

He believes the timing of the government’s controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts bill is no accident, claiming leaders in Whitehall fear the potential power of mass demonstrations and are therefore acting to restrict protesters.

“The creators of wealth hold the power,” says Baldwin. “I can envisage a society where companies are owned by workers, but I can’t envisage a society without workers.”

It’s fair to say the TUSC mayoral hopeful doesn’t have a huge amount in common with his Tory counterpart Alastair Watson, but on one thing they do agree – the role they are both standing for.

“No, I wouldn’t keep role of mayor,” says Tom without hesitation.

“I voted against having a directly elected mayor. I think it controls power in one person’s hands.”

Main photo by Aphra Evans

Read more: Bristol24/7 and Watershed to host mayoral hustings at the end of April