By Mark Smulian | 10 September 2012
The success of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has shown what public investment and planning can achieve, Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber has said.
Addressing the opening day of the TUC congress in Brighton, Barber said: ‘I think what London 2012 showed was what we can achieve when we have the courage to do things differently.’
He said the central lessons from the Games were that ‘private isn’t always best and the market doesn’t always deliver’.
Building up industries and greening the economy would require ‘investment, planning and an Olympic-style national crusade’, Barber said.
He called for investment in infrastructure, beyond the government's recent announcements on transport, to include ‘new schools and colleges to nurture world class skills, and new housing to provide affordable homes and get people back to work’.
Barber also called for the creation of a state investment bank and regional banks and the imposition of a financial transactions tax.
‘And let’s have proper regulation of our financial system too, because what the masters of the universe in the City need isn’t a light-touch but strong clear rules and powerful penalties for those who break them,’ he said.
Government austerity policy had failed, he said, noting ‘that the chancellor says fiscal contraction will boost the private sector - instead it has brought about a double-dip recession’.
Barber did not directly refer to public sector pay but a motion before the Congress calls on it to ‘oppose all cuts to public services, jobs, pensions and pay’.
The motion, proposed by Unison and supported by Unite, the Public & Commercial Services union, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, the University & College Union, and the Fire Brigades’ Union, says ‘co-ordinated action is necessary to win concessions from the government’.
A separate Unison motion, supported by the PCS and civil service unions the First Division Association and Prospect, urges the TUC to co-ordinate unions’ efforts to break the public sector pay freeze and ‘end punitive pay caps’.
It calls for a campaign against regional or local pay in public services, and for the promotion of living wages and ‘a positive vision for public service provision in the interests of all citizens’.
The success of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has shown what public investment and planning can achieve, Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber has said.
Addressing the opening day of the TUC congress in Brighton, Barber said: ‘I think what London 2012 showed was what we can achieve when we have the courage to do things differently.’
He said the central lessons from the Games were that ‘private isn’t always best and the market doesn’t always deliver’.
Building up industries and greening the economy would require ‘investment, planning and an Olympic-style national crusade’, Barber said.
He called for investment in infrastructure, beyond the government's recent announcements on transport, to include ‘new schools and colleges to nurture world class skills, and new housing to provide affordable homes and get people back to work’.
Barber also called for the creation of a state investment bank and regional banks and the imposition of a financial transactions tax.
‘And let’s have proper regulation of our financial system too, because what the masters of the universe in the City need isn’t a light-touch but strong clear rules and powerful penalties for those who break them,’ he said.
Government austerity policy had failed, he said, noting ‘that the chancellor says fiscal contraction will boost the private sector - instead it has brought about a double-dip recession’.
Barber did not directly refer to public sector pay but a motion before the Congress calls on it to ‘oppose all cuts to public services, jobs, pensions and pay’.
The motion, proposed by Unison and supported by Unite, the Public & Commercial Services union, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, the University & College Union, and the Fire Brigades’ Union, says ‘co-ordinated action is necessary to win concessions from the government’.
A separate Unison motion, supported by the PCS and civil service unions the First Division Association and Prospect, urges the TUC to co-ordinate unions’ efforts to break the public sector pay freeze and ‘end punitive pay caps’.
It calls for a campaign against regional or local pay in public services, and for the promotion of living wages and ‘a positive vision for public service provision in the interests of all citizens’.
