TUC rails against 'savage' cuts

13 Sep 10
Opponents of the government's spending cuts must marshal an intellectual case for an alternative, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress said today
By Mark Smulian
 

13 September 2010

Opponents of the government’s spending cuts must marshal an intellectual case for an alternative, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress said today.

Speaking on the first day of the TUC annual congress in Manchester, Brendan Barber deplored the cuts, which he said would ‘put jobs in peril, and increase inequality… make Britain a darker, brutish, more frightening place’.

He added: ‘Let no-one doubt that unions and the TUC will protect and defend dedicated public service workers.’

But Barber admitted that voters had yet to be convinced by any alternative to the government’s approach.

‘That's why we have to win the intellectual battle showing that there is a better way to reduce the deficit,’ he said. ‘One that not only avoids savage cuts, but is more likely to work as it avoids the risk of the double dip.’

The TUC general council has called for the deficit to be tackled over a longer term. In a statement on the economy and public services, published with the motions for the congress, it says priority should be given to economic growth and cuts should be stopped if the economy goes into reverse.

In motions on the economy, the TUC calls for a rebalancing in which manufacturing retains its rightful place, where every region is a growth region, and where we invest in the low-carbon industries of the future’. Another motion supports a ‘Robin Hood’ tax on banks and action against tax loopholes.

The congress voted in favour of a motion calling for ‘industrial action where appropriate’ in defence of pension rights. The motion from the GMB union said the congress was ‘appalled by the political manipulation and lies which portray public sector workers’ pensions as gold-plated’.

It deplored ‘both the attacks on public sector pensions and the presumption of the coalition government that public sector pension provision will have to be further diluted’.

Delegates also backed a call for the TUC to co-ordinate industrial action ‘in opposition to attacks on jobs, pensions, pay or public services’. The motion, from Unison, Unite, the GMB, and the Public and Commercial Services unions, said there was an alternative to spending cuts, including collecting £123bn of taxes that are ‘avoided, evaded and uncollected from wealthy individuals and companies’.

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