DELEGATES to the TUC Conference in Manchester yesterday voted almost unanimously for Composite Motion 10, Defending public services and for Paragraphs 3.1 and 3.13 of the General Council’s report.
Leaders of all the major TUC unions spoke in favour of the motion, with many warning that the existence of the Welfare State was at stake.
The Congress was told that the TUC will organise a national demonstration against spending cuts in March next year.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber opened the Congress debate and said that the coalition government was going to carry out ‘unprecedented spending cuts’, whilst raising VAT and added: ‘Every public service in every community is under threat.’
He said that where union members ‘take a democratic decision for industrial action, they’ll have the support of unions and the TUC stands ready to coordinate that.’
Barber also made it plain in his remarks that he was not calling for the TUC to bring the government down, but pleading with the Tories and Liberal Democrats to slow down their savage spending cuts.
‘We have to win the intellectual battle,’ he said. ‘There is a better way of reducing the deficit and the General Council statement outlines that alternative. We need a realistic timetable. Secondly, we need more flexibility, third we need to make growth the priority, fourth, we need a bigger role for tax – a Robin Hood tax to make the banks pay their way.’
He said winning the cuts ‘debate’ would ‘decide the next general election’, ruling out a struggle to bring the government down to stop the cuts now.
Instead, he said, the TUC would ‘build a coalition against the cuts and embrace the power of new technology’ to get the TUC’s case across.
He said there would be a rally on October 19 and that this would be followed up with ‘pressure on every coalition MP and our national demonstration next March’.
He only received polite applause.
Moving Composite Motion 10 on Defending public services, Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis echoed Barber, saying that the trade unions faced their ‘greatest test for a generation’.
He said the government was intent on creating a society in which some of the backers of the Tory party pay ‘less in tax than a cleaner in a hospital’.
He said: ‘We will build alliances with NGOs, charities, social movements, our brothers and sisters across Europe and, when the call is there, we will move to coordinate industrial action to defend all we hold dear. Together, united, fierce defenders of the services they deliver.’
Gail Cartmail, from Unite, seconded the motion.
She said: ‘The fight ahead of us is the fight of our lives.’
Brian Strutton, from the GMB, said: ‘It’s about defending everyone across our communities.’
PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘Industrial action is inevitable unless the government is prepared to change direction.’
Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said: ‘Unity is strength. An injury to one is an injury to all. Those are the lessons we’ve learned over 150 years. If we don’t fight and become divided, we lose.’
FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack said a ‘sustained campaign by the government and media’ was seeking to shift the blame for the economic crisis ‘onto public sector workers’.
He added: ‘This is a war on the majority of the population on behalf of a tiny minority. These cuts can be defeated. We need to build a movement on a huge scale.’
