In Manchester, on Monday 13 September 2010, there were calls for strikes and civil disobedience.
“Congress resolves that all TUC affiliates will urgently work together to build a broad solidarity alliance of unions and communities under threat and organize a national demonstration," Composite 10 on Defending Public Services put to the vote.
It urged members to “mobilize maximum opposition to [the government's austerity measures, and] … build a robust campaign in defense of public services, seeking to publicize and build this fight across the labor movement and local communities as a whole.”
The composite was passed with only one delegate opposing.
Behind the call for action was a deep concern that the government’s sweeping economic reform “threatens another three-quarters of a million people with the dole [unemployment] … depresses consumer demand across the economy, brings us to the brink of a double-dip recession.”
Earlier, Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, said in his speech which opened the Congress, “we also need to be clear it is not just public services and public sector jobs that will be hit by the cuts.
“There is a huge threat to the private sector too, with sectors like construction already feeling the pain because the government spends over £200 billion [$312 billion] a year procuring goods and services from business.
“If this is cut by 25 percent, or more, then there will be a gaping hole in the economy. Output will fall. Unemployment will rise. The deficit will get worse not better. That's what the IMF and the OECD are now warning about.”
He also pointed out that “cuts always hit the poorest, most vulnerable, most disadvantaged people," which is why a study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developement (OECD) found that under the cuts in the 1990s, inequality and poverty rates accelerated faster in Sweden and Canada than anywhere else in the developed world.
Brian Strutton of the trade union GMB, supports the Composite 10. On Defending Public Services he said, “we begin our preparations for national industrial action next month.
“Because if this government won't listen to any alternatives. Then, together with our communities, we will have no alternative but to take action.”
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