contribution by Brendan Barber

UKuncut protesters are right to be angry at the scale of tax avoidance in the UK. The TUC has long been campaigning to expose the amount of tax that is dodged by big companies and the super-rich.

There is a whole industry of socially-useless advisers who come up with new perfectly legal ways of avoiding the tax that Parliament intended wealthy people and organisations to pay.

As the cuts bite, it is getting ever more clear that we are not all in this together and those who did least to cause the crash are suffering the most.

What UK Uncut are doing is not the way that unions traditionally make their voice heard, but I am sure that they will remember that the workers in the shops they target are just as much victims of cuts and unfair tax policies as anyone else.

As the TUC recognised in the statement we adopted at our Congress last September the campaign against the cuts will take many forms.

A tiny minority will go in for ones that are counter-productive, but the rest are going to add up to a real movement for change. We have no pretensions that all of it can be brought together in a single organisation or run in a top-down way.

Our March for the Alternative will be one focus – scrupulously organised and highly disciplined to ensure that it can be both safe and huge – but there’s also room and a need for spontaneity and action at the grassroots.

—
Brendan Barber is General Secretary of the TUC. He will open the Netroots UK event on 8th January.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

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2. David Carter

   RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

3. GatesheadGreenParty

   RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

4. Andy Bean

   RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

5. Goldsmiths UCU

   RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

6. Hammy Cammy

   RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

7. TeresaMary

   About time!! RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

8. Stronger Unions

   RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

9. strongerunions

   RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

10. Tamsin Dunedain

    RT @libcon The #TUC supports @UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC #ukuncut

11. paulstpancras

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12. Northern TUC

    RT @strongerunions: RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

13. mark wright

    RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

14. Lambeth RighttoWork

    RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

15. clare solomon SOAS

    RT @tamsinchan: RT @libcon The #TUC supports @UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC #ukuncut

16. Clint David Samuel

    RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

17. Tony Dowling

    RT @strongerunions: RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

18. The Guardian today misrepresents the unions and the fight against cuts | Liberal Conspiracy

    [...] themselves into new movements, including the students. These also include UKuncut, as Brendan Barber has said. They recognise that action against this government will take different forms and they want to help [...]

19. Rachel

    RT @libcon: The TUC supports UKuncut’s campaign against tax avoidance http://bit.ly/eMHxxC

20. CJ Andrews

    @CallumBeynon http://bit.ly/hjzkWz nothing to do with them?