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Brendan Barber outlines plans for campaign for ‘economic alternative’ to austerity in speech to TUC The riots which swept through English cities last month revealed “deep fractures” in Britain and have underlined the “folly of coalition policy”, the leader of the TUC has warned. Brendan Barber used his speech on the opening day of the TUC’s three-day annual conference to criticise the government’s response to the summer riots. He said the unrest took place in a society that ranks among “the most unequal in the developed world”. Barber told delegates: “What happened in August actually revealed deep fractures within our society – a society that ranks among the most unequal anywhere in the developed world, where a super-rich elite have been allowed to float free from the rest of us; where a generation of young people are growing up without work, without prospects, without hope. None harder hit than the black youngsters held back by an unemployment rate approaching 50%.” Barber outlined plans to step up a TUC-led public campaign on the case for an “economic alternative” to the government’s “cruel and mistaken objective” of getting rid of the deficit in just four years. He said the riots had raised “alarming questions” about the country Britain had become and said David Cameron was “wrong” to brand the riots “criminality pure and simple”. The unrest had served to expose “pernicious inequality, but also underlined the folly of government policies, such as cutting youth services and withdrawing the education maintenance allowance [EMA] for 16 to 19-year-olds in secondary education, he said. “Rather than addressing the complex long-term factors that lie behind the alienation – the poverty, the lack of social mobility, young lives stunted by hope denied – they have instead reached for simplistic cliches about moral decay,” said Barber. “And yet, as they have retreated to Victorian language about the undeserving poor, they have said nothing about moral disintegration among the rich, the financiers with huge assets sneakily channelled through the tax havens, the out-of-control traders and speculators who razed our economy to the ground and the super-rich tax cheats whose greed impoverishes our schools and hospitals.” He added: “Of course I accept the riots were not caused by the cuts, but, as any fair-minded person must see, the cuts will undoubtedly make the underlying problems much worse.” The cuts had hit middle- and low-income workers across the public and private sector while hardly being noticed by those who did “so well” out of the banking crash, he said. “The less you had to do with causing the crash, the bigger the price you have to pay.” Barber said the government’s austerity programme had served only to stamp on growth, and while it was “hurting”, the economic strategy was simply not working. The deficit was just “one symptom” of what was wrong with the economic model that politicians and policy makers have backed since the 1980s, which have led to an economy run on the interests of “banks and finance”. He said this model of deregulation, the “worship of markets”, and suspicion of the state had “blown up in our faces and turned into an angel of destruction”. Barber called for a new economy to be built that “delivers for all”, based on tax justice and exploiting new technologies in the fight against climate change. Speaking on the day that the Vickers report was published , Barber said its recommendations “fail to deal with what really needs to be done to transform our banks”. He said unions should press for “real reform” of the financial system, which would see banks become part of the utilities there to serve the public, rather than enrich themselves. As union leaders warned of the growing prospect of a second wave of co-ordinated strikes over planned reforms to public sector pensions, Barber said nowhere was the fight against cuts more urgent than on this issue. He told delegates the government’s plans were not about long-term affordability but making hard-pressed staff sacrifice their pensions security to contribute “even more” to the short-term deficit reduction programme. “That is wrong, wrong, wrong,” said Barber. He also vowed that unions would fight “tooth and nail” against the scrapping of the top rate of tax, amid a clamour of voices calling on the 50p rate to be abolished. The leader of the TUC, which represents 58 trade unions and more than 6 million members, said unions had a duty to lead the case for an economic alternative on behalf of all those suffering under the measures. He said this would present the “greatest battle in our living memory”. Barber outlined plans to build on the successful anti-cuts march and rally organised by the TUC in March, with activities funded over two years by a levy on affiliated unions. A decision will be made by the general council – a 20-strong board of general secretaries – in October. “No one else can claim to speak for so many of those bearing the brunt of austerity,” he told delegates. “No other part of civil society has the organisation, resources and reach of our trade union movement. And that responsibility is one that we have willingly accepted.” Responding to Barber’s comments, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “Ministers have been very clear about the difficult times people are facing, but the important thing is that we tackle the deficit. We have got to deal with the deficit and get public spending under control in order that we can get the economy back on track.” On public sector pensions, the spokeswoman insisted talks with unions on reforms were “progressing well”, a claim that is likely to be widely disputed by the frustrated union leaders involved. “We are sitting round the table talking about some quite difficult issues, but the principles haven’t changed,” the spokeswoman said. “We want to ensure that public sector pensions continue to be generous but they need to be affordable.” Brendan Barber TUC UK riots Trade unions Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk