Congress 2011: Tax avoidance tactics needed to defend
workers' rights
12 September 2011
Workers should emulate the tactics of the tax avoiders to
prevent further government erosion of their rights, the leader of
the country's biggest union, Unite, Len McCluskey will tell
Congress today (Monday).
Len McCluskey will say: "Law is an essential thing for a
civilised society. But oppressive laws designed to hold back
ordinary people, pushed through a parliament of expense cheats by a
cobbled-together coalition which no-one voted for must be
resisted.
“If this government considers tax avoidance is lawful and can
go unpunished then we should plan for anti-union law avoidance in
the same spirit.
"It is time that unions took a different approach.
Working people have nothing to be ashamed of - we are not
performing financial conjuring tricks to swindle the nation out of
its tax dues yet it is our hard-fought freedoms which are now under
threat from a government with no mandate.
“Why should the working people of Britain – this country which
has stood, sometimes alone in the world, for freedom and democracy
- enjoy fewer rights and freedoms than our brothers and sisters in
France and Germany?
"These Bullingdon Bolsheviks in government are threatening to
bring in still further laws to attack free trade unionism.
“If they do we must be clear how we will respond - we will
bring Wisconsin to Westminster. And we will win.
“Our rights – including the right to stand together for a
better life for working people - are not the gift of ministers or
judges. They are ours to assert.”
Len McCluskey is speaking in the debate on trade union rights
scheduled for the opening day of Congress, today (Monday,
September 12th ) .
Earlier this year, thousands of trade unionists occupied the
state capital of Wisconsin in order to stop the administration’s
attack on the jobs and union membership of public servants.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Pauline Doyle on 07976 832 861
Ciaran Naidoo on 07768 931 315
