TUC Congress snubs King speech

Louise Noustrapour & John Millington in Manchester
Wednesday September 15, 2010
The Morning Star

Bank of England governor Mervin King struggled to justify Con-Dem austerity measures in front of the TUC Congress as delegates protested with placards, T-shirts and even walkouts.

Delivering his much-anticipated speech amid a hive of media activity and visible shows of dissent from some delegates, Mr King insisted that savage cuts facing workers amounted to "a more gradual fiscal tightening than in some other counties."

The entire RMT transport union delegation walked out in protest as the governor took to the Congress rostrum.

Reps for teaching union UCU wore T-shirts emblazed with "Make the Bankers Pay" and were joined by several delegates waving "No CONDEM Cuts" placards.

Although Mr King insisted that he understood the anger of workers losing their jobs, he attempted to shift blame onto the former "Soviet empire" as it entered the world capitalist economy and emerging economies such as China for running up high trade deficits.

"Such massive imbalances were never likely to be sustainable," he declared.

Despite the unprecedented capitalist crisis Mr King added: "To my mind a market economy and its disciplines offer the best way of raising living standards."

He went on to claim that there was "no alternative" to the spending cuts, despite voices within the Establishment warning of a double-dip recession.

He ignored the TUC's alternative economic proposals for investment in productive industries to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

However he did appear to sympathise with demands for a crackdown on tax evasion by companies and wealthy individuals who cost the Treasury up to £160bn - more than enough to wipe out the deficit.

During a brief Q&A, PCS president Janice Godrich asked for Mr King's views on whether more should be done to close tax loopholes and pursue "criminals" engaged in tax evasion.

Mr King responded: "I hear your points and they seem persuasive."

He also admitted that the huge banking bailout was "unfair," but rejected the union movement's call for direct control of those banks to curb bonuses and divert profits back into the public purse.

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke was left unimpressed by Mr King's speech, pointing out that the Congress had passed numerous resolutions for sustainable growth and job creation.

"If these cuts continue over the next five years, we will be in double-dip recession," he warned.

"We have to make sure that this crisis never happens again. The Bank of England has a duty and role to rein in excessive bonuses."

"I would like to have seen him say more about manufacturing as there is a lot more unemployment coming in the pipeline."

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: "The truth is that he presided over the Bank of England and he never spoke out when he should have done.

"He failed us."

RMT general secretary Bob Crow, who boycotted the speech, said: "RMT delegates want to hear from the people suffering from this economic crisis, not waste time being lectured by the people who created it."

Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher said of Mr King's pro-cut comments: "The only way to cut the deficit sustainably is to grow the economy - and that means investment in the public sector, not cuts.

"The £120 billion tax gap must now be a priority for the coalition government in place of devastating public sector cuts"