National Recovery Council - a deadly mistake.

The (London) Guardian newspaper of May19 put out the latest scheme developed by the Trades Union Congress with the support of the leadership of a number of large unions. The TUC proposed a National Recovery Council. 

This was the substance of the article. 

The leader of the Trades Union Congress has declared “the state is back” as the UK’s biggest unions urged the government to form a national recovery council in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The TUC, which represents 48 unions in England and Wales, has called in a report for the establishment of the body, which it argues would bring together government, unions and employers to create a greener and fairer economy.

In an interview with the Guardian, the TUC general secretary said there could be no return to business as usual after the pandemic.

“We’ve got to get that safety net strung again, we’ve got to invest in our public services, which may have to build resilience for a long time to come,” Frances O’Grady said. “Unions are back … but the state is back too.”

Launching the report alongside the shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, on Wednesday, the TUC is calling for a return of the unity shown in the years after the second world war, arguing that the post-conflict decade of social investment created growth of 3.3%, but a decade of austerity after the banking crash resulted in growth of 1.9%.

“This can’t be about working people paying the price again,” said O’Grady. “I think there is a real sense that this has got to be a people’s effort. It can’t just be left to employers or politicians, we’ve got to step up too.”


The TUC, which represents 5.5 million members, is also calling for an overhaul of the UK’s business model – which it argues is based on low-paid, insecure jobs and the exclusion of workers from decision-making. It has called for an increase in the minimum wage to £10 an hour, a public sector pay rise, a ban on zero-hours contracts and a job guarantee scheme – particularly for young people facing a bleak future.

In the far-reaching document the TUC argues that systems for trade and finance damage the interests of poorer countries and drive unfair pay, and calls for changes to international rules and institutions, as well as a plan to tackle discrimination faced by black and minority ethnic people, women and disabled people.

It praises the government’s “constructive” work with unions on the creation of the job retention scheme, adding that the ability of local authorities to take homeless people off the street, the emergence of mutual support groups and the adaptability of the workforce, as well as government interventions, “show the speed and scale of what can be done when it is necessary”. It adds that the same commitment and urgency must be applied to tackling the climate emergency.

“We’ve run out of excuses about creating a carbon-free economy,” said O’Grady.

Industry bailouts and any state investment in the next few months must come with an “Olympics-style plan” for jobs and a minimum requirement for the use of UK products and services to rebuild UK manufacturing, says the report. With unemployment levels set to increase dramatically, it argues jobless people should be given a “funded individual learning account” to learn new skills, with the promise of a job at the end of training.


“We’ve got to build back brick by brick, but it has to be fair, decent rewards, fair taxes – all of that has got to be back on the agenda,” said O’Grady. “I think the centre of gravity has shifted and people are remembering why equality matters.”

WiredGov, a well known internet magazine, followed up by responding with a lead article written by a professor from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

IEA Editorial and Research Fellow Professor Len Shackleton responded to the TUC’s report published yesterday, A Better Recovery, which calls for the government to form a National Recovery Council

“The TUC’s plan for ‘a better recovery’ would almost guarantee we would have no recovery at all.

“Until Covid-19 hit, the UK’s labour market was at its most successful in decades with very high levels of employment and the lowest unemployment rate for 45 years. This was due in large measure to its flexibility compared to the scelerotic continental European economies. To abandon that approach would be foolish in the extreme.

“A higher minimum wage for all workers, pay increases for the public sector, a ban on zero hours contracts, higher benefits and other goodies proposed by the TUC are fantasies in the current climate and would worsen unemployment.

“The proposal for a tripartite National Recovery Council would be a pointless talking shop. It resembles the National Economic Development Council of the 1960s, a decade of industrial strife which too many unionists look on with fondness. No government can provide a ‘job guarantee’ of the sort the TUC report calls for. 

“These measures, and others such as the plan to ban outsourcing and to subsidise new ‘green’ businesses, would mean a greatly increased tax burden on the private sector which ultimately finances far too many of the UK’s public sector trade unionists. Our way out of the recovery must involve a bigger role for the market economy, not its further constriction by government.”

The writers of a letter that was published 'Big Economic Upheaval in UK,' May 19 in this blog, opened out a framework for a post Coronavirus, which was an alternative to the economy and society actually being prepared by the government in the UK. The introduction to that May 19 letter follows;  

'Active socialists, trade unionists and people fighting for radical change have presented a public statement that prepares a new vision - post Coronavirus. The statement will be sent out to many. This 'Polecon blog' has also accepted to post the declaration. It provides a powerful and positive platform for the future. 

Following the same understanding, Polecon fully supports the efforts being made by the Peoples Assembly to unite a broad movement aimed at resisting the new austerity being prepared by the Tory government. Polecon asks the Peoples Assembly and all those with the relevant expertise and experience, including those supporting Labour's Manifestos of 2017 and 2019, to assemble around a commission designed to prepare the new economy.'

The TUC's suggestion for a National Recovery Council in common with the Johnson-led Tory government is, potentially, a deadly mistake. In the first place the cautious and backward objectives of 'A Better Recovery' will fail - even in the completely unlikely case of an economic coalition with Johnson's government. Second, the idea that a so called 'national agreement', rising above the the years of the huge attack on millions of working class people in every aspect of their lives, is viable, or even acceptable, is ridiculous. For those who really had to defend the NHS, who had to mobilise and campaign to squeeze the state and stop a plague, the TUC proposal is denying the truth of the relentless offensive that has been the real experience for most of those people. Third, Johnson may well play with the TUC's offer in order to promote a fake social unity - another, different way to emasculate any real opposition. And finally, if some of the TUC leadership think that the Tories will be exposed when they fail to adopt the TUC's proposal - it will be Johnson that will 'expose' the 'unfriendly' TUC. A serious alternative is put as fast and clear as possible onto the table. Tricks do not work when the wealthy and the rest have to finally resolve their fundamental arguments.   

The TUC leadership have walked through the Tory door. 

Of course there should be critical change in the new economy and its foundations in a new society. And this must stand as a plain and fundamental opposition to the failed and dangerous future we are being offered. There is huge social support for new nationalisations, for curbing finance and for a new industrial revolution. And, with the 14 million voters in 2017 and the 10 million in 2019, under the worst offensive since the battles for mass unions, women's rights and the welfare state, there is a potentially massive social block that can start to win a whole society. But only if the Tories are minimised from the start, rather than promoted by yet another hollow version of Johnson's 'national unity.' 

The writers of the May 19 letter in the blog - Big Economic Upheaval in UK - now ask the Peoples Assembly to allow an urgent response to the TUC proposal, including major discussions, leading up to 'Day X'.