‘Take to the streets over these cuts’ union leader urges voters

Unite’s Len McCluskey pledged to “fight all the way to the next election” as he said no form of protest, including the prospect of a general strike, should be ruled out.

He said the government’s policies, designed to balance the nation’s books, were leaving working people feeling “battered”.

Mr McLuskey said: “The reality is that this government’s policies are taking us on a path to poverty and we want to make certain that we give people confidence throughout our nations to be able to stand up and resist.

“That’s the only thing you can do, it’s called democracy. The oldest form of democracy is protest, civil disobedience, any form of resistance that makes this government take a step back and know that there are millions and millions of ordinary working people in our nations who are not prepared to stand idly by and watch them destroy everything that we hold dear to us in our society.”

He added: “When governments are acting in a way that is against ordinary working people we have a right, in fact we have a duty, to stand up and protest.

“Those protests will take all kinds of different forms – marches on streets, civil disobedience, industrial action. All of those should be used and none of them should be ruled out.”

Mr McCluskey said unions should not be “cowering” at the prospect of taking on the government.

“Ordinary working people, who feel battered at the moment, attacked from all sides by this government, should have the bravery and the courage to stand together,” he said.“This is no time for trade union leaders, to be cowering in the corner.”

“We’ve got to be proud of our values of fairness, of equality, of decency and justice. We have got to say very clearly to this government that we are going to fight you all the way to the next  election.”