Trade unions and anti-cuts campaigners plan summer of protest

Trade union leaders and anti-cuts campaigners are to hold talks on Tuesday to hammer out plans for a summer of industrial action and protest against the government's austerity programme. Members of the direct action group UK Uncut and campaigners from the Coalition of Resistance are among those who have been invited to the TUC headquarters in London to meet the deputy general secretary, Frances O'Grady. The move signals an increase in co-operation between the mainstream union movement and the wider – and often more radical – anti-cuts groups, and comes before a day of co-ordinated industrial action over public sector pensions on 30 June. Andrew Burgin, from the Coalition of Resistance, said it was part of a drive to mobilise a broad opposition to the government's plans. "We need to unite these unions who are prepared to take a lead with the anti-cuts movement campaigns and broaden it in that way – with the anti-cuts campaigns, the students and the unions. We must have real unity of all the anti-cuts campaigns." Tuesday's meeting will be the first time UK Uncut, one of the country's fastest growing protest groups, which has closed scores of high street bank branches in anti-cuts and tax avoidance campaigns, has been involved in direct talks with the TUC, although it has worked increasingly closely with individual unions over the past few months. A spokesman for the group said: "It is really encouraging to see the TUC reach out to different groups and we are looking forward to working with them to build the anti-cuts movement in the coming months." About 750,000 public sector workers from major unions including the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) are due to strike on 30 June, and UK Uncut has already announced its supporters will join picket lines, adding that it will be staging a "public spectacular" to coincide with the strike. Thousands of students are also expected to support this week's industrial action, joining picket lines and staging occupations and sit-ins around the country. Activists say the wider anti-cuts campaign has been inspired in part by protests across Europe over recent months, particularly those in Spain and Greece. This week's action could be the start of an ongoing campaign against the government's plans. Earlier this month Dave Prentis, the head of Unison, the UK's biggest public-sector union, promised to mount the most sustained wave of industrial action the country has seen since the general strike of 1926, vowing not to back down until the government has dropped its pension changes. Tuesday's meeting is not expected to focus on this week's strike, but rather to discuss the impact of the government's cuts and how best to oppose them over the coming months. A TUC spokesman said: "The TUC is meeting with a wide range of local, regional and national community and campaigning organisations to listen to their concerns about the impact of the government's spending cuts. "The TUC is fully committed to supporting the four unions and their members who are taking industrial action this week, and those unions will be leading efforts to co-ordinate events and activities on the day."