Cuts will push UK back into recession - Sunday Herald‏

The Scottish Sunday Herald yesterday added its editorial voice to thoseopposing the slash and burn policies of the Con Dem Government: 'If Osborne chooses to ignore Keynes's advice and continues to dismiss even the possibility that he is wrong, the price the Government pays could be high. Pushing the UK back into recession will lead to higher spending and more debt. The ideological debate on the state will also end there. And the only available remedy will be intervention by the state - or worse, the IMF.' http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/comment/herald-view/are-cuts-still-the-right-medicine-for-a-sick-economy-1.1054406

John Monks gives 100% support to Spanish General Strike‏

Former TUC General Secretary John Monks – soon to reside in the House of Lords – attended a mass rally of trade unionists in Madrid last Thursday and gave ‘100% support’ to the general strike planned for 29 September.

NHS Direct Reps meet Tuesday‏

UNISON Reps at NHS Direct will meet (Tuesday) at UNISON headquarters, London to decide the next steps in their campaign to defend the popular 24 Hour health line NHS Direct, after forcing the Coalition to back track on axing the service.

A manifesto for the eradication of trade unions‏

Opportunistically timed to coincide with heightened media interest in trade unions during Congress week, a right wing pressure group has published a policy paper which, if enacted, would neuter the industrial organisation and political influence of UK trade unions.

Make or break time for the unions – Meacher‏

The 2010 TUC Congress is a watershed says veteran NW Labour MP Michael Meacher: ‘will the coming job cuts, on top of 2.5 million already unemployed, sap union strength even further beyond the halving of union membership since the 1980s or will it finally catalyse a fundamental grass roots revolt restoring confidence in the collective strength of workers as the only bulwark against the steady decline of the last three decades?’ http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/2010/09/make-or-break-for-the-unions/

Welfare to worklessness‏

The Con Dem coalition plans to complete the dismantling of the welfare state and penalise the vulnerable, according to ex-FT employment editor Robert Taylor writing in Red Pepper. http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Welfare-to-worklessness

Congress Voices - news & views from Manchester‏

Congress Voices is a must read web portal from the TUC this week – providing a steady supply of Congress discussion, news and comment: http://www.congressvoices.org/

TUC 2010 Congress UNISONActive Preview - Are we ready to defend ourselves or going through the motions?‏

This year’s venue for the annual trade union congress is the great northern city of Manchester, an appropriate venue, placing the delegates in the heart of a region likely to be devastated by the ideological assault being mounted against the working classes of this country.  http://www.tuc.org.uk/index.cfm

Don't be fooled by Con Dem barrage of propaganda - Brendan Barber‏

The TUC General Secretary makes a strong stand against the Con Dem austerity programme in a hard hitting pre-Congress interview in the Independent on Sunday: "There is an alternative. Don't be fooled by the barrage of propaganda by the Government, that all of this is simply unavoidable and there are no choices. There are real choices. These are not decisions made out of necessity. They are made out of political principle and choice."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/camerons-cuts-will-disfigure-uk-says-tuc-2077189.html

Capitalism by Lee Whensley‏

Capitalism fails when there’s nothing left to take,
When everything we lived for is discovered to be fake -
Was everything we killed for just a big mistake?