We all owe a lot to Ukuncut

By Joe Cox

In October 2010 George Osborne announced the biggest public spending cuts since 1920, the Labour Party and the wider left had to respond, we just weren’t sure how. We wrote press releases and made media appearances, we planned marches but we knew we needed more than that. Ukuncut was then born and gave another important outlet to many anti-cuts activists.

Ukuncut uses visual and compelling direct action to demonstrate that there is an alternative to massive public sector cuts. They are an exciting, bold, creative, democratic, grass-roots movement. It is therefore upsetting to hear Labour Party activists criticising them over Saturday’s events. Throughout this debate I think we should keep in mind that the labour movement shares many of the same values as UKuncut, they may just differ on what they believe are the best methods to achieve their goals.

In particular I found Anthony Painter’s piece ill-informed and misguided. I thought it was appropriate that Anthony opened his piece by referring to Martin Luther King because I see UKuncut very much as following in the tradition and using tactics that the great man espoused. Martin Luther King saw injustice and acted in a non-violent direct manner to address it, UKuncut are now doing the same albeit in a different time and place.

What I found most worrying about Anthony’s piece is that the conflation of the violent protests and the non-violent UKuncut protests on Saturday. UKuncut have never engaged in violent actions or property damage. The right wing are now using this conflation between non violent and violent direct action to smear Labour politicians via. Ukuncut. It seems to me that Anthony’s conflation of the violent protests and non-violent UKuncut actions is playing into the hands of the right who would dearly love to see the issue of tax avoidance go away.

The crux of Anthony’s argument seems to be that UKuncut arrogantly decided to undermine the march by organising their actions on the same day. Having spoken to Ukuncut activists (which I doubt Anthony has having read his piece) I know they were in conversation with many trade unionists before the march. They went to great lengths to ensure that their actions would add to the protest on the day, not undermine it. Having marched in the morning I then made my way to the Oxford Street protests. Both actions can and did reinforce each other.

The idea that UKuncut activists are selfish and self-serving is particular offensive. Having given up many Saturdays to protesting with them by talking to passers by about tax avoidance and putting myself at the mercy of sometimes aggressive policing I can testify that UKuncut are far from selfish. They are here to make their voices heard and to support all those who are threatened by the cuts agenda.

The final part of Anthony’s piece is full of guesswork and caricatures. Firstly he accuses Ukuncut of being revolutionaries, by that measure the majority of the UK who are concerned about public spending cuts (himself included) must also be.

Secondly he suggests that UKuncut will inevitably sell out the people it purports to care about. It won’t because it is a grass-roots democratic movement, the key organisers may move on but the movement will continue.

As Anthony is such a well respected thinker within the labour movement I would kindly suggest that he dedicates his time to exploring why the Labour government didn’t close these tax loopholes when it had a chance and how it could in the future rather than reinforcing right wing frames and creating false divisions within the anti-cuts movement.

The fight to save our communities from savage cuts has only just started and we can all play our part in different ways. Most Labour Party activists and the wider Labour movements share the same goals as UKuncut, just different ideas on how to achieve those goals.