TUC calls on Labour to stop 'serious escalation in authoritarianism'

The TUC will write to the Prime Minister, Home Secretary, and the Mayor of London, arguing that the Labour government 'should be defending basic human rights and democratic norms, not imperilling them' and demanding an end to attacks on the right to protest.  

This follows an emergency motion proposed by UCU and backed by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) passing unanimously at the TUC's annual Congress in Brighton. 

Moreover, the TUC, representing 5.6 million workers, will specifically demand an immediate end to the Metropolitan Police's 'punitive, political use of sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act' against the national demonstrations for Palestine.  

Speaking to the motion, UCU General Secretary Jo Grady said: 'Instead of reversing repressive Tory laws, this Labour government has embraced them - and in some cases gone further. This is a dangerous road to be going down; because when you criminalise dissent; when you hand sweeping powers to the police; when you silence critics in the name of public order, no-one is safe. 

'And we know where this road leads. We have seen across the world how governments that curb the right to protest also come for trade unions. They come for our picket lines. They come for our right to strike. They come for the very freedoms our movement was built on. 

'With the far-right on the rise, we say this clearly: a Labour government should be defending basic human rights and democratic norms, not wrecking them.'