Trades unions, mutualism and public services

Just when it seemed like enthusiasm for the third sector was universal, it appears that the General Secretary of the TUC has not heard of it. Brendan Barber writes in Public Finance magazine about "public value" and reform of public services simply in terms of the public sector and the private sector.

The trades union movement should be encouraging new mutually owned forms of public services which empower both those who work in public services and those who use them. After all the trades union movement and the co-operative movement grew as comrades in the nineteenth century.