Thousands gathered in protest in a march through London against the Conservative Party’s austerity cuts
Richard Williams has a story like many others in Britain’s post-crash economy. He’s a young selfdescribed “creative” trying to make his way working for himself. Based in his native South Wales he talks with a quiet resolve about how he’s striving to build a business designing marketing material for housing companies.
His tale is, however, exceptional in one regard: he’s recently joined a trade union. Previously he had no links to the labour movement—”you could have put me down as highly sceptical”, he said. “Never thought I’d be a member.” Yet he found himself joining Community, the union that traditionally represented steel workers, when it teamed up with a social enterprise, IndyCube, who provide the shared office space in Cardiff that Williams uses. Members of IndyCube automatically join the union, and get free access to its legal and invoicing services. “I’m tiny, and I have to deal with large firms all the time—now they have to take me seriously”, he explained. “Ultimately, it’s about power.”