TUC leader says UK at economic and social crossroads Brendan Barber will tell the congress the government needs to engage with unions as well as with business. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian Britain is at a historically important crossroads marking a choice between decline or renewal, according to the leader of the Trades Union Congress. The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, will launch a scathing attack on the government on Monday, saying the coalition's policies are driving the country deeper into recession. However, in comments before his speech he denied calling for a general strike as way of trying to persuade the government to change its economic policy. Barber will tell the TUC congress in Brighton that one of the legacies of the Olympics should be to show what can be achieved when there is the courage to do things differently, "rejecting those who say we have to do things on the cheap, and instead doing things right; engaging trade unions as partners; giving workers as well as business a voice. "Let's not forget how it all started, with that wonderful opening ceremony," he said. Politicians have struggled for years to define what they mean by Britishness; Danny Boyle got it at his first attempt. It's about our shared history, our struggles: the suffragettes, trade unions, the Jarrow marchers, the Windrush voyagers, the visionaries who in the aftermath of war and amidst austerity built our NHS. Those summer weeks were a time when we really were all in it together - not because we were told to be, but because we wanted to be: athletes, workers, volunteers, spectators, residents, communities - all pulling together. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Barber revealed that despite transport workers threatening strikes, Lord Coe had sent "a warm message of thanks" to the Congress for helping to deliver the Olympic games "on time [and] on budget." Barber, who stands down as TUC general secretary at the end of the year, will say that nowhere is the case for change more urgent than on economic policy. "It's clear that austerity simply isn't working," he will says. There has been no growth since the government came to power, over two years ago. In effect, the economy has become a gigantic laboratory. Barber will say Britain is at a crossroads: "In one direction is decline, depression and despair; in the other is recovery, regeneration and renewal." Parts of Britain have boarded-up high streets, pawnbrokers and food banks, he will say, describing "a Britain of stratospheric inequality, hopes denied for millions of our young people. Our society is becoming more fractured as benefits are cut for the poor and taxes slashed for the rich. Asked by the Today presenter, John Humphries, about mass co-ordinated strike action this autumn, Barber said that although the possibility of disputes remained:"I'm certainly not talking about a general strike ... To have a strike - that comes from members, that comes from workers ... Strikes don't happen at the whims of unions leaders. He said that although the economy was "on its back" his solution was not to call for further strikes but for "a change of our economic policy away from this total focus on austerity ... We need to replace it with a great national project that's about growth and getting people back to work."