The European Union has agreed to provide a cushion of loans to stabilise Greece’s economic situation, if required, with additional contributions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the cost of ensuring Greece’s debt will be four times that charged on Spain’s debt. Again, working people will pay the price for usurious financial schemes.
The international labour movement has better ideas for economic recovery.
The Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the International and European Trade Union Confederations (ITUC and ETUC) are calling for an internationally-coordinated recovery plan that commits a further 1% of GDP in public investment in each of the next three years. TUAC forecasts that this would slow and then stabilise the otherwise catastrophic rise in global unemployment. (The International Labour Organisation estimates that some 60 million more workers will become unemployed around the world this year, with another 240 million workers earning less than one euro a day.)
TUAC alerted trade unionists last year to a plan for the G8 outlined by IMF and OECD economists that would spell disaster for working people. It recommended cutting public sector spending, slashing public service pensions, decreasing corporate income tax while increasing taxes that impact working families most, and proposed ‘wage flexibility’ which really means lowering wages and regulations.
TUAC has set up a joint task force with the ITUC and the ETUC to formulate a new model of growth. We desperately need a new socioeconomic vision which puts defending and building public services at the top of the agenda, supported by fair tax systems.
Peter Waldorff, PSI General Secretary
Comments