The proposed new EU treaty would limit government borrowing and entrench austerity economics, though it would also introduce a Robin Hood tax on the finance sector – and that is why our prime minister vetoed it.
So even though the treaty was largely a disaster for working people, our prime minister opposed it for the one progressive measure it contained.
This is the problem. Our government, led by the City funded Tories, is completely in hock to the markets and the finance sector. Ministers try to argue that what is good according to the large financial institutions that control the markets is in our ‘national interest’. This is not a national but an elite interest: ripping up regulations, driving down wages, cutting pensions, and privatising public services.
Communities too important to fail
The inevitable result of these policies will be misery for many, hardship for most and riches for a tiny elite. We are already seeing this in the UK: more people out of work and, for those in employment, wages are falling. Meanwhile executive pay rose by 49% last year. On pensions too private companies like Unilever and Shell are pledging to cut pension schemes for their workers and the government is trying to cut public sector pensions so that jobs can be privatised.
Our economy operates in the interest of a tiny elite, dubbed the ‘1%’ by the Occupy Movement. Their only value is profit. Traders speculating on currencies and bondholders charging high interest rates can crash economies – throwing people out of work and removing democratically-elected governments. Speculation on food prices is causing starvation and malnutrition in poorer parts of the world, but generating tidy profits for some hedge fund bosses.
Multinational companies using tax havens and other loopholes to avoid paying the taxes they owe are depriving governments of the revenues they need to invest in public services and job creation. PCS will be focusing on setting out an alternative to bowing down before the markets, to make finance operate in the interests of people.
If the banks were too important to fail, then our communities are too!
