Unions press G20 leaders to end 'casino capitalism'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/01/g20-trade-unions

Richard Wachman
The Guardian,
Wednesday 1 April 2009
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Union bosses representing 170 million workers around the world have called for an end to the "unleashed casino capitalism" that they say is to blame for 50m job losses since the credit crunch erupted in 2007.

Representatives of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), including Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, met Gordon Brown last night to warn him against "a return to wheeler-dealer financial markets" when the economic crisis subsides.

Barber said: "Laissez-faire, unfettered market capitalism has been found wanting and we cannot simply go back to the old ways when, and if, the situation eases."



International trade union officials have been lobbying politicians ahead of the G20 summit in London tomorrow to secure more government intervention to safeguard employment and to ensure tighter regulation of global capital markets.

They want a new international fund established by richer nations to protect and create jobs, particularly in developing countries. Ebrahim Patel, head of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union, said: "Poorer countries are being devastated by the slump, with people's lives ruined as unemployment goes from bad to worse. That is why it's essential that we get a united global response from G20."

The unions have held discussions with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy; Spain's prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the German finance minister, Peer Steinbrück.

Barber urged European countries to boost spending to create jobs in "green industries" and match the federal funds that Barack Obama has set aside for growth in the US. "We need an [economic] stimulus to get us back to growth. When I look around Britain, you still see the ravages of the recession of 30 years ago; we don't want to make the same mistakes again."