Skip to main content

Rethink the Model

'Five years since the 'great recession" started, the failed policy of austerity has left a legacy of extreme levels of unemployment, rising inequality, the marginalisation of a generation of young people and the desperation of a growing informal sector where rules simply don`t apply.

'International institutions did not prevent the economic crisis; they are now failing to regulate the greed and destruction of speculative capital and prevent the next banking crisis. They are doing nothing to rethink the economic and trade model, which has caused unparalleled inequality. The global economy is no more secure today than it was five years ago.

'Collective bargaining, a cornerstone of the relationship between a worker and employer is threatened with elimination. A fundamental global right, set by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), is being violated. Social unrest and impoverishment are seen as mere collateral damage in this attack on workers` rights, an attack which is undertaken without economic evidence that stands up to scrutiny.'

International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC) Frontlines 2013 Report, quoted in
'Futures commission on alternatives to neoliberalism,'
address by Zwelinzima Vavi, general
secretary of the South Africa Congress
of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)

Text: http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=7458

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)