wednesday, 4 March 2009, 15h20
Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA), German Communist Party (DKP) , New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN), Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL)
Starting the struggle for change
The financial and banking crisis has led to a global economic crisis. This crisis is the result of the capitalist model of society where, for many years, overproduction has been concealed by great credit growth and debt-financed consumption in the United States. Today, the crisis has broken out and with that break out came the collapse of the current model of global capitalism where American consumption and profits are the motor of the global economy.
The rich now require governments to make sure their fortune is safe. Governments' plans to save the banks are passing the costs of the financial crisis on to society. The industry has reacted to the crisis by reducing production, by introducing a system of temporary unemployment and by cutting jobs.
Workers are inevitably wondering whether capital should be allowed to pass on the cost of the crisis on to society or whether to fight for a progressive solution. Our aim is to fuel this political and societal debate on the basis of our beliefs. Not only has this financial crisis led to the collapse of the largest banks, it has also called into question the ideological, political and economic concept of neo-liberalism. The Lisbon Strategy has failed and the Stability and Growth Pact is nothing more than a worthless piece paper.
This crisis also raises other important questions about our society's structure. The time has come to further develop socialist views of the future in Europe. In the debate we are faced with, we defend an economy that serves the people, which is what our parties already do at a national and European level.
The national level
• Not only guarantee savings accounts, but also jobs, salaries, retirement benefits and social benefits
⁃ Make the rich pay. Those who earned their money because of financial excess are the ones that need to pay i.e. the financial groups, investment funds and the super-rich who wanted to watch their capital grow ever more, ever faster and in an ever riskier way.
⁃ Cancel all tax reductions that have been granted over the past few years on the biggest incomes as well as profits and financial stimuli used to encourage investments. Profits, big salaries and big fortunes must be submitted to progressive tax.
⁃ Reduce VAT on common consumer goods and reduce tax on low and medium income.
• Public investments in an economy to serve the people
⁃ In order to set up an economy that respects the environment and serves the people, we need to invest in the transformation of the current model of consumption and production: save energy and raw materials –particularly in public transport, local infrastructure, healthcare and education, produce eco-friendly energy and reduce pollution. The billions that are roaming the earth looking for the most profitable investment must contribute.
• Nationalise the financial sector
⁃ In order for an alternative policy to succeed, banks and financial institutions must be owned and supervised by the community. In other words, social representatives, towns, retailers, trade unions, consumer organisations, nature activist groups, the alter-globalization movement, pacifist movement, Third-Worldist movement, and elected officials from the bottom which advocate alternative political economy must all have a hand controlling them.
• Ending capitalisation-based "social insurance" systems
⁃ No longer allow pension benefits to be gambled on the stock exchange. It is time to return to public social insurance systems based on solidarity. We must enable this by increasing the contribution of profits and big fortunes.
⁃ Increase pension benefits to a level over the poverty line.
The European level
Completely reject the Lisbon Treaty
⁃ The Lisbon Strategy (which plans to turn the EU into the most competitive strategy in the world by 2010) has failed and must be replaced by a strategy that stimulates the European market by increasing national demand –public as much as private- (increasing salaries, pension benefits, study grants, unemployment benefits).
⁃ The Stability and Growth Pact (which specifies that State debt may not exceed 60% of GDP and budget deficit 3% of GDP) must be replaced by a solidarity pact aimed at the development of a united Europe where the current highest social norm will be implemented in all countries.
⁃ The EU must reconsider the rules that regulate government-owned corporations. Articles 81, 82 and 86 of the European convention (European rules that advocate free competition and limit State intervention in the economy) must be revoked and State monopolies as well as State aid for government-owned corporations must be recognized.
Putting an end to tax havens and subjecting the European Central Bank to public control
⁃ We must put an end to tax havens and introduce progressive taxation on profits, high income and big fortunes.
⁃ The European Central Bank must be subjected to democratic control. Policies that aim for full employment, the strengthening of the economy's public sector, research and development must be implemented. Monetary policy and interest rate policies must aspire to sustainable development, to a financing system favourable to public debt, and to the cooperation with Mediterranean and developing countries. Only investments in the real economy, and not destined to a new whirl of speculation, can be granted credit. Their main mission must be to support long-term regional structural programs aimed at introducing a new mode of production, a new consumption model, a new way of life.
February 2009
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