Minimum Wages in Europe: a Strategy against Wage-Dumping Policies?

Lars Vande Keybus

In numerous countries such as Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, and others, the European Commission (EC) - in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB) - has imposed a dramatic policy mix that consists of blind austerity, privatisation and wage cuts. Following the adoption of the notorious ‘six-pack’ in December 2011, it is clear that such policies will become a general rule all over Europe. The ‘six-pack’ sets up a structure in which the EC is granted a role as budgetary supervisor and punisher. The commission has the opportunity to almost automatically punish European Union (EU) members who do not follow recommendations to correct

EU ‘Austerity’ Deal won’t work – Irish Workers face a grim Future

Frank Connolly

The EU summit on Friday 9 December, during which 26 out of 27 member countries agreed on a new intergovernmental treaty including a “fiscal compact” to enforce budgetary discipline on states which breach the 3% deficit (of GDP) limit, will not provide the growth strategy that is necessary to help deeply indebted euro zone countries out of recession.

The fiscal compact proposals will not solve the problems of the euro for the peoples of Europe but will instead “institutionalise austerity” by enforcing an annual structural deficit that does not exceed 0.5% of GDP. A strategy for growth and for a rapid job generating recovery is completely missing. Without such a strategy there is no relief in sight for the stressed countries.

Nor did this summit, dominated by German and French political and financial considerations, include any suggestion of debt restructuring, or euro bonds or any kind of fiscal transfer mechanism to direct resources from prosperous regions to

Global Labour Online Campaigns: The next 10 Years

Eric Lee

In November 2011, the military dictatorship in Fiji jailed two of the country’s most prominent trade union leaders. Following the launch of an online campaign sponsored by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and run on the LabourStart website, some 4,000 messages of protest were sent in less than 24 hours. The government relented, the union leaders were freed, and the campaign suspended. A month earlier, Suzuki workers locked out in India waged a successful online campaign through the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) and LabourStart. Almost 7,000 messages flooded the company’s inboxes, and after only a few days, a compromise was reached.

The G20 and Jobs: Time for Plan B

John Evans

When the economic crisis broke following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and the global banking system seized up, workers began to be laid off, families saw their houses repossessed and banks teetered on the brink of collapse. Financial panic knew no frontiers. It was clear that a coordinated global response by governments and institutions was required to counter what the IMF termed the “Great Recession”. The major economies used the G20 as the forum to coordinate their responses, scaling it up from a low-key Finance Ministers’ Forum into a Heads of Government Summit process – effectively replacing the G8.

The international trade union movement responded rapidly[1], matching the “heat” of the street with the “light” of policy messages coming out of the G20 Summits. Trade union demands centred on stabilising employment, putting in place social protection for workers hit by the crisis, and effective and coordinated government intervention to support the global economy so as to prevent the “Great Recession” becoming a 1930s-style “Great Depression”.

How Capital Flight Drains Africa: Stolen Money and Lost Lives

Léonce Ndikumana

James K. Boyce

Financial scams often cheat working people. In most cases, the victims simply lose their money. In Africa, some lose their lives.

Sub-Saharan Africa experienced an exodus of more than US$700 billion in capital flight since 1970, a sum that far surpasses the region’s external outstanding debt of roughly US$175 billion. Some of the money wound up in private accounts at the same banks that were making loans to African governments.

Inflows of foreign borrowing and outflows of capital flight are closely intertwined. As we document in the book Africa’s Odious Debts, there is a strong correlation between the two. For every dollar of foreign borrowing, on average more than 50 cents leaves the borrower country in the same year.