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| EU leaders in Brussels |
European Union EU leaders held a two-day summit in Brussels on (27 June) aimed at addressing unemployment as figures continue to spiral out of control. The summit included EU leaders, trade unions and employers' associations. The reality of the situation is, unemployment is not the problem, the problem is capitalism - this summit is on par with putting a plaster over a bleeding artery & will NOT solve unemployment.
Today in 2013 we have record high youth unemployment within the European Union, where a quarter of under-25s are out of work, has prompted yet another Brussels summit. We are heading for MASSIVE protest around Europe including Britain as those unemployed feel rejected, demonised & patronised & used as economic pawns within a capitalist system.
Capitalism has failed, the people know that the system needs to change definitely, that structural reforms need to be made and we need to take our fate into our own hand - we need an alternative economic, & political strategy in place, we need a planned economy, we required socialism.
It's simply not possible to create jobs in a recessionary environment - you need a 'planned economy' to kick-start growth - after the second world war Europe needed to be rebuilt, today we are in the same situation, austerity is the wrong solution.
The 5.6 million unemployed young people in Europe are the ‘lost generation’. Those aged between 18 and 25 have no jobs, the situation is even worse in Greece and Spain, where over half of people in that age group are without a job.
The European Council will merely look at the social dimension in terms of how far social policy is supporting economic goals, or by very limited measures on social indicators. This is not enough!
The Council must respond to the
urgency of the situation - the disillusionment at the EU’s failure to
deliver on its Europe 2020 poverty reduction target, the growing social,
economic and democratic crisis with rising levels of xenophobia and
the growing distrust of the EU’s handling of the crisis with its one-size
fits all agenda of austerity, wage reductions and privatisation. A
change of direction is needed and the Council should launch a real
democratic debate – with parliaments, civil society, social partners and
involving the people most affected aimed at ensuring a credible social
dimension for the EU and the EMU.
Therefore we must ensure the following as a start point:
- Ambitious objectives for the EMU – rebalancing economic and social objectives, that ensure economic priorities support rather than attack social goals.
- the Council to launch a democratic debate to develop an ambitious social dimension– through consultation with national and European Parliaments and engaging civil society and social partners.
Five key elements:
- Set an ambitious coherent social vision for the EU , as well as the EMU
- Ensure that economic policies contribute to social goals, stop current austerity measures which are undermining social rights and carry outex-ante coordination,going beyond the proposed social scoreboard.
- Ensure a coherent, social approach is mainstreamed through the European Semester – in all its elements, with the Europe 2020 targets at the centre of the process.
- Pro-active visible EU measures to promote social standards across the EU – i.e. a Framework Directive on the adequacy of Minimum Income Schemes.
- Social Investment and Employment Pact to drive recovery through investing in social protection, public services and quality employment.
Eurofound, an EU agency whose goal is to improve working and living conditions estimates the cost of youth unemployment in Europe at over 150 billion euro a year in lost earnings and taxes, as well as unemployment benefit and other welfare payments.
Young people in Europe have been hit hard by the recession with only 33.6 percent employed in 2011, the lowest figure ever recorded, according to Eurofound. Since the start of the recession, youth unemployment has risen by 1.5 million, reaching 5.5 million in 2011. Meanwhile, 7.5 million young people aged 15–24 and an additional 6.5 million young people aged 25–29 were not in employment, education or training. To compare: In 2008, the figure stood at 11 percent of 15–24 year olds and 13 percent of 25–29 year olds. By 2011, however, these had increased to 13 percent and 15 percent respectively.
The problem is the EU, G20 labour ministers & leaders like David Cameron & Ed Miliband is they firmly believe in austerity & 'cuts' to the public purse, in reality austerity is wrong for the situation 'we' in Britain like Europe find ourselves. David Cameron is 'self harming Britain' as a consequence hit a 'major artery', along with the British Labour Party they offer little alternative. Putting a plaster over a bleeding artery will NOT solve the economic crisis.
We need a planned economy, we required socialism.
Email: respect_unemployed@ovi.com
On Facebook: Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants
Add us on twitter https://twitter.com/DoleQueueUnite .
We need a planned economy, we required socialism.
Email: respect_unemployed@ovi.com
On Facebook: Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants
Add us on twitter https://twitter.com/DoleQueueUnite .
5 comments:
Capitalism has been in crises since the late 1970's, it solved the realization crises of the 1970's which the capitalist political elite saw as a crises of class power by the neo-liberal economic policies implemented by neo-conservative states in the 1980's and 1990's. The realization crises re-emerged post-2007 and the capitalist classes seek to resolve this crises in a similar way the those of the 1980's and 1990's by further privatization of the state, cuts in welfare and wages to release capital for profit and cut labour costs. This isn't just happening in Britain but across the EU and globally.
Lenin argued ''it's for communists to build up the forces which will overthrow the social-patriots'' Left Wing Communism an Infantile Disorder, Communist Party, Pelican Press, p64 1920. and ''social-chauvinism and left-doctrinarism as a fundamental problem holding back the class struggle'' (Lenin p71,72). The point of Marxist and Leninist theory and practice is to understand the material-dialectics of capitalism. The argument from a Marxist and Leninist perspective is that we cannot build a social-democratic or socialist state in isolation surrounded by the hostile forces of the IMF, WTO, World Bank et al. The only way the working class can fight back against the forces of capitalism and the capitalist political and economic elite is as a left bloc at the supra-national and national level.
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Lenin argued that those Marxists who follow national-bolshevism and sectarian dogma show themselves to be un-dialectic and incapable of reckoning with the rapid changes that capitalism has undergone and so continue to repeat ''simple truths'' once learned by rote. He argued ''we must correct the mistakes of left-communists'' and the idea that we should ''not admit manoeuvres, cooperation, compromise which in fact has and is bringing serious harm to the cause of socialism'' Left Wing Communism an Infantile Disorder, Communist Party, Pelican Press, London, p81 1920.
I don't expect Len McCluskey to rush out and get a copy of The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism by David Harvey or Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature by John Bellamy Foster but Andrew Murray as a Marxist and a Leninist should understand the material-dialectics and the imperialist phase of monopoly capitalism which we call globalization these days. As a Marxist, Murray should understand the absurdity of national-chauvinism. If our union is going to make the historic break with Labourism (Bernsteinism) an support a more radical left party or parties we need to understand the material-dialectics of capitalism in a post-Keynesian and post-Soviet global political-economy, otherwise we will choose the wrong party or parties. If we get it wrong the consequences will be as bad as sticking with blue-labour.
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