Jobs not austerity

This picture shows a protest in the UK – one of the posters speaks volumes – ‘NHS NOT TRIDENT’ – it seems there is money for missiles but not for the Health Service… we must be careful we don’t move in that direction here!

In the EU a neo-liberal approach and a politics of austerity has ruined the lives of millions and eroded our democratic fundamentals. We must not be afraid to stand up to policies which put multinationals, banks and the speculative financial markets first, at the cost of common people, workers, SMEs, young entrepreneurs and the vast majority of people.

It is and it will be difficult because people have been fed the mantra that even mildly regulating the giants will lead to some kind of disaster. In fact it is the other way round – unregulated speculative markets have led to a disaster which the EU taxpayer – the vast majority of whom are normal wage-earners – who had to carry the expense of bailing the ‘giants’ out.

They will call us all sorts of names, they will invent stories and keep pushing their failed ‘trickle-down’ economic theories.

They will say that social expenditure is a waste of money, but at the same time they expect to get away with paying no taxes on their financial products.

They will emphasise stories of abuse of the welfare system, yet they do not mind gambling on the markets, risking the wellbeing and jobs of thousands upon thousands of people.

They will claim that a 0.01% tax on speculative transactions/derivatives etc. will scare away ‘investment’, yet they do not mind fluctuating markets with essential commodities changing prices so much that whole economies teeter on the brink of collapse. In the meantime normal consumers pay 18% in VAT (compare that with a proposed 0.01%  Financial Transaction Tax!).

They say that renewable sources of energy are ‘too expensive’, too undeveloped – and at the same time pour money into fossil fuel giants – of course that is where the profit is! They do not mind the ecological problems followed by the huge social problems their money is leading too.

Because of all this, I’m voting Green this May.