[Individual-members-EL] GUE/NGL Press: Unfettered capitalism is not the globalisation people want

[info at european-left.org]

NEWS UPDATE

FROM THE GUE/NGL GROUP

Strasbourg 14-11-2007

 
Unfettered capitalism is not the globalisation people want

 

Expressing regret that the European Parliament's joint resolution on
globalisation doesn't address the interests and concerns of the people of
Europe, Czech GUE/NGL MEP Jiří Maštálka said that MEPs had "absolutely
failed to recognise the negative impact of globalisation" and that they were
"offering people nothing but propaganda on how to resolve the dilemmas
associated with globalisation". 

 

In its alternative proposals, the GUE/NGL focused mainly on the fight
against poverty and Maštálka pointed to statistics that show that in the EU
more than 80 million people have a disposable income of less than 60 per
cent of the national average income. He stressed the need for more effective
means of guaranteeing citizens' existing rights in employment, education,
healthcare and social protection and called for a new integrated strategy
for sustainability and solidarity to replace the current Lisbon strategy.

 

Also speaking during the same debate, German GUE/NGL MEP Sahra Wagenknecht
said that globalisation was not the 'natural' process it is often
represented to be. "Globalisation is itself a result of political decisions
for the further deregulation and liberalisation of the international
movement of capital, forcing developing countries to open their capital
markets."

 

She said that what the term 'globalisation' actually describes is not the
internationalisation of the economy, but a move by banks and big business to
play poor countries off against one other in order to maximise profit.

 

"This process has resulted in low corporate taxes, social networks in ruins
and brutal wage dumping, in other words: ever more unfettered capitalism. It
has not benefited the majority. On the contrary - wild capitalism is the
domain of the financially strong and brings exploitation and oppression for
the financially weak. This resolution will not get our agreement. We will
continue to fight instead for another economic order in Europe, one in which
people are no longer treated as a labour cost and countries as mere
locations" she finished.

 
GUE/NGL Press
Gianfranco Battistini +32 475 64 66 28
David Lundy +32 485 50 58 12
www.guengl.eu <http://www.guengl.eu/> 
 
The GUE/NGL (European United Left/Nordic Green Left) Group is made up of
forty-one MEPs from sixteen parties in thirteen European countries.
 
Le Groupe GUE/NGL (Gauche unitaire européenne/Gauche verte nordique) est
composé de 41 députés issus de 16 partis politiques de 13 pays européens.
 

El Grupo GUE/NGL (Izquierda Unitaria Europea/ Izquierda Verde Nórdica) está
compuesto por 41 diputados de 16 partidos políticos de 13 países europeos.

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