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Tell Gordon Brown that it's time to call time on Global Greed
Dear Prime Minister
'The financial crisis has graphically demonstrated to people in rich countries what those in poor countries have known for years: the current international economic system doesn't work. We need a radically different economic system which puts people and the planet first. The world's poorest people must have a full and equal say in developing this system - decisions must not be taken by bodies that only represent rich countries.'
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Press release
Anti poverty campaigners call on Gordon Brown to call
time on global greed. TJM/JDC
Background
The past few months have seen one of the most significant financial crises in North American and European history, a crisis caused by 'global greed' - a reckless and unregulated economic system which has been biased against the poor for decades. The spiralling levels of inequality and instability created by this system have created enormous social and environmental problems.
Once again, the fall-out of this crisis will have a detrimental impact on millions of ordinary people in the UK, and billions of people in the poorest countries of the world. But while those that created the crisis have been bailed out (bonus intact) with unprecedented sums of taxpayer money, the poor in developed and developing nations have received nothing.
Let's call time on global greed. The same systems that create poverty here - unfair trade rules and tax systems, debt burdens, privatisation and attacks on welfare spending - also create poverty in the developing world.
Only a system which works for the poorest of the world will ensure a just, sustainable and prosperous world for all of us.
It's time for a radically different economic system which reduces inequality, creates jobs, puts people before profit, ensures a sustainable environment, and puts eradicating poverty at its heart. We need a 'green new deal' that will revolutionise the economy :
- A major recovery plan that puts people and the environment at its heart, in particular which enables countries to better feed, clothe, educate and protect their people
- Effective regulation of the financial system, including just tax, debt and trade rules
- A new and democratic set of institutions to govern this economic system
This fundamental global reform needs to be agreed democratically, with the poorest of the world having a full and equal say over the future economic system.
In particular this system cannot be agreed at the meeting of the 20 most powerful countries in the world (G20) on 15 November.
For
example, the UN, as an organisation with such a mandate, could be
empowered to lead a process of comprehensive reform of the financial
and economic system which involves all governments and civil
society, in an open manner.
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