Getting jobs and growth onto the global agenda

Jobs and growth

E-petition

December 2010

The TUC and the International Trade Union Confederation are supporting an Avaaz internet petition to send to French President Nicholas Sarkozy to get jobs and growth onto the global agenda of the G20 in 2011. Please support the petition and encourage others to sign up.

Here's how Avaaz are publicising it:

The global recession has plunged over 100 million people back into poverty and unemployment and is threatening progress on everything we care about, including strong action on global climate change -- but this week, we could turn the tide of economic destruction.

Right now, French President Sarkozy, the new chair of the G20 group of the world's largest economies, is deciding the group's agenda. Over 300 top economists have urged the G20 to launch a coordinated global investment plan that saves millions from grinding hardship. But governments are doing the opposite - going it alone, slashing spending, and blaming each other.

President Sarkozy often seizes opportunities for dramatic popular action -- a massive outcry to him this week can persuade him to lead. Former UK PM Gordon Brown has urgently appealed to Avaaz to act - click below to watch his appeal, forward this email, and sign the petition for a Jobs and Justice plan, to be personally delivered to Sarkozy when we reach 500,000 voices.

Take action

The global recession has already put 34 million people out of work and thrown 60 million people into poverty, but governments across the world are doing exactly the wrong thing: implementing protectionist policies, ignoring commitments to tackle climate change, and slashing public services and global development assistance - plans that destroy still more livelihoods and threaten our social fabric.

This is a familiar story: in the 1930s, amidst the Great Depression, governments sought to 'reassure the markets' by slashing services and balancing budgets. But this backfired entirely: the cuts shut more and more of their citizens out of the economy, which only made the economic crisis worse. It's precisely when the markets are failing that governments must step in together to fill the gap.

We have already lost a great deal of ground, but it's not too late. The discredited economists who spurred the old bubble economy are giving way to a new wave of fresh thinkers -- including, surprisingly, the powerful International Monetary Fund, which is finally stepping away from its past insistence that countries in crisis cut their budgets. Brown and other prominent figures are making the rounds to world leaders to encourage this global plan. But they are the first to say that they need a mass movement to make it happen. Let's raise our voices now for leadership to create jobs and protect citizens from poverty.

The stakes are vast. Economic disintegration can threaten everything we care about. When countries turn inwards, they abandon cooperation on issues like climate change and nuclear disarmament. They blame each other and groups of their own citizens -- leading to wars and, as in the 1930s, worse. But cooperation can build success on success: as we recognize that our destinies are interlinked, a joint recovery can pave the way to the world we all believe in. Let's seize this moment to raise a cry for that greater vision -- of an economy that lifts us all towards a future worth fighting for.

Winning a global economic revival will take time. But this moment, when the G20 is deciding its priorities, is a pivotal chance to make a difference. Join the call for a global jobs recovery.

More information:

The Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion - Joint ILO-IMF Conference in Cooperation with the Office of the Prime Minister of Norway:
http://www.osloconference2010.org/conference

Analysis: Sarkozy to press currencies role for G20:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6850VN20100906

G20 urged to implement commitment to jobs, social protection:
http://finchannel.com/Main_News/Jobs/75493_G20_urged_to_implement_commitment_to_jobs,_

The wrong cure. What experts say:
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/cure/what-do-the-experts-say

The Economy: Why They Failed
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/dec/09/economy-why-they-failed/?pagination=false