Public Wealth

Conference expresses its concern that the assault on working people in the UK, the European Union and in other jurisdictions which have embarked upon austerity programmes are fundamentally about shifting the balance of economic power even further in favour of the large private sector corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the vast majority of citizens of these countries. Conference recognises that a central objective of this political agenda is to open up additional sources for profit making, in particular through the privatisation of publicly owned utilities and the outsourcing of the delivery of a wide range of public services. Conference is concerned that these developments will result in a private sector takeover of large swathes of public space, property and services and will lead to a society in which people are not citizens but merely purchasers of goods and services. In short, the concept of a common good, of and solidarity will be eradicated. Conference rejects the view that there are no alternatives to the sell off and privatisation of public services and calls upon the Executive Council to oppose what is effectively a form of economic blackmail dressed up as initiatives to stimulate growth and employment. This destructive approach is unsustainable as with further economic and financial crisis inevitable, what else will be sacrificed to appease the large corporations and financial institutions that brought the world economy to the brink of collapse? Conference condemns any attempt to use the financial and economic crisis as leverage to force the sell-off of public utilities, land and other publicly owned resources.