“The Washington consensus has reached its limits, and there is an urgent need for a new paradigm,” said Borell, Chair of the Global Progressive Forum. “The creation of decent work will have to be put at the heart of the new financial architecture and economic governance that we have to build, said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. The Decent Work Decent Life Campaign calls for an inclusive model in which developing countries have their say, and trade unions and civil society are listened to,” he added.
The Decent Work Decent Life Campaign aims to place Decent Work at the national, European and international level through public campaigning and lobbying. Decent Work is a concept covering equal access to employment, living wages, social protection, freedom from exploitation and union rights at the core of development, economic, trade, financial and social policies.
The financial crisis is threatening the jobs, homes and future of billions of human beings – those who never drew profit from the years of excess, whose work has been underpaid and degraded and who bear no responsibility for what is now happening.
“The current process of globalization is not ideologically neutral but highly inspired by liberal conceptions embodied in the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’. It is time now to rethink the economic role of the state and the social policies. It is time to change significantly the economic imperatives that have been ruling globalization in the last thirty years. One of the fundamental pillars of the new economic order should be social cohesion at a global level,” said Kader Arif, MEP, from the Social Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
“Therefore greater concern for employment creation and income distribution should be more explicitly taken into consideration in order for the economic system to perform better. We need to push the global agenda to favour a progressive integration of all economies into the global market, while at the same time developing new solidarity instruments in the face of rising inequalities and worsening employment conditions,” Arif concluded.
“With the financial, economic and political crisis and its effects, the Decent Work Agenda comes back in force because of rising unemployment, social exclusion and poverty in the North and the South,” said Conny Reuter, SOLIDAR secretary general. “Over the last 2 years, the Decent Work Decent Life Campaign has brought together ten thousands of people all around the world. The World Social Forum is the place to build new partnerships and reinforce standing alliances to set the global social agenda!” he concluded.
All three activities will take place in the “World of Work space” in the venue of the World Social Forum: the Federal University of Para : 29 January: (Financial Architecture – 8:30 -11:30)
30 January (Campaign - 8:30 -11:00 / and Global Welfare State – 11:00 – 13:30)
For interviews and more information, contact Mathieu Debroux, ITUC press officer, mobile: +32 (0) 476 62 10 18.
[email protected]
Decent Work Decent Life is a joint campaign led by the International Trade Union Confederation, the Global Progressive Forum, Social Alert and Solidar which aims to:
● Build awareness of Decent Work amongst citizens, decision makers and key institutions;
● Show that Decent Work is the only sustainable way out of poverty and is fundamental to build democracy and social cohesion; and
● Place Decent Work at the core of development, economic, trade, financial and social policies at the national, European and International level.
