Financial crisis

The global system is in crisis. With many of the world’s major economies in recession, the slowdown is affecting all countries. Millions of women and men are losing their jobs and their livelihoods. Hundreds of millions could join the 1.4 billion people already living in extreme poverty around the world.

World leaders have responded by trying to preserve the system that is responsible for the crisis. Governments have been happy to bail out the bankers with hundreds of billions in public money, yet the poorest have received no help in their struggle to make ends meet. With its refusal to accept anything but ‘light touch’ regulation of financial capital, the UK government is determined to return to business as usual.

If the crisis has made one thing clear, it is that our financial institutions cannot be trusted to deliver outcomes in the public interest. The bank bailouts in the UK and US mean that the governments of those countries are already the largest shareholders in several major financial institutions. These and all other banks must now be directed towards the greater public good. The three main institutions of globalisation – the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation – are all dominated by the most powerful nations. We can only take back control of global economy by making these bodies democratic entities that are accountable to the people they are meant to serve.

War on Want is leading the campaign for a new system to replace the failed ideology of free market capitalism. We believe that this new system must be based on principles of public benefit not private profit, achieved through democratic control and a redistribution of the fruits of globalisation. The time has come for a better world.