NEWS HOOK

Saturday, 28 March 2009

Put People First national demonstration on the global financial crisis before the G20 summit in London on 2 April

Friday, 27 March 2009

Brown faces crisis march attack

‘Free market greed hits millions’

Campaigners will demonstrate in London tomorrow (Saturday, 28 March) against British prime minister Gordon Brown’s blueprint for the G20 summit which will cost millions of people their jobs and condemn hundreds of millions more to poverty.

They will call for a radical transformation of the economic system in the Put People First demonstration organised by development organisations, trade unions and environmental, women’s and faith groups.

The charity War on Want accuses Brown of planning to push for more of the same free market policies that have already cost millions of jobs.

War on Want condemns Brown for continuing to defend the failed system of open markets and light-touch regulation and says that financial institutions cannot be trusted to deliver outcomes in the public interest.

War on Want Executive Director John Hilary: "The G20 is hell bent on preserving the system that has caused this economic meltdown. Thousands of protestors will call for a new system based on principles of public good not corporate power.

"Gordon Brown’s free market fundamentalism will condemn millions more people to despair. The people of the world demand and deserve better."

The charity says Brown’s call for a swift conclusion of the Doha trade round puts 7.5 million workers at risk in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Tunisia and Uruguay, and millions more in other rich and poor countries.

It cites growing unemployment as the International Labour Organisation forecasts over 50 million more people worldwide could lose their jobs by the end of this year, and 200 million workers fall into extreme poverty. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says that by next year jobless numbers in rich nations could rise by eight million to 42 million.

Unemployment in the UK has exceeded two million for the first time since 1997 after the biggest rise, 138,400, since records began in 1971, with some economists predicting the figure will reach 3.3 million late next year or early 2011.

War on Want is pressing Britain to end its support for the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, which it says leave poor countries without a voice and seek to exploit the current turmoil by winning greater powers.

The charity also demands that Brown closes down UK tax havens which, it claims, play a leading part in developing countries losing an estimated £250 billion a year – money which could meet the UN anti-poverty goals several times over. Tax dodging and capital flight costs Africa an estimated £75 billion each year – five times what the continent receives in aid.

Many of the world’s tax havens are British - overseas territories such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and British Virgin Islands or Crown Dependencies such as Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

War on Want says the City of London acts as the nerve centre for these tax havens and supports an army of pinstriped lawyers and accountants devoted to helping companies dodge tax.

NOTES TO EDITORS

* John Hilary is available for interview.

* Protestors will assemble from 11.00 am GMT on Saturday (28 March) at Victoria Embankment, London SW1. The march, which starts at 12.00 noon, will pass Brown’s home in Downing Street en route to a rally from 2.30-4.30 pm in Hyde Park.

CONTACT
Paul Collins, War on Want media office
(+44) (0)20 7549 0584 or (+44) (0)7983 550728