3 Short Perspectives on the EU Economic Crisis

Andy Storey (University College Dublin), Dominique Plihon (Attac France) and Hilary Wainwright (Transnational Institute) share their perspectives on the EU economic crisis as it unravels in Ireland and France, and its impact on labour (Interviewed in Brussels, 11/12 October 2011).

Andy Storey

… if this strategy [austerity] is so misconceived and so counterproductive, why is it being pursued? The reason it is being pursued is very simple: Irish banks owe enormous sums of money to European banks…European banks want their money back… What this is really about is ensuring that private speculators who gambled on the bust business models of Irish banks are able to reap ill gotten gains to which they are not entitled.  And if that demands a pound of flesh from the Irish economy and the Irish citizenry, so be it.

See the full video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2_Axw5mIMg 

Dominique Plihon

the [French] government has tried to bail out the banks but without any conditions.  This is why the banks started again recently to take risks. The major problem of banks is that they make profits again, which is surprising in this context, but most of the profits have been distributed to shareholders as dividends and not used to recapitalize the banks…

See the full video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huHlG_CSR30

Hilary Wainwright

In the UK just now, a hundred thousand public service workers…have just been made so-called redundant.  And they are not redundant, they are needed.  It´s not as if elderly people´s need for care has suddenly gone, or children´s need to be well taught… We have got to reconnect finance, production and trade but on the basis of that key relationship between peoples´ creative capacities on the one hand and peoples´ social needs and desires on the other.

See the full video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9_nAKA-iyU