Brussels, 23/10/2007
“Few words can cause so much alarm in the hearts and minds of many trade unionists as globalisation,” he admitted. Its impacts include relocation of jobs to cheaper locations, large-scale migration of workers, and the rising power of financial capitalism. Together, these contribute to a growing disillusionment with politics – seen as powerless in the face of the global market.
But, in the European Union, the opening of markets has spread prosperity to poorer Member States and contributed to high growth and rapidly rising living standards in many countries. “We need to see both faces of globalisation and to draw the right conclusions: Europe and the West need to shape the direction of globalisation much more purposefully and fairly while we still can".
“Strong trade unions have the effect of sharing productivity gains and acting as a brake on inequality. In many parts of the world they need encouragement and support. If it is all left to the forces of enterprise and capital, the results will, I prophesy, be rising protectionism, disenchantment with democracy, and an opportunity for the re-emergence of strong anti-democratic forces. Globalisation must not be left to the entrepreneurs alone.”
[Attachment: Europe, Migration, Globalisation and What about the Workers? (Lecture at the London School of Economics)
->http://www.etuc.org/a/4158]