Event End Austerity Now!

The video of the session The event End Austerity Now! is now available.

85% of the world’s population is expected to be under some sort of austerity measures in 2023, according to analysis of IMF projections. But austerity cuts are not inevitable and alternatives exist. In this event, some of the world’s leading experts provided short, powerful and inspiring statements on why we need to end austerity now.

The event End Austerity Now! included the presentation of three major reports by the Financial Transparency Coalition, Global Social Justice, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, and Oxfam, with new figures on the extent of the wave of austerity spreading across the world and how Covid-19 recovery funds in the global south have largely gone mostly to big corporations instead of social protection and small companies.

Speakers:

Sharan Burrow, Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) (Australia)

Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (India)

Cephas Lumina, former UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt on human rights (Zambia)

Roberto Bissio, Coordinator of Social Watch and Third World Network (Uruguay)

Alexander Kentikelenis, Associate Professor of Sociology at Bocconi University, (Greece)

J.P. Bohoslavsky, former UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt on human rights (Argentina)

Matthew Cummins, Social Policy Regional Adviser, UNICEF Africa (US)

Isabel Ortiz, former Director at the United Nations ‘ ILO and UNICEF, currently Director Global Social Justice, Initiative for Policy Dialogue (Spain)

Matti Kohonen, director, Financial Transparency Coalition

Grazielle Custódio David, Economic Justice and Equity Regional Coordinator, Oxfam

The session End Austerity now! took place on Wednesday 28 September 2022 and it was organised by FTC and Global Social Justice.

The End Austerity Activism Festival was a 3-day virtual event that took place from Wednesday 28th of September through Friday 30th of September 2022.

The Festival officially launched the End Austerity Campaign, calling on activists and organisations from all around the world to denounce the new wave of austerity spreading across the world, amid the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the food and energy crisis brought about by the Ukraine war.

The Campaign called for more ambitious recovery packages to focus on a feminist, green and care-led recovery rather than corporate hand-outs and social protection cuts, resisting an economic model that puts profit before people and the planet. Read more