The global financial crisis of 2008 was a consequence of the arrogance and irresponsibility endemic in the deregulated financial sector. Financial companies got what they lobbied for in terms of deregulation and used new found freedoms to enrich executives and traders on a monumental scale. Their actions precipitated crisis – and the costs of this crisis were of course borne by the public purse.
The crisis should have led to a more developed understanding of how the public and private sectors work in tandem to create wealth. Instead, employer organisations, think-tanks and far to many in politics and the media now use an imaginary ‘debt-crisis’ as an excuse to shamelessly push for more marketisation and privatisation.
The STUC will continue to defend public ownership in the economy – the monumental costs to the public purse of bailing out irresponsible banks cannot be allowed to become an excuse for privatising, for instance, Scotland’s water.
The STUC will continue to support and campaign for:
Publicly owned and accountable Scottish Water;
A Peoples’ Bank;
A Publicly owned, properly resourced Post Office network and Royal Mail;