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Currency Exchange Fees "Tax Financial Income!"
An Appeal by Swedish Trade UnionistsThis appeal was first published in Le Monde Diplomatique
June, 1996, page 16
Drawing lessons from the great French social movement of November-December 1995, Ignacio Ramonet concluded his editorial in last January's Le Monde Diplomatique with this question: "When will we have a unified protest of all the trade unions and citizens of the Fifteen, to finally advance the social construction of a united Europe, ?"By way of a Swedish reply to this question, we address ourselves to national and international trade unions, suggesting that they set in motion a program to counter the dangerous speculative transactions of international finance capital.
An estimated 1.5 trillion dollars changes hands each day in foreign exchange transactions, of which 95% is pure speculation. Nothing is produced, bought or sold. Only money changes hands. To this, we should add the transactions associated with insurance and the secondary markets, representing a sum of 12-15 trillion dollars, which moves perpetually from one owner to another. The sums would be even larger if we were to add the speculative markets in primary products, real estate, works of art, and so forth.
These gigantic financial operations produce violent and chaotic results. They threaten democratic states. A growing distrust towards officials elected by universal sufferage is taking root. Officials do not want, do not dare or are not able to admit their powerlessness in the face of the speculators.
To avoid the cataclysm that a collapse of the international financial system would bring, we must introduce as quickly as possible controls, walls and breaking devices. Four concrete proposals, can win the support of the European trade union movement:
tax all foreign exchange transactions, as proposed by Nobel Prizewinner in Economics James Tobin create an Economic Security Council at the United Nations, as was suggested by former Swedish Prime Minister, Ingvar Carlsson use the enormous pension and insurance funds for non-speculative purposes In short: tax capital and financial incomes . . . and create work for all! We address the trade union confederations LO, TCO and SACO in Sweden, the German DGB (which has just succeeded in organizing an imposing demonstration in Bonn on 16 June), the TUC in Britain, the AFL-CIO in the United States, and all other national trade unions: Mobilize the Workers! We must act now and not wait for the next catastrophe that will splinter the world trade union movement and force it to start again from zero.
Signed:
Bror Perjus
Editor in chief of Mal och Medel (food workers union)Robert Jansson
Editor in chief of Lantarbetaren (agricultural workers union)Lief Nordstroem
Editor in chief of Skogsindustrie-arbetarem (forest workers union)Martin Viredius
Editor in chief of Transporte Arbetaren (transport workers union)Tuve Bergman
Editor in chief of Handelsnytt (commercial workers union)
Translated by James Paul
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