[PEN-L:2371] Unemployment: An Appeal (fwd)

[D Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

Forwarded message:
Date: 14 Jan 1996 00:00:00 +0000
From: mspellman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Martin Spellman)
To: union-d@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Unemployment: An Appeal
Reply-To: union-d@xxxxxxxxxxx

I received this DRAFT from Ken Coates MEP dated 13 December '95. If
anyone wishes to comment then send to him at:

8 Regent Street,
Mansfield,
Nottinghamshire
NG18 1SS

01623 427622
Fax 01623 427155


Martin Spellman
<mspellman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
=========================================================
UNEMPLOYMENT: An Appeal

We live in a rich world. National incomes in Europe have trebled in fifty
years. Yet our societies are deeply flawed. 20 million of our fellow
citizens - more than one in ten - seek work and cannot find it. And how
many older men and women have given up the search? In some regions, and
among our young people, the figure is one in five. In regions of high
unemployment, up to half the young people are without work. Such mass
unemployment has lasted now in some countries for fifteen years. More
than half the unemployed have been without work for over a year, and half
of these for over two years, some for many years. This is a human
disaster that calls for urgent relief.

Work is a human need as much as the food, clothing and shelter for which
it provides. To deny work is to deny humanity. The result is the break-up
of families, alienation, increased crime, violence, and in some cases,
suicide. Unemployment is not only an individual tragedy for the
unemployed. It generalises insecurity and despair. Whole towns and
villages are dying which once were lively centres of manufacturing, coal
mining, ship building and steel making. Is there to be no relief?

Unemployment is not a natural disaster. It is man made. For thirty years
after the war in Europe, we had virtually full employment. Then
governments did more to intervene. Our societies are three times richer
today than they were at the beginning of that time, so that we could
certainly afford to create new jobs in public services when the
production of private goods needs less labour.

Why, then, do governments not act now? Everywhere there appears the need
for public provision - in our caring services and preventive health work,
in education and training, in restoring run-down areas, in recuperation
of the natural environment, in improving housing security and thermal
insulation, in developing public transport services, in providing
sheltered housing for old people and sport and leisure centres for the
young, in supporting small and medium sized enterprises which are the
chief employers of labour, and have been the most hard hit by recession.

Why have we allowed these vital services to decay and the people who
could provide them to remain idle? The answer is that no single national
government on its own can any longer maintain full employment. Capital
movements and production processes are now more than ever international.
national governments have been set against one another, and their powers
have been undermined. In the European Union, however, there could be a
chance to overcome this, and give an example to the whole world. We could
create joint and combined actions for full employment. The European
Commission, under President Delors, made proposals to begin such common
action. Commissioner Flynn has also listed some areas and activities
where jobs could most effectively be created.

Investment finance could be raised through bonds issued by the European
Investment Fund. The European Parliament has twice approved such a
scheme. But the Council of Ministers holds back, hoping that private
investment will rush in to fill the gap left by reduced public spending.
It has not done so for a decade or more. Why should it do so now? Despite
some economic recovery, the number of people in work has not risen, but
remains 5 million below the level in 1990.

Indeed, we now face the danger that unemployment will increase as
governments in Europe cut back their spending and borrowing to meet the
terms of the Maastricht Treaty for entry into the Economic and Monetary
Union. Econometric studies suggest that the workless could number as many
as 30 million.

But we are not saying that the European project should be abandoned. The
alternative of a return to the beggar-my-neighbour policies of the 1930s
is unthinkable. Unemployment rose then: it would rise again now. There is
no hope for a fortress economy, either for a nation or for a family. Some
have tried: the rich in some countries fortify their suburbs, put razor
sharp wire around their homes, carry guns in their cars and teach their
children to shoot. It will not work. The only humane way forward is to
act together, each for all. At local, regional, national and European
level, we need joint action to create and safeguard jobs.

The European Parliament offered such an alternative, to move ahead to
monetary union alongside a co-ordinated effort to reduce unemployment.
This choice involves a wide variety of public and private programmes, a
European level of borrowing and funding, and sustained efforts to reduce
working time, share work, and make possible a rich programme of lifelong
education. The new technology and new management systems arising from it,
needs fewer workers to produce more goods. Competition demands labour
'saving', which wastes people away. We need to put the money saved into
creating jobs in the environment, education and the caring services, but
we also need to share work, reducing the gap between those who are
overworked, and those who have no work.

It becomes necessary to study the effect of sabbatical leave for parents,
the provision of training and schooling in working time, and all other
relevant methods of sharing work.

A society which excludes so many of its people from full citizenship is
sick, and the sickness cannot be defined by its symptom, which is
unemployment. The sickness is in the heart of things, which must be
changed.

This appeal seeks to encourage all forms of action which conduce to such
a change, to full employment and the real establishment of a right to
work. Its signatories will seek ways to come together to exchange ideas,
examine experiences, and co-ordinate their work. We shall seek to
encourage relevant action in the political field, but we shall also do
whatever we can to influence our neighbours and communities to refuse a
Europe of exclusion and mass unemployment. Our Europe must include all
its citizens, and afford to each the space in which to grow and develop
to the limits of his or her capacity.

There is a cure for our social sickness. Its name is 'Solidarity'. It is
in the name of Solidarity that we invite all men and women of conscience
to join with us.