After Osborne’s disastrous budget yesterday, 63 economists have pledged their support for the People’s Assembly with a letter to the Guardian.
Published in the Guardian on Thursday 21 March
George Osborne‘s latest budget confirms that austerity policies are set to continue for years to come (Budget 2013, 20 March).
This is a call from economists and academics to all those millions of people in Britain who face an impoverished and uncertain year as their wages, jobs, conditions and welfare provision come under renewed attack by the government. It is important that people understand that there is a large body of opinion against these policies.
With some 80% of austerity measures still to come, and with the government lengthening the time they expect cuts to last, we are calling a people’s assembly against austerity to bring together campaigns against cuts and privatisation with trade unionists in a movement for social justice. We aim to develop a strategy for resistance to mobilise millions of people against the Con Dem government. Register for the People’s Assembly here
Professor Ha-Joon Chang Cambridge
Professor Hugo Radice Leeds
Professor Stephanie Blankenburg SOAS
Professor Ian Gough LSE
Tom Lines Economic consultant
Professor George Irvin SOAS
Professor Malcolm Sawyer Leeds
Senior lecturer David Hudson UCL
Professor Diane Elson Essex
Professor Sergio Rossi Fribourg
Professor Andrew Dobson Keele
Professor Frances Stewart Oxford
Professor Alan Freeman London Metropolitan
Sir Anthony Atkinson Oxford
Professor Christine Cooper Strathclyde
Dr Bruce Philip NTU
Professor John Weeks SOAS
Molly Scott-Cato Gaia economics
Professor Simon Mohun London
Professor Giuseppe Fontana Leeds
Diego Sanchez-Conchea Oxford
Professor Victoria Chick UCL
Michael Burke Economic consultant
Professor Simon Lilley Leicester
Professor Andy Denis City
Richard Wolff
Senior lecturer John Simister MMU
Professor Colin Richardson Imperial
Professor John Ross Shanghai
Professor Matthew Watson Warwick
Dr Julian Wells Kingston
Professor Judith Clifton Cantabria
Professor David Byrne Durham
James Meadway Senior economist, Nef
Professor Andrew Cumbers Glasgow
Professor Mario Seccareccia Ottawa
Associate professor Anitra Nelson RMIT
Ann Pettifor PRIME
Dr Theodore Koutsobinas UWG
Professor Guglielmo Davanzati Salento
Professor Hartmut Elsehans Leipzig
Professor Julie Matthaei Wellesley
Professor David Harvey CUNY
Professor Raphael Kaplinsky Open University
Professor David Gleicher Adelphi
Professor Geoffrey Harcourt UNSW
Adjunct professor Steven Hail Adelaide
Professor Noemi Levy-Orlik UNAM
Professor Stefano Lucarelli Bergamo
Associate professor Louis-Philippe Rochon Ontario
Roy Rotheim Skidmore
Professor Judith Mehta
Dr Hideo Shingu Kyoto
Professor Daniel Diaz-Fuentes Unican
Professor Riccardo Bellofiore Bergamo
Professor Alan Ciblis UNGS
Dr Jesus Munoz Lancaster
Professor Mary Mellor Northumbria
Dr Veronica Villarespe UNAM
Arturo Hermann
Dr Pritam Singh Oxford
Professor John King La Trobe
Professor Elizabth Dore Southampton
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Good to see both Post-Keynesians and Marxists have signed; quite honestly, they should have only gotten those located in Britain to be more relevant, but this is good.
I am just soo pleased to see that these wonderful people are prepared to help the sick, disabled, homeless and recognise that many many people have died because of this government, which has not been acknowleged by them. They really don’t care about sick and disabled people, they can die for all they care!
I do hope that with your help we can stop some of this terrible injustice that has been going on for the last 3 years. Disabled people are human beings and need to be treated as such, these people have no feelings at all. 4,600
The simple fact is that money exists to run our affairs properly – the political system simply lacks the will to use it. The reason for that are obviously multifold and open for debate, but the money does exist. Austerity has failed, demonstrably: both here and in the Euro Zone. I’ve watched the American economy and the machinations around it with interest.
They currently have the reverse of our political paradigm; their conservatives are in opposition and are in the curious position of criticising Obama policies of public spending investment and calling for public spending cuts, whilst simultaneously ignoring the continued economic recovery brought about by the investment in public services and the social security system.
Even the Wall Street Journal – hardly a bleeding-heart liberal publication- recently published a study the which demonstrated that the concessionary reductions in spending that Obama was forced to make by the Republican caucus, have considerably hindered the recovery, and rubbishing their “We favour growth” rhetoric by showing conclusively the negative economic impact of Republican led cuts and outlining the failings of the Austerity program in Europe on its economy.
The main problem is that the Conservative party will not properly administer the Financial industry, because they are 50% funded directly by that industry, and will happily sell you access to Downing St. for a £50,000 donation. How there can be no legislation in place to prevent such an obvious conflict of interests, is beyond my ability to reason.
For example: it was interesting to note that the banking industry (and Russia) had the ‘foresight’ to conveniently remove its assets from Cypress, leaving the public to carry the can again. The money exists – it has simply been filtered out of the economy and into private hands.
Hypocrisy, greed and self-interest to the point of criminality, triumph once again. It’s unconscionable. No legislation was ever passed to allow the current bank systems use of credit creation, through debt leverage, as a model for infinite growth. The concept is mathematically certain to fail. The government only creates about 3% of our currency, so the ‘ghost’ money creation of the banks has been actively facilitated as it is the main revenue source for the economy and therefore; government.
This corrupt, de facto, system needs addressing, looking for an alternate, stable, credit structure. And until the partnership between the Financial sector and the major political parties is properly regulated, sadly, I can’t see progress being made. In any sense of the word.
people have died so far, there will be more when the “bedroom tax” starts. The government can read the figures, someone on unemployment benefit gets £71.00 per week, someone on sickness gets £99.00 per week, when they have paid for food, water rates, gas and electric, and tv licence etc where are they going to find money for bedroom tax. It seems this con dem coalition just want them to die. Yet they are getting a tax cut and want a pay rise!!!!! How much do they actually care about the people?
Thank you to all of the wonderful people who have pledged to help unemployed sick and homeless people! Many of us are living in fear of that brown envelope coming through the door which means ATOS are going to score us NIL points and sanction us. What do you do if you have NO savings and rely on benefits to survive?
Thank you once again, i do hope that something can be done to stop these uncaring people! This is just a few of the people who have died at the hands of this government.
http://calumslist.org/
Susan Pashkoff, we need as many good intellects as possible. Let’s not start cherry picking based on national dress.
Glynn, I sorry if it seemed as though I was cherry-picking; I wasn’t trying to do so. There are many economists from both camps in Britain who are not on that list who would have signed on if it was known to exist but who may not have been contacted. I am thrilled to see the Post-Keynesians uniting with Marxists on this position. It is excellent to have supporters from overseas; I am certain (let’s say 100% certainty) that others would have gladly supported this if they knew that it existed.
We need to understand that the policies of this government are on the hard-right of the economics academic mainstream and an even broader group could be organised. But I am very glad to see this list and to have so many academic economists supporting the call for a People’s Assembly.
Understood Susan. 🙂
We need each other.
Never got past ‘O’ level maths at school and yet even I can see the madness of this evil unelected coalition. There is a calculated cull of the poor happening right now. How to reduce your annual budget? Cut out surplus spending that you don’t need. Oh yea thats the poor, the sick, the disabled, the vulnerable and the old. Billions saved in the lifetime of a parliament. Simples. Ian Duncan Smith has tested the water with evil and illegal changes in Legislation, so slavery has now officially been re-introduced. Next stop? Concentration camps for anyone who opposes them. 1984 Nazi Britain 2015 and beyond.
Finally someone to support the less fortunate who realize we’re heading for one hell of an economic and social train crash!
So true, particularly as more and more of the workforce become affected by the ripple effect.
Up da revolution !
The Political System is the Problem Abolish It
Capitalism is the Problem Abolish It.
This Regime is a Waste of Space Get it Out of Office
The loans for house buyers initiative is another credit crisis waiting to happen. Debt is what got us into this mess and the government are encouraging people to buy properties they cannot afford?! What a stupid way to spend tax payers money. PM, get your priorities straight!
What a shameful example of people deliberately trying to mislead. “63 economists” you say, well let’s google a few of the names: Professor David S Harvey is a Professor of Anthropology and Wellbeing, Professor David S Byrne is fellow of something called the Wolfson Institute for Health and Wellbeing “Dr Pritam Singh, Oxford” is in fact not at Oxford University, but reader in the department of accounting, finance and economics at Oxford Brookes (the new name for Oxford Poly). Anyone reading this comment before it inevitably gets deleted pick a few names yourself and give it a try.
people who lived in the interwar years sometimes supported Stalin in the belief that Russia was the first workers state and that the struggle against fascism took precedence over all else.
They were wrong about Russia but they were sure as hell right about capitalism, if the relative prosperity and increasingly libertarian society in which my generation grew up after world war 2 was not the inevitable result of social and technical progress but only a temporary blip then we are back to the struggles of yesterday but armed perhaps with greater understanding.
It was the late Boris Yeltsin who exclaimed “But we don’t want socialism for it’s own sake” so if so called socialism had to justify itself in terms of the well being of the people why should capitalism not be judged by the same criterion “We do not want capitalism for its own sake”.
Just one thing to remember, the defenders of capitalism are using violence and torture in many parts of the World, they will not hesitate to use it against us.
Surely it’s possible to get a broad 45% coalition for sustainable prosperous wellbeing; a commonwealth?
A Decent, Civilised Living Waged Basic Job Education Training Income Guaranteed Full Employment @ Stable Prices with debt free Monetarily Sovereign money/net spending to fill the net saving/output gap NOW!
What does not make sense to me is public spending cuts and then quantitive easing. This is taking money from one part of the economy which causes a downturn & then injecting it in another part to counteract it – but it does not. It is merely taking money from nurses’ pockets & giving it to bankers -who then keep it, who don’t lend it out anyway. Besides which, having depressed deemand with one hand, businesses won’t even want to borrow to produce goods that will not get bought anyway.
Am I getting this wrong or is it George Osborne?
Very happy to see a clear resistance. Thank you for the work you do, much appreciated.
BROKEN BRITAIN UNDER TORIES – A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A REST & DON’T WE NEED ONE
Individually and Collectively the last 30 years of Political Lies and Spin have made many differences to our lives Non for the Better .We vote for personalities and their supposed achievements .Their Personalities are False and their achievements are Zero .We the Tax payer pay for different Companies to carry out whatever is dreamt up and suffer the consequences .If you were as Thick as so called ‘Ministers’ and were told “sorry the bill has risen” you would remonstrate and probably sack them ,unfortunately nobody in Government can do that because they are clueless and in a situation too deep to withdraw .They Waste Billions of our money and we suffer whilst they reward the rich.If you don’t want Riots on our streets vote accordingly.www.brokenbritainundertories.com
BROKEN BRITAIN UNDER TORIES – PIE EYED OSBORNE STILL A CHILD
While half a million People have had to dig into their savings to pay for food after drinking childish Osborne Tweeted pictures of Clowns referring to UKIP .The Tories have gone from bad to worse .Blair started the ball rolling by being the youngest Prime Minister since 1812 – they are actually still children in a big mans World Play acting with no Life’s Experience .Kids in a sweet shop with eyes bigger than their bellies .The Majority of you are not fit for purpose and scrounge more off the State because of your positions than anyone . http://www.brokenbritainundertories.com