Ireland & Europe - Alternatives to Neoliberalism Conference

Ireland & Europe

Alternatives to Neoliberalism Conference

Organized by the campaign Against the EU Constitution

Saturday February 18^th

Liberty Hall, Dublin 1

9.30am to 4pm

Admission Euro10/Euro3

Tel 087 9266764

Email: email@caeuc.org

Conference website: www.freewebs.com/alternativestoneoliberalism/

Main Speakers:-

Susan George, Activist & Author, Vice-President of ATTAC France, Chair of the Planning Board of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. www.tni.org/george  Session chaired by Catherine Murphy (Ind TD for Kildare North) with Conall O Caoimh Policy Officer, Comhlámh: see www.comhlamh.org) & Andy Storey board member of Afri www.afri.buz.org; UCD development studies Lecturer.

Frank Slijper, International Economic Relations Economist, works at the Dutch Campaign Against the Arms Trade www.stoparmstrade.org and has been a researcher and campaigner on arms trade issues for the past 13 years.  Session chaired Senator David Norris (TCD),  also with: Richard Douthwaite author; co-founder of FEASTA, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability: www.feasta.org & Speaker to be confirmed with will highlight the growing relationship between Ireland and the EU Ã¢Â€Â˜battle groups’, EU military spending and research, the arms industry in Ireland and our relationship with NATO. 

Brian Denny, is a Journalist who has specialised in EU affairs over many years and campaigned against the corporate take-over and privatisation of public services. A life-long trade unionist, Brian works for the UK  transport union RMT www.rmt.org.uk he is also spokesman for Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution. Session facilitated by: Jack OConnor President of SIPTU,  also with: Mick OReilly Regional Secretary of the ATGWU, will speak against the Rail and Services Directives. Speaker to be confirmed who will identify the detrimental consequences of the current neoliberalist approach to health services in Ireland, and highlight a number of alternatives ensuring an equitable accessible health system for all.  Eddie Conlon (TUI activist: www.tui.ie), will identify the inequitable and inadequate funding and delivery of education in Ireland, how the EU’s neoliberalist approach to services may exacerbate contemporary inequities, and identify range of possible alternatives.

CONFERENCE BACKGROUND

Events in Europe, and EU decisions, are having a dramatic effect on our lives. Irish Ferries were able to recruit cheap labour and impose a wage cut because of mass unemployment and poverty in Eastern Europe. This unemployment is a result of the neoliberal policies imposed in Eastern Europe by the EU.

EU Directives, like those for transport, energy and postal services, will open the door to enforced privatisation, lead to price rises, reductions in quality of service, job losses and wage cuts. McCreevey’s Services Directive (Bolkenstein) would bring pressure to reduce wages and standards to the lowest levels in the EU - a real race to the bottom.

Very poor African and Asian countries lose out too, by the EU forcing secretive antidemocratic trade deals on them through Economic Partnership Agreements and the WTO.

In the midst of all this, the EU is becoming increasingly militarised. The EU elite & the Irish Government continue to push neoliberal market-centered policies - despite the rejection of the latter in the French & Dutch EU Constitution Referendums.

But others in Ireland and Europe are arguing for an alternative, where social needs and the environment take priority. Come to the Conference and join in the discussion.