Brussels, 28th of September 2009. - During the 3rd European Cross Networking meeting on the Global Crisis[1] held in parallel to the G20 Pittsburgh Summit in Brussels, the present European Civil Society Networks and organisations agreed to start a joint campaign for the democratic restructuring of Finance at the service of social justice and environmental sustainability.

In the coming months, the Financial Transaction Tax will be one of the spearheads of this campaign, given the current economic and political leverage:

1. It has a regulatory potential by contributing to curb speculation. It will shrink the financial sector and contribute to break the dominance of finance over the real economy and society.
2. The question who pays for the crisis will be on top of the agenda in the coming years with pressure to cut public expenditures. The Tax offers a powerful alternative with a strong distributionary dimension by making those pay for the crisis who were benefiting from the system and are responsible for the crash. "Make them pay for their crisis" will consequently be one of the main slogans.
3. There is a strong political momentum with France, Germany, Belgium and Austria supporting the idea. Also the President of the EU Commission, Mr. Barroso, the EU Commissioner Mr. Almunia have expressed their support, and the British foreign minister Mr. Miliband.
4. And the Pittsburgh summit has tasked the IMF to prepare for the next G20 summit a report on how to make the financial industry make "a fair and substantial contribution toward paying for any burdens associated with government interventions to repair the banking system."

We face an extraordinary window of opportunity to make the Financial Transaction Tax a reality, by showing that the tax is feasible (even at a regional level if needed) and by organising sufficient public pressure from below.

Besides the Financial Transaction Tax, the campaign will also promote principles how to restructure the banking sector and to control the shadow banking system including toxic derivatives. It will also develop joint work and actions around the EU Hedge Funds Directive (titled as EU Alternative Investment Funds Manager Directive), which will be on the political agenda of the European Parliament and EU Governments in 2010. Participants of the conference call upon civil society groups to increase pressure from below. The crisis is not over. There will be a period of struggles over the future of the economy and the entire society in the coming years. The return to Business as usual can still be prevented.

[1] The European Cross Networking space on the Global Crisis is a jointly organised space in which European Networks such as the European Attac Network, Eurodad, Friends of the Earth Europe, the Seattle to Brussels Network, the European Anti-Poverty Network, TNI, SOMO, CBRM etc. discuss and coordinate their work on the Global Crisis. The first meeting of this space took place in January 2009.

Alexandra Strickner

Attac Austria

www.attac.at