24 October 2017

Bill Greenshields, People's Assembly National Steering Committee Member

Tracing the origins of austerity to the policies of government following the 2008 financial and economic crisis – which they claimed to be aimed at "deficit reduction" – the recently published People's Assembly Pamflet In Place of Austerity – a programme for the people says: "Many people now say that austerity policies have failed – and indeed deficit targets are routinely 'missed', and there has been no debt reduction ... in fact it has steadily grown from under 40% of GDP in 2008 to just under 90% in 2017. But the real aim of austerity was to stabilise the post-crisis economy in favour of the bankers and big business billionaires, raising the rate of profit at the expense of the working class. In that they have succeeded, and will continue to do so, if we let them."