The initial details for the London event are out now, and you can get your bookings in online here.

Glen Tarman of BOND, chair of Put People First, said:

“The G20 appears to have made progress on some critical issues but there are also missed opportunities, especially on building a green economy, and causes for real concern in other areas. G20 leaders have not yet gone far enough on the fundamental changes the world needs.

“Our campaign for jobs, justice and climate has clearly made some impact, but three big tests remain:

• Will the G20, the UN and the Copenhagen climate conference do far more to break from the failed policies that brought about the global crisis?
• Will governments agree a comprehensive package of policies that will deliver a new financial architecture and ensure the world emerges from the global recession as a fairer and green place?
• Where there are positive words today, will they be turned into action tomorrow?

“Put People First – and campaigners all around the world – will continue to make the case for change throughout this critical year. Wherever world leaders go to discuss these issues they will hear the voices of ordinary people demanding change.”

Put People First is an unprecedented alliance of 160 unions, development, faith and climate change groups. More than 35,000 people marched through central London on Saturday under the Put People First banner to demand jobs, justice and climate.

Notes to editors:

For more information or interviews please call Anjali Kwatra on 07941 371357.

Trade union leaders from around the world are converging on London this week to press their case at the G20 Summit on the global economic crisis. Meetings with the Summit host British Prime Minster Gordon Brown today (Tuesday) and Australian Prime Minster Kevin Rudd on Wednesday will round off dozens of similar meetings with heads of governments, organised by national union leaders in their home countries since the beginning of last week.

Summit-eve discussions with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck took place on Monday.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is urging the G20 to take strong and concerted action to turn the global economy around and avoid future crises, pushing a package of detailed measures spelt out in their London Declaration, drawn up by the ITUC and the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC). The package calls for action in five main areas:

* a coordinated international recovery and sustainable growth plan to create jobs, ensure public investment and tackle world poverty,
* help for insolvent banks and new financial regulations;
* action to combat the risk of wage deflation and reverse decades of increasing inequality;
* far-reaching action on climate change; and,
* a new system of global economic governance, involving reform of the global financial and economic institutions (International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Trade Organization (WTO)), and a central role for the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Meetings with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and WTO Director General Pascal Lamy will also be held in London, while talks with ILO Director General Juan Somavia, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria and labour ministers from the G8/G14 countries took place in Rome at the weekend.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘The world’s unions are united. We are all calling for a bigger fiscal stimulus through a green new deal, a tough new regulatory system to stop finance threatening global stability ever again and action against inequality both within and between countries.’

ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder said: ‘We are covering every possible base in alerting world leaders to the depth of anger and frustration felt by working people everywhere at the complete failure of unregulated capitalism.

‘People are paying for this disastrous failure of governance with their jobs and livelihoods, and nothing less than a complete overhaul of the system can meet the urgent needs of this moment.

‘However, we are deeply worried that G20 governments are not yet ready to show the necessary leadership. Every moment they delay taking the far-reaching decisions needed means more jobs lost and more people falling into poverty.’

Tens of thousands of demonstrators braved cold and wet weather for the Put People First march and rally on the streets of London at the weekend, in a broad civil society demonstration addressed by ITUC President Sharan Burrow and co-organised by the TUC, which is coordinating the series of London meetings this week with the ITUC. Some 70 national and international union leaders will attend the London meetings.

This video was shown on the stage screen at the Put People First London G20 rally in Hyde Park on Saturday 28 March 2009.

From CongressTV.tv

Press Release from Put People First

28/3/09 – immediate

Statement by Glen Tarman, Chair of the Put People First co-ordination team.

“Today’s march has brought thousands of people together from more than 150 organisations drawn from a huge range of development, union, faith and environmental groups.

“More than a thousand have joined the march from a huge ecumenical church service led by the Bishop of London.

“Similar events have taken place in towns and cities across the globe.

“All have been united by the clear message that the G20 leaders at their summit next week cannot go back to business as usual. They must take action for jobs, to stop climate chaos and to fight poverty and inequality throughout the world.

“But today’s march is not the end of our campaign, but the start. The UK holds the chair of the G20 group for the rest of this crucial year when the G8, the G20 and the United Nations all meet to chart a way through the recession. And 2009 ends with the vital Copenhagen climate conference.

“An exciting alliance has been born today. We will keep up the pressure on world leaders and the UK government to address our demands and put people first.”

Joint General Secretary of the trade union Unite, Tony Woodley, tells us why he’s asking his members and supporters to turn out in large numbers for the Put People First London march and rally on Saturday 28 March 2009, ahead of the G20 summit on the financial crisis.

He has no evidence for this, and we are writing to the Evening Standard both to correct this smear and to invite Londoners to join us on Saturday.

Other journalists have written stories confusing our march with a range of other events and demonstrations taking place next week during the G20 summit – none of which are organised by, or supported by Put People First collectively.

Our worry is that these misleading stories will deter people joining us. But there is no evidence that this will be anything other than a peaceful, law abiding and enjoyable event.

This is what we are now saying to journalists who ask about this:

“The Put People First march for jobs, justice and climate brings together more than 150 groups committed to making the event a peaceful and law-abiding call on the G20 governments to commit to policies that will deliver jobs, end poverty and move to a low-carbon economy.

The event has been organised in full co-operation with the police and the Hyde Park authorities.

We have no evidence that anyone attending intends to disrupt our plans, break the law or commit any acts of violence. Nor have the police informed us that they have any such intelligence.

Put People First is not organising or collectively supporting any other demonstrations or protest events being held in the subsequent week to co-incide with the G20 summit.”

The Guardian today corrected a (much-less damaging) story saying that the TUC was organising a jobs rally in Trafalgar Square the same week as the summit.

In a worldwide push for action by G20 governments to pull the global economy out of recession and chart a new course for job creation, financial regulation and global governance, trade unions across the world are today delivering a common set of demands to their national governments. The five-point union plan, which includes detailed policy proposals, sets out the actions needed to tackle the crisis and build a fairer and more sustainable world economy for the future. It calls for:

• a coordinated international recovery and sustainable growth plan to create jobs and ensure public investment;
• nationalisation of insolvent banks and new financial regulations;
• action to combat the risk of wage deflation and reverse decades of increasing inequality;
• far-reaching action on climate change;
• a new international legal framework to regulate the global economy along with reform of the global financial and economic institutions (IMF, World Bank, OECD, WTO).

The “Global Unions G20 London Declaration“, developed by the ITUC and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) at the OECD, sets out the steps which need to be taken by the G20 in cooperation with other governments. It is being presented by national trade union movements to their governments today, and will be formally submitted to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in London on 2 April. Trade unions from around the world will be joining their colleagues from the British TUC in a huge civil society mobilisation planned for London on 28 March, to press home the need for coordinated global action by governments.

“If the G20 governments in London are only able to agree on half-measures, they will have failed to meet their responsibilities. As the world’s largest economies, they have the responsibility and the possibility to replace the failed neo-liberalism of the past with a whole new direction for globalisation,” said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.

Recovery and sustainable growth can be achieved, according to the Declaration, but only if the focus is on job creation and public investment, active labour market policies, extending social safety nets and special measures for developing and emerging economies. The trade unions also put forward an eight-point specific action plan for global financial regulation, with immediate action to nationalise insolvent banks.

“Weak or non-existent regulation of banking and financial activity turned the world economy into an anything-goes casino, plunging the world into deep recession and causing the loss of tens of millions of jobs. This needs to be fixed urgently. Another main pillar of recovery and reform, creating decent, sustainable jobs and boosting purchasing power, must also be given priority attention at the G20,” said John Evans, General Secretary of the TUAC.

The London Declaration points to the real risk of wage deflation, and highlights the fact that growing income inequality across the world has been a major contributor to the current recession, as workers’ purchasing power has been insufficient to help maintain demand for goods and services. Ensuring that all workers have the right to collective bargaining, and strengthening wage-setting institutions, will establish a decent floor in labour markets and feed economic stimulus through more household buying power. This is closely linked to the broader requirement for reform of the IMF, World Bank, WTO and OECD, with the inclusion of the International Labour Organisation at the centre of an effective and accountable system of global governance.

“Financial regulation is essential, but it is not enough. The new global governance must be based on a strong pillar of social rights, including crucially the ILO’s core labour standards. The real economy, decent work and poverty reduction can no longer be left at the fringe of global policy. The G20 should not limit its horizons by simply making marginal changes to a discredited system. It needs to lead a complete overhaul in the way the world economy is run. Those who think that we can return to business as usual are seriously mistaken,” said Ryder.

The union proposals also focus on the urgent need for impetus to tackle climate change, given the enormous environmental, social and economic costs of inaction. Already, governments should be using coordinated global fiscal response to the economic crisis to set the world on a “green economy” path. Creation of green jobs, and action to ensure “just transition” in communities and sectors affected by the move to environmentally-friendly production, are central to achieving the levels of greenhouse gas reduction needed, and will contribute to pulling the world out of recession.

“Governments have the levers available now to turn the world towards a green growth path. Failure to take this opportunity would be a tragedy for humankind, and for the future of the planet,” said Evans.

Notes to editors:

The ITUC represents 170 million workers in 312 affiliated national organisations from 157 countries.

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 621 018