Trade, labour and the crisis: Time to rethink trade!

Esther Busser

Trade has been one of the main transmission channels of the financial and economic crisis to developing countries where many jobs were lost in export sectors. This was largely due to a reduced demand for goods in industrialised economies as well as to a lack of access to credit for the financing of exports.

At the international level, calls against protectionism (that is, increasing barriers to trade) have been manifold. These calls have been made in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Global Jobs Pact, G-20 Declarations and government declarations in organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Despite these calls and the common understanding that closing off markets would have negative effects and risk a further deepening of the crisis, several countries have resorted to protectionist measures.

For a real European Industrial Policy

Peter Scherrer

The term ‘Industrial Policy’ refers to various concepts ranging from providing an environment conducive for private business to targeted state intervention on industrial sectors, with numerous dimensions. This article focuses on what the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) is demanding with regard to the issue of development skills, training and qualification. The European metalworking industries and the jobs these industries provide will be sustainable only when a well-trained and highly qualified workforce is able to produce competitive goods for a global market. On a long term perspective the production of “greener”(1) products will be the base for successful participation in the global economy.

It should be noted from the outset that the recent past has shown that many industrialised EU Member States have tended to search for solutions at national level rather than through increased European co-operation. This trend can also be seen in the abandonment of large projects involving high cross-border cooperation such as the Airbus project. This reduction in co-operation between EU Member States has serious implications for the development of skills as the huge financial investments required for big industrial projects, in particular for the R&D costs, can no longer be provided by a single Government budget, especially not during a far-reaching financial and economic crisis.

The global crisis, unemployment and HIV&AIDS: what role for public works programmes?

Francie Lund

South Africa faces a severe and seemingly intractable unemployment problem. The narrow or strictest definition of unemployment produces a rate of approximately 25 percent. This problem existed before the global financial crisis, and has been made worse by it. The government makes unrealistic promises about the numbers of jobs that it will create each year; each year these hopes are dashed.

Unemployment rates are highest amongst the poor and unskilled, higher for women, and higher in rural areas – and in all cases, the situation is worst for African and Coloured people. A 2008 survey showed that the relationship between unemployment and poverty is strong: 31 percent of households have no-one in employment, and the poverty incidence in these households is 81 percent (Leibbrandt et al 2010: 48, using data from the National Income Dynamics Survey – NIDS). Shockingly, more than half of the unemployed said that they had never worked before.