On the eve of the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development slated to be held in New York from June 24, country’s trade unions and civil society organizations have demanded that India take a firm stand by urging for replacing the ailing global financial architecture by a new one embodying principles of economic justice and equitable development.

They have also said that the Indian government should send a responsible minister to participate in this crucial global conference and not just send some officials.

In a joint letter to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the Deputy General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, H Mahadevan, J John and G Manicandan of Centre for Education and Communication, Sumit Chopra of All India Agricultural Workers’ Union and Ashok Chowdhury of National Forum for Forest People and Forest Workers have said : “the global financial and economic crisis is structural in nature and that the current free trade paradigm is a major part of the problem. The financial crisis has shown that free markets and free trade cannot correct themselves. Therefore, we urge you to work towards an end to liberalized trade in risky financial products and the deregulation of financial service providers, which has been made possible under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).”

They have also called for rejecting the position that conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations would be a solution to the crisis. On the contrary, continuing liberalization of the financial sector of national economies through the GATS and the free trade agreements (FTAs) would only serve to worsen the crisis. Once the financial services were liberalized, the foreign banks would refuse to provide credit to small farmers and local industries and would finance mega and resource extraction projects which would be detrimental to environment, they said.

The trade union leaders and civil society organizations called for strengthening the role of the United Nations in overall global economic governance and crisis resolution and to coordinate global institutions like the WTO, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). They alleged that the earlier draft circulated for the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development had called for a setting up of new Global Economic Council and this provision alongwith other proposals suggested by noted economist Joseph Stiglitz were deleted in the subsequent draft at the instance of the rich nations represented by G-7.