PRESS RELEASE
Trade Union Forum of BRICS Sends a Clear Message
July 9, 2015 (EIRNS)—Without mincing words, the Ufa Declaration of the Fourth Trade Union Forum of BRICS countries, made clear the existential crisis that the world faces and, in that context, the role that the BRICS countries are destined to play.
"We are all at the strategic crossroads of civilization, and we must be worthy of the historical responsibility which is bestowed upon us,"
the document said.
Addressing the importance of the BRICS institutions, such as the New Development Bank and Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the document said:
"For the formation of sovereign independence from the bankrupt Bretton Woods system, the BRICS countries can fully exploit reserves of the New Development Bank and the Contingency Reserve Arrangement, whose overall capacity ($200 billion) is equal to that of the IMF."
The document also called for economic growth and rejected austerity in a clear voice.
"We cannot accept that austerity measures, which have failed in Europe and in the United States, are a way out of the crisis. Revenues should be used to increase investment in real productive sector, infrastructure projects, health, education, science and technology, research and development, vocational training and skills upgrading. Investments should be used to create decent jobs and higher wages. Long-standing, chronic and deepening inequalities are by no means the result of natural laws of economics. They are a production of the policies applied, and they can be overcome if these policies are changed in the interests of the overwhelming majority of citizens." http://en.brics2015.ru/load/361589
