We should campaign for the socialisation of banks: for turning banks into ‘public utilities’, he said. Another crucial issue is that of the privatisation of pension funds. The financialisation of pensions is a key factor in the global financial crisis, and so we should be fighting for public pensions. Finally a unionist from the UK wondered how we could communicate these very complex issues to our members and the lay public. In fact, even Members of Parliament are not really aware of the content of such things as international trade agreements! On this last point, Susan George drew attention to the strategy that the Right has used since at least the 1970s. Realising it necessary to win the ‘battle of ideas’, it has invested financial and intellectual resources into think-tanks, universities, etc. Winning back the intellectual hegemony is also an important task for the Left, which needs to be sustained over a long period of time, she said. S. Vitali, J.B. Glattfelder, and S. Battiston, ‘The Network of Global Corporate Control’, 2011: www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0025995
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