Austerity offers only destitution

As the TUC women's conference meets in London, activists prepare to unite at another major event in the capital.

Austerity is Working* (*for the 1 per cent) will address how government policies here and overseas are hitting millions of people - and women the hardest.

While reactionary economic measures are forcing the most vulnerable people to pay for the bankers' greed - young and old, the low-paid and jobless - women are bearing the brunt of the cuts.

Meantime the latest global billionaire list published by the US business magazine Forbes shows over 200 new entrants. The rollcall shows that the planet's richest are more than £500 billion wealthier than a year ago.

Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive at the Anglo-Swiss commodity trading and mining corporation Glencore, says his £1 million salary makes him among the lowest-paid bosses in the share index of the 100 companies listed on the stock exchange. Yet Glencore has handed Glasenberg £73m in dividends.

The Geneva motor show brought news that luxury models like Rolls-Royce, McLaren and Lamborghini are selling at record levels. Austerity is certainly suiting some people down to the ground.

Austerity is Working* (*for the 1 per cent) is the title given to an inspiring day for discussion, film and workshops this weekend, in which people will share information and ideas on the fightback against the growing rich-poor divide.

The event has been organised by War on Want, the Jubilee Debt Campaign, the World Development Movement, People & Planet, the Trade Justice Movement and the Public and Commercial Services union.

Among the speakers will be Emma Aviles from Spain's Citizens Debt Audit Platform, which battles for alternatives to the financial crackdown that has left one in four people unemployed.

Massive cuts in public services in Spain have led to millions of women losing their jobs. Shrinking household budgets have also led to families dropping conveniences such as paid cleaners - leading to job losses among many immigrant women and an increase in unpaid work by wives and mothers.

In stark contrast, the success of the world's biggest clothing retailer Inditex, which includes Zara, saw the Spanish entrepreneur Amancio Ortega leapfrog over US magnate Warren Buffett into third place in the Forbes rankings, with a £38bn fortune and the largest wealth rise - £12bn.

The Austerity is Working conference will also feature Alfamir Castillo, who, as leader of Colombia's Women Sugarcane Cutters committee leads struggles against exploitation. Though life is sweeter than ever for sugarcane firms profiting from the rush for biofuels, the wives, girlfriends, sisters and mothers of the poverty-waged cutters played a key role in a recent two-month strike that won better pay and conditions. The committee emerged from the strike to sustain the drive for improved living standards.

Elsewhere across the developing world, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, sharp fiscal retrenchment in the Middle East and north Africa are wreaking more havoc for women and their families.

Campaigners at the event will hear valuable analysis on the region from Dr Adam Hanieh, a political economist at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

In Britain the people whose tough lives have been made harsher by cuts include disabled women. So-called welfare reforms, such as the personal independence payment replacing disabled living allowance, are hitting the benefits disabled women rely on to care for their families. Among the speakers at the event will be Andy Greene, from the group Disabled People Against Cuts.

Women in Britain are suffering most from the coalition's attacks on jobs, low earners, pensions and public services.

It is inevitable that cuts are hitting women the hardest, amid pregnancy and maternity needs, lone parents and their frequent role as the main carers for children, besides frail, sick and disabled people.

Local authorities' slashed grant support for women has also taken its toll on centres for children and women, rape survivors and refuges from domestic abuse. Many cash-strapped centres have been compelled to shut or make drastic reductions in their services.

Moreover. Chancellor George Osborne's decision to limit pay rises for public sector workers to just one per cent delivers a huge blow against women, who represent six in ten of such employees. And unemployment for women remains the highest for 25 years. With Osborne set to announce a further austerity budget next week, multinational companies are permitted to dodge billions of pounds in tax every year. Activists who take part in the conference will step up their pressure on politicians to ensure tax justice and swop their austerity programmes for policies which put ordinary people before insatiable hunger for profits.

• Austerity Is Working* (*for the 1 per cent) will take place from 11.00 am-5.00 pm on Saturday at Faraday House, 48-51 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AE. Admission to the conference is free, including lunch. Book your place at www.waronwant.org/register