CPI(M) politburo member and MP, Sitaram Yechury, on Wednesday extended his party’s support to the “Occupy London’’ campaigners who have been camping outside St Paul’s Cathedral, near the London Stock Exchange, as part of the growing global anti-capitalist protests.
"On behalf of all the working people of India, I bring you our solidarity," he told the protesters expressing his outrage at the “culture of obscene bonuses’’ in financial institutions.
“We are also against the culture of obscene bonuses. We will win, we have to win. Otherwise, humanity will face grave danger,’’ he warned.
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Mr Yechury said the worldwide protests, which started with the “Occupy Wall Street’’ campaign in America, reflected the anger against the “predatory pursuit of profit’’ at the cost of billions of ordinary people.
"In India also, we are involved in similar type of protests. We want the government to spend scarce resources on creating jobs, spend money on people's welfare," he said.
Mr Yechury criticised government bail-outs of failed big banks that were responsible for creating the current economic crisis in the first place. Instead of rushing to rescue the very people who created the crisis, the governments should use “these resources for building the much-needed social and economic infrastructure".
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This would generate employment, stimulate domestic demand and “set in motion a path of sustained economic growth without burdening either the exchequer or people".
The Indian Workers' Association, Great Britain, also came out in support of protesters.
"The IWA puts forward an alternative to the waste of resources in bailing out failed financial institutions and instead seeks investment in social and economic infrastructure, creating employment and growth to revive the economy," said its president Dyal Bagri in a statement.