LONDON, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Britain's shadow chancellor John McDonnell announced Monday that the main opposition Labor Party is to convene an international social forum to tackle the task of a "Great Depression" financial crash.
In a keynote speech at Labor's annual conference in Liverpool, McDonnell said the Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, has agreed to lead the forum's discussion next Spring.
He said the forum will bring together leading economists, politicians and civil society representatives, launching a dialogue on the common risks faced and the actions that need to be taken.
McDonnell told a packed conference hall: "With major nations on the brink of a trade war, and with climate change accelerating, we can't risk the kind of international breakdown that led to the Great Depression. Just as at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, there is an urgent need to work out if the current international system can cope with these threats."
Calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to call an early general election, McDonnell said the Labor party in government would set up a public ownership unit as part of plans to re-nationalize the water and rail industries.
He said: "People have had enough of being ripped off by privatization. We will set up a 'Public and Community Ownership Unit' in the Treasury. It will bring in the external expertise we will need. We are ending the profiteering in dividends, vast executive salaries and excessive interest payments."
Surpluses will be reinvested in water infrastructure and staff, or used to reduce bills, he added.
McDonnell said: "We are extending economic democracy even further by bringing water, energy, Royal Mail and rail into public ownership."
In a major shake-up of worker rights, McDonnell backed a commitment to give a third of seats on the boards of big companies to workers.
He also announced a share ownership plan to ensure workers were given some of the profits being made.
"We believe that workers, who create the wealth of a company, should share in its ownership and in the returns that it makes. Employee ownership increases a company's productivity and encourages long term decision making."
McDonnell said a Labor government will legislate for large companies to transfer shares into an inclusive ownership fund with shares held and managed collectively by the workers. He said 11 million workers could receive payments up to 658 U.S. dollars a year, adding each would have with a greater say, and a greater stake, in the rewards of their labor.
