I come to Madrid today to support the Spanish trade union Movement in its campaign against austerity, and its opposition on to the changes in labour rules and pension entitlements.

Added together, this is the worst package for workers in Europe.

And I come to congratulate the Spanish trade union Movement on its support for European Action Day on September 29. Your call for a general strike in Spain is significant and important, not only for Spain but for Europe.

Our campaign is against austerity, and, instead, for jobs and growth. This is the worst economic crisis in the post war history of Western Europe. The implosion of casino capitalism, the collapse of property “bubbles” on both sides of the Atlantic, and the subsequent need to rescue many banks, has been a heart attack for the Western economy.

But for some strong, but expensive State intervention, many of the world’s leading banks would have collapsed. In the first years of the crisis, governments generally kept their nerve, bailed out the banks, supported the welfare states, and kept up public spending. The Spanish Government at that stage was exemplary.

But once the problems in Greece became public, everything changed. Instead of banks being on the edge of collapse, the focus of attention switched to member states of the EU.

Credit rating agencies – those same bodies which had rated American subprime mortgages and scandalous companies like Enron as triple A, rock solid, investments – started to downgrade individual countries. That pushed up borrowing costs.

What happened then? The EU panicked. Virtually all governments moved towards austerity packages, even those in no danger of being downgraded. All were terrified of ending up in the Greece position.

Even the strongest like Germany and the Netherlands started to cut.

I remember seeing the President of Spain at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January where he came under fierce pressure to cut spending and make Spanish labour markets more flexible. He resisted that pressure then. But it intensified, and disastrously, the Spanish Government followed the herd of EU governments, stampeding towards austerity.

We say cutting in a recession, cutting when unemployment is already high, cutting when economic growth is low – this is wrong. We say cutting labour rights and pensions is wrong too.

It is what predecessor governments did in the 1930s and we all remember what happened in that tragic decade. Economic depression led to political conflict and war. We don’t want any repeat of that.

We value our democracy – the best deal working people have even achieved. And we don’t want to risk it because of panicking actions by Governments in the face of market pressures from the same speculators who caused the crisis in the first place.

So we call for a rethink and a change – in Spain and in Europe. We call for growth policies based on Europe offering its own bonds, financial transaction taxes on speculators, and helping, not hurting, individual countries in trouble.

At heart this is about solidarity. Solidarity has been lacking in the EU during the past 12 months. They have listened too much to the markets – and not enough to the people.

Well on September 29, if you and we do your job in mobilising, they will have to listen to the people. In addition to Spain, there will be a large European-wide demonstration in Brussels, and a growing number of demonstrations including Italy, Poland, and a big demonstration in Portugal.

The ordinary people of Europe are mobilising. They are on the move. The Spanish trade union Movement is setting the pace. Against austerity, for growth and jobs, for democracy and worker rights and pensions. Demanding that our voice be heard, that governments listen and change.

Let’s all go forward on the 29th of September. Let’s make it a platform for progress for Spain and all of Europe.