AUTHOR Susan George launched a stinging attack yesterday on the austerity “con” which has masked the flow of wealth from the poor to the rich, writes Paul Donovan.

Ms George told the General Federation of Trade Unions conference in Leicester that a crisis “is something that happens and is over.

“You don’t stay in a crisis from 2008 to 2015 — austerity has prolonged the crisis.”

The neoliberal system “made no sense in capitalist or socialist terms,” she argued, warning that the concentration and interdependency of huge corporations made another financial crash likely.

Trade unions should look outward to build broad coalitions with others involved in the anti-capitalist movement, Ms George said, whether this meant grassroots campaigns or groups such as Friends of the Earth.

“I dream of a European general strike,” she said.

“I dream of a coalition of the willing.

“Unless what is left of the left gets together, it will be a sad future for all of us.”