Our urgent common priorities for a democratic, social, ecological and feminist Europe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin …. No. 835 …. June 9, 2013
Roll Back Austerity and Claim Real Democracy!
Europe stands on the edge of a precipice, looking into the abyss. Austerity policies drive the people of Europe into poverty, undercut democracy and dismantle social policies. Rising inequalities endanger social cohesion. Ecological destruction is worsening while acute humanitarian crises devastate the most affected countries. Women and young people are hardest hit.
[Source: left.gr]
The European oligarchy employs ever more authoritarian methods to prop up a failed neoliberal system – all this despite widespread protest and resistance. Democracy and peace are under threat. Discrimination, based on religion, racism, homophobia or sexism and nationalism are on the rise and the crisis is deepening daily. The very existence of the European Union is now at risk while current policies weaken solidarity among European people.
Our most urgent priority is to build Europe on the basis of equality, solidarity, and authentic democracy. EU institutions and European governments now serve the interests of financial markets, with no respect for popular sovereignty. They must be brought under democratic control, just as the public interest must prevail and ecological and social needs be met. We base our demands for a democratic, social, ecological and feminist Europe on these principles, in solidarity with the people of the world.
I) End Debt Slavery
Public debt stems from economic and political choices still on the agenda of EU institutions and European governments. Decades of regressive tax policies have consciously and outrageously enriched a small minority whereas public revenues have declined and public entities using public money have bailed out failed banks. Austerity policies have drained household and small business resources and made the recession worse. Speculation on government bonds is commonplace for private banks while public finance has been tainted by corruption and collusion between politicians and private economic interests.
Moreover, in many countries private, as opposed to national debt, is due to household borrowing, aggressively promoted by the financial sector and governments in order to compensate for the stagnation of real wages while prices were rising.
The measures imposed by European institutions and governments are designed to make the people pay for this debt. However, in large part, this debt can be considered illegitimate since it was amassed with no regard for the common good. It is now clear that some countries will never be able to reimburse their debt.
Human rights must come before debt service and human needs before profit. As a matter of urgency, we demand European-wide measures to free people from the pressures of financial markets and austerity policies. Fiscal, tax and monetary policies must be changed so as to defuse the debt trap.
Our common and urgent demands:
Cancel immediately the ‘memoranda’ imposed by the Troika upon over-indebted countries. Cancel as well a considerable share of the public debt without harming the interests of small bondholders, savers and pensioners. Banks and the financial sector must take their share of the losses. Specific amounts to be cancelled should be defined democratically. In this regard, citizen debt audits can serve as a useful tool.
Suspend repayments until populations are protected against worsening poverty and employment and until economic development and ecological transition are ensured, public services strengthened and social and economic rights consolidated.
Target the richest segment of the population with a one-off wealth levy.
Mandate and oblige the European Central Bank and other public European banking institutions to lend directly to states at low interest and under democratic supervision without neoliberal “reform” programme conditionality.
II) Toward an Ecological and Social Europe:
Roll Back Austerity
Throughout Europe, particularly on its southern and eastern rims, harsh austerity policies are imposed, supposedly for the sake of debt repayment and reduction. Entire populations are overburdened, public spending is cut dramatically in essential areas, valuable investments in research or industrial activities are downgraded although they could contribute to a social and ecological transition.
These austerity policies enforced by EU institutions and European governments create a downward spiral, destroy economies, add to deficits, debt, unemployment and poverty and intensify the ecological crisis and the looting of the environment. Meanwhile, a small minority continues to enrich itself unduly.
Today, more than half of European wealth is captured by 10 per cent of the population. Present policies are intentionally designed to maintain these inequalities as well as the neoliberal model which is devastating the planet and undermining democratic and social rights.
We demand a complete reversal of these policies and a different model of society that ensures social justice, equality, a fair distribution of wealth, ecological sustainability and protection of the commons.
Our common and urgent demands:
Roll back austerity now: it is driving Europe deeper into recession. Cancel or veto the treaties and regulations that underpin it, such as the Fiscal Pact, the Six-Pack, the Two-Pack or the Pact for Competitiveness currently negotiated. Trade imbalances within the Monetary Union must be reduced by adjusting surplus country policies, not by imposing austerity on the deficit countries. Fiscal policy should remain a democratic choice.
Ensure tax justice with a just, progressive and permanent taxation system on revenues, wealth and corporate profits, with effective minimum rates applied in all European countries. Revoke increases of consumption taxes such as VAT and drastically reduce those on basic goods. Outlaw tax havens and strengthen measures against fraud and tax avoidance and evasion.
Develop public, Europe-wide investment programs under social control for a social and ecological transition. This transition should be based on an industrial and agricultural policy that addresses the ecological crisis as well as the need to create millions of quality jobs and should rely on ecologically sustainable and socially useful activities in the public interest. Among these would figure increased investment in education, energy transition, public transportation, and food sovereignty. It would simultaneously require cutting military spending and socially and ecologically harmful expenditure. EU and national budgets should also be reoriented in this direction.
Strengthen and develop the social and ecological commons, redefine and expand public services, including health, scientific research, education, early childhood nurturing, transport and energy, water, information and culture, public housing, credit and so on. Stop all privatization of these services, establish their public or cooperative ownership and manage them democratically.
III) Rights for All: No to Poverty and Precariousness
Austerity policies attack economic and social rights and dismantle social protection. They lead to a drop in the standard of living and in many countries to acute humanitarian distress. The consequences are massive unemployment as well as a serious downgrading of working and living conditions. These, in turn, lead to unacceptable increases in poverty: today, 120 million people in the EU are poor.
In the present context of the crisis, these measures are taken even further. They attack labour rights and the role of unions, including their capacity to organize and bargain collectively. They impose competitiveness as a principle in order to divide people, increase profits, lower wages, and turn nature and human activities into commodities. Free trade agreements also foster social, ecological and fiscal dumping.
People living in precarious conditions, unemployed, disabled and pensioners are hardest hit. Among them, women, young people and migrants are first in line. Women are particularly affected by attacks on labour rights and are also obliged to compensate for the demolition of public services with unpaid care work; migrants’ basic rights are denied and an entire generation of European youth is subjected to unprecedented joblessness and social decline.
We demand that every person enjoy effective democratic, economic, environmental and social rights.
Our common and urgent demands:
Restore the right to bargain collectively and the right of collective action; Safeguard or reinstate collective agreements and labour rights under threat from austerity packages. Guarantee democracy inside the work-place as a fundamental workers’ right. ILO standards and the European Social Charter must be applied to all workers, including migrants. Put a stop to precarious work.
End social and wage dumping in Europe and in the world, including through international agreements; promote a common ground of collective guarantees in Europe that can ensure high-level social security systems and economic rights.
Increase wages, establish an adequate minimum wage for every worker set by law or binding collective agreement in each country and a minimum income sufficient for a dignified life. Decrease working hours without decreasing wages and ensure a just division of unpaid care work; promote quality and sustainable employment for all with decent working conditions. Decrease radically salary differentials in the same company.
Protect security of tenure of indebted households and generally the right of all people to decent housing. Ensure effective access to prevention and quality healthcare for all.
Impose equality of wages, pensions and career development between women and men and outlaw discrimination at work based on gender, ethnic origin, nationality or sexual orientation. Vigorously oppose violence against women.
Strengthen the social and political protagonism of migrants. Oppose the politics of criminalization of migrants and refugees. Secure equal rights for migrants and the granting of asylum, close detention camps, close the FRONTEX Agency and end its EU border operations.
IV) For a Democratic Economy:
Make Banks Serve the Public Interest
The collapse of the private banking system in 2008 was not an accident but rather a direct consequence of finance serving only shareholders and speculators to the detriment of the public interest. In recent decades, governments have both authorized and encouraged this system by consenting to every demand of the financial industry. Many public or cooperatively-owned credit institutions previously devoted to financing useful regional activities have been privatized. Meanwhile, the absence of regulation has allowed criminal organizations worldwide to launder money and invest their huge profits freely.
Governments responded to the crisis by injecting hundreds of billions of euros into bank rescues at the expense of taxpayers and provided financial interests with unconditional guarantees, thereby strengthening the private banks even further.
In order to make the banking sector and the financial industry serve the public interest, society and the environment from now on, the disproportionate power of financial institutions must be curbed through strict regulation and public and democratic control over banks.
Our common and urgent demands:
Review the extensive guarantees granted to private finance and exercise public control in the event of bank failures so as to avoid negative impacts on society. The shareholders of failed banks as well as their creditors must take their share of losses. Bailed-out banks must be socialized.
Impose effective and strict regulation of banks and other financial institutions. Enforce complete separation of commercial and investment banks. Prohibit the use of tax havens and off-balance sheet activities. Abolish bank secrecy rules. Tax financial transactions and restore control over capital inflows or outflows. Break up “too big to fail” banks.
Enforce democratic and social control of banks and financial institutions. Orient credit toward job-creating activities that encourage social and ecological development. Give priority and incentives to publicly and collectively owned cooperative public credit systems.
STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY!
Current developments in Europe represent an outright denial of democracy. Democratic debate is silenced, repression against social movements is increasing and divisions are encouraged between people and between countries. The predictable outcome is the rise of racist, right-wing or fascist movements as resentment is partly directed against migrants, poor people, minorities, foreigners, and/or other European people. The best way to defeat these movements is to get rid of austerity.
Alternatives exist: our responsibility is to change the balance of power in order to impose them and build genuine political, social and economic democracy in Europe.
Because we refuse to be governed by a self-appointed European oligarchy,
Because we refuse the exploitation of people and nature in Europe and in the rest of the world,
Because we call for an end to the exploitation and the oppression of women and for a break with the patriarchal system,
Because we want real democracy, real participation and popular sovereignty,
Because we want a society that gives priority to ecological and social needs,
We are building a united movement for a democratic, social, ecological and feminist Europe!
We pledge to join forces and to fight together to make our demands a reality through national and European actions.
The Alter Summit in Athens on June 7 and 8, 2013 is an important step in this direction. •
Comments
#2 John Smith 2013-06-10 03:57 EDT
Eurocentric centrism
There’s much to agree with in this, of course, and many questions to ask. For now, just two.
Why use the word ‘oligarchy’ when they actually mean ‘capitalists’?
And, “Today, more than half of European wealth is captured by 10 per cent of the population”… yes; probably a big underestimate. But how much of the world’s wealth is captured by Europe? There’s no recognition here that the EU is an imperialist club, that the prime source of European capitalists’ profits is superexploited labour in low-wage countries. The only hint of this reality is “End social and wage dumping in Europe and in the world, including through international agreements”, ie protectionism and pie-in-the-sky reformism.
#1 Jim Griffin 2013-06-10 00:59 EDT
SPECIAL
EarthTalk®
From E – The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: How far along are we at developing algae-based and other higher yield sources of biofuels? — Jason McCabe, Tullahoma, TN
A few years ago biofuels were all the rage. Environmental advocates to national security hawks alike were extolling the virtues of ethanol and biodiesel as a carbon-neutral bridge to our energy future. But the bubble burst when it became apparent that there wasn’t enough agricultural land in the U.S. or elsewhere to grow sufficient amounts of corn, palm and other crops to feed both people and their engines. To boot, the process of extracting and distributing biofuels has proven anything but carbon neutral. And with ever cheaper natural gas widely available now, paying a premium for ethanol or biodiesel seemed frivolous.
But a new generation of biofuels based on algae might just change all that. One of the major problems with biofuels that algae could solve is space, since algae can yield as much as 100 times more fuel per unit area than other so-called “second generation” biofuel crops (e.g. non-food crops or non-food waste parts of food crops). Federal researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy report that it would take only 15,000 square miles—less than 1/7 the area now used to harvest all the corn across the country—to produce enough algae fuel to replace all of our petroleum fuel.
While burning algae-derived fuel in an engine or factory generates carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions just like fossil fuels do, the algae itself requires CO2 to photosynthesize—so overall no new CO2 is added to the atmosphere. Furthermore, any CO2 created through processing or refinement can be captured and re-directed to the growing algae beds. And unlike other biofuel feedstocks, algae production has minimal impact on freshwater supplies—especially when it can be undertaken in ocean waters or even wastewater.
At least three well-funded ventures are poised to ramp up production of commercially viable quantities of algae-derived crude oil over the next couple of years. California’s Solazyme is building an algae fuel factory in Brazil in partnership with food processing giant Bunge and expects to manufacture 100,000 metric tons of fuel there each year. Solazyme is also retooling an Archer Daniels Midland factory in Clinton, Iowa to produce another 100,000 metric tons of algae fuel per year domestically.
Another company ready to make the leap into commercial scale production of algae fuel is Sapphire Energy, which operates a 2,200 acre algae farm in New Mexico where oil is harvested across 70 open ponds and refined on site. Sapphire—Bill Gates is a big investor—expects the facility, which goes online next year, to generate some 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day by 2018.
Yet a third player in the emerging algae fuel market is Synthetic Genomics, the brainchild of genomics guru Craig Venter, who beat the U.S. government in sequencing the human genome and at a fraction of the cost. The company, which last year purchased an 81-acre site in California’s Imperial Valley to scale up and test its synthetic algae strains across 42 open ponds, plans to genetically modify algae to optimize its oil output. ExxonMobil signed a $600 million development deal with the company to further the cutting edge research.
CONTACTS: Solazyme, www.solazyme.com; Sapphire Energy, www.sapphireenergy.com; Synthetic Genomics, www.syntheticgenomics.com.
EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to:earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. FreeTrial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.
Guest editorials
Scimitar-horned oryx resting peacefully, only to be struck down by a hunter
By Ruth Eisenbud
enesis
On June 10 20/20 aired a segment of hunting ranches in Texas where, for a fee, men with self esteem issues can hunt down exotic animals at close range with high powered rifles:
•••
Pro-dominion
This violence to harmless animals is justified as conservation. The root of the word conservation is to conserve. It means to preserve, not hunt down and kill. The reason for the confusion can be traced to the biblical edict of dominion, which grants man the right to benefit from animal cruelty, as long as the proper labels are used. Hence managing herds of exotic animals, so that they may be hunted down is labeled conservation. It is considered good stewardship of one’s resources… to breed them, so that they may be killed for their trophy value. Before harming another, compassion considers the harm to the victim, not the benefits to the exploiter. There-in lies the corruption of the term conservation: the animals are conserved, so that they may be exploited and killed.
[pullquote]“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.” Leonardo da Vinci [/pullquote]
Such a distortion of conservation is consistent with the double speak of dominion, where cruelty for the right price is mislabeled as righteous for it is good business. The right to kill for a price, as guaranteed by dominion aka stewardship is reflected in this comment on the 60 Minutes webpage, from a staunch dominionite:
•••
“With regard to ‘animal rights’ I am ‘pro-dominion’ that is to say I believe we as humans have been given dominion over all the creatures on earth and therefore are responsible for the stewardship of these creatures. If the facts/numbers are correct as reported then it appears the private sector has been successful at conserving and multiplying the endangered species. The private solution/compromise has also providing a profitable, job-creating service to hunters. And those hunters have contributed to the conversation of the endangered species. In my view this is good stewardship and apparently good business. Obviously, I am also a capitalist.” ChrisB321
•••
Such an unambiguous defense of dominion, is a a clear indication of the profound harm it causes. This view fails to recognize a universal truth of compassion: the life of an animal has inherent worth which cannot be measured by its value to man.
Love and sacrifice…
Still using the language of dominion, the ranch owner, Charly Seale, claimed it was necessary to sacrifice some animals, so that others may live. Sacrifice is nothing more than an antiquated excuse to kill. It orginated as a means of sanctifying slaughter, so that meat could be consumed. Animal sacrifice (aka slaughter), no matter what the justification, is always cruel and unusual punishment of beautiful animals that grace us with their presence when they are alive, not as body parts hanging on a on a wall. If there were no profit in this cruel charade, all efforts of this mockery of conservation would cease. The animals are not conserved for their own interest, but for interests of insecure men who do not understand the sanctity of life. The need to prove one’s prowess by bagging a defenseless animal and displaying the carnage has nothing to do with conservation.
Continuing with the double-speak of dominion, the owner of the ranch noted his love for the animals he auctions off to be killed… This fundamental contradiction perverts the very meaning of love. Love is not consistent with killing. There is no love in violent the taking of a life. Such violence, considered love, is a mark against the religious doctrine that encourages it. It fails to take into account the view that animals exist for their own interest, not as a supply of body parts over impressed by their own righteous importance.
Conservation
Another religious tradition, indigenous to India, is based on ahimsa – the idea that ALL life is sacred, worthy of respect and conservation is expressed as follows:
“For there is nothing inaccessible for death.
All beings are fond of life, hate pain, like pleasure,
shun destruction, like life, long to live. To all life
is dear.” Jain Acharanga Sutra.
“All things breathing, all things existing, all living beings whatever, would not be slain or treated with violence, or insulted, or tortured or driven away. This is the pure unchanging eternal law, which the wise ones who know the world have proclaimed…” Jain Acharanga Sutra
In India, where ahimsa imbues the view on animals, there are no canned hunts or culls . Animals are not made to pay the price for human incursions in to their traditional habitats. Instead evey effort at true conservation is made. Animals who stray into human habitats, even if they create havoc and accidentally harm humans, are not killed. They are instead returned to sanctuaries or a safer habitat, where they will not be a threat or be threatened by humans. These animals are not kept in sanctuaries to be shot down with high powered rifles as a demonstration of man’s dominion over the animals. The root of the term sanctuary is the same as for sanctity: that which is holy and sacred. When life is sacred animals are not bred to be killed, but to allow them to thrive.
The distortions and confusion of dominion are not accepted in india, where a kinder message towards animals is understood. There is a bear sanctuary in Agra, India, where bears are brought to recover from the trauma of human exploitation. They are allowed to live out their lives free from human harm:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=166684720010055:
The consequences of dominion extend to humans as indicated by another comment to the Sixty Minutes segment:
“Priscilla needs to be “CULLED” out of the herd. She wants to save these 3 species from extinction but would rather see them extinct than hunted in Texas. She needs to be down right slapped for her “Idiocy” and “Lunacy!” She is an uneducated (on the problem at hand) person and needs to know the facts before she opens that mouth of hers.” Justin Smoot
In this case Smoot is referring to Priscilla Feral, of Friends of Animals, an advocate for animal compassion, opposed to the canned hunts sponsored by undeducated individuals impressed with their supremacy over animals. Priscilla has brought a law suit to end the hunting of three species, on Texas farms, where conservation is used as a front for cruelty and greed.
Using the vocabulary of dominion, if you dont agree with an opinion – ‘just cull that person out of the herd’. That person is no longer granted the human right to compassion, but is treated with the disdain for animals, so cherished by dominion.
Playing god with animal lives, with the righteous pretense of conservation is a perversion of the golden rule.
When did love become brutality?
How did destruction become conservation?
When words are incorrectly redefined to promote exploitation, they reflect the cruel intention of dominion. In this case there is neither conservation nor love.
Until dominion is relegated to the pile of antiquated views that have no place in a civilized society, there will be men who insist that on their right to kill for profit or an illusion of power, then call it conservation. Until that time it will always be open season for hunting down the weak and defenseless among us.
Ruth Eisenbud is an indefatigable defender of animals, and a fighter to abolish human supremacism.
