Calling every European citizen!
EUROPE MUST BE ON ALERT AND CALLED UP!
Let’s recover our future
For a permanent collaboration and a convergent action between leftist, green and progressive forces in Europe
Millions of Europeans and Europeans have suffered and still suffer the attacks of a predatory capital which is promoting labour, social, economic and institutional changes whose aim is to demolish historical achievements of the working class and the popular strata in order to impose an authoritarian, precarious, deregulated society, without labour, social and citizen’s rights.
In this sense, those of us who gathered in Bilbao on November 9, 10 and 11 of 2018, in the second European Forum of Forces of the Left, Greens and progressive forces, calls upon the popular groups from all over Europe to be on alert and mobilized.
We are on alert against the social harms and inequalities that increasingly tear our societies apart and that are aggravated every day by policies that promote austerity, protection of benefits and competition among workers.
We are on alert against the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, when insecurity and poverty grow throughout Europe.
We stand up for climate, aware of the threat of a catastrophic climate change and of air pollution and the risks on biodiversity, because the planet is warming up and runs the risk of becoming uninhabitable if nothing is done to change urgently the course of our economic and industrial models, as once again is requested in the alarming report published by the IPCC.
We fight against the attacks to the democratic liberties and to the rights of the women. Alert to face the shameful treatment to migrants.
We are on alert on the risk to peace, which the renewed militarization of international relations, as well as the military expenditure, required, among others, by NATO, implies.
We fight against the rise of far-right and reactionary forces that are once again awakening hatred, racism and tension throughout the continent.
We are on alert against spreading of racism and xenophobia, powered by several governments and political forces; against the building of a fortress-Europe, closed for migrants escaping from wars and poverty.
Our main message is the need to be alert and mobilized to confront the policies that are crushing the peoples of Europe, which are ignored by the rich and powerful, the financial agents and the markets in their search for neoliberal policies.
We say that the time has come for the peoples of Europe to take control of their future and our common destiny.
It is time to combine our forces to open the door to a new era, a path towards a new economic, social and ecological model, new responses to emancipation and democratic progress to face the big challenges of mankind.
It is time to work and act together to make our energies combine in the long term, because we know that the citizens of Europe face historical challenges without precedent and that none of our forces can face this challenge alone.
Many different forces are working together to create another kind of future and a form of development that moves away from this brutal and decadent capitalism.
In a moment in which we are facing a Brexit full of unknowns for British citizens and for non-British people living and working in Britain, as well as having elections to the European Union Parliament that will likely change the balance of forces and balances of power within the European Union.
It is vital that these forces work together more actively to make citizens of Europe say clear and loud that another way is possible: the one of social progress, inclusion, democracy, peace, respect for equality between men and women, and in general among all people, sustainable development from the environmental point of view and inclusive economic growth. We want to make these popular forces combine their energies.
Based on these common challenges, and in line with the call of the first European Forum of Left, Green and Progressive Forces held in Marseille in November 2017, we have decided that this Forum must continue our work on creating a permanent convergence space at European level.
Our forces are diverse, either they are rooted in the history of the struggles of the workers’ movement, either anti-fascist, internationalist, green, emancipatory, or emerged from the mobilization within the society, we are aware that we have a lot in common and we also have our differences.
We do not deny these differences and each of our forces is and remains fully sovereign in its decisions. The objective is making these differences do not interfere in the pursuit of the common objective of this forum, providing a framework that offers political, social, union and civic forces the opportunity to contribute their ideas, examine them, derive common axes of political action, encourage the people to mobilize at national and European level, and to promote the political cooperation between leftist, green and progressive forces everywhere, as well as in the Parliament of the European Union.
We propose to prepare the third forum that will be organised as a part of the combined actions that we agree to develop in 2019. There are many potential fronts of action. This year, we propose to join forces and focus on four basic axes:
1.- The reordering of the immense wealth created in Europe towards a new model of social and ecological development.
Inequality and poverty continue rising in Europe, while banks, the financial sector, multinationals cram themselves at a time where social and economic progress is urgently needed.
In the European Union, the GDP of Europe is of 17 Billion Euros. Undoubtedly, inequality and poverty is increasing. Since 2009, the ECB has injected almost 5 Billion Euros into the economy of this area, while the tax evasion in the same territory amounts to almost one Billion Euros. This money should be redirected in order to satisfy the social necessities, financing public services and the environment, as well as alleviate the unsustainability of the sovereign debt.
In this way, as progressive and leftist movements, we defend the right to a decent job for all with full employment, with quality working conditions, sufficient salaries, security, social protection, without discrimination, with equality between men and women.
We propose that the wealth and power of the countries, serve to favour the development of a dignified life without discrimination of gender, expression and sexual or affective identity.
Our call:
We propose to establish new criteria on how to spend money in Europe in favour of a transformation of the productive structures and for a new social and ecological development model based on a Framework Convention that proposes a New Economic and Productive Model. Which is why we put forward the intent to open a debate on the creation of a European financial, fiscal and budgetary COP similar to the COP on climate change.
2. To defend and promote gender equality.
Women’s rights must be defended. One of the pillars on which the hegemony of liberalism is based is patriarchy, which is based on ideological values that relegates women to a secondary role in society, normalizing the wage gap, or does not involve the eradication of sexist violence from the root, such as trafficking with women and minors for sexual exploitation, because these and other situations of inequality and discrimination maintain and sustain this system that subordinates and subjects women. Moreover, we have to put an end to discriminations against LGBTIQ people.
The lack of solidarity, equality and equity only generates greater inequality, discrimination and violence that will affect to a greater extent those who have already been victims of an economic, fiscal and political crisis, among others, people with disabilities and functional diversity.
We are convinced that there will be no real democracy while women do not live free, without violence, and in equality of rights that men. For this reason, the fight against patriarchy is fundamental for the construction of a new project of society that puts the value of people’s lives above the benefit of the markets.
The equitable distribution of productive and reproductive work is fundamental for the recognition of social and labour rights that prevent all types of exploitation of women.
Our call :
Based on these premises from this Forum of Leftist, Progressive and Ecologist forces we set out to elaborate a protocol for gender equality that assumes the full incorporation of women into the world of work, and of men into care work, and which aims at overcoming inequalities and ensuring gender equality in all spheres of life.
3. Peace and collective security.
The relaunch of military spending and the arms race in line with the NATO’s objectives represents a serious risk to peace. The principles of collective security, as are defined in the Charter of the United Nations, are threatened. Donald Trump’s policies are also putting pressure on all Europe. The question of relations between all European nations and neighbouring regions must be reconsidered on the basis of these principles.
Our call :
We propose to organize citizen debates throughout Europe to promote the idea of a pan-European conference for peace and collective security. It will allow to bring together people across the continent to reject the course towards war in favour of a peaceful and secure world!
It should permit binding agreements with a single standard on asylum and protection of international law by means of a migration policy based on solidarity and responsibility, guaranteeing secure rescue paths for the Mediterranean. We have to build answers based on solidarity, such as the reform of the Dublin system. Hospitality policies are not only a matter of mercy but remain a fundamental part of any redistributive action.
4. Democracy and respect for popular sovereignty
A democratic society is one that responds to and protects the needs of its citizens having the capacity to listen and act for a collective benefit.
Which is why we consider that the main rationale defining the European Union is the weakness of democracy in its functioning. The neoliberal orientation of its treaties is imposed without the consent of the people, and sometimes against their will. For instance, the ECB works without any democratic control. This is combined with the asymmetrical intergovernmentalism, policies led by conservative majorities, and the criteria of some of the European institutions, which are also an attack against democracy.
What dominates in Europe is not cooperation, both – what pertains as well as what doesn’t pertain to the European Union, is not cooperation but rather competition and authoritarianism.
Today, there are even countries who are calling for the “ill-liberalism”, in other words, liberalism without democracy. Reactionary and far-right forces must be fought tirelessly and without any compromise, as pluralism and democracy are essential pillars for European peoples and nations.
Our call :
In order for Europe to have a different future, the challenge is to combine respect for popular sovereignty, cooperation between peoples and nations and pool resources to achieve shared social and environmental objectives. Our goal is to fight for a Europe that is a fully cooperative, solidary, equal and socially advanced democracy. We call for empowering popular sovereignty by launching a new charter for sovereign democracy in Europe.