PHA-Exch> The global economic crisis: An historic opportunity for transformation

[Claudio Schuftan]

   From:    david.woodward at neweconomics.org

Signs of movement by civil society to seize the opportunity presented by the
current crisis to push for changes in the economic model.

We really need to engage with this process, and to link it in with the
so-called "new Bretton Woods" process. The key priority in this initial
phase is to ensure that the decision-making processes on global reform are
open, inclusive, accountable and democratic - and particularly that they
give a weight to the views of developing countries commensurate with their
share of world population. Otherwise, there's a real risk that the developed
countries will just stitch things up to deal with their own problems, and
ignore the far greater costs to people in the South.
David

From: nick at jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

*The global economic crisis:  An historic opportunity for transformation*

*An initial response from individuals, social movements and non-governmental
Organisations in support of a transitional programme for radical economic
transformation Beijing, 15 October 2008*

*Preamble*
*Taking advantage of the opportunity of so many people from movements
gathering in Beijing during the Asia-Europe People's Forum, the
Transnational Institute and Focus on the Global South convened informal
nightly meetings between 13 and 15 October 2008. We took stock of the
meaning of the unfolding global economic crisis and the opportunity it
presents for us to put into the public domain some of the inspiring and
feasible alternatives many of us have been working on for decades. This
statement represents the collective outcome of our Beijing nights. We, the
initial signatories, mean this to be a contribution towards efforts to
formulate proposals around which our movements can organise as the basis for
a radically different kind of political and economic order. Please sign on
to this statement at *http://www.casinocrash.org*.*
http://www.casinocrash.org*.*/

*The Crisis*
The global financial system is unravelling at great speed. This is happening
in the midst of a multiplicity of crises in relation to food, climate and
energy. It severely weakens the power of the US and the EU, and the global
institutions they dominate, particularly the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. Not only is the legitimacy
of the neo-liberal paradigm in question, but the very future of capitalism
itself.

Such is the chaos in the global financial system that Northern governments
have resorted to measures progressive movements have advocated for years,
such as nationalisation of banks.  These moves are intended, however, as
short-term stabilisation measures and once the storm clears, they are likely
to return the banks to the private sector. We have a short window of
opportunity to mobilise so that they are not.

*The challenge and the opportunity*
We are entering uncharted terrain with this conjuncture of profound crises -
the fall out from the financial crisis will be severe. People are being
thrown into a deep sense of insecurity; misery and hardship will increase
for many poorer people everywhere. We should not cede this moment to
fascist, right wing populist, xenophobic groups, who will surely try to take
advantage of people's fear and anger for reactionary ends.

Powerful movements against neo-liberalism have been built over many decades.
This will grow as critical coverage of the crisis enlightens more people,
who are already angry at public funds being diverted to pay for problems
they are not responsible for creating, and already concerned about the
ecological crisis and rising prices - especially of food and energy. The
movements will grow further as recession starts to bite and economies start
sinking into depression.

There is a new openness to alternatives. To capture people's attention and
support, they must be practical and immediately feasible. We have convincing
alternatives that are already underway, and we have many other good ideas
attempted in the past, but defeated. Our alternatives put the well-being of
people and the planet at their centre. For this, democratic control over
financial and economic institutions are required. This is the "red thread"
connecting up the proposals presented below.

*Proposals for debate, elaboration and action*

*Finance*
  - Introduce full-scale socialisation of banks, not just nationalisation
  of bad assets.
  - Create people-based banking institutions and strengthen existing
  popular forms of lending based on mutuality and solidarity.
  - Institutionalise full transparency within the financial system through
  the opening of the books to the public, to be facilitated by citizen and
  worker organisations.
  - Introduce parliamentary and citizens' oversight of the existing banking
  system
  - Apply social ( including conditions of  labour) and environmental
  criteria to all lending, including for business purposes
  - Prioritise lending, at minimum rates of interest, to meet social and
  environmental needs and to expand the already growing social economy
  - Overhaul central banks in line with democratically determined social,
  environmental and expansionary (to counter the recession) objectives, and
  make them publicly accountable institutions.
  - Safeguard migrant remittances to their families and introduce
  legislation to restrict charges and taxes on transfers

*Taxation*
  - Close all tax havens
  - End tax breaks for fossil fuel and nuclear energy companies
  - Apply stringent progressive tax systems
  - Introduce a global taxation system to prevent transfer pricing and tax
  evasion
  - Introduce a levy on nationalised bank profits with which to establish
  citizen investment funds (see below)
  - Impose stringent progressive carbon taxes on those with the biggest
  carbon footprints
  - Adopt controls, such as Tobin taxes, on the movements of speculative
  capital
  - Re-introduce tariffs and duties on imports of luxury goods and other
  goods already produced locally as a means of increasing the state's fiscal
  base, as well as a means to support local production and thereby reduce
  carbon emissions globally

*Public Spending and Investment*
  - Radically reduce military spending
  - Redirect government spending from bailing out bankers to guaranteeing
  basic incomes and social security, and providing universally accessible
  basic social services such as housing, water, electricity, health,
  education, child care, and access to the internet and other public
  communications facilities.
  - Use citizen funds (see above) to support very poor communities
  - Ensure that people at risk of losing their homes due to defaults on
  mortgages caused by the crisis are offered renegotiated terms of payment
  - Stop privatisations of public services
  - Establish public enterprises under the control of parliaments, local
  communities and/or workers to increase employment
  - Improve the performance of public enterprises through democratizing
  management - encourage public service managers, staff, unions and consumer
  organisations to collaborate to this end
  - Introduce participatory budgeting over public finances at all feasible
  levels
  - Invest massively in improved energy efficiency, low carbon emitting
  public transport, renewable energy and environmental repair
  - Control or subsidise the prices of basic commodities

IInternational Trade and Finance*
  - Introduce a permanent global ban on short-selling of stock and shares
  - Ban on trade in derivatives
  - Ban all speculation on staple food commodities
  - Cancel the debt of all developing countries - debt is mounting as the
  crisis causes the value of Southern currencies to fall
  - Support the United Nations call to be involved in discussions about how
  the to resolve the crisis, which is going to have a much bigger impact on
  Southern economies than is currently being acknowledged
  - Phase out the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade
  Organisation
  - Phase out the US dollar as the international reserve currency
  - Establish a people's inquiry into the mechanisms necessary for a just
  international monetary system.
  - Ensure aid transfers do not fall as a result of the crisis
  - Abolish tied aid
  - Abolish neo-liberal aid conditionalities
  - Phase out the paradigm of export-led development, and refocus
  sustainable development on production for the local and regional market
  - Introduce incentives for products produced for sale closest to the
  local market
  - Cancel all negotiations for bilateral free trade and economic
  partnership agreements
  - Promote regional economic co-operation arrangements, such as UNASUR,
  the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the Trade Treaty of
the
  Peoples and others, that encourage genuine development and an end to
  poverty.

Environment*
  - Introduce a global system of compensation for countries which do not
  exploit fossil fuel reserves in the global interests of limiting
effects on
  the climate, such as Ecuador has proposed.
  - Pay reparations to Southern countries for the ecological destruction
  wrought by the North to assist peoples of the South to deal with climate
  change and other environmental crises.
  - Strictly implement the "precautionary principle" of the UN Declaration
  on the Right to Development as a condition for all developmental and
  environmental projects.
  - End lending for projects under the Kyoto Protocol's "Clean Development
  Mechanism" that are environmentally destructive, such as monoculture
  plantations of eucalyptus, soya and palm oil.
  - Stop the development of carbon trading and other environmentally
  counter-productive techno-fixes, such as carbon capture and sequestration,
  agrofuels, nuclear power and 'clean coal' technology.
  - Adopt strategies to radically reduce consumption in the rich countries,
  while promoting sustainable development in poorer countries
  - Introduce democratic management of all international funding mechanisms
  for climate change mitigation, with strong participation from Southern
  countries and civil society.

Agriculture and Industry*
  - Phase out the pernicious paradigm of industry-led development, where
  the rural sector is squeezed to provide the resources necessary to support
  industrialisation and urbanisation
  - Promote agricultural strategies aimed at achieving food security, food
  sovereignty and sustainable farming.
  - Promote land reforms and other measures which support small holder
  agriculture and sustain peasant and indigenous communities
  - Stop the spread of socially and environmentally destructive
  mono-cultural enterprises.
  - Stop labour law reforms aimed at extending hours of work and making it
  easier for employers to fire or retrench workers
  - Secure jobs through outlawing precarious low paid work
  - Guarantee equal pay for equal work for women - as a basic principle and
  to help counter the coming recession by increasing workers' capacity to
  consume.
  - Protect the rights of migrant workers in the event of job losses,
  ensuring their safe return to and reintegration into their home countries.
  For those who cannot return, there should be no forced return, their
  security should be guaranteed, and they should be provided with employment
  or a basic minimum income.

*Conclusion*
*These are all practical, common sense proposals. Some are initiatives
already underway and demonstrably feasible. Their successes need to be
publicised and popularised so as to inspire reproduction. Others are
unlikely to be implemented on their objective merits alone. Political will
is required. By implication, therefore, every proposal is a call to action.

*We have written what we see as a living document to be developed and
enriched by us all. Please sign on to this statement at *
http://www.casinocrash.org*.* http://www.casinocrash.org*.*/

*A future occasion to come together to work on the actions needed to make
these ideas and others a reality will be the World Social Forum in Belem,
Brazil at the end of January 2009.  *

*We have the experience and the ideas - let's meet the challenge of the
present ruling disorder and keep the momentum towards an alternative
rolling!!*

*Initial Signatories*     a long list follows (omitted)
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