<div> From: <a href="mailto:david.woodward@neweconomics.org">david.woodward@neweconomics.org</a><br> </div>
<div>Signs of movement by civil society to seize the opportunity presented by the current crisis to push for changes in the economic model.<br><br>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.<br>
David<br> </div>
<div>From: <a href="mailto:nick@jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk">nick@jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk</a><br><br>*The global economic crisis: An historic opportunity for transformation*<br><br>*An initial response from individuals, social movements and non-governmental<br>
Organisations in support of a transitional programme for radical economic<br>transformation Beijing, 15 October 2008*<br><br>*Preamble*<br>*Taking advantage of the opportunity of so many people from movements<br>gathering in Beijing during the Asia-Europe People's Forum, the<br>
Transnational Institute and Focus on the Global South convened informal<br>nightly meetings between 13 and 15 October 2008. We took stock of the<br>meaning of the unfolding global economic crisis and the opportunity it<br>
presents for us to put into the public domain some of the inspiring and<br>feasible alternatives many of us have been working on for decades. This<br>statement represents the collective outcome of our Beijing nights. We, the<br>
initial signatories, mean this to be a contribution towards efforts to<br>formulate proposals around which our movements can organise as the basis for<br>a radically different kind of political and economic order. Please sign on<br>
to this statement at *<a href="http://www.casinocrash.org">http://www.casinocrash.org</a>*.* <a href="http://www.casinocrash.org*.*/">http://www.casinocrash.org*.*/</a><br><br>*The Crisis*<br>The global financial system is unravelling at great speed. This is happening<br>
in the midst of a multiplicity of crises in relation to food, climate and<br>energy. It severely weakens the power of the US and the EU, and the global<br>institutions they dominate, particularly the International Monetary Fund,<br>
the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. Not only is the legitimacy<br>of the neo-liberal paradigm in question, but the very future of capitalism<br>itself.<br><br>Such is the chaos in the global financial system that Northern governments<br>
have resorted to measures progressive movements have advocated for years,<br>such as nationalisation of banks. These moves are intended, however, as<br>short-term stabilisation measures and once the storm clears, they are likely<br>
to return the banks to the private sector. We have a short window of<br>opportunity to mobilise so that they are not.<br><br>*The challenge and the opportunity*<br>We are entering uncharted terrain with this conjuncture of profound crises -<br>
the fall out from the financial crisis will be severe. People are being<br>thrown into a deep sense of insecurity; misery and hardship will increase<br>for many poorer people everywhere. We should not cede this moment to<br>
fascist, right wing populist, xenophobic groups, who will surely try to take<br>advantage of people's fear and anger for reactionary ends.<br><br>Powerful movements against neo-liberalism have been built over many decades.<br>
This will grow as critical coverage of the crisis enlightens more people,<br>who are already angry at public funds being diverted to pay for problems<br>they are not responsible for creating, and already concerned about the<br>
ecological crisis and rising prices - especially of food and energy. The<br>movements will grow further as recession starts to bite and economies start<br>sinking into depression.<br><br>There is a new openness to alternatives. To capture people's attention and<br>
support, they must be practical and immediately feasible. We have convincing<br>alternatives that are already underway, and we have many other good ideas<br>attempted in the past, but defeated. Our alternatives put the well-being of<br>
people and the planet at their centre. For this, democratic control over<br>financial and economic institutions are required. This is the "red thread"<br>connecting up the proposals presented below.<br><br>*Proposals for debate, elaboration and action*<br>
<br>*Finance*<br> - Introduce full-scale socialisation of banks, not just nationalisation<br> of bad assets.<br> - Create people-based banking institutions and strengthen existing<br> popular forms of lending based on mutuality and solidarity.<br>
- Institutionalise full transparency within the financial system through<br> the opening of the books to the public, to be facilitated by citizen and<br> worker organisations.<br> - Introduce parliamentary and citizens' oversight of the existing banking<br>
system<br> - Apply social ( including conditions of labour) and environmental<br> criteria to all lending, including for business purposes<br> - Prioritise lending, at minimum rates of interest, to meet social and<br>
environmental needs and to expand the already growing social economy<br> - Overhaul central banks in line with democratically determined social,<br> environmental and expansionary (to counter the recession) objectives, and<br>
make them publicly accountable institutions.<br> - Safeguard migrant remittances to their families and introduce<br> legislation to restrict charges and taxes on transfers<br><br>*Taxation*<br> - Close all tax havens<br>
- End tax breaks for fossil fuel and nuclear energy companies<br> - Apply stringent progressive tax systems<br> - Introduce a global taxation system to prevent transfer pricing and tax<br> evasion<br> - Introduce a levy on nationalised bank profits with which to establish<br>
citizen investment funds (see below)<br> - Impose stringent progressive carbon taxes on those with the biggest<br> carbon footprints<br> - Adopt controls, such as Tobin taxes, on the movements of speculative<br> capital<br>
- Re-introduce tariffs and duties on imports of luxury goods and other<br> goods already produced locally as a means of increasing the state's fiscal<br> base, as well as a means to support local production and thereby reduce<br>
carbon emissions globally<br><br>*Public Spending and Investment*<br> - Radically reduce military spending<br> - Redirect government spending from bailing out bankers to guaranteeing<br> basic incomes and social security, and providing universally accessible<br>
basic social services such as housing, water, electricity, health,<br> education, child care, and access to the internet and other public<br> communications facilities.<br> - Use citizen funds (see above) to support very poor communities<br>
- Ensure that people at risk of losing their homes due to defaults on<br> mortgages caused by the crisis are offered renegotiated terms of payment<br> - Stop privatisations of public services<br> - Establish public enterprises under the control of parliaments, local<br>
communities and/or workers to increase employment<br> - Improve the performance of public enterprises through democratizing<br> management - encourage public service managers, staff, unions and consumer<br> organisations to collaborate to this end<br>
- Introduce participatory budgeting over public finances at all feasible<br> levels<br> - Invest massively in improved energy efficiency, low carbon emitting<br> public transport, renewable energy and environmental repair<br>
- Control or subsidise the prices of basic commodities<br><br>IInternational Trade and Finance*<br> - Introduce a permanent global ban on short-selling of stock and shares<br> - Ban on trade in derivatives<br> - Ban all speculation on staple food commodities<br>
- Cancel the debt of all developing countries - debt is mounting as the<br> crisis causes the value of Southern currencies to fall<br> - Support the United Nations call to be involved in discussions about how<br> the to resolve the crisis, which is going to have a much bigger impact on<br>
Southern economies than is currently being acknowledged<br> - Phase out the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade<br> Organisation<br> - Phase out the US dollar as the international reserve currency<br>
- Establish a people's inquiry into the mechanisms necessary for a just<br> international monetary system.<br> - Ensure aid transfers do not fall as a result of the crisis<br> - Abolish tied aid<br> - Abolish neo-liberal aid conditionalities<br>
- Phase out the paradigm of export-led development, and refocus<br> sustainable development on production for the local and regional market<br> - Introduce incentives for products produced for sale closest to the<br> local market<br>
- Cancel all negotiations for bilateral free trade and economic<br> partnership agreements<br> - Promote regional economic co-operation arrangements, such as UNASUR,<br> the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the Trade Treaty of<br>
the<br> Peoples and others, that encourage genuine development and an end to<br> poverty.<br><br>Environment*<br> - Introduce a global system of compensation for countries which do not<br> exploit fossil fuel reserves in the global interests of limiting<br>
effects on<br> the climate, such as Ecuador has proposed.<br> - Pay reparations to Southern countries for the ecological destruction<br> wrought by the North to assist peoples of the South to deal with climate<br> change and other environmental crises.<br>
- Strictly implement the "precautionary principle" of the UN Declaration<br> on the Right to Development as a condition for all developmental and<br> environmental projects.<br> - End lending for projects under the Kyoto Protocol's "Clean Development<br>
Mechanism" that are environmentally destructive, such as monoculture<br> plantations of eucalyptus, soya and palm oil.<br> - Stop the development of carbon trading and other environmentally<br> counter-productive techno-fixes, such as carbon capture and sequestration,<br>
agrofuels, nuclear power and 'clean coal' technology.<br> - Adopt strategies to radically reduce consumption in the rich countries,<br> while promoting sustainable development in poorer countries<br> - Introduce democratic management of all international funding mechanisms<br>
for climate change mitigation, with strong participation from Southern<br> countries and civil society.<br><br>Agriculture and Industry*<br> - Phase out the pernicious paradigm of industry-led development, where<br> the rural sector is squeezed to provide the resources necessary to support<br>
industrialisation and urbanisation<br> - Promote agricultural strategies aimed at achieving food security, food<br> sovereignty and sustainable farming.<br> - Promote land reforms and other measures which support small holder<br>
agriculture and sustain peasant and indigenous communities<br> - Stop the spread of socially and environmentally destructive<br> mono-cultural enterprises.<br> - Stop labour law reforms aimed at extending hours of work and making it<br>
easier for employers to fire or retrench workers<br> - Secure jobs through outlawing precarious low paid work<br> - Guarantee equal pay for equal work for women - as a basic principle and<br> to help counter the coming recession by increasing workers' capacity to<br>
consume.<br> - Protect the rights of migrant workers in the event of job losses,<br> ensuring their safe return to and reintegration into their home countries.<br> For those who cannot return, there should be no forced return, their<br>
security should be guaranteed, and they should be provided with employment<br> or a basic minimum income.<br><br>*Conclusion*<br>*These are all practical, common sense proposals. Some are initiatives<br>already underway and demonstrably feasible. Their successes need to be<br>
publicised and popularised so as to inspire reproduction. Others are<br>unlikely to be implemented on their objective merits alone. Political will<br>is required. By implication, therefore, every proposal is a call to action.<br>
<br>*We have written what we see as a living document to be developed and<br>enriched by us all. Please sign on to this statement at *<br><a href="http://www.casinocrash.org">http://www.casinocrash.org</a>*.* <a href="http://www.casinocrash.org*.*/">http://www.casinocrash.org*.*/</a> <br>
<br>*A future occasion to come together to work on the actions needed to make<br>these ideas and others a reality will be the World Social Forum in Belem,<br>Brazil at the end of January 2009. *<br><br>*We have the experience and the ideas - let's meet the challenge of the<br>
present ruling disorder and keep the momentum towards an alternative<br>rolling!!*<br><br>*Initial Signatories* a long list follows (omitted)<br> </div>