[Updated] Global petition against repression in Ecuador (updated 1 July 2022)

***LATEST *** Thanks to the tremendous victory of the indigenous struggle in Ecuador in the agreement of 30 June, this petition is no longer being promoted.  Full details here: https://www.ecosocialist.scot/?p=1340 We thank those who supported it and will keep them informed of developments.  The article and updates will remain on our website as a historic record and background of the struggle.

ecosocialist.scot is launching a global petition (below) against the current repression in Ecuador and in solidarity with the movement of the indigenous people, other workers organisations and social movements for just demands in their general strike against the right wing government of President Lasso.   Early signatories include parliamentarians, political and climate activists, and workers’ leaders from across the world.

The general strike in Ecuador was initially called by the movement of indigenous people (CONAIE) and has been underway since Monday 13 June.  The strike and mass protests are growing in support among workers, but have been met by a massive wave of repression by the Lasso government including the illegal detention of indigenous leader Leonidas Iza, mass arrests and police brutality including the killing of an 18 year old indigenous protestor and at least four others (see below for Latest News and https://www.ecosocialist.scot/?p=1277 for background).

We are targeting this petition at both the workers movement and the climate justice movement.  The 10 demands of the movement relate not just to the harsh economic conditions of the people through rising prices of food and fuel while workers’ incomes fall, but are also against the exploitation of the natural environment and extraction of resources that has devastated indigenous people’s across Ecuador, the entire continent and the world.  The demands include opposition to privatisation of public services and the need for investment in education and health.

The petition can be found on the ipetitions website (link below) and can also be signed on a Google form.  ipetitions will display the total global signatories, but if you also fill in the form to share your details we’ll be able to publicise your designation and area of activity.  The list below will therefore extend.  We call on all activists in the workers and climate justice movement to both sign and promote the petition on social media and through your organisations.  The world needs to support the movement of indigenous peoples, workers and environmental activists in Ecuador in their hour of need.

LATEST EVENTS from our correspondents on the ground – updated 25 June 2022

The Ecuador National Assembly is debating online a motion of no confidence in President Lasso though it seems doubtful that it will be passed.  President Lasso has suspended the State of Emergency order, in a blatant attempt to try to void the no confidence motion.  But the repression against demonstrators continues, as show in videos below.  Many thousands more indigenous protestors have mobilised to reinforce those already in the capital, Quito.

Police brutality against protesters in Quito on Friday.

Indigenous communities in Chimboraza in the central highlands send reinforcements to the protests in capital Quito

Indigenous communities in Chimboraza in the central highlands send reinforcements to the protests in capital Quito (Facebook video)

Thursday 23 June report

Thursday, the eleventh day of the national strike in Ecuador, was a very intense day. It began with an important victory for the indigenous-led movement. Thousands of mainly indigenous protesters managed to reoccupy, entirely peacefully, the main cultural centre in Quito, the Casa de Cultura. This is where the indigenous movement has traditionally found shelter when it mobilises in the capital. It was their centre of operations during the uprising of October 2019. However, as part of its state of emergency, the government had sent the army and police to seal off the building and its grounds. This made it much more difficult this time for the indigenous contingents arriving in Quito to find shelter and have a coordinated logistical and symbolic centre. They had been more spread out around various university campuses that had partially allowed them in. Some were left sleeping out in the cold.

The fact that on Thursday, faced with a huge swell of protesters outside, the security forces simply let them in, was interpreted as a possible, significant concession by the government. A massive and euphoric rally of indigenous and other protesters took place in the main auditorium, addressed, in particular, by Leonidas Iza, the undisputed, central leader of the strike. There was talk of more concessions and the possibility of meaningful talks, with results, as the movement has been putting it, with the government.

However, a little later, part of the movement, led by indigenous women, began to march from the House of Culture to the National Assembly, to put pressure on them. There have been so-far unsuccessful attempts there to revoke the president’s decrees of a state of emergency. This march was met with very severe repression from the police and army, using tear gas, water cannon and live, buckshot, ammunition. At least one young man died after receiving multiple pellet shots in his chest and neck. As night fell, groups of police on motorbikes also attacked at least one of the humanitarian locations where people from the local community were distributing food to indingenous protesters. In one case the police fired pistols at the group as they ate, wounding at least one of them. There are reports of another death as well, taking the total so far to at least four.

Another worrying development is that sections of the middle-class, racist right in Quito have begun to mobilise against the protests. There are reports of groups of white-shirted young man driving around and abusing isolated individuals or vulnerable groups of indigenous protesters, shouting racist abuse at the “f****** indians” and telling them to go home. It is not clear if there have been physical attacks, but some of these vigilantes seem to be carrying guns. The right also mobilised a march of a few thousand towards the area where the protesters are concentrated, but they didn’t get very far and soon turned back to their base in the affluent neighbourhoods of north-central Quito.

Thank you for your support.

ecosocialist.scot

Link to Petition: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-the-repression-in-ecuador

Send us your details if you sign: https://forms.gle/jFzJ5T7a4VTDa2VL9

______________________________

Text of petition and signatories (English/Spanish)

Stop the repression in Ecuador, Solidarity with the Indigenous-led strike! / Alto a la represión en Ecuador, Solidaridad con el paro Indígena

To also have your name publicly associated with this petition, please complete the form here: https://forms.gle/jFzJ5T7a4VTDa2VL9 This petition was initially organised by ecosocialist.scot  / Para que su nombre también se asocie públicamente con esta petición, complete el formulario aquí: https://forms.gle/jFzJ5T7a4VTDa2VL9 Esta petición fue organizada inicialmente por ecosocialist.scot

 

STOP THE REPRESSION IN ECUADOR, SOLIDARITY WITH THE INDIGENOUS-LED STRIKE!

“The repression against the nationwide strike called by the indigenous movement in Ecuador has only increased since President Guillermo Lasso first declared a state of emergency and a curfew on Friday, 17 June. The police and army have been using brutal force, tear gas, stun grenades, pellet shot, to stop thousands of peaceful indigenous protesters from entering the capital, Quito. At least one protester has died, three are reported to be in a critical condition, dozens more have been wounded or arrested. The army and police have sealed off the House of Culture and several university campuses in an attempt to deny the indigenous protesters their traditional places of shelter in the capital. An immense citizen effort is underway, from students, women’s groups, neighbourhood organisations and the population in general, to collect food, blankets and basic provisions for the protesters who have made it into Quito.

Massive mobilisations and road blocks continue in indigenous territories across Ecuador. The local Governor’s offices have been occupied in at least three provinces.

Secondary school and university students, teachers, health workers, trade unionists, neighbourhood organisations and the feminist movement are mobilising in towns and cities.

Bus drivers, taxi drivers and truckers have either promised stoppages or already joined in the road blocks.

We the undersigned, demand an immediate end to the violent repression of peaceful protesters in Ecuador. We call on President Lasso and the government of Ecuador to lift the state of emergency, release those still in detention and drop all charges against the movement’s best known leader, Leonidas Iza, President of Conaie, who was illegally detained on 14 June and released 24 hours later, but who still faces charges that carry a possible prison sentence of 1-3 years.

In place of a military response, we urge President Lasso to engage in serious negotiations with the indigenous movement and other social movements, to address their just demands.

These include the 10 points put forward by Conaie – including fair prices for agricultural products; freezing of fuel prices because this generates price increases; respect for the collective rights of indigenous peoples and nationalities; a budget for health and education; an end to the voracious extractivism in indigenous territories; stop speculation and rising prices of basic food basket items; stop the privatisation of strategic sectors; public policies to curb the wave of violence.

These have since been enriched by other social movements incorporating their own demands, for example for public polices to curb gender violence and femicide.

The victory of Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez in the presidential elections in neighbouring Colombia, show that the people of the region want to turn the page on decades of neoliberal economic policies that only generate poverty, violence, racial exclusion and the destruction of mother earth. We stand in solidarity with all their struggles and with the indigenous-led strike in Ecuador.”

ALTO A LA REPRESIÓN EN ECUADOR, SOLIDARIDAD CON EL PARO INDÍGENA

“La represión contra el paro nacional convocado por el movimiento indígena en Ecuador no ha hecho más que aumentar desde que el presidente Guillermo Lasso declaró el estado de excepción y el toque de queda el viernes 17 de junio. La policía y el ejército han utilizado una fuerza brutal, gases lacrimógenos, granadas de aturdimiento y perdigones, para impedir que miles de manifestantes indígenas pacíficos entren en la capital, Quito. Al menos un manifestante ha muerto, tres se encuentran en estado crítico y docenas más han sido heridos o detenidos. El ejército y la policía han acordonado la Casa de la Cultura y varios campus universitarios en un intento de negar a los manifestantes indígenas sus lugares tradicionales de refugio en la capital. Está en marcha un inmenso esfuerzo ciudadano, por parte de estudiantes, grupos de mujeres, organizaciones vecinales y la población en general, para recoger alimentos, mantas y provisiones básicas para los manifestantes que han conseguido entrar en Quito.

Continúan las movilizaciones masivas y los bloqueos de carreteras en los territorios indígenas de todo Ecuador. Las gobernaciones locales han sido ocupadas en al menos tres provincias.

Estudiantes de secundaria y universitarios, profesores, personal sanitario, sindicalistas, organizaciones vecinales y el movimiento feminista se movilizan en pueblos y ciudades.

Los conductores de autobuses, taxistas y camioneros han prometido paros o ya se han sumado a los cortes de carretera.

Nosotros, los abajo firmantes, exigimos el cese inmediato de la represión violenta de los manifestantes pacíficos en Ecuador. Pedimos al presidente Lasso y al gobierno de Ecuador que levanten el estado de excepción, liberen a los que aún están detenidos y retiren todos los cargos contra el líder más conocido del movimiento, Leonidas Iza, presidente de la Conaie, que fue detenido ilegalmente el 14 de junio y liberado 24 horas después, pero que aún se enfrenta a cargos que conllevan una posible condena de prisión de 1 a 3 años.

En lugar de una respuesta militar, instamos al presidente Lasso a entablar negociaciones serias con el movimiento indígena y otros movimientos sociales, para atender sus justas demandas.

Entre ellas se encuentran los 10 puntos planteados por la Conaie, entre ellos, precios justos para los productos agropecuarios; congelación de los precios de los combustibles porque esto genera aumentos de precios; respeto a los derechos colectivos de los pueblos y nacionalidades indígenas; presupuesto para la salud y la educación; fin del extractivismo voraz en los territorios indígenas; freno a la especulación y al aumento de los precios de los productos de la canasta básica; freno a la privatización de los sectores estratégicos; políticas públicas para frenar la ola de violencia.

Desde entonces se han enriquecido con otros movimientos sociales que han incorporado sus propias demandas, por ejemplo, políticas públicas para frenar la violencia de género y el feminicidio.

La victoria de Gustavo Petro y Francia Márquez en las elecciones presidenciales de la vecina Colombia, demuestran que los pueblos de la región quieren darle vuelta a la página de décadas de políticas económicas neoliberales que sólo generan pobreza, violencia, exclusión racial y destrucción de la madre tierra. Nos solidarizamos con todas sus luchas y con la huelga liderada por los indígenas en Ecuador”.

Initial list of Signatories (22 June 2022/22 junio 2022)

Miguel Urbán, Member of European Parliament/Eurodiputado, Anticapitalistas (Spanish State/Estado Español)

Martín Mosquera (Argentina)

Senador Rafael Bernabe (Puerto Rico)

Luis Bonilla. Otras Voces en Educación (Venezuela)

Olmedo Beluche por el Polo Ciudadano (Panamá)

Josefina Chávez (México)

Eduardo Lucita , EDI, (Argentina)

Eric Toussaint, Portavoz de CADTM (Belgium/Bélgica)

Edgard Sánchez (México)

Manuel Rodríguez Banchs. Democracia Socialista (Puerto Rico)

Joao Machado Borges Neto (Brazil/Brasil)

Tárzia Maria de Medeiros (Brazil/Brasil)

Stalin Pérez Borges. LUCHAS (Venezuela)

Ana Cristina Carvalhaes Machado (Brazil/Brasil)

Fernanda Melchionna, diputada federal/PSOL Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil/Brasil)

Sâmia Bomfim, diputado federal/PSOL São Paulo (Brazil/Brasil)

Vivi Reis, diputada federal/ PSOL Pará (Brazil/Brasil)

Luciana Genro, diputada estadual/ PSOL Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil/Brasil)

Roberto Robain, dirigente del MES/PSOL /concejal de Porto Alegre (Brazil/Brasil)

Israel Dutra, Secretario general del PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Pedro Fuentes, dirigente del MES/PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Bruno Magalhaes, dirigente del MES/PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Philippe Pierre-Charles Groupe Révolution Socialiste (Martinique/Martinica)

Daniel Libreros. Movimiento Ecosocialista (Colombia)

Franck Gaudichaud France Amérique Latine (France/Francia)

Béatrice Whitaker (France/Francia)

Pierre Rousset, NPA, (France/Francia)

Richard Neuville, ENSEMBLE (France/Francia)

Renato Roseno, diputado de Ceará/PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Mario Barreto, presidente de PSOL Río de Janeiro (Brazil/Brasil)

Nadja Carvalho, Isabel Lessa y Fernando Silva del Directorio Nacional del PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Mike Picken, ecosocialist.scot (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Iain Gault, ecosocialist.scot (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Terry Conway, Anti*Capitalist Resistance (England/Inglaterra – UK)

Iain Bruce, journalist/periodista (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Frances Curran, Former member of Scottish Parliament/Socialists for Independence (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Jim Bollan, Councillor – West Dunbartonshire, (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Stephen Smellie, Unison Scotland (personal capacity) (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

John Rees, socialist activist (England/Inglaterra – UK)

Barry Sheppard (USA)

Jeff Mackler, National Secretary Socialist Action (USA)

Mónica Baltodano,  Integrante de la Articulación de Movimientos Sociales (Nicaragua)

Oly Millán,  Integrante de la Plataforma Ciudadana en Defensa de la Constitución (Venezuela)

Tarcísio Mota, Chico Alencar, Monica Benício y William Siri, councillors/concejales/as de Rio de Janeiro (Brazil/Brasil)

Mônica Francisco, State Deputy /diputada de estado Rio de Janeiro (Brazil/Brasil)

Orlando Barrante, Movimiento de Trabajadores y camponeses – MTC (Costa Rica)

Luana Alves, City Councillor/Vereadora São Paulo, Executiva nacional do PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Humberto Meza, Comite Brasileño de Solidaridad con Nicaragua (Brazil/Brasil)

Fernando Carneir, city councillor/ vereador Belém-Pa PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Aurelio Robles, Coordinador del Movimiento Alternativa Socialista-MAS (Panamá).

Mariana Riscali, Nat Sec Finance/Secretária Nacional de Finanças do PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Monica Seixas, deputada estadual São Paulo (Brazil/Brasil)

Mariana Conti – City Councillor/Vereadora Campinas, São Paulo (Brazil/Brasil)

Fábio Felix, Dep. Distrital Brasília (Brazil/Brasil)

Josemar, City Councillor/Vereador São Gonçalo RJ (Brazil/Brasil)

Pedro Ruas, City Councillor/Vereador Porto Alegre RS (Brazil/Brasil)

Jurandir Silva, City Councillor/Vereador Pelotas RS (Brazil/Brasil)




Ecuador: Indigenous leader released after mass protests

Leonidas Iza is free but a national strike continues in Ecuador, writes  María Isabel Altamirano Solarte for ecosocialist.scot.

After 24 hours of illegal detention, Leonidas Iza was finally released.

Iza is president of CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador), which is the largest organisation in Ecuador bringing together the majority of indigenous peoples and nationalities. His release has been a triumph of social mobilisation and international solidarity.

Leonidas Iza was arrested by elite forces of the national police and the Armed Forces in a violent and illegal manner, accused of “paralysing a public service” and incitment. His entire detention process was outside the framework of Ecuadorian law.

His release is a triumph of popular pressure and international solidarity. On the one hand, the affiliated organisations of CONAIE have come out more forcefully to express their discontent in their territories and in different cities of the country.

In Cotopaxi, the province where Leonidas Iza is from, the communities filled the streets of the main city, Latacunga. When they heard that their leader was being transferred to the Military Fort of Cotopaxi, they went there to demand his release.

In Quito, the capital of Ecuador, young people, university students, feminists, dissidents and ordinary people have also joined the mobilisation in the vicinity of the National State Prosecutor’s Office to demand the release of the political detainees and to express their demands for education, health and non-violence by the state.

International Solidarity

International solidarity has been very important, with messages of support for Leonidas Iza and rejection of the persecution of political leaders, as well as other demonstrations such as the collection of signatures to demand his release.

The government of the banker Lasso, who seeks to impose neoliberal policies, has been totally inept in responding to the fair demands of the population and CONAIE.  These demands include fair prices for agricultural products; freezing of fuel prices because this generates price increases; access to employment and no job insecurity; respect for the collective rights of peoples and nationalities, budget for health and education; stop the voracious extractivism in indigenous territories; stop speculation and rising prices of basic food basket items; stop the privatisation of strategic sectors; generation of policies to curb the wave of violence and hired killings; public policies to curb gender violence and femicide.

But this government has taken up again the National Security doctrines of the ‘internal enemy’, persecuting and criminalising social activists and indigenous leaders, women, students, workers, etc. Under this logic, eight young leaders of the Guevarist Movement were arrested a month ago. And now, in the context of the National Strike called by CONAIE, Leonidas Iza has been arrested. But they have also arrested other indigenous leaders of CONAIE’s affiliated organisations, young students and women who took to the streets to protest and demand their rights during these two days of the National Strike.

In addition, during these two days there have been very strong acts of repression, and there have been injuries with tear gas bombs and even pellets. Social communicators were attacked by members of the national police. But in these two days of the National Strike the mobilisation has also grown and strengthened.

Although his release is a victory for mass protests and international solidarity, Leonidas Iza still faces charges and a possible prison sentence for his role in the strike.  Worldwide solidarity needs to be stepped up to call for all charges to be dropped and for the Ecuador government to grant the just demands of the strike movement.

Protests were taking place across Ecuador (Pic @CONAIE_Ecuador)

CONAIE is the largest organisation in Ecuador bringing together the majority of indigenous peoples and nationalities




Solidarity with the uprising in Kazakhstan! Online meeting 22 January and updated Statement

 

Around 200 activists from over 40 countries have signed have signed a worldwide statement of solidarity with the uprising in Kazakhstan – published below.

The statement was coordinated by Paul Murphy, an eco-socialist member (TD) of the parliament in the Republic of Ireland state and includes members of parliament in Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland, city councillors in Greece and Sweden, a member of the European Parliament from the Spanish State, and dozens of trade union, socialist, and human rights activists from around the globe.  ecosocialist.scot is delighted to sign the statement and among the other signatories from Scotland are Frances Curran, former Scottish Socialist Party Member of the Scottish Parliament and activist in Socialists for Independence, Glasgow SNP councillor Graham Campbell, members of the Republican Socialist Platform and ScotE3 organisations, and other trade union, community, independence and socialist activists.

The statement rejects the idea that the uprising in Kazakhstan is a result of foreign intervention but is about the rights and demands of working people sick of a tyrannical dictatorship.  It calls for the overthrow of this dictatorship and the rights of working people to control democratically the vast natural resources and wealth of Kazakhstan.  The statement also rejects the intervention of foreign troops from the Russian state and condemns the hypocrisy of the EU and USA.

There will be an online public meeting organised by the statement coordinators and supported by ecosocialist.scot on Saturday 22 January 6pm GMT/UTC.  The meeting has also been sponsored by the Republican Socialist Platform in Scotland and Anti Capitalist Resistance (England/Wales).  Sign up at: tinyurl.com/uprising2022

Zoom meeting, Saturday, January 22nd, 10am PT / 6pm UTC/GMT   / 19h CET

Ainur Kurmanov, Socialist Movement Kazakhstan – with a report, Q&A and discussion.

This meeting is organized by AntiCapitalist Resistance (England and Wales), Lernen im Kampf (Germany), RISE (Ireland), Reform & Revolution caucus in DSA (USA).  Supported by ecosocialist.scot and Republican Socialist Platform (Scotland).

 

 

 

Solidarity with the uprising in Kazakhstan

We, socialists, trade unionists, human rights activists, anti-war activists and organisations have watched the uprising in Kazakhstan since 2 January with a sense of deep solidarity for the working people. The striking oil workers, miners and protesters have faced incredible repression. The full force of the police and army have been unleashed against them, instructed to ‘shoot to kill without warning’. Over 160 protesters have been killed so far and more than 8,000 have been arrested.

We reject the propaganda of the dictatorship that this uprising is a product of “Islamic radicals” or the intervention of US imperialism. There is no evidence of that whatsoever. It is the usual resort of an unpopular regime – to blame ‘outside’ agitators.

Instead, the trigger of the protests was the rise in fuel prices. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, in a country where immense oil wealth exists side by side with terrible poverty and exploitation. It is also the result of the crushing weight of a brutal dictatorship on people’s backs. This regime has liquidated all opposition parties, imprisoned and tortured trade union and human rights activists, and was responsible for a massacre of striking oil workers in Zhanaozen ten years ago.

The position of all the major capitalist powers is clear. Putin stands full square behind the regime. The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) has sent 3,000 troops to Kazakhstan to intimidate protesters. Chinese President Xi Jinping also announced his support for the Kazakhstan government and claimed the unrest was the deliberate result of “outside forces.”

The US administration has called for “restraint by both the authorities and protestors”. The EU has similarly called on protesters to “avoid any incitement to violence” and called on authorities “to respect the fundamental right to peaceful protest and proportionality in the use of force when defending its legitimate security interests”!

Unsurprisingly, they all prioritise ‘stability’ for their oil companies who are benefiting from the exploitation of the natural resources and Kazakh workers.

In response to the class solidarity of the capitalist regimes, we respond with working class solidarity and commit to raise the following demands in our trade unions, parliaments and organisations:

  • Solidarity with those rising up against the dictatorship in Kazakhstan

  • End the repression of the protests

  • Release all the detained protesters and political prisoners

  • No to Russian and CSTO intervention – withdraw the troops now

  • No to the hypocrisy of the EU and US who equate the revolt of the masses with the brutal violence of the regime

  • Down with the dictatorship

  • Support the call from oil workers for nationalisation of the oil wealth and major industries under workers’ control

  • Support the building of an independent trade union movement and socialist movement in Kazakhstan

Add your name to the solidarity statement

By filling in the form below and clicking the ‘Sign the statement’ button you are agreeing to have your name added to the public list of signatories of this statement and to be contacted with updates about future Kazakstan solidarity statements and actions should they be needed.

Name 
Are you signing in a personal capacity?

Albania

Redi Muci

Aotearoa / New Zealand

International Socialist Organisation

Joe Carolan, Unite Union, Senior Organiser

Argentina

Christian Castillo, por la Dirección Nacional del Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS)

Nicolás del Caño, Diputado Nacional por la Provincia de Buenos Aires por el Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores – Unidad, dirigente del Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS)

Myriam Bregman, Diputada Nacional por la Ciudad de Buenos Aires por el Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores – Unidad, PTS,  Abogada del CEPRODH – Centro de Profesionales por los Derechos Humanos

Alejandro Vilca, Diputado Nacional por la Provincia de Jujuy por el Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores – Unidad, dirigente del Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS)

Raúl Godoy, ex Diputado provincial de Neuquén por el Frente de Izquierda. Dirigente del PTS, ex Secretario General de SOECN (Sindicato de Obreros Ceramistas), obrero de la fábrica ex–Zanon recuperada por sus trabajadores

Eduardo Ayala, trabajador de Madygraf (ex Gráfica Donneley recuperada por sus trabajadores), PTS

Claudio Dellecarbonara, dirigente por la minoría de Asociación Gremial de Trabajadores del Subte y Premetro (AGTSYP)  y referente de línea B de Subterráneos Buenos Aires. Diputado Provincial (Buenos Aires) electo por el Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores Unidad, PTS

Australia

Caitlin Doyle-Markwick, Solidarity (IST), Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance

Miroslav Sandev, Solidarity / Teacher’s Federation

Luke Alexander, NTEU

Dani Cotton, National Tertiary Education Union, Branch Committee, University of Sydney

Susan Price

Mick Armstrong, Socialist Alternative, National Executive

Austria

Christian Zeller, Netzwerk Ökosozialismus, Global Ecosocialist Network, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Salzburg

Manfred Ecker, Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten GPA, Member

David Heuser, Linkswende

Heidi Specht, Arbeiter*innenstandpunkt

Karin Wilfingseder, GPA (Trade Union), Shop Steward

Belgium

Daniel Tanuro, Gauche anticapitaliste, Ecosocialist author

Jean Vogel, Marcel Liebman Insitute, President

Eric Toussaint, Fourth International, international activist & historian

Freddy Mathieu, FGTB, Ancien Secrétaire Régional

SAP – Antikapitalisten / Gauche anticapitaliste

Nick Van de Vel

Britain / England and Wales

Simon Hannah, Lambeth UNISON, Joint Branch Secretary

Fiona Lali, Marxist Student Federation (MSF)

Anne Alexander, Middle East Solidarity magazine, Co-editor

Labour Representation Committee (LRC)

Neil Faulkner, , Archaeologist, historian and writer

Kazakh Solidarity Campaign

John McInally, Public & Commercial Services Union, Former Vice-President

Socialist Appeal

Workers Power

Ukraine Solidarity Campaign

Alex Callinicos, Emeritus Professor of European Studies, King’s College London

Andy Richards, UNISON, Brighton and Hove Branch Chair

Gareth Jenkins, SWP

Jon Woods, Portsmouth City UNISON, Chair

Gilbert Achcar, UCU, Professor

Michael Tucker

Ian Parker, Unite

Andrew Kilmister, Oxford Brookes University UCU (Universities and Colleges Union), Branch Secretary

Rowan Fortune, Anti*Capitalist Resistance, EC Member

Penny Foskett, SWP.  NEU

Tony Foley, NEU, England

ACR, Anti*Capitalist Resistance, England and Wales

Alan Thornett, UNITE

Nigel Smyth

Elizabeth Lawrence, University and College Union (personal capacity)

Canada

Liam Chiasson

Costa Rica

Paola Zeledón, editora de La Izquierda Diario Costa Rica.

Fernanda Quirós, dirigente de Pan y Rosas Costa Rica

Esteban Fernández, dirigente de OSR, profesor de filosofía UCR.

China

Liu Haoyu

Fan Zeng

陈 归尘

Peter Yang

Cuba

Frank García Hernández, Comunistas Cuba blog, member of the Editorial Board

Cyprus

Athina Kariati, NEDA – New Internationalist Left

New Internationalist Left, NEDA

Denmark

Søren Sondergaard, Red-Green Alliance, Member of Danish Parliament, spokesperson on European Affairs

Lene Junker, Internationale Socialister

Dominican Republic

Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores, MST

France

Christian Mahieux, International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles

Malewski Jan, Inprecor (révue), rédacteur

Penelope Duggan, International Viewpoint, Editor

Michael Löwy

Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste / New Anticapitalist Party

Anasse Kazib, rail worker, Sud Rail, candidate to the French presidency for Révolution Permanente

Adrien Cornet, refinery worker (Grandspuit), CGT Total, Révolution Permanente

Philippe Alcoy, RévolutionPermanente.fr, editorial board

Germany

Yaak Pabst, Redaktion marx21-Magazin

Michael Findeisen, Fellow

Joachim Ladwig, Verdi

Daniel Behruzi, ver.di TU Darmstadt (Trade Union), Shop Stewards Speaker

Alexander Keim, LiK/ die Linke/Verdi

Internationale Sozialistische Organisation (ISO)

Dr. Winfried Wolf, Lunapark21 – Zeitschrift zur Kritik der globalen Ökonomie, responsable in the editorial board of LP21-Magazine

Aron Amm, Lernen im Kampf

Martin Suchanek, Gruppe ArbeiterInnenmacht, Germany section of League for the Fifth International, Editor of journal “Revolutionärer Marxismus”

Wilhelm Schulz, Gruppe ArbeiterInnenmacht, German Section of the League for the Fifth International

Jaqueline K. Singh, REVOLUTION – international communist youth organisation Germany

Matthias Fritz, former TU converer (VK-Leiter) IG Metall Mahle

Oskar Fischer, Soziologe, Revolutionäre Internationalistische Organisation

Stefan Schneider, Politologe, Revolutionäre Internationalistische Organisation

Charlotte Ruga, Hebamme, Revolutionäre Internationalistische Organisation

Tabea Winter, Studentin, Revolutionäre Internationalistische Organisation

Thies Gleiss, Die Linke, Member of National Party Executive

Christph Waelz, German Education Union, GEW Barlin-Pankow (personal capacity)

Greece

Panos Garganas, Sosialistiko Ergatiko Komma (SEK), Editor Workers Solidarity weekly

Editorial Team of Elaliberta.gr, www.elaliberta.gr, Athens

Serafeim Rizos, Chania city/Union of Teachers-Chania, councilor Chania/member of board of Teachers Union Chania

Thanasis Diavolakis, Peiraus city/Teachers Federation of private schools, councilor Peiraus city/member of board of OIELE

Katerina Thoidou, Nikaia-Renti city, councillor

Maria Styllou, Sosialismos apo ta kato Review, Editor

Thanasis Kampagiannis, Athens Bar Association Board, Elected councillor (personal capacity)

ANTARSYA, Front of the anticapitalist Left

Xekinima – Internationalist Socialist Organization

NAR, New Left Current

Manthos Tavoularis, Docker, trade unionist

Tassos Anastassiadis, member of General Council of POESY (Federation of Greek journalists)

TPT (Fourth International Programmatic Tendency, Greek Section of 4th International)

Petros Constantinou, Athens city/KEERFA-Movement United Against Racism and Fascist Threat, councillor Athens city/coordinator of KEERFA

Aphrodite Fragkou, Marousi city, councillor

Dimitris Zotos, Lawyers Association of Athens, Civil action Golden Dawn trial

India

Rohini Hensman, Internationalism from Below, Writer, researcher and activist

Sushovan Dhar, Vice-President, Progressive Plantation Workers Union (PPWU)

International

International Marxist Tendency

Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (www.thecommunists.net)

Pierre Rousset, international activist

Iran

Morad Shirin, Shahrokh Zamani Action Campaign, International Organiser

Maziar Razi, Iranian Revolutionary Marxists’ Tendency, Spokesperson

Ireland

Bríd Smith, People Before Profit, TD (Member of Parliament)

Paul Murphy, People Before Profit, TD (Member of Parliament)

Gino Kenny, People Before Profit, TD (Member of Parliament)

Richard Boyd Barrett, People Before Profit, TD (Member of Parliament)

Gerry Carroll, People Before Profit, MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly)

Mick Barry, Solidarity and Socialist Party, TD (Member of Parliament)

People Before Profit

Socialist Democracy

Goretti Horgan, People Before Profit

Jess Spear, RISE, National Organiser

John Molyneux, People Before Profit, Unite The Union., Editor, Irish Marxist Review

Ailbhe Smyth, Le Cheile: Diversity Not Division, Member

Eddie Conlon, Teachers Union of Ireland, Member/Former National Hon Secretary

Emilio Maira, People Before Profit

Memet Uludağ, Unite the Union, Union Rep

Shaun Harkin, People Before Profit, People Before Profit Cllr Derry City and Strabane District Council

Mark Price

Mark Finnegan, People Before Profit

Italy

Giacomo Turci, La Voce delle Lotte, editor

Scilla Di Pietro, Il Pane e le Rose feminist current, spokesperson

Mary Rizzo, Le Voci della Libertà, Activist / Translator

Japan

Tsutomu Teramoto, Japan Revolutionary Communist League (JRCL)

JRCL (Japan Revolutionary Communist League)

México

Jose Manuel Aguilar Mora, Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México & Member of La Liga De Unidad Socialista (LUS), Professor-Researcher, Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores

Edgard Sánchez, Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores

Flora Aco González, trabajadora estatal reinstalada, ex aspirante a candidata a diputada por el Frente de Izquierda Anticapitalista en la Ciudad de México, MTS

Sulem Estrada, maestra de secundaria, ex candidata anticapitalista al Congreso de la Ciudad de México, Agrupación Nuestra Clase , MTS

Miriam Hernandez, trabajadora de la UNAM, ex candidata anticapitalista al Congreso de la CdMX, MTS

Mario Caballero, Movimiento de las y los Trabajadores Socialistas

Nancy Cazares y Alex Osorio, ex presos políticos de 10 de junio de 2013, MTS

Nigeria

Salako Kayode, Revolutionary socialist movement, Spokesperson

Dimeji Macaulay, Revolutionary Socialist Movement, National Organiser

Revolutionary Socialist Movement

Poland

Andrzej Żebrowski, Pracownicza Demokracja (Workers Democracy)

Agnieszka Kaleta

Michał Wysocki, Pracownicza Demokracja (Workers’ Democracy), worker

Filip Ilkowski Associate Professor, Polish Teachers Union at the University of Warsaw, Member of the Presidium of the Council for Higher Education and Science of the Polish Teachers Union

Bronislaw Czarnocha, Hostos CC/CUNY (personal capacity)

Portugal

Semear o futura

Russia

Daria, IST Russia,

Semyon, Trotskyist

Socialist Tendency (IST)

Denis Zagladkin, Socialist Tendency

Scotland

Paul Inglis, Radical Independence Campaign, Glasgow City Branch Unison, Clydeside IWW, Partick Living Rent, Member

Connor Beaton, Republican Socialist Platform, Secretary

Allan Armstrong, Republican Socialist Platform, Educational Institute of Scotland (life member)

Frances Curran, Former member of parliament and member of Socialist for Independence

Pete Cannell, Scot.E3 (Employment, Energy and Environment), Secretary

Bob Goupillot, Radical Independence Campaign Edinburgh, (Personal Capacity)

Ecosocialist.scot (organisation), ecosocialist.scot

Graham Campbell, SNP Councillor in Glasgow Glasow (personal capacity)

Campbell McGregor, Scottish Socialist Party / UNISON

Donny Gluckstein, SWP, Educational Institute of Scotland, EIS Council

South Africa

Mametlwe Sebei, President, General Industries Workers Union of South Africa

South Korea

Workers’ Solidarity

Spanish State   

Anticapitalistas

David Karvala, Social movement activist and member of Marx21.net, Catalunya

Carlos de Pablo Torrecilla, UGT de Catalunya , Secretari de Política Institucional, Catalunya

Gerardo Pisarello, Unidas Podemos-En Comú Podem, member of the Spanish Congress, and First Secretary of the Bureau of the Congress

Miguel Urbán Crespo, Anticapitalistas, Member of the European Parliament

Marx21.net

Santiago Lupe, portavoz de la Corriente Revolucionaria de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras – CRT, historiador

Lucía Nistal, doctora en Teoría Literaria Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), impulsora de Referéndum UAM y portavoz de CRT

Juan Carrique, abogado laboralista, miembro de la Asociación Libre de Abogadas y Abogados, afiliado a CGT

Josefina L. Martínez, periodista, historiadora, escritora, editora revista Contrapunto

Asier Ubico, presidente del Comité de Empresa de Telepizza por CGT – Zaragoza

Juan Carlos Arias Sanz, delegado por UGT de la Consejería de Políticas Sociales y Familia de la Comunidad de Madrid

Cynthia Lub, doctora en Historia, escritora, editora de Esquerra Diari.cat y afiliada a CGT Lleure

Maria Dantas, ERC, social movement activist in Catalunya, Member of the Congress of Deputies

Omar Noumri Coca, Mayor of Castelló de Farfanya (Catalunya) , member of ERC.

Rodrigo Díaz López, Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España

Enrique Fernando Santiago, Secretario General del PCE y Secretario de Estado de España, en representación de todo el PCE

Pedro Cortés Costoya, Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España (UJCE).

Switzerland

Manuel Sepulveda, Mouvement pour le Socialisme, Militant actif

Stéfanie Prezioso, Ensemble à Gauche, Member of Parliament

Jean BATOU, Ensemble à Gauche, Member of parliament (Geneva)

Philipp Schmid, Movement for Socialism, teacher and union activist

Christian Zeller, Network Ecosocialism and Global Ecosocialist Network, Professor of Economic Geography

Corriente Revolucionaria de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores (CRT, miembro de la FT-CI) (Estado Español)

Hannah, Bewegung für den Sozialismus

Sweden

Jonas Brännberg, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna – International Socialist Alternative, Member of Luleå City council

Arbetarmakt Workers Power

Syria

Jackal, Revolutionary Left Movement

Taiwan

黃梓豪, International Socialist Forward

Fang, International Socialist Forward

Nicholas Soo, International Socialist Forward

Turkey

Sosyalist Demokrasi için Yeniyol, Turkish section of IV. International

Ecehan Balta, Sosyalist Alternatif

Nihat Boyraz, Sosyalist Alternatif

Sosyalist Alternatif

Ukraine

Pavlo Viknyanskyy, («Республіка») political party (personal capacity)

USA

Andrew Berman, Veterans for Peace, Peace and Solidarity Activist

Brandon Madsen, Democratic Socialists of America / AFGE 2157

Reform & Revolution, Caucus of Democratic Socialists of America

Dan La Botz, New Politics, Co-Editor

Tyron Moore, Washington Federation of State Employees, Organizer

Phil Gasper, New Politics, Co-editor

Richard Burton, Montgomery County Education Association (ID purposes only), UniServ Director/Organizer

Tempest Collective

E. Reed, Boston Revolutionary Socialists, Coordinating Committee Member

David McNally, Editor in Chief, Spectre Journal, Professor of History, University of Houston

Steve Leigh, Seattle Revolutionary Socialists (*for identification purposes only)

Joel Geier

Sherry Wolf, Tempest Collective, author, Sexuality and Socialism

Socialist Resurgence

Charles Post, Tempest Collective, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), member of editorial board of Spectre: A Marxist Journal

Zachary Levenson, Editor, Spectre, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UNC Greensboro

Ashley Smith, Tempest Collective, Democratic Socialists of America*, National Writers Union* (*for identification purposes only)

Marx21, marx21us.org

Stephen Oren

Peter Ranis, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Graduate Center, CUNY (personal capacity)

Elliot Podwill, PSC-CUNY    (personal capacity)

Carol Lang, PSC/AFT (personal capacity)

Howard Pflazer, PSC-CUNY (personal capacity)

Ruy Martinez, DSA (personal capacity)

Michael Beyer, DSA (personal capacity)

Thomas Harrison, New Politics editorial board member (personal capacity)

Paul Goodspeed, South New Hampshire DSA

Matthew Chociej

Frieda Afary, Producer of Iranian Progressives in Translation

Derek Bartholomew, Tempest Collective (personal capacity)

Criage Lynnette Althage, DSA member

Stephen Shalom, New Politics (personal capacity)

Somak Paul, DSA organiser (personal capacity)

Coco Smyth, Revolutionary Socialist Network (personal capacity)

Venezuela

Angel Árias, dirigente de la LTS, trabajador estatal

Suhey Ochoa, Pan y Rosas, trabajadora de Apps

Zimbabwe

Tafadzwa A Choto, ISO – Zimbabwe, Member

 




“Net Zero” – Still a Big Con!

Earlier on in the year, ecosocialist.scot reported on “The Big Con”, a report by Friends of the Earth International and other organisations on “net zero” – The Big Con: ‘Net zero’ emissions is a dangerous hoax.

Now we have further evidence of the way that “net zero” is being used by corporations to block climate policy with the publication of an set of case studies compiled by four campaigns listed below.

“Net Zero” is a significant policy campaign of both the Scottish government and the UK government, the Scottish government even has a dedicated website called “Net Zero Nation” with the slogan “Scotland. Let’s do net zero”.

But this research shows how “net zero” is an empty slogan and is being used as greenwashing by six major corporate players – BP, Microsoft, Drax, IETA, BlackRock and Shell.

One of the essential slogans of the COP26 Coalition call for a Global Day for Climate Justice on 6 November is

We Need Real Zero, Not Net Zero“.

This needs to ring and loudly and clearly across Glasgow and Scotland on 6 November!

We reproduce the press report from the Corporate Europe Observatory that links to the new evidence.

 

On the road to COP26, corporations are using “net zero” to block effective climate policy and greenwash their image while maintaining business-as-usual. Alongside Corporate AccountabilityFriends of the Earth International and Global Forest Coalition, CEO has looked into the “net zero” conning and COP26 greenwashing of six major corporate players, but they’re not alone.

In June 2021, more than 70 climate justice groups around the world launched a report, “The Big Con”. This report built on previous reports and analysis of “net zero” and revealed how Big Polluters across various economic sectors are advancing a “net zero” agenda to delay climate action, deceive the public, and deny the need for real, urgent, and meaningful action. This fact file builds on “The Big Con” by providing more detail on the “net zero” agendas of six major corporate players. These corporate actors include COP26 sponsors, Big Oil and Gas majors, and key influencers in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as in other “net zero” related initiatives such as the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) and the Race to Zero.

Read the 2 page summary here

Read the more in-depth factfile here

Published by Corporate Europe Observatory, 28 October 2021

 




The ‘other’ COP: Biodiversity COP 15 – a virtual conference that achieved virtually nothing?

 

While COP26 on Climate Change in Glasgow is the focus of attention across the world, it’s also necessary to realise that there are other important aspects of the ecological crisis needing urgent action.  The first part of UN’s COP15 on Biodiversity took place online in October.  Protection of Biodiversity needs to be an important aspect of our environmental action in Scotland.   Sean Thompson of Red Green Labour has posted a report on the COP15 on Biodiversity that ecosocialist.scot is reproducing with kind permission.  

 

The preparations for COP 26 have understandably attracted increasing public and media attention in the run-up to the conference in November. Unfortunately this has tended to overshadow the equally vital COP 15 conference which took place on 11 – 15 October.

The conference, which to be pedantic comprised the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the tenth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Cartagena Protocol COP/MOP 10), and the fourth Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (Nagoya Protocol COP/MOP 4), had already been postponed three times because of the Covid 19 pandemic and was finally reconfigured as a two part affair, the first virtual and the second, an actual face-to-face meeting, scheduled for April/May next year in Kunming, China.

Originally signed by 150 countries at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and later ratified by a further 45, significantly not including the United States, the Convention is designed to protect diversity of plant and animal species and ensure natural resources are used sustainably.

It also aims to achieve ‘fair and equitable sharing’ of benefits from natural genetic material, used in everything from medicines to new crop species. In practice that means making sure indigenous communities and countries home to biological riches benefit from their use.

Global targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss have been set before, in both 2002 and 2010, but were largely missed by virtually every country. According to Georgina Chandler of RSPB, a number of countries, including Canada, the European Union, Costa Rica, Colombia and Britain are pushing for greater ambition on nature protection and have the aspiration that the summit  will set both long-term goals for 2050 and shorter-term targets for 2030 and, crucially, push for those to be enshrined in national policies.

However, in the event, most of the virtual meeting was taken up with procedural matters, with the secretariat noting “with concern that a number of Parties have not paid their contributions to the core budgets … for 2020 and prior years, including Parties that have never paid their contributions”. At the end of the conference, the Kunming Declaration was adopted. This was little more than a statement of good intentions, setting general ambitions for biodiversity protection, but not addressing questions about implementation or further commitments from governments.

Even so, there were some tentative signs of progress. The Declaration did at least note the growing support from countries for ‘30×30’, the aspiration to protect at least 30% of the Earth’s land and seas by 2030. At least 20 governments taking part in the meeting stressed the critical importance of the 30×30 goal, making it the most highlighted target by parties in the meeting. Among them was India, which has recently joined the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, a group of more than 70 countries pushing for the inclusion of 30×30 in the final biodiversity treaty. Significantly, although the USA is not party to the convention, Joe Biden has recently committed to protect at least 30% of his country’s land and coastal waters by 2030, as part of the international “30×30” campaign.

In addition, the host of the conference, China, announced a couple of positive, if comparatively modest, initiatives on the sidelines of the event; $230 million to establish the Kunming Biodiversity Fund to support biodiversity protection in developing countries, and the creation of new national parks in China covering an area of 230,000 square kilometres.

Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The virtual Part One of COP 15 did little more than set the scene for Part two in Kunming next spring. Between now and 25 April, the 195 countries that are signed up to the Convention will have negotiate the targets for the global biodiversity framework that governments will aim to meet by the end of the decade. The draft text of the framework includes proposals to reduce pesticide use by two-thirds and eliminate plastic pollution by the end of the decade as well as the 30×30 target. Whether those goals end up in the final agreement – and whether they are acted on – remains to be seen.

Originally published on Red Green Labour.

Protection of Scotland’s rich natural wildlife and biodiversity in the midst of the ecological crisis is an important aspect of ecosocialist campaigning

Photo by Gary Ellis on Unsplash

 




Norway shifts left – what implications for Scotland?

 

The result of the Norwegian general election on Monday 13 September showed a marked shift to the left in the important oil-producing European state, writes Mike Picken for ecosocialist.scot.

The three major right wing parties lost 20 seats between them in the 169 member parliament and the Conservative-led government has fallen.

The Conservative Party that has led the right wing coalition government since 2013 lost nine of its 45 seats, while the most right wing party in the parliament, the anti-immigrant Progress Party, lost six of its 27 seats.  The smaller Christian Democrat right wing party lost over half of its parliamentary seats to be reduced to just three.

The social democratic Labour Party has continued as largest party and the speculation is that it will lead what is probably a re-run of the three party coalition that ran Norway from 2005 to 2013.  Although its victory has been hailed as a ‘landslide’ and a triumph, the Labour Party nevertheless lost one seat in the election to fall to 48 seats, less than one third of the parliament.

The Labour Party is already seen as neo-liberal but will face strong pressure to move further right from its likely coalition partner, the Centre Party, which made the biggest gains winning an extra nine seats to take it to 28.

Left and Green gains

The election was dominated by the climate crisis and the most significant feature of the election for ecosocialists was the big increase in seats for the left and greens – the Socialist Left Party, the Red Party and the Green Party. All three parties work together in the environmental and other movements.

The Socialist Left Party was originally part of the traditional communist movement and gained two seats to move to 13 seats. The party has been faced with criticism from its left due to taking part in the Labour-led coalition from 2005 to 2013. (This period was called the ‘Red-Green’ coalition, though this is after the colours of the parties rather than a political description). The Centre Party are the likely coalition partner for Labour, but are publicly opposed to the inclusion of the Socialist Left Party in government now.  Given the shortfall in seats, so there could well follow a lengthy period of debate about whether the Socialist Left should join the Labour-led government, or support from the outside as the Left Bloc did in Portugal.

The significant winners from the far left was the Red Party which doubled its vote to 4.7% and gained seven seats to go from one seat to eight. The Red Party also describes itself as a communist party and has had a significant extra-parliamentary role focussing on defence of the welfare state in Norway, one of the key gains of the post war period.

Also gaining seats was the small Green Party which increased from one  to three seats.  The Norwegian Green Party aligns itself with the German Greens, but its strong opposition to extraction of North Sea oil by Norway makes it an impossible governmental partner for the Labour Party.  The Green Party calls for the phased ending of oil extraction, though the demand for a sharp reduction programme and for the end by 2033 is regarded as totally unacceptable by both conservative and social democratic parties.

Also winning a seat was a small local campaign, Patient Focus, against a hospital closure in the Finnmark region, reminiscent of the Kidderminster hospital campaign that won a seat in the UK parliament in 2001.

Impact on British and Scottish politics

The routing of the right wing parties and the certainty of a social-democratic led government means that all five Nordic countries will have centre-left rather than right wing governments – Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Iceland.

Within Britain, the defeat of the right shows the important of a focus on the climate and environmental crisis.  The UK government hosting of the COP26 in Glasgow in November means we have to challenge relentlessly the UK Conservative party policies that offer no hope of challenging the crisis.  But the  impact of the elections is likely to have greatest impact in Scotland.

The social democratic-inclined majority devolved Scottish government is newly established as an agreement between the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Green Party following their electoral gains in May.  The SNP and Scottish Greens are likely to see Scotland as facing similar challenges to oil-producing Norway.  The SNP and some others in the independence movement are influenced by the argument that Scotland can survive as an independent country outside the UK through alignment with the similarly sized Nordic nations, with their long history of social democratic government and welfare states.  However huge tensions exist in this policy.  The pressure for continuing oil extraction from a global capitalist system oblivious to the need for immediate action is relentless and the SNP has been historically a strong supporter of an oil and gas driven economy for Scotland.  So long as the oil production is only slowly phased out, climate change continues to rampage across the globe causing destruction of the ecosystem and death of species.  While this now has its appearance in floods and fires across Europe and North America in recent months, the biggest impact of climate change remains on the ‘Global South’ of poorer countries.  The whole planet is on fire, not just the rich countries who mainly caused it.

But the main problem with this Nordic-alignment approach in Scotland is that the UK state is not going to allow Scotland to go independent easily.  The blow to the UK’s global role would be too great, especially as it would mean relocating Britain’s nuclear weapons from Faslane near Glasgow (recently depicted in the most watched British TV programme – the BBC’s ‘Vigil’ drama).

Scottish independence will only be won by a mass movement for change linking independence to internationalism – climate and social justice – not by persuading the UK state and British ruling class of the error of their ways.

Norway remains steadfastly outside the EU internal political structures, while supporting free movement across Europe through the European Economic Area (EEA) process.  But both the Scottish Greens and SNP support an independent Scotland unconditionally rejoining the neoliberal EU, while the SNP support joining NATO (which the Greens are opposed to and have freedom to argue that in their recent governmental agreement). Both parties are opposed to possession of nuclear weapons by either the current UK or an independent Scotland. However not a single NATO member state has yet endorsed the international Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) for fear of the repercussions from the likes of USA, France and the UK. Despite conference policy to oppose nuclear weapons, the Labour leadership in Scotland follow the line of the UK Labour and Keir Starmer in supporting Trident and membership of NATO. In the current spat between France and the UK and USA over support for Australia gaining nuclear powered submarine technology, The Labour leadership at Westminster has resolutely come to the defence of NATO.

Challenges of the Brexit disaster for Scotland

The overwhelming vote in Scotland to remain in the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum has been trampled over by the Westminster Tory party and Boris Johnson’s UK government. There is therefore debate about what to do about it, especially if Scotland becomes independent. The halfway house ‘Norway solution’ of EEA through membership of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)  that unites Norway and Iceland (with Switzerland and Liechtenstein), is advocated by some in the newly created Alba Party in Scotland, led by disgraced former First Minister Alex Salmond, that split earlier this year from the SNP.  But this solves none of the challenges of the environmental crisis nor does it give Scotland a political voice.  Besides, Alba Party support is miniscule and not only did they fail to make any impact at the recent election despite a lot of hype, the latest opinion poll shows them on 0% and Alex Salmond as even more unpopular than Boris Johnson in Scotland.

The Tory process of Brexit has been disastrous for the UK and is strongly opposed in Scotland, not least on democratic grounds as Scotland voted so strongly against Brexit in 2016.  A future independent Scotland will need to trade and support free movement of people, but the SNP and Green policy of unconditionally rejoining the EU is not adequate to confront either the climate crisis or the post-pandemic economic and social crises.  An independent Scotland should give voice to those in the Global South protesting over the legacy of British and European empires and colonialism that have exploited their lives, currently being denied effective representation at the UK government hosted COP26 in Glasgow in November due to global vaccine apartheid where only 3% of the population of Africa have been vaccinated.  Any independent Scotland rejoining of the EU should be conditional on both the explicit agreement of the Scottish people and negotiations on demands for the EU to change its disastrous neo-liberal policies and processes.

Important Lessons for the Scottish Socialist Party

With 21 seats between them the success of the both the Socialist Left and Red parties in Norway is also a lesson for the left in Scotland, particularly the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP).  It shows that it is possible to challenge neo liberalism and the climate crisis effectively, both on the streets and in elections.  The SSP had six seats in the Scottish parliament of 2003-2007 and put forward economic, social and environmental policies that are now considered mainstream in Scotland and have in part been adopted by the government (the SSP demand for free school meals for all is now supported by every party in the Parliament).  The SSP tried to rebuild itself after its one-time leader Tommy Sheridan and his supporters tried to destroy the Party.  But the SSP disastrously sat out the last Scottish Parliament election on the spurious grounds that “there was a pandemic” (just as there is in Norway).  If it had followed the lead of the Socialist Left and Red parties in coninuing to contest elections effectively and giving voters a clear class choice on defence of the welfare state and the need for urgent solutions by governments to the environmental crisis, the whole of the pro-independence left in Scotland would now be in a stronger position.

Mike Picken

Party Vote share Seats Change
Labour Party (Ap) 26.4 % 48 -1
Conservative Party (H) 20,5 % 36 -9
Centre Party (Sp) 13,6 % 28 9
Progress Party (FrP) 11,7 % 21 -6
Socialist Left Party (SV) 7,5 % 13 2
Red Party (R) 4,7 % 8 7
Liberal Party (V) 4,5 % 8
Green Party (MDG) 3,8 % 3 2
Christian Democratic Party (KrF) 3,8 % 3 -5
Patient Focus 0,2 % 1 1
169



The Big Con: ‘Net zero’ emissions is a dangerous hoax

The Scottish and UK governments are heavily promoting ‘Net Zero’ as the way to combat climate change in the run-up to the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November 2021.  Below ecosocialist.scot republishes an article about the dangers of ‘net zero’, highlighted in a recent report by three global organisations.  This version of the article was originally published on the ‘Climate & Capitalism’ ecosocialist blog published by Ian Angus in the Canadian state.

‘Net zero’ emissions is a dangerous hoax

Corporate ‘climate pledges’ mask inaction and support business as usual.

 

by Brett Wilkins

A new report published Wednesday by a trio of progressive advocacy groups lifts the veil on so-called “net zero” climate pledges, which are often touted by corporations and governments as solutions to the climate emergency, but which the paper’s authors argue are merely a dangerous form of greenwashing that should be eschewed in favor of Real Zero policies based on meaningful, near-term commitments to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Big Con: How Big Polluters Are Advancing a ‘Net Zero’ Climate Agenda to Delay, Deceive, and Deny was published by Corporate Accountability, the Global Forest Coalition, and Friends of the Earth International, and is endorsed by over 60 environmental organizations. The paper comes ahead of this November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland and amid proliferating pledges from polluting corporations and governments to achieve what they claim is carbon neutrality—increasingly via dubious offsets—by some distant date, often the year 2050.

However, the report asserts that

“Instead of offering meaningful real solutions to justly address the crisis they knowingly created and owning up to their responsibility to act beginning with drastically reducing emissions at source, polluting corporations and governments are advancing ‘net zero’ plans that require little or nothing in the way of real solutions or real effective emissions cuts. …. They see the potential for a ‘net zero’ global pathway to provide new business opportunities for them, rather than curtailing production and consumption of their polluting products.”

“After decades of inaction, corporations are suddenly racing to pledge to achieve “net zero” emissions. These include fossil fuel giants like BP, Shell, and Total; tech giants like Microsoft and Apple; retailers like Amazon and Walmart; financers like HSBC, Bank of America, and BlackRock; airlines like United and Delta; and food, livestock, and meat-producing and agriculture corporations like JBS, Nestlé, and Cargill. Polluting corporations are in a race to be the loudest and proudest to pledge ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050 or some other date in the distant future. Over recent years, more than 1,500 corporations have made ‘net zero’ commitments, an accomplishment applauded by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the U.N. Secretary-General.”

“Increasingly, the concept of ‘net zero’ is being misconstrued in political spaces as well as by individual actors to evade action and avoid responsibility,” the report states. “The idea behind big polluters’ use of ‘net zero’ is that an entity can continue to pollute as usual—or even increase its emissions—and seek to compensate for those emissions in a number of ways. Emissions are nothing more than a math equation in these plans; they can be added one place and subtracted from another place.”

“This equation is simple in theory but deeply flawed in reality,” the paper asserts. “These schemes are being used to mask inaction, foist the burden of emissions cuts and pollution avoidance on historically exploited communities, and bet our collective future through ensuring long-term, destructive impact on land and forests, oceans, and through advancing geoengineering technologies. These technologies are hugely risky, do not exist at the scale supposedly needed, and are likely to cause enormous, and likely irreversible, damage.”

Among the key findings of the report:

  • Big polluters, including the fossil fuel and aviation industries, lobbied heavily to ensure passage of Q45, a tax credit subsidizing carbon capture and storage. A 2020 report (pdf) from the U.S. Treasury Department’s inspector general found that fossil fuel companies improperly claimed nearly $1 billion in Q45 credits.
  • The International Emissions Trading Association—described by the report’s authors as “perhaps the largest global lobbyist on market and offsets, both pillars of polluters ‘net zero’ climate plans”—has leveraged its considerable power to push its greenwashing agenda at international climate talks.
  • Major polluters have contributed generously to universities including the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Princeton University, Stanford University, and Imperial College London in an effort to influence “net zero”-related research. At Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project, ExxonMobil retained the right to formally review research before completion and was allowed to place corporate staff members on development teams.

“The best, most proven approach to justly addressing the climate crisis is to significantly reduce emissions now in an equitable manner, bringing them close to Real Zero by 2030 at the latest,” the report states, referring to a situation in which no carbon emissions are produced by a good or service without the use of offsets. “The cross-sectoral solutions we need already exist, are proven, and are scalable now… All that is missing is the political will to advance them, in spite of industry obstruction and deflection.”

“People around the globe have already made their demands clear,” the report says. “Meaningful solutions that can be implemented now are already detailed in platforms like the People’s Demands for Climate Justice, the Liability Roadmap, the Energy Manifesto, and many other resources that encompass the wisdom of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis.”

Sara Shaw, climate justice and energy program co-coordinator at Friends of the Earth International and one of the paper’s authors, said “this report shows that ‘net zero’ plans from big polluters are nothing more than a big con. The reality is that corporations like Shell have no interest in genuinely acting to solve the climate crisis by reducing their emissions from fossil fuels. They instead plan to continue business as usual while greenwashing their image with tree planting and offsetting schemes that can never ever make up for digging up and burning fossil fuels. We must wake up fast to the fact that we are falling for a trick. ‘Net zero’ risks obscuring a lack of action until it is too late.”

Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development—which endorsed the report—warned that “proclamations of ‘net zero’ targets are dangerous deceptions. ‘Net zero’ sounds ambitious and visionary but it actually allows big polluters and rich governments to continue emitting [greenhouse gases] which they claim will be erased through unproven and dangerous technologies, carbon trading, and offsets that shift the burden of climate action to the Global South. Big polluters and rich governments should not only reduce emissions to Real Zero, they must pay reparations for the huge climate debt owed to the Global South.”

In conclusion, the reports says world leaders must “listen to the people and once and for all prioritize people’s lives and the planet over engines of profit and destruction.”

“To avoid social and planetary collapse,” it states, “they must heed the calls of millions of people around the globe and pursue policies that justly, equitably transition our economies off of fossil fuels, and advance real solutions that prioritize life—now.”

Published at: https://climateandcapitalism.com/2021/06/10/net-zero-emissions-is-a-dangerous-hoax/




Ecosocialist Alliance Statement on G7 Conference

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US (and the EU) have a great part of the immense wealth of the richest countries in the world in 2021. This wealth is more than sufficient to provide for the needs for food, water, health, housing and education of the global population.

We face multiple interlinked and inseparable crises. Climate, environment, mass extinctions, emergent infectious diseases and economic. Oligarchic ownership of industry and the transnational corporations are key contributors to environmental degradation and to emergent infectious diseases crises. They are inimical and a core barrier to the urgent measures needed to address the nested crises we face.

The world and its population need system change, a just ecosocialist transition from the unsustainable chaos of neo-liberal capitalism.

We call upon the G7 nations to agree a plan in preparation for the COP26 meeting in November this year:

On the Covid-19 pandemic and emergent infectious disease crisis to:

  • Immediately introduce a patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines that would allow countries to manufacture treatments locally, fully fund COVAX, and set up an aid fund to help with vaccine manufacturing, research and development.
    Increase funding to the WHO.

On the Climate Crisis:

  • Agree that fossil fuels must stay in the ground – (no new coal mine in west Cumbria, UK) – We need a massive global program of green public works investing in green jobs to develop renewable energy, replace harmful technology reliant on fossil fuel energy in homes, industry and agriculture, with free technology transfer for developing countries.
  • Agree and implement a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions of 70% by 2030, from a 1990 baseline. We need honest and transparent accounting in measurement of emissions, taking account of outsourcing, exposing the dishonesty of offsetting calculations, and including military greenhouse gas emissions in calculations of the reductions needed.
  • End emissions trading schemes and make genuine reductions in harmful emissions.
  • Recognise the particular impacts of the long-term global crisis and the knock-on effects on the localised catastrophic events on women, children, elders and disabled people – catastrophe climate events and sea level rises produce the casualties of the event, but the victims are the result of systematic abuse, discrimination, and failure of governmental and corporate responsibility.

On the environment and mass extinction crises:

  • Move away from massive factory farms and large scale monoculture agribusiness as a method of producing food and support small farmers and eco-friendly farming methods, and invest in green agricultural technology to reduce synthetic fertiliser and pesticide use in agriculture, replacing these with organic methods.
  • End deforestation in the tropical and boreal forests by reducing demand in G7 countries for food, timber and biofuel imports.
  • End food and nutrition insecurity for small farmers in the global south by promoting an agricultural system based on human rights and food sovereignty through giving local control over natural resources, seeds, land, water, forests and knowledge and technology.
  • Commit to a massive increase in protected areas for biodiversity conservation, both in the G7 countries and make funding and support available to do this in the global south.
  • To recognise that migration is already and will increasingly be driven by long term environmental change and degradation resulting from climate change, driven primarily by the historic emissions of the metropolitan countries of the global north – accommodating and supporting free movement of people must be a core policy and necessary part of planning for the future.

On the Economic Crisis:

  • Increase wages and cut working hours for all G7 workers and involve trade unions in the economic transition without any loss of living standards, and to allow for greater worker involvement in workplace safety and resilience.
  • Adopt ‘Just Transition’ principles, creating well paid jobs in the new economy.
  • Outlaw tax havens, so wealthy corporations and individuals pay their fair share to the economic recovery. The economic costs of the pandemic should not be borne by those least able to do so.
  • Cancel all international debt of the global south
  • Support urgent development of sustainable and affordable public transport
  • Provide resources for popular education and involvement in implementing and enhancing a just transition

If groups/individuals would like to add their name to this statement please email eco-socialist-action@proton.com, stating your country of residence. Also, get details of our Zoom public meeting on 9 June, 19:00 hours (BST).

Groups

Green Left (UK)

Left Unity (UK)

RISE (Ireland)

Anti Capitalist Resistance (UK)

Ecosocialist Independent Group (UK) Lancaster City Council

Global Ecosocialist Network (International)

Anti-Fracking Nanas (UK)

Green Eco-Socialist Network (USA)

Socialist Project (Canada)

System Change Not Climate Change (USA/Canada)

Pittsburgh Green Left (USA)

 

Individuals

Beatrix Campbell (UK) (OBE, writer and broadcaster)

Romayne Phoenix (UK)

Victor Wallis (USA) (ecosocialist author)

Professor Krista Cowman (UK), historian

Dee Searle (UK)

Lucy Early (UK)

Patrick Bond (South Africa)

Derek Wall (UK) ecosocialist author, Lecturer in Political Economy, former Green Party of England and Wales International Co-ordinator

John Foran (USA)

Felicity Dowling (UK)

Steve Masters (UK) (Green Party of England and Wales activist & West Berkshire District Councillor)

Dr. Henry Adams (UK) (ecologist & environmental activist)

Charles Gate, (UK)

Nicole Haydock (UK)

Gordon Peters (UK)

Mark Hollinrake (UK)

Pat McCarthy (UK)

Clive Healiss (UK)

Rafael Arturo Guariguata (Germany)

Declan Walsh (UK)

Jim Hollinshead (UK)

Ken Barker (UK)

Tina Rothery (UK)

John Burr (UK)

Emma Lorraine Coulling (UK)

Andrew Francis Robinson (UK)

Richard Finnigan (UK)

Frank McEntaggart (UK)

Roger Silverman (UK)

 




Popular Uprising in Colombia – Ecosocialist Movement Statement

The popular uprising is bringing down the neoliberal and militarist regime

STATEMENT BY THE MOVIMIENTO ECOSOCIALISTA DE COLOMBIA

Neoliberalism does not die without killing, but the more it kills, the more it dies. What is happening in Colombia is not a Colombian problem, it is our problem, that of the democrats of the world,” Boaventura Dos Santos.

The 28 April 2021 marked a new stage in the history of mobilization and the exercise of social protest in Colombia. The national strike called by the trade union federations ended up becoming a great popular uprising. On that same day, the capital cities saw mobilizations of workers, those in the informal sector, students, neighbourhood organizations, women, and indigenous and Afro communities; a diverse and plural social expression of a desperate people cornered by the implementation of decades of neoliberal policies, and which was left to its own devices during the pandemic. This popular uprising has a line of continuity with the urban mobilizations of 21 November 2019, but this time intermediate cities and rural areas joined in. There were street protests in 600 municipalities and the number of protesters reached approximately five million people.

This massive protest has already achieved results. The withdrawal of the tax reform, the departure of finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla and his economic team, the resignation of Chancellor Claudia Blum, the paralysis of health, pension and employment reforms in Congress which form part of the Duque government’s “Paquetazo”, demanded by the risk rating agencies and the IMF.

These results have been obtained despite the unprecedented police and military deployment in the country authorized by the government of Iván Duque against social mobilization. The 50 murdered, 400 disappeared, the hundreds injured and dozens of sexually abused women, leading in the case of 17-year-old Alisson Meléndez, raped in an Immediate Response Unit-URI- in Popayán, to her tragic decision to commit suicide, have been the consequence of a civil war approach to citizen protest taken by ESMAD, the police, army and armed civilians. In Cali, the repression included the use of assault weapons, grenades and gas against the protesters and surrounding neighbourhoods or residential units, and even machine-gunning from military helicopters, as occurred in Siloé.

On the outskirts of Buga, on the Pan-American Highway, airborne military units were also used, and nearby neighbourhoods were surrounded by ESMAD and attacked with gas and explosive weapons. In Popayán, the militaristic response to the uprising of popular indignation caused by police abuses has already cost one student dead, missing and injured. Something similar has happened in Yumbo. These military “theatres of operations” were authorized personally and directly by President Iván Duque, the general commander of the Armed Forces Eduardo Zapateiro, the general director of the police Jorge Luis Vargas to which we must add the responsibility by omission of the local mayors who handed over control of the “public order” of the cities without so much as a discussion. All of them are responsible for genocide and terrorism against the peoples and must be tried as such before the International Criminal Court and the international organizations created for this purpose.

This militaristic barbarism confirms that we are witnessing the collapse of the so-called “Rule of Law” and confirms that there is an abysmal separation between the institutions of a precarious representative democracy and the social demands of the majority of Colombians.

The systematic and programmed application of state terrorism also shows the crisis of peripheral capitalism in the country linked to the worst economic crisis in the history of capitalism and aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. We have reached the dead end of a state and elites incapable of meeting the most basic needs of the population, now, and in the medium and long term.

The social outbreak went beyond the classic forms of popular mobilization, making possible expressions of solidarity as with the presence of the indigenous “Minga” in Cali and blockades and self-defence (barricades) in the cities as key points of a genuine national strike.

Those who led the blockades, the so-called “front line” are young people marginalized by neoliberalism, lacking health, education and work who came to protest out of outrage, united in hopelessness. They do not believe in conventional institutions, nor in political parties, whether from the left or the right.

They are organized “from below” in slow coordination processes based on the demands of the street resistance; they reject personal leadership, proclaim “horizontality” in decision-making, and have gained great social legitimacy in the neighbourhoods where they operate and facilitate popular assemblies. These urban blockades, according to public statements by the Archbishop of Cali, Darío Monsalve, “constitute almost the only way that strike activists have to make themselves heard …” and also arose in response to the armed forces besieging of the cities.

The fact that the days of protest days began more than two weeks ago and that the blockades have been presented by the government, businessmen and local merchants as being responsible for the shortage of basic necessities and fuel, despite the enabling of “humanitarian corridors” by the protesters, has opened discussion on whether to maintain them. In this regard, we consider that any decision should be preceded by guarantees of no prosecutions or criminalization for all those leading the blockades, supervised by human rights organizations and, as far as possible, international agreement and with explicit commitments from the national government. and local leaders on their demands. What has been happening in Cali after the failure of the negotiations attempted with the mayor’s office is contrary to what we need to find solutions to the current situation. The neighbourhood leaders who attended the convocation were detected and are currently being detained by the police under house arrest to be prosecuted.

Regarding the political decision in relation to the blockades, we consider that this should correspond to those who have been organizing them as a form of legitimate resistance, that is, to the members of the front lines and close logistical support. Those who have led the street confrontations, and have made up the dead, wounded and missing are those who have the moral authority to make this decision. The same must be said about roadblocks by transporters and peasants.

The gigantic marches that we have witnessed in Ibagué, Neiva and Bogotá in recent days and the social organizations that have joined such as transporters throughout the country and coca growers in the southwest confirm that this popular uprising is on the rise, which is why we believe the decisive factor is the opening of political alternatives “from below” to the crisis of peripheral capitalism in the country.

It is showing that self-organization and direct democracy expressed in multiple forms of resistance contribute to the consolidation of a “parallel institutional framework” that goes beyond the narrow limits of representative democracy. This uprising went beyond the traditional representative character of the trade union organizations and the oficial national strike leadership, confirming that their narrow protest action does not correspond to the demands of the broad popular spectrum. On 1 May, there was dramatic evidence of this. While in the street skirmishes police brutality had already caused deaths and disappearances, the trade union federations called for a celebration of the workers’ day with a “virtual parade”. The distrust felt by neighbourhood and popular leaders in relation to the negotiations that the strike committee is trying to develop stems from this reality.

The popular uprising also demonstrates the inability of a congress and political parties mired in corruption and commitments to the businesses of big capitalists, as well as regulatory agencies and high courts that have played the role of accomplices in the face of the militaristic barbarism that we currently witness. For this reason, an institutional crisis has opened that could end in the resignation of President Duque. The development of events and the relationships of forces that are established in the immediate future will determine if it is possible to realize this possibility, which would be a real blow to the neoliberal and militarist political regime. We agree that it is necessary to raise it from now on as it has been proposed, with increasing force, by the political and social organizations. Ignoring this possibility on the grounds that it would produce an “institutional vacuum” leading to the arrival at the Palace of Nariño of the vice president or president of Congress, who supposedly are worse than Duque, or that the resignation would open the path to a military coup, reasons why it is necessary to “defend Duque from Uribismo” which placed him in power, exempts him from political responsibility for collective murder against defenceless people, as head of the armed forces, and also starts from the mistaken criterion that the deepening of the institutional crisis that would open the popular overthrow of a reactionary government such as that of Duque, something unprecedented in the history of the country, could only be resolved within the framework of the same institutional framework that is collapsing.

On the contrary, we consider that a popular triumph of these characteristics would open great possibilities for the autonomous political action of the people and open the way to the convening of a Constituent and Popular Assembly. It would be the best way to isolate and defeat political reaction and the coup plotters, at a time when there is immense popular solidarity at the international level.

The social and popular leaders have also emphasized the following economic and social demands that we support and that can form a minimal emergency platform in the face of the impoverishment to which millions of Colombians have been subjected due to the neoliberal policies that continue to be imposed by Duque’s government:

• Prosecution and punishment of those responsible for the murders and disappearances that occurred during the militarization of social protest. Punishment of those responsible for raping women. Dismantling of ESMAD and transformation of the police into a civilian body dependent on the Ministry of Government.

• Stop the murder and massacres of social leaders. Promote a humanitarian agreement with all the armed groups from now on in order to find a way out of the conflict that must conclude at negotiating tables differentiated according to the characteristics of each group.

• A Basic Emergency Income for those in the informal sector and the unemployed. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to suspend the payment of the public debt that currently represents 63% of Gross Domestic Product and carry out a democratic and redistributive tax reform establishing a wealth tax on the rich and super rich, not deductible from income tax; taxation of corporate dividends and inheritances, as well as the elimination of tax exemptions for large companies and the financial sector. Fulfilment of the peace agreements, particularly with regard to the voluntary substitution of crops and the implementation of collective projects that improve the standard of living of peasant and ethnic communities, based on food sovereignty.

• An employment generation programme for young people, expansion of coverage and financing of enrolment of students in public universities.

• Down with the genocidal government of Iván Duque!

• For an alternative solution to the current crisis: A Constituent and Popular Assembly!

Reprinted from International Viewpoint




End the system of private patents! Manifesto on Global Covid Response

Thanks to a huge scientific effort based on international collaboration and historic amounts of public money, humanity has been able to develop several effective vaccines against Covid-19 in less than a year.

However, this great achievement could be totally overshadowed by the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. In a situation as critical as the present, the exceptional nature of the measures demanded from the majority of the population must also apply to the private pharmaceutical industry and its permanent thirst for profit. The suspension of the Covid-19 vaccine patents must be a priority and a first step.

But we cannot stop there. Initiatives such as COVAX or C-TAP have failed miserably, not only because of their inadequacy, but above all because they reflect the failure of the current system of global governance in which rich countries and multinationals, often in the form of foundations, seek to reshape the world order to their liking. Philanthropy and burgeoning public-private initiatives are not the answer. They are even less so in the face of today’s global challenges in a world dominated by states and industries driven solely by market forces and seeking maximum profits.

The health crisis is far from being resolved. The capitalist system and neoliberal policies have been at the helm at all stages. At the root of this virus is the unbridled transformation of the relationship between the human species and nature. The ecological and health crises are intimately intertwined. The same predatory neoliberal logic has exacerbated the consequences of both by applying, to the crises, private and competitive principles of management policy. The result is much more inequality, much more suffering and many more deaths in the name of the interests of a privileged few.

The pandemic has accelerated and deepened dangerous trends, social gaps and multidimensional phenomena that we have been observing for decades and in which the working classes, especially women and racialized people, suffer most. Women make up the majority of the health workers who have been on the front line in the pandemic, but also of those preserving life in the face of cuts to public services and social rights, of which they are the first victims.

Good health, access to health care and to vaccinations are universal human rights. Vaccines therefore should be considered a global public good. To ensure their universal accessibility, it is necessary and urgent to suspend the patents. This measure must be accompanied by mechanisms for the nationalization of private pharmaceutical industries and a strong investment in the development of public pharmaceutical industries in all countries. Decisive action is needed to enable public planning of vaccine production and distribution, developing local production capacity where possible and complementing it with binding international solidarity in other cases.

Just as viruses have no borders, the fight against them must have none. Health chauvinism is another face of the reactionary preference trend that is sweeping the world. The peoples of the South must have access to vaccines on an equal footing with the rest of the world’s inhabitants. We welcome efforts made by Cuba to develop vaccines and treatments against the pandemic with the aim of making the results available to humanity. Global challenges such as a pandemic require appropriate global responses.

The corporate economy, blind faith in the market and the pursuit of profit have proven to be incompatible with the well-being of Humanity. Health is not a commodity. Economic recovery cannot be at the expense of health or the rights of the majority. We must choose: capital or life. We must act quickly and forcefully, create a global strategy of equal access and universal guarantee to high quality health care.
For all these reasons, we demand :

  • The suspension of private patents on all technologies, knowledge, treatments and vaccines related to Covid-19.
  • The elimination of trade secrets and the publication of information on the production costs and public investments used, in a clear and publicly accessible manner.
  • Transparency and public scrutiny at all stages of vaccine development.
  • Universal, free and open access to vaccination and treatment.
  • The expropriation and socialization under popular control of the private pharmaceutical industry as a basis for a universal public health system that promotes the production of generic treatments and medicines.
  • Increased public investment and budgets for public health and community care policies, including more staff, higher salaries and improved working conditions in these sectors.
  • The introduction of taxes on wealth (wealth and income of the richest 1%) to finance the effort against the pandemic and to ensure a socially just and ecologically sustainable exit from the various crises of global capitalism.
  • The suspension of debt payments for the duration of the pandemic and the cancellation of illegitimate debts and those contracted to finance the fight against the virus.

TO SIGN THE MANIFESTO:

Send an email to this address: manifiestocovid[@]gmail.com

List of signatories

Intercontinental organisations :

  1. Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) international network www.cadtm.org;
  2. Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate power and Stop Impunity https://www.stopcorporateimpunity.org/;
  3. Global/Glocal Network for Quality Education Red global/Glocal por la calidad educativa https://redglobalcalidaded.wixsite.com/redglobalcalidadeduc/integrantes;
  4. International Association of Health Policy (IAHP) https://iahponline.wordpress.com/;
  5. International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA) https://twitter.com/asambleapueblos;
  6. Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles ://www.laboursolidarity.org/;
  7. People’s Dialogue (south-south network) https://www.peoplesdialogue.org/about/;
  8. People’s Health Movement (PHM) https://phmovement.org/;
  9. The Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth https://agora-humanite.org/;
  10. Transnational Institute https://www.tni.org/en/transnational-institute
  11. World Social Forum Reflection Group https://www.foranewwsf.org/;
  12. World March of Women https://marchemondiale.org/

Europe :

International organisations

  1. CADTM Europe (Belgium, France, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg & Switzerland
  2. European Network against Commercialisation of Health and Social Protection http://europe-health-network.net/

Austria:

  1. Latin America Information Group Informationsgruppe Lateinamerika https://lateinamerika-anders.org/
  2. Institute for Intercultural Research and Cooperation https://www.latautonomy.com
  3. Zéro covid

Belgium:

  1. A CONTRE-COURANT http://a-contre-courant.be/
  2. ATTAC Wallonia-Brussels https://wb.attac.be/
  3. CADTM Belgium http://www.cadtm.org/Francais
  4. CEPAG https://www.cepag.be/
  5. CETRI – Centre tricontinental, Belgique, www.cetri.be
  6. Cultural Presence and Action Présence et Action Culturelles https://www.pac-g.be/
  7. Forum North South Forum Nord-Sud
  8. General Labour Federation of Belgium Wallonia Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique(FGTB) wallonne https://www.fgtb-wallonne.be/
  9. Fonds Ernest Mandel (Belgique) https://www.facebook.com/Ernest-Mandel-Fonds-1952230961709990/
  10. Formation Léon Lesoil (Belgique) http://formationleonlesoil.org/
  11. National Employees’ Centre Centrale Nationale des Employés (CNE-CSC) https://www.lacsc.be/cne
  12. Struggle for health La Santé en Lutte https://lasanteenlutte.org/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063697504866
  13. Walloon Anti-Poverty Network (RWLP) Réseau wallon de lutte contre la pauvreté

Bosnia-Herzegovina:

  1. Association for Culture and Art CRVENA in Sarajevo https://crvena.ba/

Czech Republic:

  1. Prague Spring 2 – Network against right wing extremism and populism – https://www.facebook.com/praguespring2/

England:

  1. Zéro Covid (England & Wales) https://zerocovid.uk

France :

  1. AITEC;
  2. Appel Brevets sur les vaccins anti-covid, stop. Réquisition !
    https://www.facebook.com/Stop-aux-brevets-R%C3%A9quisition-105952548197339/;
  3. Association for Employment, Information and Solidarity (APEIS) Association pour l’emploi l’information et la solidarité https://www.apeis.org;
  4. Association INDECOSA-CGT https://indecosa.fr/a-propos/;
  5. Citizens’ Science Association Association Sciences Citoyennes https://sciencescitoyennes.org/;
  6. ATTAC;
  7. Cedetim;
  8. Cerises la coopérative ceriseslacooperative.info
  9. CGT Sanofi https://www.facebook.com/sanoficgt/
  10. Collective of employees in Anti-Sanofric struggle Collectif des salariés en lutte Anti-Sanofric https://www.facebook.com/LesSanofi;
  11. Copernicus Foundation Fondation Copernic http://www.fondation-copernic.org/
  12. Democratic Kurd council in France Conseil démocratique kurde en France (anciennement: Fédération des Associations Kurdes en Francehttps://cdkf.fr/a-propos/;
  13. Emergency Workers Collective Collectif Inter-Urgences https://www.interurgences.fr/;
  14. Fédération SUD chimie -Solidaire, unitaire et démocratique- https://sud-chimie-solidaires.org;
  15. France Amérique Latine (FAL) : https://www.franceameriquelatine.org/;
  16. Henri Pézerat Association(health, work, environment) Association Henri Pézerat (santé, travail, environnement) https://www.asso-henri-pezerat.org/;
  17. Ipam;
  18. Medicines Common Good Médicament Bien Commun http://medicament-bien-commun.org/;
  19. National convergence of collectives for the defence and development of public service Convergence nationale des collectifs de défense et de développement des services publics https://www.convergence-sp.fr/;
  20. Observatory of Transparency in Medicines Policies (OTMeds) Observatoire de la Transparence dans les politiques du médicaments https://www.facebook.com/OTMeds/;
  21. “Our Health in Danger” Collective Collectif « Notre Santé en Danger »;
  22. People’s Health Movement France;
  23. Revue Inprecor http://www.inprecor.fr/home;
  24. Sud santé-sociaux http://www.sudsantesociaux.org/;
  25. The University of the Common Good of Paris L’Université du Bien Commun de Paris https://www.facebook.com/Université-du-bien-commun-2187371374822819/;
  26. Union Syndicale de la Psychiatrie uspsy.fr;
  27. Union of General Medicine Syndicat de la Médecine Générale https://smg-pratiques.info;
  28. Union syndicale Solidaire https://solidaires.org/;
  29. WOS/agence des hypothèses https://wos-agencedeshypotheses.com;
  30. Zero Covid Solidaire https://www.facebook.com/Zéro-Pandémie-Solidaire-113278857470238/?ref=page_internal;

Germany

  1. Association of Democratic Doctors Germany http://www.vdaeae.de/
  2. LabourNet
  3. Socialist Newspaper Sozialistische Zeitung https://www.sozonline.de/
  4. Zukunftskonvent
  5. Zéro covid

Greece :

  1. Expel Racism Initiative https://www.kar.org.gr/;
  2. Initiative of Healthcare Workers for a Public Health – People’s Right – Social Good ??????????? ???????????? ??? ??? ??????? ????? – ????? ???????? – ????????? ?????;
  3. Naturefriends Greece https://www.naturefriends.gr/;
  4. Solidarity for All (Athens Greece) https://www.solidarity4all.gr/;
  5. Sunday Immigrants School https://www.ksm.gr/;
  6. Women’s Rights Organisation (TO MOV) ???????? ?????????? ??????????? ??V tomov.gr

Hungary :

  1. ATTAC Hungary http://www.attac.hu/

Ireland :

  1. Campaign for an All Ireland National Health Service https://www.facebook.com/CampaignAINHS/

Italy :

  1. ATTAC Italy https://www.attac-italia.org/
  2. CADTM Italy http://italia.cadtm.org/

Portugal :

  1. Amílcar Cabral Development Intervention Centre (CIDAC) Centro de Intervenção para o Desenvolvimento Amílcar Cabral www.cidac.pt

Slovenia :

  1. Institut Mirovni https://www.mirovni-institut.si/en/ (Slovenia)

Spanish state :

  1. Andalusian Workers Union Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores/as (SAT) https://www.facebook.com/SindicatoSAT;
  2. ATTAC Spain https://attac.es/;
  3. Audit of the Health Care Debt (Health debt) Auditoria de la Deuda en Sanidad (Audita Sanidad) https://auditasanidad.org/;
  4. Basque Workers Solidarity (ELAEuskal Langileen Alkartasuna https://www.ela.eus/es;
  5. Citizen’s Audit Platform on Debt Plataforma Auditoría Ciudadana de la Deuda https://auditoriaciudadana.net/;
  6. Coordination Against the Privatisation of Health Care Coordinadora Antiprivatizacion de la Sanidad https://www.casmadrid.org/
  7. Ecologists in Action Ecologistas en Acción https://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/;
  8. Galician Inter-Union Confederation Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG) https://www.cig.gal/;
  9. Health Workers’ Assembly Movement Movimiento Asambleario de Trabajador@s de Sanidad(MATS) https://mats-sanidad.com/;
  10. Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak Workers Union (LAB) Basque country https://www.lab.eus/es/
  11. Multinational Observatory in Latin America Observatorio de Multinacionales en América Latina (OMAL) https://omal.info/;
  12. Navarra Health Platform Plataforma Navarra de Salud /Nafarroako Osasun Plataforma http://nafarroakosasunplataforma.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Plataforma-Navarra-de-Salud-Nafarroako-Osasun-Plataforma-462069400539481/
  13. Valencian Union Confederation Intersindical Valenciana (País Valencià) https://intersindical.org/

Switzerland :

  1. CETIM https://www.cetim.ch/
  2. MultiWatch https://multiwatch.ch/
  3. World March of Women
  4. Zéro covid

Africa

International organisations :

  1. African Alliance WoMin. https://womin.africa/;
  2. CADTM Afrique;
  3. North African Network for Food Sovereignty https://www.siyada.org/ar/;
  4. Pan African Association for literacy and Adult Education https://www.adeanet.org/fr/association-panafricaine-d-alphabetisation-et-d-education-des-adultes-paalae;
  5. Réseau nord-africain pour la souveraineté alimentaire https://www.siyada.org/ar/;
  6. Rural Women’s Assembly Southern Africa https://ruralwomensassembly.wordpress.com/ https://ruralwomensassembly.wordpress.com/

Democratic Republic of Congo :

  1. CADTM Lubumbashi

Kenya :

  1. Kenyan Peasants League www.kenyanpeasantsleague.org
  2. Kenya Debt Abolition Network

Morocco :

  1. Moroccan Association for Human Rights Association marocaine des droits humains (AMDH): http://amdh.org.ma/;
  2. ATTAC CADTM Morocco https://attacmaroc.org/;
  3. Democratic labour organisation Organisation démocratique du travail
  4. Moroccan Network for the Defence of the Right to Health and the Right to Life Réseau marocain pour la défense du droit à la santé et droit à la vie
  5. Southern Alternatives Forum Forum des alternatives Sud https://www.e-joussour.net/fr/

Senegal :

  1. Pan African Education for Sustainable Development NGO (PAEDD) La Panafricaine pour l’Education au Développement Durable ONG ongpaedd.org;
  2. Pan-African Youth Organisation Organisation des Jeunesses Panafricanistes;
  3. Senegalese Social Forum Forum social sénégalais

Tunisia :

  1. Al Warcha Media Association for Economic and Social Rights Association Al Warcha médiatique pour les droits économiques et sociaux https://www.inhiyez.com/;
  2. Tunisian Women’s Association for Research on Development (AFTURD) Association des Femmes Tunisiennes pour la Recherche sur le Développement
  3. Tunisian Observatory of the Economy Observatoire Tunisien de l’économie http://www.economie-tunisie.org/fr

South Africa :

  1. AIDC https://aidc.org.za/
  2. The People’s Vaccine Campaign

Americas :

International organisations :

  1. ALBA MOVIMIENTOS http://albamovimientos.net/;
  2. CADTM-Abya Yala Notre Amérique (CADTM-AYNA);
  3. Council for Popular Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CEAAL) Consejo de Educación Popular de América Latina y el Caribe – https://www.facebook.com/CEAAL/;
  4. Jubilee South Americas
  5. Latin American and Caribbean Society for Political Economy and Critical Thinking (SEPLA) Sociedad Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico https://sepla21.org/fr/;
  6. Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), Steering Committee Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales, Comité Directivo https://www.clacso.org/
  7. Latin American Network for Access to Medicines (RedLAM), Red Latinoamericana por el Acceso a Medicamentos (Argentina, Brasil, Peru and Colombia) www.redlam.org
  8. Our America Trade Union Forum (ESNA), Encuentro Sindical Nuestra América http://encuentrosindical.org/

Argentina :

  1. ATTAC – Argentina;
  2. Argentine Workers’ Central Union Central de Trabajadores Autónoma regional CTA-A Rosario https://www.ctarosario.org.ar;
  3. Cooperative of Popular Educators and Researchers – Historic (CEIP-H) Cooperativa de Educadores e Investigadores Populares Histórica, Argentina;
  4. Corriente Sindical Carlos Chile (Argentina) https://www.facebook.com/CorrienteCarlosChileCTAA/;
  5. Darío Santillán Popular Front Frente Popular Darío Santillán https://abriendo-caminos.org/;
  6. Front of Organisations in Struggle (FOL) Frente de Organizaciones en Lucha https://www.facebook.com/FOLFrenteDeOrganizacionesEnLucha/;
  7. Fundación GEP (Argentina) Www.fgep.org;
  8. Health Institute Patria Salud Instituto Patria;
  9. Movement for Latin American Unity and Change Movimiento por la Unidad Latinoamericana y el Cambio Social http://mulcs.com.ar/ / Movimiento 8 de Abril)
  10. National Federation of University Teachers (CONADU)-Historic, Argentina Federación Nacional de Docentes Universitarios – Historica de Argentina
  11. People’s Movement: For a Feminist Socialism from Below Movimiento de los Pueblos: Por un socialismo feminista desde abajo (Frente Popular Darío Santillán – Corriente Plurinacional / Izquierda Latinoamericana Socialista;
  12. Santa Fe Teachers’ Association Asciación del Magisterio Santa Fe – Delegación Rosario http://www.amsaferosario.org.ar/;
  13. Sindicato ADEMYS;
  14. SUTEBA de El Tigre

Bolivia :

  1. Confederation of Urban Education Workers of Bolivia CTEUB Confederación de Trabajadores de Educación Urbana de Bolivia

Brazil :

  1. ECCE Union of Education Professionals;
  2. Homa – Human Rights and Business centre Homa-Centro de Direitos Humanos e Empresas http://homacdhe.com/index.php/home/;
  3. National Association for Higher Education (ANDES) Sindicato Nacional dos Docentes das Instituições de Ensino Superior;
  4. São Paulo Teachers’ Union
  5. São Paulo State Teachers’ Union – Ourinhos;
  6. São Paulo State Teachers’ Union – São Paulo;
  7. São Paulo State Education Teachers’ Union – Litoral Sul;
  8. São Paulo State Teachers’ Union of Official Education – Osasco;
  9. The National Union of Federal Servers of Basic, Professional and Technological Education (SINASEFE);
  10. Union of Education Teachers of the State of São Paulo – Salto;
  11. Union of Technical and Administrative Workers of UFRN and UFERSA;
  12. Union of Bank Employees and Financiers of Bauru;
  13. Union of Teachers of Official Public Education of the State of São Paulo – São Bernardo do Campo;
  14. Union of Teachers of São Paulo State Official Public Education Union – Sumaré
  15. Vinhedo Employees’ Union

Chile :

  1. National Federation of Associations of University Officials of the University of Chile (FENAFUCH) Federación Nacional de Asociaciones de Funcionarios de la Universidad de Chile

Colombia :

  1. Colombian Platform for the Audit of the Public Debt and the Recovery of the Commons Plataforma Colombiana por la Auditoría de la Deuda Pública y la Recuperación de los Bienes Comunes http://www.pacdeprebico.org;
  2. Grupo Kavilando Medellin Colombia;
  3. Inter-University Network for Peace (REDIPAZ) Red Interuniversitaria por la Paz;
  4. Latin American Autonomous University, Socio-legal Research Centre of Colombia Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana, Centro de Investigaciones Socio jurídicas de Colombia;
  5. National Federation of Colombian Bank Workers Unions (FENASIBANCOL) Federación Nacional de Sindicatos Bancarios Colombianos http://www.fenasibancol.org;
  6. National Union of Bank Employees (UNEB) http://www.unebcolombia.org;
  7. Research Group University de San Buenaventura Medellin (GIDPAD) Grupo de Investigación Universidad de San Buenaventura Medellín

Costa Rica :

  1. Association of Secondary Education Teachers (APSE) Asociación de Profesores de Educación Secundaria

Ecuador :

  1. National Union of Educators (UNE) Unión Nacional de Educadores;
  2. Platform “It’s worth of you Ecuador” https://vaportiecuador.wordpress.com/

El Salvador :

  1. Alforja network Red Alforja http://enlazandoculturas.cicbata.org/?q=node/103

Haiti :

  1. Haitian Advocacy Platform for Alternative Development (PAPDA) – Plataforma Haitiana de Defensa para el Desarrollo Alternativohttp://www.papda.org/

Honduras :

  1. COPINH Honduras

Mexico :

  1. Autonomous Movement for Community Emancipation (MAECC) of Oaxaca Movimiento Autónomo por Emancipación Comunitaria de Oaxaca;
  2. Confederation of Retired, Pensioned and Older Persons (CONJUPAM) Confederación de Jubilados, Pensionados y Adultos Mayores;
  3. Executive Committee, Section 9 Democracy (SNTE-CNTE) Comité Ejecutivo Sección 9 Democrática SNTE-CNTE
  4. Mexican Plural Pedagogic Collective Colectivo Plural Pedagógico Mexicano Kaichuk Mat Dha, Durango
  5. Mexican Union of Electricians Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas http://www.sme.org.mx/index.html;
  6. Mujer, Pueblo – Magisterio. Cnte Durango Mexico https://www.facebook.com/puebloMagisterio/;
  7. National Assembly of Electrical Energy Users (ANUEE) Asamblea Nacional de Usuarios de la Energía E?ectrica;
  8. National Coordinating Committee of Users in Resistance (CONUR) Coordinadora Nacional de Usuarios y Usuarias en Resistencia
  9. New Workers’ Centre Nueva Central de Trabajadores https://nuevacentral.org.mx/
  10. Workers Union of Higher Media Education Institute of CDMX (SITRAIEMS) Sindicato de Trabajadores del Instituto de Educación Media Superior de la CDMX

Panama :

  1. Association of Educators of Veraguenses of the Republic of Panama Asociación de Educadores Veraguenses de República de Panamá
  2. Critical Mass Panama Masa Crítica Panamá
  3. Teachers’ Association of the Republic of Panama (ASOPROF) Asociación de Profesores de la República de Panamá

Peru:

  1. Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis-Gtanw Nation Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Wampis-Gtanw https://nacionwampis.com/;
  2. Unified Union of Education Workers of Peru (SUTEP)

Puerto Rico :

  1. Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR) Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico
  2. University of Puerto Rico Teachers Association Asociación de Profesores de la Universidad de Puerto Rico

United States of America :

  1. New York Communities for Change https://www.nycommunities.org/

Uruguay :

  1. Marcosur Feminist Articulation (AFM) https://www.facebook.com/ArticulacionFeministaMarcosur/
  2. Plataforma Descam
  3. International Network of University Professors and Academics on the State of the Public Debt Red Internacional de Cátedras Instituciones y Personalidades sobre el estado de la Deuda Pública

Venezuela :

  1. Centre for Research and Border Studies Centro de Investigación y Estudios Fronterizos
  2. International Observatory on Educational Reforms and Teacher Policies (OIREPOD) Observatorio Internacional de Reformas Educativas y Políticas Docentes
  3. International Research Centre other voices in Education (CII-OVE) Centro internacional de investigaciones otras voces en educación www.otrasvoceseneducacion.org
  4. Popular Training School Our America (EFPNA) Escuela de Formación Popular Nuestra América
  5. Venezuelan Forum for the Right to Education Foro venezolano por el derecho a la educación

Asia :

International Organisations :

  1. Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP), http://www.haiasiapacific.org Regional organisation – virtual HQ – Penang Malaysia;
  2. International Network for a Human Economy Asia (RIEH) https://www.rieh.org/;
  3. NGO Forum on ADB;
  4. SAAPE https://saape.org/ South Asia
  5. World March of Women, Asia

Bangladesh :

  1. Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED): https://bwged.blogspot.com ;
    CLEAN (Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network): https://cleanbd.org

India :

  1. Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development;
  2. Collective for Economic Justice https://collectiveforeconomicjustice.wordpress.com/;
  3. Growthwatch (India) https://growth-watch.blogspot.com/;
  4. Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) https://www.insafindia.com/;
  5. Karavali Karnataka Janabhivriddhi Vedike;
  6. Nadi Ghati Morcha;
  7. People’s Alliance of Central-East India (PACE-India);
  8. Prantojon https://www.facebook.com/prantajan;
  9. Progressive Plantation Workers Union (PPWU);
  10. Tamil Nadu Land Rights Federation (TNLRF) https://www.facebook.com/TNLRF/

Japan :

  1. ATTAC Japan

Malaysia :

  1. HAIAP Regional organisation – virtual HQ – Penang Malaysia

Pakistan :

  1. Haqooq Khalq Movement Pakistan
  2. Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee

Philippines :

  1. Sentro ng mga Progresibo at Nagkakaisang Manggagawa -SENTRO- (Philippines) www.sentro.org

South Korea :

  1. KPDS (Korean Pharmacists for Democratic Society), Korea www.pharmacist.or.kr
  2. People’s Health Movement, South Korea

Sri Lanka :

  1. Ceylon Estate Staffs Union (CESU), http://cesusrilanka.org/index.html;
  2. Liberation Movement https://www.facebook.com/LiberationMovementLka;
  3. Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform https://monlar.lk;
  4. Movement for Nature Farming and Indigenous Livestock Farming;
  5. National Fisheries Solidarity Movement www.nafso-online.org;
  6. People’s Alliance for Right to Land –PARL-, http://parlsl.com Sri Lanka;
  7. Progressive Women’s Collective https://www.facebook.com/progressivewomensc;
  8. Protect Union;
  9. Sri Lanka All Telecommunication Employees Union SLATEU https://www.facebook.com/slptsunion;
  10. Telecommunication Engineering Diplomates’ Union (TEDA);
  11. United Federation of Labour (UFL)



Solidarity with Palestinians against neocolonial aggression

Statement of the Fourth International

In recent weeks, Palestinians in Jerusalem have mobilized en masse to defend their basic right  – to live in their own homes, homes to their families for several generations – against the attempts of the Israeli government and extremist settler organizations to drive them out and replace them with Jewish settlers in a policy that can only be called ethnic cleansing.

They have been confronted with violent colonial repression, which was expressed in particular with the attack on the Al-Aqsa Compound on Friday 7 May as end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approached.

Since 10 May, the Israeli army has been carrying out a violent bombing campaign against the Gaza strip in retaliation for the demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinans of Jerusalem and rocket attacks.

In Jerusalem and other mixed cities, as well as the violence perpetrated by the police and  Israel Defence Force, far-right Jewish groups have attacked Arabs in the streets. In Jerusalem alone, hundreds of Palestinians have been injured and dozens imprisoned.

As a result of this violence there have been at least 83 deaths in Gaza (including 16 children) 3 in the West Bank. 7 Israelis have also been killed.

Western news sources lead on the rocket attacks from Gaza, Israeli prime minister Netanhayu and other politicians call for “calm” while Biden says that “Israel has the right to defend itself” and calls for a return to the situation pre-10 May as if that had been an acceptable situation. Almost inaudible criticisms of the Israeli settler policy do nothing to change this stance of the “international community” – they will back Israel to keep their status quo in the region.

There can be no calm in this situation of colonial aggression. There is not “equal responsibility” for the violence. The settler colonial state of Israel is practising a form of apartheid and ethnic cleansing and Palestinians are denied all democratic and national rights. There will not be a “just solution” without the accordance of full rights to the Palestinians.

The current worldwide expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians – in widespread street demonstrations, in football stadiums from Chile to Scotland – must be strengthened and become an ongoing powerful movement for to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.

This is the meaning of the BDS (Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions) campaign, which must be strengthened and developed to impose sanctions against Israel.

Support for the Israeli state must stop!

An end to the civil and military occupation!

Equal democratic and national rights!

The right to self-determination and the right of return for the Palestinian people!

May 13 2021




Taking Action Now – Climate movement prepares for another From The Group Up event

Preparations are ramping up for another edition of From the Ground Up, organised by the COP26 Coalition writes Iain Bruce of ecosocialist.scot.

This event will be shorter and more focussed than its hugely successful predecessor last November. There should be two days of online sessions, on the Friday and Saturday of 23-24 April. They will concentrate on discussing strategies and planning action for climate justice over the coming months, up to and including the UN’s COP26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.

The event will begin with some kind of action or panel the day before, 22 April, which is Earth Day and the date chosen by President Joe Biden for his own Climate Ambition Summit. It will end on the Sunday with an action plenary, something like the Assembly of Social Movements that used to close the old World Social Forums.

The eighteen or so sessions are aiming for a more participatory format, to discuss strategies and forms of action in key areas around climate justice and its related struggles. These will include action within the framework of the COP26 talks themselves, for example to kick out polluting companies that seek to sponsor the summit in Glasgow, or to wring the best possible results out of the talks. But most of the sessions will concentrate on action outside, to build up the pressure for radical action now, on emissions cuts, finance for the Global South and system change. So there will be discussions devoted to organising at the intersections between anti-racism, disability rights and climate justice, on legal action, organising in the workplace, different forms of direct action and the possibilities of calling various kinds of strike action for the climate around the world in November. There will also be sessions on struggles to defend Indigenous rights and the Amazon region, on the fights over food, land and transport. Importantly, since many activists in the Coalition are based in Scotland and the event takes place less than two weeks before elections to the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales, there will also be a session talking about Independence and a move by climate activists to draw up a climate justice charter for Scottish Independence.

Of course no one knows exactly what will happen with the pandemic between now and November, and therefore what kind of action will be possible when world leaders are due to descend on Glasgow. The Coalition’s main plans at the moment foresee a hybrid process. More online editions of From the Ground Up are expected to coincide with the G7 meeting in Cornwall in June, and with Climate Week at the end of September. Then, in November, there could be a combination. Saturday, 6 November, in the middle of the COP26, is slated for a Global Day of Action, which might include a significant central demonstration in Glasgow, alongside decentralised protests elsewhere in England and Wales, as well as other actions around the world. The day before, Friday, 5 November, could see a call for an international climate strike, building on the experience in 2019 of the school climate strikes, but also the feminist strikes in Argentina, Spain and other countries, as well as student rent strikes, Indigenous movement “paros” and so on. Those would be followed by a 3-4 day online people’s summit, along the lines of the previous From the Ground Up events.

There is however, another possibility looming. This is that the UK government or the UNFCCC may seek to move the entire COP26 online, with no in-person event in Glasgow at all. This has caused alarm among a number of “less developed countries”, including small island states that have been so vocal at past COPs, and who won the inclusion of a “below 1.5 Centigrade” target in the Paris agreement. They see an online event as a severe disadvantage to themselves, limiting their ability to negotiate and win concessions. Their position is shared by a number of the radical NGOs that have been at the forefront of lobbying and protesting around the COP process for many years, who also fear the pressure from civil society would be removed. Some of these are therefore arguing that in such a situation, it would be better to demand the COP be postponed again. There is not a consensus on this, however. Either way, if the COP26 were to happen partly or entirely online, the hybrid, decentralised form of protest already being planned would become even more important.




Catalan elections closely watched in Scotland

Catalonia goes to the polls on Sunday 14 February (14-F) in elections for the devolved parliament and government (“Generalitat”), The elections will be closely watched in Scotland, particularly by the independence movement looking to learn from the struggle.  Glasgow Radical Independence Campaign and Dundee Radical Independence Campaign will shortly hold a joint public discussion meeting on the elections.

Below we republish an article by Lorena Serantes, first published on the site of the Scottish Republican Socialist Platform (RSP), analysing the political parties contesting the Catalan elections.

Catalan Fourth Internationalists in Anticapitalistes (part of the confederal Anticapitalistas organisation across the Spanish state) have also published a statement on the elections, available in Catalan here and in English here.

Anticapitalistes support the Catalan independence movement but warn of the need for a social response to neoliberal policies in Catalonia and the Spanish state, one that defends working class living standards and state services from cuts.  In recent years sections of the radical left within both Catalonia and the Spanish state, including Podemos, the municipal movement around Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and the Republican Left (ERC) party that is aligned with the SNP in Scotland, have attached themselves to neo-liberal coalitions with social democrats and right wing nationalists.  Anticapitalistes call for a break (or “rupture”) from this.

They are not standing in the elections themselves, but give support to the candidates of the CUP (“Popular Unity Candidacies”), the pro-independence, anticapitalist, ecosocialist and feminist grouping contesting the elections and described below.  CUP currently have four seats in the Catalan Parliament and are looking to increase their influence.

Anticapitalistes also draw attention to the rise of the far right, openly fascist, Vox party winning seats in the new parliament for the first time.

 

Political party shifts ahead of the Catalan elections

RSP member Lorena Serantes explores ideological shifts within the Catalan political parties ahead of next week’s crucial election.

Since the 1 October (1-O) independence referendum took place nearly four years ago, the political situation in Catalonia has gone through many relevant changes that can be vital for the next election and its wider context.

First, we need to understand the fundamentally imperialistic nature of the Spanish State, shown by the tactic of judicialisation of the whole Catalan independence process (especially their most recent move against Generalitat president Quim Torra). Secondly, the Catalan independence movement needs to be understood as a popular uprising for democracy and the right of self-determination within a strongly centralised state. We shouldn’t refer to it as an electoral movement, nor as a civil disobedience tactic to change the nature of Spain into a federal republic. The Catalans have been able to respond to the inaction of pro-independence parties and groups (both on the right and left-wing spectrum) by strengthening the street-focused level of activity and putting pressure on the parties to advance on building the new Catalan state.

There’s a lot of work which analyses the Catalan process, the incarceration of the ANC and Òmnium leaders and the strategies of the Catalan politicians and the national government (I must clarify when I’m talking about “national” I mean the Catalan executive, as I deny the character of ‘nation’ to Spain, a state composed of nations and regions). My intention in this article, however, is to define and explain the political party shifts that will have an impact on the behaviour of the Catalan electorate. I will propose at first the main factors that accelerated these transformations within the parties and the party system. Following that, I will focus on developing the main topic of the article.

The main political formations from the pro-independence and the unionist blocs have increased the existing uncertainty around the issue of independence

Background

Before I begin, there are some points I need to make clear. My use of the term ‘political party shifting’ doesn’t strictly align with the concept as utilised by political scientists. In political science we refer to it as: (1) membership changes within political parties and (2) redefined voting patterns (i.e. when the electorate switches its traditional behaviour towards parties, giving way to realignments in the political system). In contrast, I will combine both conceptual definitions and add the ideological changes the Catalan parties have gone through during these last few years. Keeping this in mind, my intention is not to write a scientific article but one that helps to understand the situation of party politics in the northeastern nation.

Both Spanish general and regional elections (i.e. elections taking place in the autonomous communities) use the proportional representation method known as the D’Hondt formula, also used for the Scottish Parliament’s regional lists. Each constituency is presented with a closed list of candidates from every party or coalition and elects a number of representatives in accordance with its population. Catalonia elects to its parliament 135 members from its four provinces (85 from Barcelona, 18 from Tarragona, 17 from Girona and 15 from Lleida). The threshold which parties need to reach to win representation is 3% of the vote.

Catalonia has changed since 2017 and the events following the 1st of October referendum. Attention has been drawn to the courts of justice, the incarceration of politicians and activists and the exile of the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, but nobody has focused on explaining how the main political formations from the pro-independence and the unionist blocs have increased the existing uncertainty around the issue of independence.

I will not use the term “constitutionalist” or “constitutional” to define the parties that oppose independence because I don’t think it’s accurate and correct. A constitutionalist party is by definition a political formation that respects the constitution and legality of some territory. Spanish parties refer to themselves this way to take the powerful concept of “the law”, which is incredible given how many times they have conveniently forgotten to follow it. Instead, they are profoundly unionist parties that agree on rejecting Catalan independence (or even more autonomy).

Changes

It’s clear to me that there have been many factors producing changes in Catalan politics. I will therefore develop some of them.

In the pro-independence bloc – made up of the catch-all Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia), the centre-left to left-wing Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia/ERC), and the far-left Candidatura d’Unitat Popular (Popular Unity Candidacy/CUP) – the exile of Puigdemont (Junts) and other leaders from ERC and the CUP (Marta Rovira and Anna Gabriel) have pushed a renewal of leadership and new strategic plans for the future.

Leadership changes often produce positive effects (parties with a bad image can rise and recover) but also can create negative ones (voters attached to the candidate will no longer identify with the party if the new proposed faces don’t represent a form of continuity). Fights to elect party leaders with a certain ideological background take place within the liberal and social democratic-oriented parties, which may result in party fragmentation or splits. Left-wing projects with a democratic structure have to decide their future too, but instead of promoting internal competition amongst different traditions, they might debate, discuss and respect all the options, establishing other ways and methods to elect a new leadership from their membership. I’m not an expert on structural changes within parties, however I understand how these can make a big impact on electoral performance.

Unionists

The unionist bloc is formed of the classic right-wing Partido Popular (People’s Party/PP), the liberal right-wing Ciudadanos (Citizens/C’s), the social democrat centre-right Partit Socialista de Catalunya (Socialists’ Party of Catalonia/PSC) and the new extreme ultranationalist right-wing Vox. The Spanish nationalist nature of these formations has taken them to focus on the politics of the state rather than on Catalan issues, content to blame the independentist forces for the rise of extreme right groupings on the streets of Barcelona (and also other territories of Spain like Valencia) rather than address the societal problems that gave rise to them. It’s important to clarify the PSC is not the same as PSOE in the other Spanish regions and nations, although they set up an agreement a long time ago to stand together in Catalan elections. The Catalan PSOE branch disappeared in the 1970s, since then the PSC has become the electoralist brand of the social democrats in the northeast.

PP and PSOE, the major parties in Spain, agreed on attacking the Catalan independence movement the same way, which has distanced them from Catalan civil society. Looking at Spanish politics as a whole, they have preferred to appeal to the anti-Catalan middle and high class of Madrid and the South (Andalusia, Murcia, Extremadura). PSOE’s tactic has been to feed the extreme right (specially on the PP/PSOE-controlled media) to divide the Spanish right-wing parties and make Vox the political scarecrow which can provide a reason to vote for the “left alternative” they propose. This obviously has opened a channel for Vox to promote hate speech and extremist ideologies which were previously hidden within the PP. C’s (Citizens), a free-market liberal-oriented formation, has been trying to occupy each space left out by the two major parties, from the right to the moderate left, always with a nationalistic narrative that tries to exclude everyone that doesn’t want to feel Spanish. Polarisation has settled in Catalonia because of the trajectory of Spanish nationalism.

Political parties in Catalonia have changed since 2017 from an ideological point of view and also in the electorate they want to appeal to
Therefore, we have two polarised blocs, one that leans to the centre-left civic nationalist tradition and another spanning the right-wing ultranationalist spectrum. But having said that, we cannot end our analysis with this simplistic explanation because political parties in Catalonia have changed from an ideological point of view and also in the electorate they want to appeal to. I will not analyse Podemos and the Comuns (Commons) coalition here, since they should be regarded as a distinct phenomenon and will require a separate article to comprehend their position, fragmentations and internal instability. First, I will analyse the pro-independence bloc shifts, which are significant due to a fragmentation pattern in the traditional conservative nationalist groups.

Why an election

This election has been called not only because of the suspension of Quim Torra (again using the Spanish supposedly democratic law), but also due to the conflict between government partners Junts and Esquerra. Both of the parties had interest in holding the presidency, which caused a rupture of the coalition during the Catalan budget negotiations. As of today, Esquerra has 32 seats in Parliament, whilst Junts (Torra’s party) has 20 representatives. With the break-up of the government coalition, it’s obvious that talks of forming an electoral coalition like Junts pel Sí (2015-2017) won’t occur, and both parties will run separately.

Junts is an alliance of little Catalan nationalist and Catalanist right-wing and centre-right liberal parties that emerged from the rupture of Convergencia i Unió (CiU) in 2014-15. CiU was formed in 1978 as a coalition of Convergencia Democrática de Catalunya (CDC), with Catalan nationalist ideas, and Uniò Democrática de Catalunya (UDC), a Catalanist non-independentist party. This alliance governed Catalonia for long periods of time (Jordi Pujol’s executives) with a liberal program of deregulating basic public services and joining with Spanish nationalist parties at a state level, specially with the PP.

After the alliance was disbanded, UDC followed a long way of talks with the PSC, finally joining the social democratic party, arguing that independence is not the solution for Catalonia’s problems. However, CDC changed its name to Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) to (1) avoid comparisons with the old CiU coalition, which had been criticised for a tremendous history of corruption and fraud and (2) give the party a more centrist and pro-independence image. The party campaigned for the 2017 referendum, and the events that occurred after the vote made a big impact on the leadership of the party.

Many PDeCAT leaders were tied to the right-wing tradition of CDC, something that bothered Puigdemont’s pretensions of giving the party a ‘left-wing’ renewal. He founded Junts per Catalunya in July 2018, accompanied by civil society well-known leaders such as the Jordis (Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart), and managed to unite dissident members from Esquerra, the PSC and even the CUP. PDeCAT’s leadership, although reluctant at first, merged into Puigdemont’s centrist movement, as well as other minor political parties (Action for the Republic, The Greens, Independence Rally, Democrats, etc.). Junts has been defined as a populist, centrist and Catalan nationalist party. I will challenge the concepts of populism and centrism by using a term from political science instead: the catch-all party (in Spanish, partido atrápalo-todo).

These types of parties appeal to transversalism across the political spectrum, escaping a left-right conceptualisation. Junts is a pro-independence ruling party in a typically constituted Western liberal democratic state, which will never push for a working class republic based on a socialist economic model. However, the CDC right-wingers are now trying to claw back the political space from CiU by standing alone in this next election, something that breaks Puigdemont’s plans as the confluence between right-wing and left-wing groups is now impossible. Hence, with the most reactionary sector gone (PDeCAT, Convergents and other liberal-conservative soft-nationalist minor groups), Junts has become a radical centre-left party who are very critical of the Spanish state and the conservative ideology the Spanish parties share, but less so with the disastrous handling of the public services at a Catalan level. Junts is becoming the new PSC in the pro-independence bloc, which implies the whole independence movement is going to move to the left, electorally speaking. Nevertheless, the party shift doesn’t mean a change in voting patterns and behaviour, so it’s very likely the Catalan bourgeoisie will still trust Junts to form a government in the nation.

ERC can become the new PSC in next week’s election

The two left-wing parties in the pro-independence bloc certainly have more disagreements than points of unity. Esquerra, or ERC by its initials in Catalan, is a social democratic party with a progressivist tendency, and a relevant republican discourse, refusing to accept the terms of the Spanish monarchy and the two-party oligarchic system around PP and PSOE (which has now been broken by the birth of Podemos, C’s and Vox). However, its language on self-determination evokes an individualistic conception of the rights of the people to decide their future, a liberal nationalist view they share with Junts. In actuality, ERC’s nationalism is just a means to an end – their ultimate aim is to create a Catalan Republic based on the principles of Spanish republicanism.

It’s now clearer than ever that a Spanish Republic is impracticable due to the resistance of the major powers to simply hold a referendum on that matter and the absence of a single Spanish nationalist party campaigning for the abolition of the aristocracy. The traditional republicans were Izquierda Unida (United Left), which is now almost dead and subjugated to Podemos’ leadership. ERC always comprised people from different ideological backgrounds within the Catalanist left, until the 1980s when they started to recognise the necessity of winning an independent state in Catalonia, rather than pursuing federalism. This shift to an openly nationalist position moved away from the party those who didn’t want independence to happen, joining either PSC or Esquerra Unida (the Catalan branch of United Left). Since the referendum, with the exile of ERC’s leader, Marta Rovira, the vice president of the Catalan government Pere Aragonés has gained the control of the party, and, in contrast with Torra’s radical independence continuity policy, he has tried to calm down the nationalists with a new turn to the federalist response. The Spanish central administration has offered the Catalan executive a seat at the negotiating table, which ERC has accepted.

The problem is the agreement between PSOE’s government and ERC ties the republican party to Pedro Sánchez and his policies, as the Catalan party supported him as prime minister after the November 2019 general election. Junts and the CUP have abstained from this dialogue instead. The current strategic decision coming from the elite of the party is focused on “expanding the party’s base” to a larger membership that not only includes nationalists and independentists, but the Catalanist wing of the PSC, communists, ecologists and Podemos ex-affiliates. We could see this as an attempt to build a broader Catalanist front composed of social democrats, liberal socialists, ecologists and eurocommunists to get votes from the traditionally PSC-oriented electorate. ERC can become the new PSC in next week’s election.

The CUP is the left-wing alternative formation that seeks to challenge the old social democracy. The “cupaires”, as they are known in Catalan, are anticapitalists, feminists, ecosocialists, and independentists. There are different caucuses within the membership (anarchists, Trotskyists, Marxist-Leninists, etc.), and their structural organisation is quite democratic. The CUP is now under a process of leadership changes since the exile of Anna Gabriel, CUP’s leader during the time of the referendum, who was charged for “sedition” by the Spanish Supreme Court, the same as Puigdemont and other Catalan politicians. They have been experiencing tough times trying to rebuild trust with left-wing voters after the leadership of sociologist Carles Riera, under whom their electoral performance suffered big losses in 2017 and left them forced to share a parliamentary group with the PP as a result of not being large enough to create one of their own (requiring six representatives).

The unionist bloc

In the unionist bloc, the PSC is the major political formation with a strong Spanish nationalist campaign, especially after PSOE, its partners at a state level, won the 2019 general election under Pedro Sánchez, who belongs to the rebel caucus of the traditional social democratic party. The Catalan socialists moved from a Catalanist and federalist ideology at first towards a more right-wing approach following the 2017 referendum, which explains the removal of the federalist sector, which joined ERC. The PSC has two different types of electorate: Barcelona and Tarragona’s anti-independence middle class, and Girona and Lleida’s working class. In short, they appeal to the oligarchies in two provinces whilst keeping a progressive rhetoric. This switch from left to right is applicable only to the national question, i.e., it’s still a social democratic party in economic terms, but no longer Catalanist, as it has incorporated a strong anti-independence policy and a Spanish nationalist ideology. Shifting this way, the PSC will attempt to gain back its electorate lost to C’s (Citizens) in 2017. The liberal current is now more relevant and has more capacity than ever within the formation.

Ciudadanos-C’s is a liberal centre-right party that came into Catalan politics to campaign against Catalan-only-speaking schools and Catalan nationalist ideals (paradoxically, with a Spanish ultranationalist approach). Its desire to celebrate Spanish identity above Catalan identity has convinced the anti-nationalist PSC supporters and the ultra right-wing groups to give their votes to Albert Rivera’s (now Inés Arrimadas’) party instead of the declining Catalan PP. Consequently, C’s was the winner in 2017 elections, managing to achieve a combination of the anti-nationalist vote with that of the working class (mostly in Barcelona). C’s got 36 representatives (25.4% of total vote), but from 2018 onwards its constant opportunistic turns to the right or left according to whatever would suit best at the time rendered the party incapable of maintaining a good position in Spanish politics. In last year’s general election, C’s suffered a huge loss of seats (from 57 to 10), and, after their leader’s resignation, the liberals are experiencing a precipitous decline that will definitely bring joy to the PP and PSC.
Neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groupings that previously tended to operate on the margins of politics now have an electoral vehicle to bring their hate speech to parliament

The classic right-wing People’s Party (PP) isn’t quite as popular in Catalonia, as they are associated with the past and Francoist ideologies. Despite the overwhelming majority of Catalans rejecting the party, the PP has been capable of retaining some votes thanks to its anti-Catalan nationalism message and good relations with CiU. The rise of C’s during the Catalan independence process and the recent appearance of Vox have prevented the PP from becoming the first option for Spanish nationalist voters. Also, the bad choices of the leadership, with the ex-candidate Xavier García Albiol being openly racist against Roma people and the lack of new charismatic leaders in Catalonia to replace him, have left the party with no chance of ruling the Generalitat. They would prefer to run Catalonia from the central administration in Madrid, despite not having more than four representatives in the Northeastern nation.

As for the extreme right-wing, represented by the Spanish ultras of Vox, it is too soon to analyse the situation of Santiago Abascal’s group in the northeast. We know that, since the referendum, the Spanish right-wing has become far more extreme and exclusionary and, even though Vox has no representation or electoral base in Catalonia, neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groupings that previously tended to operate on the margins of politics now have an electoral vehicle to bring their hate speech to parliament. It’s concerning how Vox’s participation in the Catalan institutions could turn into another excuse for the Spanish state to pass legislation that impedes self-determination rights, and it is, of course, a threat to the human, collective and individual rights of the Catalan people.

Conclusions

The polls show a strong decline of C’s, which would obtain 13-15 seats, down from the 36 they have held since 2017. Polls also show a disputed and narrow victory for either PSC or ERC, with 30-35 seats for each party. Junts would fall consequently to ERC’s rise. Podemos-EU-Equo and PP would remain in between seven and 12 seats. We will probably see a recovery from the CUP; the left-wing party would obtain eight to 14 seats (they have had four since 2017). Vox would obtain anywhere from six to 10 representatives, making a big breakthrough in Catalonia.

There will be a huge difficulty in forming alliances and there is the possibility that the pro-independence and unionist blocs will break themselves apart because of the complexity of the situation and the narrow outcome expected. If the PSC wins the election, the obligation to develop agreements with the extreme right to get a majority might challenge the unionist bloc’s possibilities (primarily due to PSOE’s strategy at the state level opposing Vox, which makes this coalition incoherent in Catalonia, rather than democratic obligation). In the same way, ERC and Junts will require an agreement (including the CUP) to regain the parliamentary majority. Both parties are currently in a dispute and taking opposite directions ideologically and strategically. This means the idea of a PSC-ERC coalition is quite possible. We still don’t know the political implications that could have, but what we can anticipate is the end of the independence process started in 2014-15.

Glossary

Catalanism: Ideology pointing to the defence of Catalan’s autonomy within the Spanish state, it was developed around the first period of the 20st century by early nationalists who didn’t support self-determination but thought Spain should be a decentralised country.
Catalan nationalism: Ideology that identifies Catalonia as a nation with inalienable rights such as self-determination within the Spanish state.
Catalan independence: Ideology that defends Catalonia should be an independent state outside Spain.
Transversalism: Political strategy that, in opposition to identity politics, intends to represent every group of society regardless of class, ideology, nationality, race or gender.
Regionalism: Ideology that defends regional autonomy and decentralisation policies within a state.

Introduction and article republished from Socialist Resistance

Original article from Republican Socialist Platform.