Congress draft political document
UNITE FOR AN LEFT ALTERNATIVE IN EUROPE
INTRODUCTION: Europe in an existential crisis, the crucial role of the alternative forces and of the EL
Europe is going through the worst crisis in its history since the thirties and the Second World War.
The European project was to be one of peace and social progress, it´s now being transformed into a nightmare where the only horizon offered to the peoples of Europe is a brutal and generalised social regression. Europe as a whole has been thrust into this turmoil by the crisis of the financialised capitalist system, the social and ecological consequences of which have hit humanity and the planet with an unprecedented violence, as well as, by the crisis of a design of European Union that has been moulded out of an ultraliberal model, under the supervision of the financial markets.
The situation has become unsustainable for the peoples of Europe. Auterity and authoritarianism are applied everywhere, with the same blindness. While the banks are bailed out, public spending is sacrificed. While company taxes are systematically lowered, unjust taxes rain down on the populations. Salaries are lowered but company profits and the inequalities that come with them are on the rise. Because of speculation, entire families have lost their homes.The non-sustainable use of resources continues to be driven, notably by productivist models of agriculture, fishing and livestock farming, whilst small-scale farmers and fishermen have nothing to live on and climate change threatens humanity. While our ways of thinking progress towards equality, there has been an upsurge in exploitation, violence and trafficking of women. Whilst aspirations for more democracy grow, violations of our freedoms and repression are burgeoning. While peace seems more necessary than ever European leaders choose to go down the path of atlanticism and military interventions.
The path that Europe is headed down is that of a tragic deadlock. This path drags the entire continent into recession and causes the European Union to enter into an existential crisis.
Beyond EU borders, all European countries are experiencing political and social turbulence that will reconfigure the continent for decades to come. European heads of state and all of the forces that have supported their projects in national parliaments as well as in the European Parliament, very often, in their consensus, right wing conservative forces, liberals, social-democrats and greens, are heavily responsible.
Today, crucial choices have to be made for Europe’s future. There will be no status quos or backtracking. Either the current choices are upheld, and the EU will increasingly be reduced to an authoritarian management board and producer of social regression, threatening any idea of solidarity and European justice, or, a line is drawn in the sand, and another European project is founded, which, based on the interests of the peoples and respect for their sovereignty, will be able to restore a sense of meaning to European integration.
For us, there is no question of waiting for the crumbling of the European Union, and the monsters that could emerge from the rubble, nor of promoting nationalist solutions setting the peoples against one another. The European Left, that we represent, is internationalist and stands together in solidarity. We strive towards a 21st century socialist alternative, a civilisation freed from exploitation, oppression and capitalist violence. Ours is a vision that guarantees, not only, a distribution of wealth that supports work and an advanced social and economic development model, but also, equality and democratic rights for all European citizens. It is to this end, that we fight for a re-foundation of the EU, in other words, for a new definition of its objectives, policies and structures, an economic, productive, social and ecological model that is totally different, and that is based on solidarity, social justice and popular sovereignty.
In this context, the Party of the European left, has an historic responsibility, since the crisis is Europe is having profound effects on societies and is liberating opposing forces.
On the one hand, the social regression and the constant denials of democracy increase divisions both between peoples and within societies themselves. Within numerous European countries, these factors are fuelling a rise in forms of national and regional egoisms, populist, communitarian, anti-feminist or fascist and xenophobic approaches.
On the other hand, the struggles intensify and the forces of the left are making progress. Many critical forces are now ready to form a European front allowing for a left alternative to come out of the crisis on top and build a European regional cooperation, beneficial to the peoples of Europe and to the world as a whole, and we want to join forces with them so as to truly bring about change in Europe.
This is the very raison d’être of the Party of the European left. The EL gathers together anti-capitalist, communist, socialist, ecologist, feminist and democrat forces, and works towards the development of proposals, actions and spaces where ideas converge. This is our “benchmark”, in the midst of a political landscape dominated by forces that promote neoliberalism and act to serve the interests of big capital. Our goal is to break this consensus through the existence of an alternative political force in struggles as well as in the institutions.
The 4th EL congress should mark the start of a new phase wherein to better meet these objectives, not just within the framework of the 2014 European elections, but also within the broader perspective of work on confluences between different popular struggles on the European level. We want to lead the way for workers and citizens so as that they can regain power over political decisions, we want to build a real political and economic democracy, to replace the powers of the financiers.
I/A spectacular worsening of the crisis in Europe : the failure of an ultraliberal structure and “austerity” measures.
We are faced with a crisis of the capitalist system that affects every region of the world, without exception. Nevertheless, the crisis in the EU is specific in nature, as it is linked to its construction and to the neoliberal doctrines that have been applied excessively since 2008.
The EU was built on an economic and monetary model at the service of finance and the most powerful countries.
The goal of the European treaties is not to serve the people but to serve the markets. These foundations make social and territorial cohesion impossible, and prevent the fulfilment of workers’ immediate aspirations, the creation of employment and training as well as human emancipation in general.
Neoliberal ideology, dominant at this stage of capitalist development, has presided over the construction of the EU.
The promotion of the deregulation of the market and of the financial system, the privatisation of strategic sectors of the economy, the pitting of workers against one another so as to drag down salaries and social achievements, as well as the tasks assigned to the European central bank, at the service of the markets and protected from any sort of public intervention, lead to the crisis.
This is the fundamental reason that the euro is in crisis. Since it was created, the single currency was commissioned to the domination of financial interests. Instead of putting the massive sums available under the aegis of the ECB at the service of social and ecological development and a convergence of progress for the peoples, the euro has protected the profitability of the most powerful financial investments. The succeeding countries were forced to implement structural adjustment programmes. What is more, when the 2008 crisis hit, the ECB bailed out the banks and strangled the weakest countries. Far from building solidarity, this management of the euro has heightened inequalities to the benefit of German domination of the euro zone. One of the effects of the situation is, in fact, a record growth in inequalities within Europe. The European structure is marked by a structural imbalance in favour of German exports. The EL considers that a profound transformation of the Eurozone, putting it at the service of a solidarity-based European vision, is absolutely essential.
Since 2008, not only has this crisis been managed according to immediate capitalist interests, but it has provided an opportunity to speed up neoliberal reforms in an extremely violent manner. The current catastrophe is not an « undesirable effect » of the crisis, but rather, the result of a predatory process aimed at socialisation of losses and the privatisation of anything capable of generating profits.
Contrary to the prevailing arguments, the origin of the crisis is not mismanagement on the part of the southern European countries. With the financialisation of the world economy and the implied interdependence that it creates, the subprime crisis in the USA created a shockwave within the world banking system that affected every economy on the planet. The interbank market entered into crisis and the banks registered record losses. The crisis is therefore systematic. At the service of finance; European country leaders made massive recapitalisations, thus transforming the private debts of the banks into public debts. This is then, the neoliberals’ incredible feat: they socialised losses and they make the peoples’ pay for the finance crisis.
Debt was quick to become the sword of Damocles hanging over European States. Invoking the unsustainable Maastricht criterion and through so called “rescue” plans (“bail-outs”), which were in practice creditor bank rescue plans, an implausible blackmailing of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Cyprus, got underway. The refusal to share out or restructure debts, (with the very partial exception of Greece), has predominated. The cost of this “aid” has been the imposition of memoranda of austerity and structural reforms aimed at privatisations and the destruction of public services, social protection systems and workers’ rights. In other words, the crisis has been an opportunity for the neoliberals, to push their reforms all the way through with appalling violence and speed.
Result : Europe-wide recession and total devastation of countries’ economic structures.
This is particularly visible in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Cyprus, as well as in most of central and western European countries, where the economic crisis is becoming a humanitarian one, marked by widespread poverty, hunger, child malnutrition, and the re-emergence of epidemics that we thought had been eradicated. Non EU member countries have also been affected. In many Eastern countries, the situation of both workers and the most fragile members of society have dramatically worsened and corruption corrodes all spheres of social life. The poorest countries are in the East of Europe: Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania. Youth unemployment is in excess of 50% in some countries and is growing rapidly everywhere in Europe. The emigration of young qualified people and young graduates is on the increase. Unemployment or exile, is this the choice we want to offer our young people?
Women are specifically affected by the crisis and the crisis in the EU, in particular by the budgetary cuts; given that many women work in the public sector and because they are the first to be affected by family work; they need good public and social services. The dramatic changes imposed by austerity policies are aimed at undermining and destroying the social state leading to a rise in the number of women relegated to low salaries, badly paid and unpaid jobs and poverty and to the deepening of inequalities between men and women. For example, women with children or other family responsibilities are forced to go back to traditional housewife roles, with less rights or having lost their rights, that which, in turn, reinforces their submission to the patriarchate. In many countries violence against women is increasing in particularly alarming proportions.
Very serious authoritarian abuses threaten democracy.
In the face of the peoples’ rejection of their political choices those who bear the brunt of the responsibility for converting private debts into public ones, seek, at all costs, to prevent any genuine debate on alternatives and to silence any objection.
This is the reason behind the European Commission’s refusal to register the proposed European citizens’ initiative proposition (to “Create a European public bank exclusively dedicated to financing of investments aimed at social development and ecological transition” bypassing the financial markets thanks to very low cost ECB loans) that was put forward by the EL. Given that this proposition would’ve been a first step in a public authority intervention process into the financial sector, this refusal is a clear sign of hostility to ideas of social progress and solidarity.
Popular sovereignties have been flouted by the centralisation of powers in technocratic institutions executed by the « troïka » (IMF, ECB and the European Commission). Faced with electoral sanctions, strikes and mass movements, governments survive artificially via large coalitions of national of technical union in order to continue applying the memoranda. They reject all of the political messages expressed by their people and bring about continuous political crises.
In all of the countries where there is mass protest, social movements are repressed, trade union freedoms are reduced, the pluralism of the media is called into question, and propaganda operations aim to discredit the forces of the left. The resurgence of anti-Communism, particularly visible in the East, based on the scandalous amalgam between communism, fascism, and Nazism, that aims to discredit any alternative vision, completes this strategy which endangers democracy.
European institutions are antidemocratic and too far from the requirements of the peoples’. True citizens’ intervention is quite simply unbearable to EU leaders as it is incompatible with their class vision of the European project. Powers are confiscated from citizens and their elected representatives, in favour of technocratic institutions such as the European commission that are opaque and “protected” from all public accountability. They need docile governments and parliaments hence why national parliaments are excluded from processes of political decision making, even as regards budgets, which are, nonetheless, one of the main competence of national parliaments. This is also the reason behind the financial stranglehold that has been placed on local authorities. All of the votes of citizens who have clearly rejected the european neoliberal construction have been flouted, resulting in a growing rate of abstention with every election and a profound mistrust, that have been strongly manifest for decades.
Europe is setting itself against the people of the whole world. Whereas the EU could be a powerful tool for co-development, it is initiating free trade agreements which aim to dominate the other regions of the world. Faced with economic migration, for which Europe is partly responsible, its current choice is “Fortress Europe”, Frontex, and the Schengen agreements, which reject migrant populations and even allow them to die in pitiful craft or leave them in actual detention areas where the rule of law is not applied. The EU, aligning itself with NATO, is not trying to achieve peace on the international stage.
Austerity leads to all kind of abuses, invariably entails social regression and recession, and threatens democracy. It is not part of the solution. It is at the heart of the problem. This necessitates rifts which are only possible if the balance of power in Europe changes.
II/International crisis: a global, systemic crisis, civilisation in crisis
The European crisis is part of the international crisis. The contradiction between capital and labour, capital and ecology, capital and democracy, capital and pacifist development, capital and gender equality is becoming increasingly visible. Capitalism cannot be humanised.
Today, humanity as a whole is facing new challenges, which call for global responses so as to go beyond capitalism and allow a new development model to emerge:
- confronting the systemic crisis in international finance
- proposing an alternative economic model to productivism and “competitiveness”.
- Responding to the development challenges: fighting hunger and poverty, responding to the energy and food crisis and guaranteeing access to water
- responding to the crisis affecting the environment, to climate change, to unsustainable practices endangering biodiversity and ecosystems: adopting a sustainable ecological approach to growth
- fighting imperialism, neo-colonialism and the power of the multinationals, strengthening anti-imperialist solidarity to defend peace, human rights and freedoms, and promoting a left-wing approach to issues of migration.
- promoting values of solidarity in the face of individualism, xenophobia and racism
- sharing power, building genuine democracy to replace the power of capital, bringing fresh air to the public arena by fighting authoritarianism, anticommunism and anti-socialism.
Europe’s responsibilities extend beyond its borders. The existence of progressive regional alliances can be a tool in the global fight. The current battle to reform the EU must be seen in the context of the international dimension to our fight. The European Left intends to implement the political battles and alliances needed to enable a new development mode to emerge.
The world has changed considerably in recent years. Globalisation, the information revolution and the emergence of new powers like the BRIC countries have created new conditions for international struggles. The information revolution offers new opportunities for sharing, which are not simply tools for the struggle but assist in devising the economy of the future.
We have entered a new international cycle of protest which is driven by indignation and the struggle against the effects of the crisis. In Europe, the European left must base itself on this struggle for democracy, social justice, collective and individual freedoms and female emancipation, and all the stakeholders must make common cause for a common front.
This popular mobilisations and the growing consciousness that development must respect human beings and the planet, are in conflict with the capitalist reasoning endorsed by the “old world”, and their tools for predation, wars, and domination.
The United States and their NATO allies found that the “preventive” wars, “humanitarian” military interventions, the development of their military industries and reconnaissance systems, were a means of preserving their domination and their interests, particularly in the Middle East.
Against the emerging countries, the current leaders of the European Union have begun negotiations with the United States and Canada with a view to creating a big transatlantic market. This agreement, which will affect every economic sector including the most strategic ones, could devastate the economies of the European states and drag down workers’ rights as well as social, environmental and food norms on both continents. Negotiations on this project are completely lacking in transparency, and the project must be resisted. The EL is committed to informing and alerting European citizens and fighting an extensive political battle in order to defeat it.
Peace and security for the peoples must be the European Left’s principal objective, together with the search for a new world economic order, in opposition to the neoliberal, neo-imperialist model. We want war to be abandoned as a tool in international relations. Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU was totally inadequate. Under NATO’s tutelage, the EU has been present in recent major international conflicts and supported its imperialist allies’ choices, particularly Israel’s belligerent colonial policy in Palestine. However, we consider that regional cooperation could be a tool in the search for peace, provided that it undergoes a change of direction, both on European territory – particularly by putting pressure on Turkey, which has occupied Northern Cyprus illegally since 1974 – as well as internationally, by playing its part at the UN and ensuring compliance with international law. The EU could be a substantial ally for peoples struggling for self-determination, particularly the right of the Saharaoui people to organise a referendum for their self-determination and for decolonialisation of the Western Sahara. The EU and the international community must proactively demand that referenda take place as soon as possible.
Dialogue between progressive forces from all over the world, on the subject of an alternative vision and common struggles, is indispensable. In this spirit, the European Left is seeking significant relevant alliances.
1. With Latin America: Although Europe’s colonial and imperialist past gives it a special relationship with Latin America, there are similar problems on both sides of the Atlantic. In Latin America, several countries have had to act in response to the IMF’s structural adjustment policies and have succeeded in preventing tragedies thanks to political models which provide alternatives to socialist ambitions seeking advanced political participation. Cuba, itself engaged in a process of transformation, is a reference point for the region and for the forces of the Left throughout the world. We demand an end to the inhumane blockade of Cuba, which has been in place for the last 50 years and since the release of the “4″. We reject the common EU position on Cuba. The regional integration process, with ALBA, for example – based on cooperation and horizontal relationships – which defends the ideas of solidarity and progress, is very different from the one we have in Europe. We have much to learn from the experiences of others. We also have much to contribute in the spaces we have created together to invent progressive international cooperation for the 21st Century and jointly tackle the challenges facing humanity as a whole. The EL would like to continue and deepen its exchanges with the Sao Paulo Forum.
2. In the Mediterranean :The “revolutions” in the Arab world were the catalyst for the wave of global indignation in 2011. They demonstrated the power of popular action and were a source of hope far beyond the boundaries of their countries. Some people think what has happened in the Arab world as destabilising the oil economy, weakening the mechanisms of imperialist domination in the region and opening up new possibilities in the struggle of the Palestinian people. These revolutionary processes are not finished. They are always long, nonlinear, and fraught with political contradictions. The work of dialogue between progressive forces in the region – traditional and new – started by the EL in Palermo in October 2012 and continued in Tunis at the WSF is important in strengthening those fighting against the plans of capitalist Europe and NATO in this key area for imperialist interests around the world. The way in which Western countries have acted in the Middle East, in the case of Libya, vis-à-vis Syria and interfering in the Egyptian process, highlights the crucial need for better understanding and cooperation between the political forces of the Left on both sides of the Mediterranean. The way in which the Erdogan regime repressed the popular movement, symbolised by Taksim Square, the maintaining of the illegal occupation of Cyprus and its role in the region in general, are unacceptable. The EL desires a peaceful solution to the conflict, respecting UN resolutions, democracy and workers’ rights in Turkey, as well as recognising the rights of the Kurdish people. It will continue to act in favour of the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people to a State and will strengthen its actions at a time when Israeli colonisation is intensifying dangerously in defiance of international law.
3. With the african continent : Given the colonial past and new forms of colonialism exercised by European countries and the EU via international agreements, the EL wishes to deepen its work with the forces of the African Left.
4. With the BRICs: The EL considers the growing role of the so-called “BRICs” countries in the global economy and international politics to be crucial. The EL want to facilitate the debate with the forces of the Left in these countries, those of Latin America (Sao Paulo Forum) and Africa (Forum of the New African Left) to clarify the prospects for a global alternative to the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism.
III/ Changing the balance of power within Europe
We must consider a context where the confiscation of powers and destruction of social models promotes the development of abstention, disaffection and mistrust of citizens towards politics and their representatives. The political landscape in Europe remains dominated by the forces of neoliberal consensus, but is nevertheless moving very quickly.
The forces of neoliberal consensus are in power, but their unconditional support for the Washington Consensus, Treaties of Maastricht and Lisbon and the way in which they apply and implement austerity through authoritarianism mean that they are increasingly being challenged. They objectively defend the same dogmas and it is visible. The cases of corruption and financial scandals also play a part in their loss of legitimacy.
In this Europe in crisis, the desire for change is growing, but so is the opposite impulse – taking a step backwards. The populist and xenophobic forces of the extreme Right, sometimes even openly fascist or neo-Nazi, are also on the rise.
The key question is how to open up a majority route towards emancipative requirements and create political prospects for this.
In this context, the Party of the European Left, its member parties and the organisations with which they have forged links in this struggle, have a crucial role to play. Citizens and voters can change their opinions, but only if an alternative left – connected with significant social mobilisation – exists and grows, thus breaking the neoliberal consensus and preventing the rise of fascism.
As progressive and anti-fascist forces, our goal is to help the European people to be victorious in the most intensive class confrontation we have seen since the financial crisis of 1929 and the 2nd World War. We see ourselves as a tool to serve those engaged in the struggle against injustice and exploitation. We continue our ambition to create a European political and social front against austerity and in favour of alternatives.
Struggles against austerity and in favour of democracy are progressing, but are still very dissimilarly developed. Although the pressures on the working classes are widespread across Europe, the power and reach of national struggles remains very uneven according to each country, its history, political and trade union culture and balance of power. This great diversity requires significant efforts towards dialogue and an understanding of the different situations.
Conflicts exist in all countries. It is, however, in the south of Europe that resistance is most widespread, with new convergences between precarious and permanent workers, youth and the elderly and the public and private sectors around alternative political platforms. In Greece, Spain and Portugal a climate of struggle and convergence has punctuated the last 4 years: massive strikes supported by the population, sectorial social movements coming together along with that of the Indignados and those of young people facing precarity. In many other countries, such as France, Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom, the potential for resistance is high. In the Nordic countries, the Left are fighting attempts to undermine the achievements of the welfare state. In Eastern Europe and the Balkans, there are, against all odds, strong popular movements in favour of purchasing power and the right to energy and in favour of democracy against oligarchies and corruption.
Steps have been taken towards a coordination of these struggles on a European level
Considering the European level as critical when it comes to class struggle, the coordination of actions on a local, national and European level is crucial. Some changes occurred during the crisis within the social movements. Coordination initiatives and research on common positions and joint actions of critical forces are growing within and between the countries of the EU and Europe.
In spite of the great contradictions it faces, the European Trade Union Confederation has, for the first time, entered into a dispute with EU guidelines: a unanimous rejection of the budgetary treaty and the policies on austerity, support and calls for political mobilisation.
A step forward was taken on 14 November, 2012: coordinated general strikes in the south, inter-professional mobilisation days and solidarity actions in 23 countries and thousands of European towns.
Towards new confluences of social and political forces at European level?
This is a crucial question: will the Left, with all its components, be able to overcome its historical oppositions and its own limits to resist the offensive of capital and develop a common vision for the future of Europe? Will we be able to build a new kind of alliance which allows for work and common actions at the same time respecting each individual’s cultures, spaces and roles? The Alter Summit process, which brings together social and trade union movements, making the choice to open up the debate with political forces, is a remarkable step forward. The EL, which seeks to establish a European front, is committed to continuing the approach and assisting – in its role – with the development of this type of process.
The thrust of the Left towards an alternative, a hope for the class struggle in Europe
The rise of alternative political forces is also uneven across countries. It is often linked to popular rejection of austerity measures. The forces identifying with the policies of the Troika have experienced electoral defeats. The Social Democrat discourse of “compromise” is being exhausted as class confrontations become palpable.
There is a growing alternative Left. Its primary characteristic is its clear opposition to the memoranda. Using all the means at their disposal, in their countries and at European level, the member parties of the EL seek to defeat the austerity policies. When the question of power becomes a practical reality, this includes consideration of the non-application of austerity policies and refusal to adhere to the European treaties.
Through its theories and practices, this alternative Left allows for the convergence and gathering of various political forces. Where the process of political re-composition matures, where these forces are active in struggles and solidarity and where they offer an alternative to austerity and defend popular sovereignty, the forces of the Left grow. In the case of Greece, the progression is fulgurant.
IV/ The EL in action to rebuild Europe
Alternative proposals to overcome the crisis
1 – Focus on employment, social, ecological and solidarity development:
- Produce in Europe, and produce in a different way. Launch a dynamic for the public re-appropriation of strategic sectors, new cooperation and industrial innovation to guarantee employment, a high level of rights for workers and equality between men and women at work. Apply the ecological transition to meet ecological limits in the use of natural resources and social justice.
- Defend and develop public services. We oppose the privatisation of health and education systems and any public services which leads to increases in inequality. Education should not be focused on competition and individualism but instead on culture. Schools must permit the empowerment and education of citizens who stand up for their rights rather than being submissive. We wish to develop and rebuild public health systems, to ensure access for all. Housing, access to water and energy should be considered fundamental human rights.
- Guarantee decent minimum wages and pensions. Reduce working hours without reducing wages or raising the retirement age. Harmonise wages and the level of social protection from above. An increase in wages and the level of social protection must be able to be determined by a single country.
- Act in favour of ecological transition: promote action against climate change, developing renewable energy and fighting against energy waste. Every step towards social progress must be made while at the same time respecting nature.
2- Emancipation of the financial markets: putting the economy at the service of human beings
- The Euro zone crisis has led to debates on the single currency, with proposals made for some countries to leave or dismantle the Euro. These debates are perfectly legitimate insofar as the situation is unsustainable for the populations. However, the EL does not promote withdrawal from the Euro, which in itself alone will not automatically lead to more progressive policies. It might even increase competition between peoples and lead to an explosion in State debts through the practice of competitive devaluation. We need to transform the existing tools into tools for collaboration at the service of the people. A transformation of the Euro zone must set the enormous potential of monetary creation in Europe to work in reducing inequalities and securing public funding and a new mode of social and ecological development. This involves changing the role of monetary creation in Europe, including the role, status and tasks of the European Central Bank and, more generally, changing the criteria for the use of money by banks and major groups throughout Europe.
- In the meantime, we propose to organise a European convention on public debt, which will promote restructuring and the abolition of their illegitimate parts, along with revised repayment terms, as a prerequisite for return to growth.
- Question the independence and mission of the European Central Bank, as well as the current architecture of the Euro and its governance. Place the ECB under democratic control, giving it the power to be lender of last resort.
- Create a European public bank and national public banking centres to change the criteria for financing the real economy. Money should not be used for speculation but to create jobs, public services, useful products and ecological transition.
- Change the tax system, generalising capital taxes in the various countries. The rich should pay for the crisis!
3 – Respect for popular sovereignty and democratic development
- The task of rebuilding Europe requires a process capable of putting forward the alternative model proposed as a way of dealing with the current situation, where the mechanisms for adopting European decisions must be changed through democratic procedures, mobilisation and social pressure. This should not conflict with national decisions but allow for the adoption of decisions at European level by a European Parliament with full powers and jurisdiction.
- Rebalance power in the institutions: the power of the national and European elected assemblies. A transfer of the powers of the commission must be made to the national and European parliaments.
- Develop popular action and participatory democracy in institutions and enterprises.
- One particular issue is that of the new tendencies for regional separatism. Following the recognition of peoples’ historical rights, we have known how complex these issues are and, according to the territories in question, how heterogeneous they can be. Hence the need for case-by-case analysis and the guarantee of an informed debate and peaceful democratic consultation of the peoples concerned.
4- Peace and cooperation among peoples
- Dissolution of NATO, promotion of disarmament and anti-war activities, elimination of foreign military bases within EU territory.
- New economic and trade relations with the rest of the world – security is built through development.
- Defence of the values of Solidarity, Justice and Equality
- Abolition of the Schengen and Frontex agreements
- Refusal of the great transatlantic market
The European elections : unite a front against austerity
The EL places a lot of importance on the 2014 European elections. In the face of abstention and citizens’ defiance it sees these elections as a possibility for politicisation around European issues. The current composition of the European Parliament is dominated by forces of liberal consensus.
There is an urgent need for political change. We should do everything we can to defeat those responsible for the crisis and the worsening of the situation. It is therefore necessary to strengthen the left within the European Parliament so as to increase support for the alternative project and the forces behind it, as well as to promote it both within the parliament and externally.
The GUE-NGL is the only parliamentary group capable of taking an alternative from the left to the European Parliament, whilst, at the same time, proposing other political choices, as is the case in their practices, wherein they are present in the struggles and convey the requirements that come out of them.
Through this campaign, our ambition is to enable the creation of a coalition of the forces who are opposed to austerity and who are looking for progressive solutions to the crisis. We know that these forces are numerous but they are disparate and are not easily aligned on the political level. The EL calls for the widespread promotion of the drawing up of the largest lists possible both of rallies against austerity and for a left alternative.
The EL has put together a programme-based platform (Appendix 2), and seeks constructive dialogue on these proposals with all of the political forces who wish to participate. We should highlight the Party’s re-foundation objectives and concrete proposals, in all European countries at the EU level.
The future of the EL: a new role to be strengthened
Since the congress in Paris, the EL has come a long way. (See annex 2, political evaluation of the EL)
1- Towards a new cultural hegemony:
There is a lot of work still to be done in order to make a turnaround in European politics credible. This is a priority objective for the EL, which, for us means constructing a left way out of the crisis, by progressively bringing together all of the available forces necessary. Our ambition should be, more than ever before to make the EL a credible force on a European level.
Our strategy is based on three pillars.
a) In order to function as an instrument enabling the confluence of the activities of the European left, one of the assets of our European party is the political solidarity that exists between its members and observers. When its parties grow, the EL grows with them and when they fail it should act in solidarity. In the coming years, we want to strengthen and make this solidarity concrete and systematic. We want to reinforce working together. From a practical point of view: that means: strengthening our schedule of joint activities, conduct European campaign and promote alternative information and communication.
b) We would like to work with European, national and regional parliamentarians, within the Parlacon framework, but also with parties that won´t necessary join the EL or that are located in non-EU member countries. We also continue our work as regards the enlargment of the party and we have set ourselves as goals: the strengthening of links with GUE-NGL parties who are not members of the EL and with important political parties in other countries, as well as the presence of the EL in all European countries. We want to carry out significant “monitoring” work on emerging parties given that there are a whole series of countries where left forces are either emerging, evolving or being reformed. To bring together a European front, an expression of the rally of social, trade union, feminist, cultural, environmental and political forces against antisocial measures to combat the crisis and for the drawing up of alternatives to serve the peoples. With the Alternative Summit organised in Brussels, it’s participation in the struggles and European meeting of the social movements (for example in Florence in November 2012), and its involvement in the Altersummit process, the EL has gained visibility amongst social movements and the trade union movement. We want to deepen this relationship of trust and joint work, which although still fragile, has now been formed.
c) Conduct activities with citizens, from the neighbourhood level right through to the European level. Even though the European citizens´ initiative was rejected by the European Commission we hold on to our ambition to conduct popular campaigns and initiatives, lead and co-created with European citizens, to new forms of popular involvement in political life.
The EL expresses its commitment to promote and strengthen local, national and regional solidarity networks, such as practical survival skills for impoverished citizens, but also tools such as a new collective conscience against the neoliberal orthodoxy of individualism, profit and consumerism.
2 – Which initiatives do we need to succeed in our rally project?
During its IV congress the EL took the following decisions :
ñ To organise a yearly “European Alternatives Forum”, bringing together the most important left political forces, local elected officials, social movements, union forces, intellectuals and activists. This annual meeting would allow the EL to establish a dialogue between these forces. The idea is to create as large a political space as possible to deepen and enrich proposals, to give the EL more political clout on a European level. We envisage having held the first of these forums by autumn 2014, within the new political landscape that comes out of the European elections.
ñ To programme a yearly popular campaign around alternative proposals, involving citizens with direct forms of participation (citizens’ vote, local referendum…) so as to be able to work on our visibility and a European awareness about the issues that we wish to bring to the forefront.
ñ To organise some political events in neighbouring regions with the participation of EL political parties and other countries.
