Ulrich Duchrow on Listening to the Victims, Including the Earth
You have created a lot of hope around the world. The best way not to disappoint this hope is to listen to the victims of the present system, including the earth. Your chance is that the dominating political economy is in crisis. The financial crisis is only the tip of the iceberg. Behind it is the systemic crisis of any growth economy, especially capitalism. Capitalism needs limitless growth because of its essence: capital accumulation for those who have more than they need. We live on an earth with limited resources. They are “enough for everybody’s need but not for everybody’s greed” (Gandhi). And “possessiveness creates violence” (Gandhi). So the “haves” do violence against nature as well as expand and defend their unjust accumulation of wealth against the “non-haves”. So justice, peace and the integrity of creation are the criteria for the “change” you have promised.
Here are some specific demands:
Justice
• Create a ministry and policy for a “Social Solidarity Economy” like in Brazil
• Work for the replacement of agrobusiness by life-giving agriculture: supporting farming strategies which are sustainable, organic, not using genetically modified seeds, while phasing out monocultures, in order to secure food security and sovereignty
• In relation to industry, legislation should stop the extension of cheap labor and mini-jobs so that all people can live from their labor, legislation should further make sure that equal pay is paid to women and migrants; co-decision-making of workers should be guaranteed
• Work for a reform of the tax system by applying clearly progressive tax-tariffs on wealth accumulation as well as on CO2 emission; by forming a global coalition for the closure of all tax havens (which would also help to reduce the public debt); by cutting all subsidies for fossil energy; by making transfer pricing impossible for transnational corporations (TNCs); by introducing a Tobin Tax on speculative capital transfers, in grave situations even by reintroducing capital transfer control
• Work for a new financial system not just a repair of the old one. This would include: socializing (not necessarily nationalizing) of all banks instead of just buying bad credits; this could be implemented in connection with creating new cooperative credit unions by the citizens, for the citizens; complete transparency of all books of banks for the citizens; control of all banks by parliaments and citizens’ organizations; binding credits but also central bank actions to social and ecological criteria
• Public budgets and investments are key for justice. Main demands are: a drastic cut in military expenditure, using the saved money for social and ecological purposes; stopping the privatization of public goods and services for the basic needs of the people like water, energy, transport, education, health; investing in these areas with priority; supporting participatory decision-making in relation to public budgets at local and regional levels as in Porto Alegre, Brazil
• International trade and finances are central for justice between the peoples of this world. Free trade among unequal partners must lead to injustice for the weaker. Therefore, all free trade agreements with weaker economies should be stopped and be replaced by affirmative-action-treaties like the former Lomé-treaties between European countries and their former colonies; empty sales of stocks and trade with derivates should be prohibited; all debts of developing countries should be cancelled, starting with all odious debts; the IMF and World Bank should be replaced by institutions like those proposed by J.M. Keynes in Bretton Woods in 1944 (re-iterated in the UNDP Human Development Report of 1994): a world central bank and a development fund (built bottom-up with strong decision-power in the regions); meanwhile all kinds of Structural Adjustment Programs should be stopped; overcoming the export-led development model and instead supporting local production, marketing and consumption; by the same token support regional cooperation like ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas); stop immediately the blockade of Cuba.
Peace
Here, the whole imperial policy of the USA must be changed:
• The first priority is the termination of the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan and a stop to all preparations for a war against Iran
• The second is the reversal of the National Security Strategy returning back to international law, including the rejection of preemptive war, of the use of nuclear weapons, of military strikes violating borders, etc. I am sure that one of your first actions will be the closure of Guantanamo and the termination of all torture, committed by the US Army and their proxies; the “War on Terror” is a pretext for waging imperial wars; these create terrorism, and do not overcome it; terrorism can only be overcome by justice and respecting the dignity of all peoples
• The Non-Proliferation Treaty must be followed completely and not arbitrarily:
Those who have nuclear weapons must urgently work to completely abolish them
Those “haves” who have not signed the treaty must be pressured to enter it (Israel, India, Pakistan etc.) Those who use nuclear power peacefully must be controlled, but allowed to use it (Iran)
• Who loves Israel must also love the Palestinians; only when both receive justice, will each of them have peace and life; evidently, the USA is the only power in the world which can bring Israel to respect the UN decisions since 1967; the highest priority is to stop the wall; the so-called Geneva plan and the similar plan offered by the Arabic States do open a true road map to bring peace to the Middle East
• There are two situations where the US Army plays a particular sinister role: Columbia and the Philippines; the governments of both countries are systematically violating human rights directly and in cooperation with the paramilitary in favor of the ruling classes and the TNCs aiming at the control of oil, minerals and land for monocultures (for Columbia cf. the Brussels Declaration, www.kairoseuropa.de); one of the particular cruelties is the extra-judicial killings of activists for justice, peace and creation, including journalists, clergy, union leaders and others; all this could not happen without the support of the USA; therefore, the USA can and must end the support of these crimes against humanity immediately.
Integrity of Creation
The ecological crisis linked to the financial and food crisis may well achieve a broad consciousness-raising among people all over the world. If you take the lead into an alternative future people will follow you. There are thousands of already tested alternatives to the present destructive system demonstrating that living ecologically with less means living with more quality:
• Communities becoming independent through decentralized solar, wind and water regenerative energy
• Producer-consumer cooperatives for local biological food etc.
However, there are far reaching decisions needed for the macro-level:
• Reparation for the ecological debt of the north over against the south
• Drastic measures to curb the co2 emissions in the industrialized countries instead of paying for producing co2 in the emissions trade
• Stopping credits for ecologically non-viable projects.
These are but a few proposals. I know that the power system of the capital lobby will do everything to stop you when following them. But the people in the world will support you even if you give only signals in this direction of a political economy for life.
Ulrich Duchrow is professor of systematic theology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. A critic of neoliberalism and global capitalism, he has articulated a role for the church in founding a better world.
