Biodiversity will not be saved with incremental progress
A business-as-usual approach is not sufficient to save our dying ecosystems. Capitalism can never save nature. Our planet urgently needs radical change.
Climate change is not only about rising temperatures caused by CO2 emissions. The loss of biodiversity can be an even greater risk and make the limiting of CO2 emissions look like an easy-to-solve problem. The September 25 issue of Nature contains an editorial that links economic growth with biodiversity. An exciting title prepares for a confrontation: “The value of biodiversity is not the same as its price“, meaning biodiversity is not for sale and capitalism’s exploitation should be restricted. Unfortunately, the article embraces incrementalism and a process of finding the optimal path to balance economic growth and the preservation of natural ecosystems.
“Nature had to be turned into a dead object to be exploited”
David Harvey, who is a distinguished professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City of New York, provides us with some answers. In a panel discussion on technology and post capitalism he refers to Marx saying that “in the process of (capitalism) finding its own technological base, mental conceptions of the world had to change and nature could no longer be looked upon as something organic and alive. It had to be turned into a dead object that could be exploited.”
During an interview at Jacobin Radio’s podcast “The Dig“, Harvey draws the line from this concept to today’s climate issues: “Struggles over the relation to nature become politically significant. Right now, a lot of people who are concerned about the environmental issue will say, we can deal with this without confronting capital accumulation. I object to that. At a certain point we’re going to have to deal with capital accumulation, which is about three percent growth forever, as a clear environmental issue. There’s not going to be a solution to the environmental issue without confronting capital accumulation.”
The Green New Deal for Europe points the way out
As Yanis Varoufakis layed out in his article published by the Guardian, “Marx predicted our present crisis – and points the way out”. To save our planet from ourselves, we have to confront capitalism. That’s why DiEM25 has worked within an international coalition to put together a detailed proposal for a just, democratic and environmentally-sound transition to a sustainable Europe: the Green New Deal for Europe.
Join DiEM25 today and fight capitalism, not with incremental solutions but with radical change!
Aris Telonis is a member of DiEM25 and coordinator of the New York City1 Collective.
Photo: Demonstrator against biodiversity loss, at an Extinction Rebellion rally in 2018
Boris Johnson's hard Brexit deal would be disastrous for our country and our continent
As confirmed by all independent sources, this deal is dangerous for the economy and creates the perfect environment for a race to the bottom on workers’ rights, environmental rights and product safety standards for consumers.
Not only is this a bad deal for the UK and the EU, this deal also increases the risk of No Deal in the months to come. Under the Johnson deal, a Free Trade Agreement must be negotiated before the end of the transition period, in December 2020.
With little more than a year to negotiate and approve the UK’s final relationship with the EU, this deal locks the UK into a scenario where it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid No Deal.
If this deal is approved, it will not be the end of Brexit. Instead, not only will it be triggering further months of painful negotiations but it will also set the stage for an even tougher ultimatum: a choice between whatever Free Trade Agreement the Tories negotiate with the EU, and a No-Deal crash-out exit.
Johnson and his cabal of disaster capitalists have one fundamental plan in mind: deregulate the British economy, privatise our public services and strip away as many rights and protections as possible, turning the UK into the ultimate neoliberal safe-haven off the shores of Europe. If this deal is approved, it will be that much easier for them to achieve their nightmarish vision.
DiEM25 stands firmly behind the democratic alternative to the government’s “fast and furious” approach: we remain convinced that only more time and a better democratic process can bring the country together.
At the very least, a new extension of Article 50 must be granted to pave the way for a general election. Parliament must reject this deal and let the people decide for themselves the future of the country.
Statement by our DiEM25 UK National Collective
DiEM25 stands with Extinction Rebellion
The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 stands with the rebels of Extinction Rebellion and residents of the UK who have taken to the streets to demand action on the climate emergency.
We condemn the draconian measures of the UK government to undermine their fundamental rights to assembly and peaceful protest — staples of a democratic society.
Environmental breakdown is accelerating, while governments go on with business as usual. DiEM25 joins Extinction Rebellion in calling for civil disobedience – as a basic democratic right – against ecological destruction.
It is through constructive disobedience that some our fundamental rights have been won, it is through constructive disobedience that our future can be won again.
We need a Green New Deal — in the UK, Europe and around the world.
The brutal peak of the anti-Semitic iceberg
The European Left has to firmly stand in solidarity with Jewish communities
On October 9, 2019, a twenty-seven year old German neo-Nazi attacked a synagogue in Halle, Germany. He tried to force entry into the Jewish temple aiming to murder as many Jews as possible. He failed to do so because of increased security measures put in place by the Jewish community itself and by mere luck. Police forces, commonly positioned at Jewish institutions due to the permanent threat of anti-Semitic attacks, were not present. According (not only) to an article by faz.net, the police did not deem it necessary. After failing to gain entry to the synagogue where 51 community members were celebrating Yom Kippur, the far-right terrorist killed Jana L., a woman passing-by on the street, and Kevin S. at a nearby Kebab restaurant whilst severely injuring two others.
He had a smartphone mounted on his helmet – the whole raid was broadcast live on the streaming portal twitch.tv. The egoshooter-like live-stream („Gamification of Terror“) begins with a statement he pronounces in English language (!): “Hello, my name is Anon, and I think the Holocaust never happened. Feminism is to blame for the declining birth rate in the West, which is the cause of mass immigration – and the root of these problems is the Jew.” In his logic, Jews are to blame for the “Great Replacement”.
Even judges trivialize aggressions against Jews
According to German intelligence the perpetrator was not previously engaged in organized neo-Nazi groups and the national security community didn’t consider the man a relevant threat. This does not only show the ignorance of the security apparatus when faced with anti-Semitic ideologies, threats and violence, but also reinforces the fact that anti-Semitism is, until today, deeply rooted in German society. A society in which attacks and harassment directed at Jews occur nearly on a daily basis. A society in which judges considered arson of a synagogue in Wuppertal by three perpetrators in 2014 as bagatelles or legitimate means of political expression. The court ruled: “They just wanted to draw some attention on the Gaza war.“
Not only this specific brutal attack proves that anti-Semitic harassment, violence and terror are omnipresent in Germany and European societies in general. For further evidence and proof, a look into the survey „Experiences and perceptions of Anti-Semitism“ conducted 2018 by the European Union Agency For Fundamental Rights might be rewarding.
We need to look beyond the tip of the iceberg
However, the open eruption of physical violence against Jews is never the beginning of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism starts with conspiracy theories about sinister forces controlling world politics or media behind the scenes. It starts when Jews are individually or collectively held accountable for the politics of the Israeli government and when Jews are accused of being disloyal to their home-countries. Anti-Semitism starts when anti-Semitic tropes are put forward to de-legitimize and demonize the State of Israel, which, since its founding, has been a safe haven for Jews around the world.
Anti-Semitism has to be recognized, named as such and pushed back on a day-to-day basis! It has to be contested on every level: In pubs, at the supermarket counter, at school, at work. Because it is this seeming banality of daily-life anti-Semitism that lays the foundation for a 27 year old misogynist males to believe in conspiracy theories and that encourages right-wing extremists and white supremacists in their deeds.
Combating anti-Semitism entails standing in firm solidarity with Jewish communities; it entails showing support for fears and concerns over anti-Semitic harassment and violence. We have to take the struggle against anti-Semitism seriously, for the sake of Jews and those perceived as such by anti-Semites, but also for the sake of universal values of freedom and equality.
And that’s what DSC Leipzig does
In 2018, DSC Leipzig founded the “Everything Must Change Union“ which is a working group aiming to reinforce the progressive struggle against anti-Semitism and towards a better future. We organize workshops and debates on historical and contemporary forms of anti-Semitism and work towards a comprehensive policy for progressive movements and political parties for contesting this ideology internally and externally. Our upcoming workshop will take place in Göttingen, Germany, from November 8 to 11, 2019.
We have to prove ourselves to stand firmly in solidarity with Jewish communities, not only when the peak of the anti-Semitic iceberg shows itself through brutal violence and terrorism of neo-Nazis – and, of course, fight each type of discrimination and racism. Herein lies a fundamental task for the European civil society and thus for the European Left.
Picture on top of the page:
After the shooting in Halle/Saale – rally of 16.000 protesters against anti-Semitism in Berlin.
Screenshot of a „tagesschau“ video
Hungary: “The opposition is alive!”
“The deadman has arisen, the opposition is alive!”, the Hungarian online paper “24.hu” cheered on Monday. DiEM25 congratulates the Hungarian opposition on its biggest election victory in a decade!
Nine years after Viktor Orbán took power and started building his corrupt regime of so-called ‘illiberal democracy’, a united opposition has overcome a rigged media environment and a distorted electoral system to give Orbán a bloody nose in Sunday’s municipal elections. Not only did the opposition take the mayoralty of Budapest and its city assembly, a host of major cities throughout the country turned away from Orbán’s Fidesz for the very first time.
“This is the first step towards changing Hungary”, Budapest’s new green mayor Gergely Karácsony said in a Facebook post. “We will take Budapest back to Europe!”
Karácsony’s party, Dialogue for Hungary (Párbeszéd Magyarországért), previously hosted DiEM25 and Yanis Varoufakis in Budapest at a 2016 event on the future of Europe.
Until recently, Orbán’s grip on power appeared total. Even bars and venues which are popular among supporters of the opposition have faced intimidation from the authorities. This includes “Auróra” where the local DiEM25 Spontaneous Collective holds its meetings. We owe a big thank you to the people of the district that “Auróra” calls home because their new choice of mayor, András Pikó, has promised to save the crucial community hub.
We have no illusions about how Orbán and his cronies will react to this situation. Only last winter, clashes between protestors and the police resulted in suspicious arrests, including that of a local DiEM25 member. Even so, we are optimistic, and we are looking forward to the national elections in 2022.
This is the first step on the road back to democracy for Hungary!
On the day of the general elections: the Left in Poland
Janusz Allina from DiEM25 Warsaw explains why Poland’s Left has a hard time and how the Green New Deal for Europe might sort the identity problem of the country’s progressives forces
In the 2015 general elections, a relatively big part of the electorate rejected the governing “liberals” from Platforma Obywatelska (PO, Citizens’ Platform) following eight years of governing. Citizens said clearly and unequivocally: “enough”. Enough of what, you might ask. The answer to this question is as important as it is complex and difficult.
The election results coincided with the quarter-century anniversary of Eastern Europe’s transition from the collapsed “socialist” economy to the free market; a neoliberal system that was implemented by experts, businessmen and politicians from Western Europe and the US. A quarter century after the “shock therapy” was imposed and the call to “make yourselves rich!” became somewhat like an official programme of the new establishment, a bubble exploded. Yet, in the nineteen-nineties, few people remained critical – or even alarmed – by the possible social consequences of the rapid turnaround. Those who have spoken out about the inherent risks in the system have been attacked with the quiestionable criticism of being leftists or (even worse!) communists. Poland became a leading example of deregulation and dogmatically implemented free market ideas. Since then, neoliberal dogma has been deeply rooted in many Polish minds, despite some voices speaking out on the necessity of rethinking the paradigm of everlasting GDP growth.
Who are the losers?
The problem was that the drastic (and in many ways successful) transformation, was only possible at very high social costs: dividing the society into beneficiaries of the change and the alienated and forgotten “losers”. Who were the latter? Mostly people from small towns where the only work place – usually an outdated industrial facility – was shut down, and the workers and their families were left without any source of income. Agricultural workers from the countryside also lost out when state-run enterprises all of a sudden disappeared. Even workers from big cities, whose factories underwent restructuring and privatisation were often kicked to the curb. This way, the phenomenon of inherent unemployment was born in Poland. Those people were supposed to suffer in silence. As a Polish saying goes: where the wood is chopped, the chips go flying.
Who were the beneficiaries?
Mostly young specialists and graduates sought after by incoming foreign businesses prepared to offer them relatively high remuneration for being taught to work in a capitalist environment, and to subsequently become future managers of the Polish branches. They were the ones who would soon move to newly built apartment complexes closed behind a wall, to keep the poor from disturbing them. The word “solidarity” that had begun the transformation lost its original meaning, and became simply a symbol.
Poland joined the EU in 2004 and received huge funds for modernisation, with transport infrastructure being the number one priority. The very much needed infrastructure modernization could thus be kicked off. Also, the regions were supported with funds for improving local infrastructure, and Polish remote regions, previously muddy and dirty, changed radically and started to resemble those in other, richer countries.
Many families have a relative living abroad
But the society was divided by then, and many people realized the injustice: some were living lives previously unimaginable in Poland (and, naturally, were happy with it), and the others were staying behind, and felt abandoned, with much of the infrastructure, like payable motorways or fast trains being financially out of reach for them. Younger people had a choice: accept it and live an impoverished life, try to improve their fortune by moving to a big city and study (which was not free anymore, so they had to find a part-time job) or, emigrate abroad in search of work. About two million people left the country. In some regions, virtually every single family has a relative living abroad. Many places are missing middle age people, with only the senior citizens and their grandchildren living in houses supported by their emigrated relatives. This is the high cost that we need to remember when politicians proudly announce record low unemployment figures in Poland.
The cost for retaining economic growth …
Despite the fact that the economy has been growing impressively (the sacred GDP!), the aspirations of many citizens and communities remained not only unsatisfied but ignored by governing politicians and the wealthier parts of the society. The ruling party had only one response to those expectations: not at this time, we need to retain the competitive edge (read: low salaries). PO never had a vision of transforming the country from low-paid-labour into an innovative economy competing through its well-educated and well paid specialists. Donald Tusk, the prime minister and party leader, would say: “the government is not to have visions, the government is to make sure you have hot water in your tap”. And that “hot water in your tap” was a big disappointment to many who had hoped Tusk had more ambitious plans for Poland.
… has been payed by the working people
In the meantime, after the 2008 financial crisis, the precariat grew exponentially, and the new generation coming into the job market was not as lucky as those that came a decade earlier: the reality completely failed to meet their expectations. Even though Poland (being called by Tusk a “green island” in Europe) managed to avoid a recession, the working people were to pay the cost of retaining the growth. The so called “junk-work contracts”, promised by Tusk to be abolished as soon as the threat of recession disappeared, were, in fact, never abolished: on the contrary – they have mushroomed and are still part of the market today. So there were really good reasons for the people to say: “No!” and “Enough!” to the PO’s handling of the country. But the PO, and their core electorate, have never understood that.
The vacuum on the Left pushed voters to the Right
One could expect the situation to be favourable for the Left to enter the political arena – if there was a Left in Poland. The “social-democrats” had become a part of the neoliberal establishment, and the working people had nowhere to turn to. Well, nowhere but the Right, that is! As the main opposition party, Prawo I Sprawiedliwość (PiS, Law and Justice) had intelligent leadership in Jarosław Kaczyński who understood what was going on. He combined the growing nationalist sentiment with peoples’ social expectations to build something like a national-socialist power that could counteract what Kaczyński called the “impossibility of the liberal state”. He promised change that was credible enough for many to support PiS. With this move, PiS made the Left appear irrelevant to their traditional electorate.
Razem, DiEM25’s future European Spring ally, appeared on the scene
Nevertheless, just before the 2015 parliamentary elections, Partia Razem (“Together”) was established to fill the left gap on the Polish political map. Initially, they appeared successful in the 2015 elections when they garnered support of 49,711 voters and gained 3,62% – more than most had expected. Such an outcome entitled Razem to a state compensation of campaign costs, which enabled their survival although no mandate was gained. But the bad news were that (i) there was no Left at all in the Sejm (the lower chamber of the Polish parliament) for the first time ever, and (ii) demand for a Left power was coming only from well-educated large city constituents, and not from workers. Workers were happy with PiS and the traditional drive that came from the party and its ally, the Catholic Church.
The “throne-altar“ alliance remains strong
Poland is probably one of the most conservative societies in Europe, although you might not have that impression when visiting Warsaw or Gdańsk. The traditionally quite strong influence of the church in the Polish educational system has been strengthened under the PiS government. The “throne-altar” alliance, as it is called, is doing very well nowadays.
Poland is also very late in transforming towards a greener economy and society, with Razem and the Greens (Partia Zieloni) the only forces to have “green transition” in their programs – with Razem politically exploiting the climate disaster issue only at the very final stage of the campaign.
But today, the Left will be back in parliament!
Razem joined the social-democrat party SLD and the “Wiosna” (Spring) party of the charismatic Robert Biedroń to establish “Left Together” (Lewica Razem) coalition, and as a coalition they have a chance to get 10 to 14 per cent support in today’s general elections, which is good news: the Left will be back in the Sejm! But the bad news is that PiS have a chance to get the so-called constitutional majority, enabling them to single-handedly pass sweeping reforms in Parliament. If they achieve that – we might find ourselves in big trouble in Poland.
The Green New Deal might sort the identity problem of the progressives
What I think could be a good scenario for the near future is joining hands by the Left and the Greens, who also have a chance to receive a mandate or two, to push strongly the Green New Deal for Europe into the mainstream debate. No matter how ironical it may sound, the climate catastrophe is a potentially great gift for progressives in Poland: standing firmly for a just transition might sort the identity problem of the Left. The most recent statements, mainly those by Adrian Zandberg, the natural leader of Razem, seem to indicate they are about to realize that.
Janusz Allina is a Poland-based economist, member of DiEM25 Warsaw and of the Green New Deal team
Photo above: Adrian Tadeusz Zandberg, co-founder of Leftist Partia Razem, and Magdalena Biejat during the last hours of Razem’s electoral campaign
NO FRIENDS BUT THE MOUNTAINS – solidarity with Rojava
There is a famous saying that the Kurds have NO FRIENDS BUT THE MOUNTAINS. This is why on the international day of action demanding the end of Turkey’s occupation of Rojava, filmmaker and artist Hito Steyerl, the first woman to have been listed as the “most influential personality in the international art world”, was joined by two philosophers, DiEM25’s co-founder Srećko Horvat and DiEM25 Advisory Panel member Boris Buden who performed an action of solidarity by visiting Tito’s cave on the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.
The cave itself, hidden in the hills of island Vis far from the mainland, carries historic significance. Not only was it the place from which the Partisan resistance movement would successfully defy a much more powerful enemy during WWII, it was also the place from where they would, so to say, break out of the mountains and liberate the territory of Yugoslavia from occupation, and finally establish a new state.
A rare BBC recording from 1944, when the Partisans were using Vis as their headquaters, describes how this resistance looked like:
“Across the Adriatic Sea, throughout the once carefree hunting grounds for rich yachts along the Dalmatian coast and in the wild picturesque heights of Yugoslavia, one of the most heroic battles of this war is in progress today . . . These people know what they are fighting for. They have absolute faith that they are right and in their ultimate fate. And it is a great and unique experience in this world of cynicism and divided loyalty to be among them and to be able to help them.”
According to Srećko Horvat, the motive behind the solidarity action with Rojava was not just to enact transnational solidarity with the current struggle of the Kurdish people, of which more than 100,000 have already been displaced. The point of the solidarity action, which could simply be called NO FRIENDS BUT THE MOUNTAINS, was also a sort of temporal solidarity, connecting two resistance struggles, which have more in common that it seems.
There are still friends in the mountains!
We are the mountains.
Yanis Varoufakis: I just pulled out of a conference in Turkey in protest at the invasion of Northern Syria’s Kurdish region
It is with profound regret, and after much reflection, that I am pulling out as a speaker at an interesting and worthy international conference organised by TRT World in Istanbul on October 21. I do so in protest of the Turkish armed forces’ invasion of Northern Syria. The ongoing invasion is not only an assault on Syria’s Kurdish forces that almost single-handedly, and heroically, defeated ISIS on the ground but, also, an assault on Turkish democrats and their campaign to check the creeping authoritarianism of the Turkish government.
This is a conference I was looking forward to for two reasons. First, because I would have shared a platform with Dilma Rousseff, former President of Brazil, to discuss globalisation and its discontents. Secondly, and more importantly, because of an urgent need to forge close links with Turkish democrats, academics and journalists in a bid to strengthen the bonds binding progressives in Greece and in Turkey. For these reasons, I wish to thank TRT World for inviting me.
However, TRT World’s enthusiastic support of the recent invasion of Northern Syria makes it impossible for me to attend. After conversations with many Turkish friends, I decided to cancel my appearance in solidarity with them – with democrats in Turkey who are appalled at the invasion of the Turkish armed forces in Northern Syria’s Kurdish-held areas and who see this as a further departure from the rapprochement between Ankara and the Kurdish people. Turkish democrats know well that this invasion undermines further the prospects of peace and democracy within Turkey itself.
While I am cancelling this appearance, together with Turkish friends, colleagues and comrades we are planning a visit to Istanbul, and a series of meetings, that will give us an opportunity to promote the progressive internationalism that our countries, our peoples and our democracies so desperately need.
Join the international day of action demanding the end of Turkey's occupation of Rojava
Since its very foundation, DiEM25 and its members have been supportive of the Kurdish struggle for egalitarian and feminist democracy. Between October 4-6 DiEM25 members participated in an international conference on democratic confederalism, municipalism and global democracy that took place in Rome. The conference counted with the participation of representatives from Rojava, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, where revolutionary forms of local government, ecologism and gender equality are being experimented.
These representatives were still in Rome when Trump officially announced that the US army would withdraw from Northern Syria and Erdogan threatened Rojava that the invasion would start soon. As we write, the Turkish invasion has actually started with bombings and artillery attacks. Erdogan’s official aim is to create a “safe zone” along the Turkish borders where 1 million Syrian refugees, currently in Turkey, would be relocated by performing, at the same time, his strategy of national cleansing. Erdogan aims to displace the Kurdish majority from the “safe zone” in Rojava and create another wave of refugees – the same refugees Erdogan uses as regrettable currency of exchange with the European Union.
In these dramatic hours our thoughts go the courageous people of Rojava, whose long resistance against ISIS, which substantially benefited the “West,” and their struggle for democratic and egalitarian principles remain a source of inspiration for all democratic movements and DiEM25. We can’t accept that these ideals and values are defeated, people persecuted, killed and displaced and that the peaceful territory of Rojava would be brought back to instability and war.
Since we know that besides Turkey and the US, the EU itself is responsible for this, together with its national governments (like Germany) that have been arming Turkey and accepting Erdogan’s “refugee blackmail”, we call upon all progressives not only to enact acts of solidarity with Rojava and the Kurds, but to fight for egalitarian and feminist democracies in their own societies. Only by radically transforming the EU and our own countries, by stopping arms sales and the current geopolitics of fear, can we help those who have built new democratic institutions and resisted both ISIS and Turkey (armed and helped by the US and EU).
We call on everyone to join the international day of action to stop the Turkish occupation, organised by the Rojava Solidarity Committee Europe, taking place on October 12. Many actions will take place all across Europe.
Show solidarity with Rojava and organise.