Manoel Santos *
What do we do to Genetically Modified food?
We just manipulate it genetically.
And what do they do to us?
(Altermundo-Rebelion).- Activist at the heart of many social movements' struggles, no one like Tom Kucharz to review point by point the consequences the European Union policies had, have and may have in economic, social, and environmental issues. In short, there is nowhere to pick them from.
Kucharz is coordinator of the agroecology and food sovereignty of Ecologists in Action, as well as a researcher in environmental justice and globalization. He participated in many campaigns and networks of social movements, such as "Who owes whom?", "Our world is not for sale", the bi-regional network "Linking Alternatives" or "Seattle to Brussels". Many of his references and articles can be found at: http://www.gloobal.net/iepala/gloobal/fichas/ficha.php?entidad=Personas&id=9231&opcion=trayectoria # ficha_gloobal
P. P. Over one hundred organizations are moving and articulating during the Spanish EU presidency. What are the main complaints?
R. R. We organized a defense campaign from different movements and collectives of different socio-political nature, to counter the lies and propaganda in the media, but mostly to show that what generated the crisis were the neoliberal policies of the EU, supported by parties like that one of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. They are responsible for the crisis and we are not going to pay. We are also coordinated with other networks in the rest of Europe and Latin America.
The EU proved to be an anti-democratic institutional framework to serve multinational corporations and the elites of the member states. An example is the exclusively economic guidance and contrary to basic social rights of the Lisbon Treaty, adopted without consulting the public. The EU does not hesitate to privatize public services, lower working conditions and to facilitate layoffs and job losses, as evidenced by the doctrine of "flexicurity".
Also, it defends with all its diplomatic apparatus abusive business strategies of European companies in the South, with the misnomer of "Association Agreements", a form of colonialism and plunder, of both the nature of the populations of the South.
We also denounce immigration policy, since in its borders thousands of people die every year trying to enter the EU "without papers." With various directives adopted the EU intends to be a fortress where money and goods move freely, while barriers are put on the migrants that violate human rights.
Similarly, the EU's environmental discourse is little more than paper. The lack of political will of the EU, one of the major culprits in the emission of greenhouse gases, and their criminal attitude to evade responsibility, places the fight against climate change as priority of social movements. In addition to the failures of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn and Copenhagen, we know that the EU, China and USA have no political will to reach an agreement in the next Conference of the Parties (COP-16) in Mexico later this year. They're already talking about 2012.
This further delay is unacceptable and outrageous, especially since the multi-billion governments' package to bail out banks, aid to the purchase of automobiles or the increase in military spending say it is not a matter of lack of economic resources.
P. P. In what context is the People's Summit "Linking Alternatives" being convoked?
R. R. It is the fourth time we organized acounter-summit parallel to the one of Heads of State and Governments of the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which takes place every two years. This time we want to emphasize on what regards the economic crisis and the responsibility of the EU. Economic adjustments in Greece are taking place, rising unemployment across the EU and poverty affects 84 million people, there is a whole rural world with a strong crisis, where every minute an agrarian exploitation disappears, there are serious environmental problems ... We also have strong concerns regarding the May summit between the heads of state, because it is legitimizing the coup in Honduras and the serious crimes against humanity of the Colombian government.
P. P. Why is summit between the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean particularly important?
R. R. The signing of free trade agreements (FTA) between the EU and Peru and Colombia on the one hand and the other with Central America, which are for the Spanish government one of its main "priorities" for the Summit, which is the biggest event during the Spanish Presidency of the EU.
The Spanish government supports a foreign policy based exclusively on the "defense of European interest." Social movements and civil society organizations and antagonist have a responsibility to give a strong signal against these FTAs. You can not have relations with countries that violate human rights.
In addition, FTAs create investment conditions that help to perpetuate violence, as in the case of massive population displacement of land which are then converted into mega agribusinesses. In the foreign policy of the EU, especially in the cases of Honduras and Colombia free trade agreements take precedence over human rights, contrary to Article 103 of the United Nations Charter. The case of Colombia is especially outrageous. The set of human rights organizations, NGOs and European and Colombian unions repeatedly asked the EU institutions to not support the FTA with Colombia. Political killings, enforced disappearances, genocide, massacres, mass displacement and torture, sponsored from the highest positions of the Colombian state, including President Alvaro Uribe Velez, increased in recent years.
P. P. And in Honduras?
R. R. The resumption of negotiations for an FTA between the EU and Central America, which would include Honduras, and the hasty recognition of the government of Porfirio Lobo is a very worrying signal, which ignores the fact that Lobo never condemned the coup and human rights violations.The Spanish government and the EU legitimize the so-called "perfect coup" and "acquit" the military who kidnapped and expelled the constitutional President Manuel Zelaya. After months of rape, persecution, torture, killings and restrictions on freedom of expression, the Honduran elections, with an estimated rate of around 30-35% - were at the heart of the strategy to legitimize the coup.
P. P. What impact would these FTAs have?
R. R. . In the field, in Europe and Latin America, the increasing liberalization of world trade and the ongoing deregulation of agrifood markets causes the presence of small producers to be increasingly difficult and the abandonment of the field increasingly common. The EU is sacrificing sustainable family farming and thus the guarantee of a healthy, diverse and safe natural food.
In the employment area we should note that Latin America experienced job losses as a result of trade liberalization, increasing unemployment from 7.6 million to 18.1 million people in the 90s. The EU's own official impact assessments estimate "huge job losses" as a result of bilateral trade negotiations, such as in the case of the FTA between the EU and Mercosur.With the liberalization of investment corporate monopolies strengthen, destroying jobs, and the model based on the extraction of natural resources is reinforced, perpetuating the structural causes of poverty and unemployment. Among many other impacts, the violation of the right of access to food, can be highlighted as well as clean water and basic public services like education and health, and particularly the substantial increase in medication prices and the difficulties of access to them by the most disadvantaged.
P. P. Can you tell us about the Permanent People's Tribunal to be held in Madrid?
R. R. This new instance of the Court, the third at bi-regional level, will be one of the core activities within the framework of the meeting "Linking Alternatives IV (EA4). It aims to give visibility to social movements and citizen struggles in response to violations of human rights by transnational corporations, the coordination of struggles and dynamics of resistance, and to advance the strategy and building an agenda to dismantle their political and economic power. The Madrid meeting of the TPP will be a time to expose the previous accumulated work in Vienna (2006) and Lima (2008). On this occasion it became necessary to focus not only on multinationals but also in the institutions, policies and EU actors that increase the power and impunity of the transnationals. The EU, its Member States and in particular the European Council and the European Commission, were charged in the various sessions of the Court in Vienna and Lima, of building a legislative, economic, and financial framework which allows multinationals to act violating human rights. Therefore, the court was structured in three dimensions: the complicity of the EU, the Spanish government and its policies towards European multinationals in LAC, the impact of multinationals on the rights of peoples, and recommendations for a new regulatory framework of multinationals.
P. P. And what is the alternative presented by social movements?
R. R. It's time to demand accountability from the actors that caused this crisis: banks, multinationals, finance and international institutions, with the complicity of governments and political parties that supported them. And to pressure the union leaderships to give a radical shift to their strategies, to finally get on the side of the citizens and workers.
It is time to mobilize to wrest economic power from finance (socialization of banking, tax havens eradication, social control of financial markets) to ensure decent working conditions (no to the policies of destruction of jobs such as ERE, division of labor through the drastic reduction in working hours without wage reductions, against cuts in pensions), for the defense and expansion of public services and the reversal of privatized public services and, as for housing it should no longer be a speculative investment and should go back to its social function, to stop the overexploitation of natural resources and energy and stop climate change by drastically reducing the injustices and social inequalities in the North and North-South relations: less growth and more sharing (basic income of citizenship, progressive taxation and redistribution of wealth, abolition of the external debt of impoverished countries, end the NAFTA and all FTAs, end the policies of liberalization of trade in goods and services and the pillaging of multinationals, for effective equality of rights and opportunities for all people, whatever their origin, culture, nationality, religion or sex, and also for a world in which people choose their future without being pressured by the patriarchal structures .
P. P. What is what you call "Brussels Consensus" and which parallels would it have with the "Washington Consensus"?
R. R. European transnational companies and their counterparts in the world operate in a political , economic and legal architecture of impunity launched by instruments such as the Lisbon Treaty, the trade and investment strategy "Global Europe: Competing in the world," FTAs and bilateral investment treaties. Similarly, the policies of the World Bank, IMF and OMC, involving European governments, paving the way for predatory operations of multinationals. We call this the Brussels Consensus, making a parallel with the Washington Consensus of the 90s, which resulted in severe structural adjustments and a wave of privatizations in Latin America, with rising unemployment, poverty and violence. The Brussels Consensus also has to do with the EU bailout of Greece, which will subjugate the population to very strong budgetary adjustments and will limit the helenian sovereignty through draconian economic measures imposed by the EU.
P. P. "Is the Europe Strategy 2020 the great objective of the Spanish Presidency ?
R. R. The Presidency began proposing two conflicting goals: end the crisis and bet on economic growth. The priority is economic recovery and the adoption of the strategy "Europe 2020." This will replace the Lisbon Strategy, which ends this year and has a clear objective: growth, rather than environmental sustainability and social equity. The steady increase in economic activity is essential for the capitalist system to work but it is incompatible with the fight against poverty. A typical case is that of Ireland. Between 1994 and 2000, GDP grew steadily and significantly. It became the "Celtic Dragon." But in parallel, the number of hours devoted to work per person increased, the percentage of people who declared themselves dissatisfied with their life, social differences, suicide, alcohol consumption, and unemployment. These data are extrapolated to the EU, where in the economic boom years there was an increase in social inequality and falling real wages. In addition, the goal that involves taking out 20 million people, out of a situation of finding themselves under the poverty threshold in the EU , as reflected in the previous draft of the Strategy 2020, was finally removed.
P. P. Would degrowth be a way out?
TK-. Sure. It is evident that we have already exceeded the limits of the planet: we consume resources at a rate greater than their capacity to regenerate and we produce waste at a rate impossible to be taken by ecosystems. And we live in a society with growing inequality. We must move towards an economy that does not need to grow continuously. Thus, in the overdeveloped countries like ours, instead of constantly increasing energy and resource consumption, we must decrease in their use.A Sustainable Economy should be based on respect for the limits of ecosystems and consider the gradual reduction of the exploitation of natural resources, especially non-renewable, reducing the ecological footprint and emission of pollutants, reducing consumption and minimal waste generation, and the principles of precaution in which the polluter pays, a real green fiscal policy.
P. P. And against the policies of "Fortress Europe" on immigration issues?
R. R. Freedom of movement for all and the right to live where each person chooses. Repeal the Return Directive- or that of Shame -and the border closure policy endorsed by the Schengen Agreement. Give full rights to the immigrant population. We demand the EU effective measures against the spread of racism and xenophobia. And we must fight to repeal interventional devices of the agency for border control, Frontex.
P. P. In Galicia, particularly in Vigo, there will be an informal meeting of Fisheries Ministers on May 4-5. What do you think of European Fisheries Policy?
R. R. 80% of fish populations from which there is available data that they are exploited or overexploited. Approximately half of the fishing trade has its origins in the Southern countries, while more than 72% is destined only to Japan, USA and the EU, which is a net importer of fishery products. The depletion of EU waters by industrial Overfishing drove industrial fishing to the African coast. As a result, in recent years, the EU formalized fishing agreements with African the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) that allow the capture of various species to ensure the supply of the fleet, to the detriment of social and economic conditions of these countries and the environment. The combination of free trade agreements with subsidies and grants to the penetration of the European companies, especially the Spanish-fishing in Africa, destroys the living conditions and economies of these populations. The Common Fisheries Policy requires a deep reform to move away from the current overfishing and waste of resources of our fisheries.
We must move forward in the integrated management of coastal areas and in the conservation of marine and coastal habitats, promote the restructuring of the tourism sector in the countries in which they are based on the urban sector with a high predation of resources and waste generation, to develop the European Marine Strategy with a vision of conservation, management and implicit exploitation in each of the marine protected areas.
P. P. The EU has an influence over most of our legislations. However, the public shows an absolute disregard for what is happening in Brussels. Do you blame the government?
R. R. Of course. Governments enhance the disinterest, lack of information and undermine democracy. That was evident when the Lisbon Treaty was negotiated and approved, without any public debate, without disseminating information and freedom of opinion and consultation. For people to be interested in our campaigns against the policies of the EU, we must relate their daily lives with the impacts of policies. And we have to offer alternatives that connect directly to the needs of the population, such as introducing a universal basic income, to tackle the growing inequalities within the EU, to redistribute the big fortunes to the population, ensuring basic services and that they remain public.
* Biologist, Expert on ecosystems biological resources and director of Altermundo http://www.altermundo.org NOTE: Translated from the original Galician for Rebellion.There is a greatly expanded version of this interview in Galician language: http://www.altermundo.org/content/view/3187/1/
Source:http://www.bolpress.com/art.php?Cod=2010050104
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