GERMAN ACADEMICS AND TRADE UNION
LEADERS CALL FOR EU RENEWAL:
Founding Europe anew!
Initiators:
Frank Bsirske (Ver.di)
Annelie Buntenbach (DGB)
Prof. Dr. Rudolf Hickel (Wirtschaftswissenschaftler)
Dr. Steffen Lehndorff (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Dr. Hans-Jürgen Urban (IG Metall)
Stop the March into Ruin!
Overcome
the Crisis with Solidarity!
This way of austerity cannot and should not continue. The project of Europe is in
impasse. Europe finds itself in an existential crisis. Even before the outbreak
of the crisis the directions were set in a wrong way, because the
Euro-construction was fixed unilaterally on monetary stability and flawed debt-
and deficit criteria, through a wrong economic and political coordination and a
grave neglect of the social union. The crisis was pushed forward through
neo-liberal deregulation politics and unscrupulous greed of the financial elite
speculating against countries in crisis and wanted to force a financial market
conformity.
With the neo-liberal model of subordination under the dominance of the (financial)markets,
the EU does not add to a solution but an aggravation of the crisis. Instead of
naming political mistakes and greed for profits as the causes of the crisis,
state deficits are
being redefined into at (social) sovereign debt crisis in order to
legitimise a disastrous politics. Public expenditures as well as work- and
social incomes are radically cut through by injunctions; wage earners,
unemployed and pensioners are made to carry the costs of bank saving
procedures.
Thereby especially the economic regulations (»Economic Governance«) and
the fiscal pact pushed through by the German government follow an agenda which threaten to
endanger social democracy of member states in irreparable ways. This kind of
politics is irresponsible and must be terminated immediately. It is economically and politically
contra-productive because it strangles private and public consumption as well
as public investments and thus growth and development; socially irresponsible
because it deepens the gap between member states, also within countries themselves.Its effects on democracy are destructive because it
dismisses democratic procedures and attacks achievements of social democracy
long struggled for such as autonomy in wage bargaining and social protection
systems.
In the case of Greece the catastrophic consequences of this politics are
appearing in sharp focus here, the economy was forced into a recession while
large parts of the society are impoverished, more and more people turn their
backs from Europe with feelings of bitterness, and democracy is choked in the
grip of the “Troika”.This development in Greece must be stopped and shall not –
by no means whatsoever – be repeated in other countries! Europe must embark on a new
road of development. If it wants to have a future as a project of democracy and
solidarity, political directions must be set in completely new ways. As the economically
and politically strongest member state, Germany carries a special
responsibility. We are demanding from German politics that it may no longer not
act as the thriving force of a destructive crisis politics but as a marker of a
change of path which is long overdue.
The following economic and political measures are most urgent:
Financial transactions must be taxed drastically.
Financial market players must, as culprits of the crisis be held
accountable
for the financing of a solution to the crisis.
The financial markets must be regulated and the banking sector must be
restructured .
For government bonds the Euro-zone must jointly guarantee and state
finances must be decoupled from capital markets.
European monetary politics has to become entrusted, aside of
money-stability as a goal, with targets of growth and employment political
goals.
German unions and the political sphere are being challenged. In Germany. Wages
must increase again as they have done in previous years, in order to put an end to the
steady redistribution in favour of income of financial,bank and shareholder profits
and to work against the imbalances within the EU. Equally important is an
encompassing re-regulation of the working markets and a reduction of the low-
income sector as well as precarious work (working conditions).
However, these measures do not suffice. A change of path has as a prerequisite
a set of fundamental changes:
In order to enable cooperation of differently productive economies under
a common roof of
the Euro, it is necessary that the EU develops further into a
transfer-union. Equalization
payments help to decrease existing economic imbalances within the
Euro-zone.
Thereby duties and rights of giving- and taking states must be
commonly agreed upon.
New developmental perspectives must be opened for states with high debts
through aid programs. Europe needs a
democracy-offensive. The EU will have no positive future as a detached elite-
project. Political directions of change must be executed solely under the
strict adherence toEuropean treaties and institutions. Governments have no mandates to
promote crisis politics aside of avoiding parliaments. Europe‘s populations must be
involved concerning all core questions.
Europe must found itself anew! The unification process needs a guiding
idea constituting identity. More and more people associate Europe today with state
debts, social decline, and bureaucracy .They divert their sympathy and consent
from the EU. If Europe is to have a future at all, Europe must work actively for
the consent and sympathy of the people. In European public life most main
actors have to negotiate the guiding ideas for a social and democratic Europe.
We plead for a European social movement of citizens which embarks on a
radical change of path, and acts against the current disastrous crisis
politics. A first step on this road must be the rejection of the Fiscal Pact in
its current form, and new negotiations on fiscal and political frameworks. We
appeal to all main political actors responsible, to unions and civil
society: The path of Europe into ruin must be stopped – through more economic
wisdom, social justice, and democratic courage! Europe needs a public debate about
a new democratic future of solidarity!
Signatories:
Prof. Dr. Elmar Altvater (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Bieling (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Bosch (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Brand (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Prof. Dr. Klaus Busch (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Prof. Dr. Frank Deppe (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Prof. Dr. Klaus Dörre (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Christoph Ehlscheid (IG Metall)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Fisahn (Rechtswissenschaftler)
Edith Großpietsch (IG Metall)
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Habermas (Philosoph)
Dr. Dierk Hirschel (Ver.di)
Dr. Martin Höpner (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Dr. Gustav Horn (Wirtschaftswissenschaftler)
Alexander Kirchner (EVG)
Prof. Dr. Birgit Mahnkopf (Sozialwissenschaftlerin)
Claus Matecki (DGB)
Franz-Josef Möllenberg (NGG)
Jürgen Peters (IG Metall)
Klaus Pickshaus (IG Metall)
Wolfgang Pieper (Ver.di)
Prof. Dr. Dieter Sauer (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Armin Schild (IG Metall)
Dieter Scholz (DGB)
Dr. Thorsten Schulten (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Prof. Dr. Michael Schumann (Sozialwissenschaftler)
Michael Sommer (DGB)
Franz Steinkühler (IG Metall)
Ulrich Thöne (GEW)
Dr. Alexandra Wagner (Sozialwissenschaftlerin)
Detlef Wetzel (IG Metall)
Klaus Wiesehügel (IG BAU)
Bernhard Witthaut (GdP)
Dr. Frieder Otto Wolf (Philosoph)
Prof. Dr. Karl Georg Zinn (Wirtschaftswissenschaftler)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNa5k0KCVbw
FearFeasaMacLéinn
Áth Cliath/Dublin 30 Bealtaine/May 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment