Solidarity with #occupyLSX

written by: Fred – Egality Berlin

Shimri from Egality London wrote this morning:

“Eviction in London. I am now looking at the police evicting our main camp in St. Paul’s. The London general assembly called for solidarity actions in front of British embassies in case it happenes. We will be lighting candles for freedom of protest every night in the next few days. Love and solidarity to all of you.”

The camp in London has been a great inspiration for so many of us. It has truly changed the public debate. In remembrance and solidarity we look back:

On october 14th the “United for Global Democracy” manifesto is published in the Guardian: A manifesto for regime change on behalf of all humanity. One day later the #occupyLSX camp came into being. From october until this morning the camp has been a place for learning and debating democracy.

Here is a video from one of the discussions on global democracy that took place in the Occupy London Tent University:

Jan Aart Scholte Speaking At Occupy LSX

Double standards in diplomacy – Citizens of the world wake up!

written by: Fred – Egality Berlin

Today, only minutes after it was revealed that the United Nations Security Council was unable to come to an agreement on the wording or actions to employ against the Assad government in Syria, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, and many other diplomats said they are “disgusted that Russia and China prevented the UN Security Council from fulfilling its sole purpose.

On the other hand it is not even a week ago that most of the very same diplomats were celebrating a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which had put sovereignty of nation states above human rights. And this is no exception, let’s for example not forget that the United States of America still refuses to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Beeing a diplomat implies living and representing such double standards. Sadly only a very few question their role in the game. All those diplomats not questioning their role, but instead preserving traditional international law, should be aware that they are also responsible for the consequences of today’s institutional architecture: genocide, famine, climate change, financial crisis, etc.

Let’s be clear though: the responsibility is not on the diplomats alone. Thomas Pogge rightly compares citizens who do not question the current international system that allows one-fourth of the world’s population to live in abject poverty to passive Germans during the Nazi era.

Thomas Pogge on Global Poverty

I therefore call on the citizens of the world to wake up. We have to ask ourself: is global justice possible without global democracy? We finally have to put pressure on those diplomats who are acting in our name against our own will!

And to be clear, I personally do not simply want the United Nations Security Council veto power to be removed. I want the whole system to be changed. I call for democracy at every level, from the local to the global!

Some Links on the issue of UNSC veto power:

(please contact us if you feel your website should be linked too)

Newsletter Egality Berlin

geschrieben von: Egality Berlin

In diesem Newsletter:

  • Echte Demokratie Jetzt – Occupy Berlin – Democracia Real Ya!
  • Jede Stimme zählt!
  • Offener Brief an die Bundesregierung
  • Bundeskongress der Grünen Jugend
  • Give Your Vote
  • Neuigkeiten aus der Bewegung

Echte Demokratie Jetzt – Occupy Berlin – Democracia Real Ya!

#GlobalDemocracy

Die Arabischen Revolutionen waren ein wichtiges Ereignis für unsere Bewegung. Unter dem Eindruck der Bilder vom Tahrir-Platz begannen Menschen auf der ganzen Welt elitäre Bevormundung und Korruption zu kritisieren. In Europa war die Entmachtung des demokratisch gewählten griechischen Parlaments durch den Internationalen Währungsfonds und andere Institutionen Anlass genug, um Proteste im Geburtsland der Demokratie zu entfachen. Mit den großen „Democracia Real Ya!“-Demonstrationen in Spanien rückte Demokratie dann endgültig in den Mittelpunkt des zivilgesellschaftlichen Diskurses. Und es dauerte nicht lange, bis die politische Ordnung weltweit in Frage gestellt wurde: Wer hält heutzutage die Macht in den Händen und warum?

Den endgültigen medialen Durchbruch schaffte die weltweite Bewegung, als Aktivisten die Machtzentren der heutigen Zeit zu besetzen begannen: nicht das Capitol oder das White House in Washington, sondern die Wall Street in New York wurde besetzt; nicht der Palace of Westminster, sondern die Londoner Börse war primäres Ziel der Demonstrationen. Die breite mediale Berichterstattung brachte der dezentral organisierten Bewegung einen enormen Zulauf. Die Menschen versammelten sich auf zentralen Plätzen ihrer Wohnorte, tauschten Informationen aus, diskutierten, lebten Basisdemokratie. Dabei ging es um Veränderungen des politischen Systems, aber auch um inhaltliche Themen, um globale ebenso wie um lokale Themen. Die Erfahrungen und das Wissen, das die Menschen aus diesen Erlebnissen mitnehmen; die Ideen, zu denen diese Camps die Philosophen unserer Zeit inspirieren; die Art, in der sich das Bewusstsein der gesamten Gesellschaft verändert – das ist der größte Erfolg der Bewegung.

Democracia Real Ya!
Bild: Eine sogenannte Assamblea [Versammlung] in Spanien (flickr)

Und bei uns in Berlin? Hier erreichten die Proteste zwar nicht das gleiche Ausmaß wie in anderen Ländern, aber ihr Beitrag zur Bewegung sollte nicht unterschätzt werden: als Symbol der Solidarität mit den Menschen in anderen Ländern, als Mosaiksteinchen der globalen Bewegung und als Sprößling einer Pflanze, die vielleicht erst in kommenden Jahren in voller Pracht erblühen und zahlreiche Früchte tragen wird.

Global Democracy Now Banner in Berlin
Bild: Proteste am 15.10.2011 in Berlin (Egality Berlin)

Wir von Egality Berlin haben uns unter anderem an Versammlungen im Lustgarten und auf dem Alexanderplatz, Kundgebungen am Brandenburger Tor, einer Aktion am Künstlerhaus Bethanien und der großen Demonstration am 15. Oktober beteiligt. Uns ist dabei wieder einmal klar geworden, wie schwer es ist, das Thema globale Demokratie zu kommunizieren und wie wichtig es ist erst einmal Fragen aufzuwerfen, die das Demokratiedefizit auf der globalen Ebene in das Bewusstsein der Menschen bringen.

Real Global Democracy Now! #OccupyLSX
Bild: Protestcamp Occupy London Stock Exchange (Egality London)

Egality London hat sich ebenfalls an den weltweiten Protesten beteiligt. So haben Ana und Shimri, die sich bereits seit den Anti-G8-Protesten im Mai intensiv am kollaborativen Schreiben des Manifests „United for Global Democracy“ beteiligt hatten, es zum Höhepunkt der Proteste am 15. Oktober mit einem Kommentar in die britische Zeitung The Guardian geschafft. Aus den zahlreichen Diskussionen, die in den letzten Monaten in London stattgefunden haben, möchten wir außerdem die Veranstaltungen vom 11. Dezember hervorheben. Dort wurden zusammen mit einem Vertreter des Building Global Democracy Forschungsprojekts die Fragen erörtert, wie ein demokratisches globales System aussehen könnte und wie Aktivisten auf ein solches System hinarbeiten können. Es gibt auf Youtube auch ein Video von der Veranstaltung.

Jede Stimme zählt!
Egality Berlin war Bündnispartner bei der Kampagne Jede Stimme 2011. Im Rahmen der Kampagne wurde darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass rund 460 000 ohne deutschen Pass in Berlin lebende Menschen von allen demokratischen Entscheidungen direkt betroffen sind, ohne jedoch selbst an der wichtigsten Form der politischen Partizipation teilnehmen zu können: den Wahlen.

Jede Stimme 2011 Logo

Im Rahmen der Kampagne, die von den Citizens for Europe koordiniert wurde, waren wir in der ganzen Stadt unterwegs und haben Menschen über die Kampagne informiert. Alle Betroffenen –Menschen ohne Wahlrecht– konnten im Vorfeld der Berlinwahlen in einem mobilen Wahllokal an symbolischen Wahlen teilnehmen. Die Ergebnisse dieser symbolischen Wahlen wurden anschließend medienwirksam präsentiert.

Jede Stimme 2011 hat außerdem einen großen Beitrag zur Vernetzung der Demokratieinitiativen in Berlin geleistet. Wir freuen uns, dass wir einen kleinen Beitrag zu dieser wichtigen Kampagne liefern konnten. Es hat super viel Spaß gemacht!

Offener Brief an die Bundesregierung

37 Vereine und Verbände, darunter zum Beispiel Attac Deutschland, Mehr Demokratie e.V., die Fairness-Stiftung und der Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz e.V., und über 160 Persönlichkeiten forderten im September anlässlich des Beginns der Generaldebatte bei der UNO-Vollversammlung in New York die Bundesregierung dazu auf sich für die Einrichtung eines UN-Parlaments auszusprechen. Der Brief an Bundeskanzlerin Merkel und Außenminister Westerwelle wurde am 20. September im Rahmen einer Pressekonferenz öffentlicht gemacht.

 

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Bild: Gruppenbild nach symbolischer Übergabe des offenen Briefes (© von UNPA-Kampagne)

 

Einige Mitglieder von Egality Berlin haben sich an der symbolischen Übergabe beteiligt, die im Anschluss an die Pressekonferenz am Brandenburger Tor stattgefunden hat. Das Komitee für eine demokratische UNO, das den Brief initiiert hatte, war enttäuscht von der Reaktion der Bundesregierung, wertete die Aktion aber trotzdem als Erfolg.

Bundeskongress der Grünen Jugend

Filip von Egality Berlin hat beim Bundeskongress der Grünen Jugend einen Workshop zum Thema Globale Demokratie – Ist das überhaupt möglich? organisiert. Da es eines der Ziele von Egality ist, “Bewusstsein [zu] schaffen für das Demokratiedefizit auf globaler Ebene und seine Verbindung zu bestehenden Weltproblemen”, wollen wir in Zukunft weitere vergleichbare Workshops organisieren. Bei Interesse bitte einfach Kontakt mit uns aufnehmen!

Give Your Vote

Wir haben uns ein ganzes Wochenende Zeit genommen, um über das Projekt Give Your Vote zu diskutieren. Dabei hat sich gezeigt, dass wir noch einiges an Arbeit vor uns haben, wenn wir es schaffen wollen, dass Menschen, die von der Politik der Bundesregierung betroffen sind, aber keinen deutschen Pass besitzen und außerhalb Deutschlands leben, an den Bundestagswahlen 2013 teilnehmen können. Ein zweites Planungswochenende ist für das Frühjahr 2012 geplant!

Neuigkeiten und Rückblick aus der Bewegung

Neuigkeiten aus der Bewegung

  • Zentrum für globale Demographie und Bildungsforschung gestartet: “Wir brauchen ein globales Parlament”
  • Neue Inititive in Australien: Video und Link
  • Expertentagung in Berlin diskutiert globale Demokratie und UNO-Parlament: Link
  • Mehrheitsführer im Parlament von Senegal begrüßt Initiative für ein UNO-Parlament: Link
  • Australien soll sich für globales Parlament einsetzen, fordert grüner Parteichef: Link
  • Irlands neuer Präsident ist Unterstützer eines UNO-Parlaments: Link
  • Konferenz macht Beziehung zwischen Internet und globaler Demokratie zum Thema: Link
  • BGD Library Grows and Improves: Link
  • BGD Newsletter Dezember: Link
  • BGD Newsletter September: Link
  • BGD Newsletter Juni: Link

Neue Publikationen zum Thema Globale Demokratie
Literaturverzeichnisse mit älteren Publikationen zum Thema Globale Demokratie findet ihr auch auf GlobalDemo.org und auf der Webseite von BGD.

Veranstaltungen

15.01.2012 Weltweite Demonstrationen (Treffpunkt in Berlin 13 Uhr am Neptunbrunnen Alexanderplatz)

18.01.2012 Workshop in Kooperation mit dem Evangelisches Studienwerk e.V. Villigst

 

Liebe Grüße vom Egality Team!

Egality stands with pro democracy protests

written by: Fred – Egality Berlin

We stand with protesters all around the world that are calling for real democracy!

Only if we are united in solidarity we will be able to not only change democracy on the local level, but also make international institutions democratic, which is extremly important, because for the most part it is the democratic deficit on the global level that destroys our democracies. As a recent article in The Guardian explains, it might be the lack of democracy at the global level that will bring down the arab spring. I strongly recommend reading ”The IMF versus the Arab spring“.

Photo: Spanish Revolution by Mauro A. Fuentes Álvarez via Flickr
And would it not be possible to write a similar article “The IMF versus the Spanish Revolution“? Don’t we almost always face the power of the global financial market when we go and fight for democracy at the local or national level?

In the Guardian article the author quotes a tweet by Paul Kingsnorth: “Could someone please arrest the head of the IMF for screwing the poor for 60 years?”

I personally would not necessarily say that it was the head of the IMF that is responsible for currently more than 1.000.000.000 people going to bed hungry every day. In my opinion it is the whole system of global governance that is to blame. And it is not only to blame for “screwing the poor” in the Global South, but also for destroying the middle class in western countries. It urgently needs to be reformed and democratized!

Here a nice video based on a lecture given by George Monbiot

Video: Photocopy Democracy by T.D.

 

Egality activists are currently involved and help organize pro-democracy protests world-wide: in Cairo, Palestine, La Havre,  Madrid, Berlin and London. Wherever they happen, we support democratic revolutions, and couple our support with a call to globalise them. If you want to take part: get in touch!

UK immigration law: welcome the rich, deport the poor

All barriers to migration are selective (Banksy, West Bank)

As the UK government continues to deport migrants back to Afghanistan and Iraq, the same immigration law encourages the hyper-wealthy (many with dubious sources of income) to freely become permanent UK residents.

As Private Eye reports this week:

“..the requirements for permanent residence will be relaxed for anybody with £5m to place in a UK bank, and made easier still for those with £10m to spare.”

So if you’ve got stacks of cash (HMG doesn’t mind where you get it from) then you can move where you like. If you’re a foreign student, however, or fleeing from instability in places like Iraq and Afghanistan then it’s tough luck.

Reminds me of when I was up in Sheffield working on a film for City of Sanctuary. I got chatting to one Iranian migrant who had been here in the UK for nine years and still didn’t have any official reply on whether he could legally remain or not.

He said to me the UK’s migration system was just like the slave trade of old:

“It’s like they look at your teeth, and the healthy ones who can work to make them rich can stay. The other ones they just throw away.”

- AM

Global Taxation and Representation – What the Media Missed and What the Unions Missed in Yesterday’s March

Text – Shimri Zameret; photos – Ana Sofia

It’s often like that with historic moments, they get missed by the media. Yesterday, in London, in a ‘March for Alternatives’, 500,000 people called for a global tax regime as the main alternative for national cuts.

A group of us, Egality activists, went on the march to give out leaflets, supporting the call for a global tax regime and saying: ‘Yes to global taxation, not without global representation’.

The main aim of the march yesterday was to show that there are alternative to the cuts. Looking at the text explaining the march’s aims, it’s evident that what they are suggesting are in fact global governance solutions. They call for a clamp down on tax havens (a global problem) and for creating global taxation: an “alternative in which rich individuals and big companies have to pay all their tax, that the banks pay a Robin Hood tax”. As big companies, rich individuals and banks are all global this cannot be a national policy. In fact, what they are calling for is a global tax regime, and I believe that in retrospect this moment will be seen as a historic moment for the labour movement and for the world. But you can’t read this in mass media‘s coverage, that focuses on the violence and arrests.

Bellow I am attaching the leaflet we gave in the march, titled ‘No Taxation Without Representation’. The ideas in leaflet, I hope, will one day be developed into a more substantial text.

The leaflet aimes to explain (popularly, in simple non-academic words) what the unions are doing, why it’s great and what’s missing:

What are the unions doing? Like explained above, they suggest a global alternative for a national policy.

Why is it great? Because it’s the only way to win, globally. Leftwing politics, from centre to communism/anarchism, will lose if they are only a local or national political project. In an age of economic globalisation, when capital easily cross borders and people cannot – left politics (or even right politics if they support some form of welfare) are under increased pressure to scale back. Yes, leftwing politics can win small victories, but with intensified economic globalisation, it cannot but lose the war. This is why we are seeing a retreat of the welfare state, and a victory of neo-liberalism as a hegemonic ideology, in the last 40 years. It is not random that this period correlates with a period of economic globalisation. This is not a completely new idea – Harvard’s economist Dani Rodrick, The Guaridan’s George Monbiot, the marxist thinker Ellen Meiksins Wood, writer Arundhati Roy, LSE’s David Held and Mary Kaldor and many more talked about this already, although very few made this a central argument for stronger global governance or for global democracy. Indeed, many make this an argument for reversing globalisation, but from many reasons, that will be discussed elsewhere, this is probably unrealistic (North Korea is a great illustration why, Brazil too).

What is new is that this idea – that the solution to globlising economy is to globalise governance – is starting to get into the general leftwing political discourse.

What’s missing? The leaflet also said that a global tax regime must be accompanied by global representation – global democratic control or global democratic institutions. This is because a tax regime have to relay on global institutions for enforcement – how can you prevent tax havens, a global problem, without global enforcement? How do you enforce global policies without global institutions? And our current global institutions are undemocratic, controlled (formally, legally) by a handful of rich governments. Giving them more power is giving more power to those that created this problem – how could that be a solution? So updating an old call we said: ‘yes to global taxation, no without global representation’.


And now the question that remains is – how do we make this idea really sink with unions and leftwing activists? Not only in the UK but everywhere in the world? Perhaps that’s the oldest question in the book – how do you make left politics international?

What makes me happy is that more  people are starting to ask this question and suggest answers, around the world. Yesterday in London, there were 500,000 of us.

***

[And here's a link to the Egality Leaflet from yesterday in a PDF format]

No Taxation Without Representation

This is the content of a leaflet distributed at today’s March for the Alternative in London.

Why the fight for global taxation must also be a fight for global democratic institutions

Our unions are right.

The only alternative to the cuts is global: fighting global tax-havens and creating global taxation.

But there should be no global taxation without global representation.

If we globalise taxes we have to make sure we globalise democratic control, that we democratise global institutions.

Why fight for global taxation?

Our unions are right when they fight for global taxation – a global clamp on tax havens, and a system of global taxes. Indeed, from radical to mainstream, the political projects of the left are all dead as national projects in an age of globalisation. Socialism, social democracy, the welfare state, even social-anarchism and communism – these are all dead if they are only for national solutions. Today, leftwing politics can only survive as a global political project.

Why? This is because markets are global and democracy is not. Global markets mean that money can cross borders and escape our democratic control. If we vote for national tax, multinationals corporations (like the banks or Vodafone) can very easily move somewhere else. Multinational come to our national governments and threaten that ‘such high taxes make it unprofitable to be here, we’ll produce somewhere else, with lower taxes’ or ‘with such high taxes we are less competitive then companies in other countries, we will have to lay-off workers’. Additionally, in a global economy multinationals can report that they make profit in countries where taxation on profit is lower (these are tax havens).

Our unions argue for a fantastic solution – if instead of national tax policies we have global tax policies, we’ve won the war. If we have global taxation, multinationals and capital can’t escape anymore. They can’t run away to where taxes are lower, because there is simply nowhere to go to. We can get back the control we had before the age of economic globalisation – but now on a global scale.

But global taxation is not enough.

Why fight for global representation?

Our unions also miss a crucial part of the solution – the need for global democracy. If we want to create global taxation or globally clamp down on tax havens, we need to rely on global institutions to do the job. There is no way to enforce global policies without global institutions, old or new.

“No taxation without representation,” shouted citizens in British colonies 250 years ago. They were rightly saying that they would not agree to be subjected to policies (taxes) over which they had no democratic control. There is no reason why this will be different this time. The only global institutions we have today are undemocratic: the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations Security Council are all controlled by the rich and powerful governments and the lobbyists of multinational corporations.

People hate these global intuitions because they are undemocratic. They are right. We should not give more power to global institutions without us having global democratic control; without representation; without us having a say. That means either a radical democratic reform of global institutions, or the creation of new, democratic, global institutions. Yes, global taxation is the solution, but global taxation needs to come with global democracy. Otherwise we just give power to those who created the problem.

Around the world, many support globalising democracy. Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, wants to have regular global referendums. George Monbiot, the Guardian’s columnist, suggests to create a world parliament with consultative powers. Albert Einstein wanted world federalism. Boutrus-Boutrus Ghali, former head of the UN, wants to add a directly elected second chamber to the UN – a UN Parliamentary Assembly. All these ideas have problems, but they all provide a starting point for a discussion we must have – how to globalise democracy.

Join us in an old-new call: No global taxation without global representation.

Yes to global taxation, but not without globalising democratic control, not without democratic global institutions.

The undemocratic invasion of Libya

Crossposted from halfiranian.com

Undemocratic invasion of Libya

Oh the bloody irony. While the fighter jets of the US, UK and France drop bombs on Libya in the name of freedom and democracy, few are bothering to point out the undemocratic process that sent them there.

At a national level the situation is pretty dire.

Last night, after a debate in the UK parliament, 557 MPs voted to support military intervention while only 13 opposed it. That’s 98% political support for an invasion that only a minority of the UK population think is a good idea (45% by this morning’s poll).

That’s a pretty shocking disparity between politicians and populace but in itself it’s not undemocratic. It just suggests that UK MPs are more belligerent than their constituents.

The real problem arises when you look to the global level.

In every press conference and every statement made by the western powers attacking Libya, justification for their actions is drawn back to the position of the international community. “The UN backs the no-fly zone”. “The international community wants Gaddafi to go”. “The world demands it”. Even The Guardian claims “Cameron built an international consensus” for Gaddafi to go.

But is that true?

There is no institution that represents the international community when it comes to military intervention, the closest we have is the UN Security Council, which, upon closer inspection, is about as democratic as Libya itself.

The 15 countries who sit on the UNSC represent 53% of the world’s population – not a great start. That means nearly half the planet is not even part of the debate around these critical international issues.

And it gets even worse.

If we look at the Libya resolution, the countries that actually support the resolution represent only 19% of the UNSC or 10% of the global population (table below).

So the bottom line is that we have a resolution that was supported by diplomats from ten countries who together represent 10% of the world’s population.

Does 10% mean international consensus to you?

And herein lies the problem. The fundamental difficulty in taking any sort of legitimate international action – on war, migration, poverty or climate change – is that we don’t have the means to make those decisions in a way that’s even vaguely democratic.

Before bombing democracy into Libya, maybe we should think about sorting out our own flawed institutions.

Country Population (source: Wikipedia)
Countries supporting the resolution
United States 311,025,000
Britain 62,041,708
France 65,821,885
Bosnia 3,843,126
Colombia 45,895,000
Gabon 1,501,000
Lebanon 4,255,000
Nigeria 158,259,000
Portugal 10,636,888
South Africa 49,991,300
Total population of countries supporting resolution 1973 (% of UNSC) [% of World] 713,269,907 (19%) [10%]
Countries not supporting the resolution
Russia 141,914,509
China 1,341,000,000
Germany 81,802,000
Brazil 190,732,694
India 1,195,570,000
Total population of countries *not* supporting resolution 1973 (% of UNSC) [% of World] 3,664,289,110 (53%) [43%]
Total world population 6,907,070,586

Diaspora .. coming soon

Guys,

I’m sure some of you have heard about Diaspora, the new ‘anti-facebook’ which is going to be decentralised with lots of privacy. Should be coming out later in September.

Well a couple of things:

  1. I think we should host a ‘hub’ or whatever they’re called. Basically, any web server can run a local diaspora that links to all the others.
  2. We should get thinking, creating, coding some new collaborating/voting tools.

I could be totally wrong, but I’m getting the inkling that this could be the platform that turns a social network into a political network. And it’s got a great name.

Jx

Next steps…

So it’s all bit a bit quiet around here. That’s because we’ve been killing ourselves over the Give Your Vote campaign.

Well that’s all over now (*phew*) and it went better than we could have imagined.

Now it’s time to don those caps of thinking and conjure up some new and wonderful things to do.

We’ve got a few ideas up our sleevies, but if you’ve got one that you’d like us to do, drop us an email at contact@egalitynow.org or leave it in the comments below.

We think we’ve got a theme though: movement. As in freedom of.

x