MANIFESTO NFI 2007 MANIFESTO FOR A NEW EUROPE - ΜΑΝΙΦΕΣΤΟ ΓΙ | страница 14

Manifesto for a New Europe
nalisation of asylum seekers, the violation of human rights in
the course of asylum proceedings and enforced deportation. A
stop must be put to rich nations militarising their borders and
to detaining asylum seekers in deportation prisons.
Discrimination and racism – for a Europe
of diversity
Policies of national states that fuel racist, islamo- and
homophobic resentments – such as integration laws alleging
that migrants are unwilling to become integrated, asylum leg-
islation that vilifies asylum-seekers as ‘economic refugees’ or
provisions under penal, marriage and family law that exclude
homosexuals – must be modified in line with the EU anti-dis-
crimination directives.
A concerted EU approach to integration and anti-discrimi-
nation must, on the one hand, respect cultural minorities, al-
beit without infringing the human rights of minorities within
minorities, such as women and children. EU anti-discrimination
and integration policies need to be pursued within the context
of international cooperation – especially with Islamic countries
and among them in particular with Turkey.
OUR GOAL
The new Europe is a Europe of diversity. Dissimilarity must
not serve as an excuse for discrimination or for with-holding
human rights.
WE KNOW
In a globalising world, an enlarged Europe can only be a Eu-
rope of diversity. Yet, European national states increasingly
meet rising immigration – be it regular or irregular – with in-
tolerance, rejection and hostility, which occasionally escalate
into physical violence against foreigners. Racism, xenopho-
bia, anti-Semitism, anti-Islam resentment, indeed even Is-
lamophobia are latent – and among a growing proportion of
European citizens also blatant – determinants of the attitude
adopted towards migrants. Indeed, the ‘Other, the ‘Foreign’
is again and again artificially construed, not only by populist
rightwing extremist parties, but also by state legislation – see
Germany’s headscarf ban on Muslim teachers. The groups of
people affected are prevented from exercising fundamental
human rights. Racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are
latent structures of violence.
Prejudices and mounting physical violence against homo-
sexuals are further signs of growing intolerance in European
countries. Such infractions impair the quality of life and mas-
sively violate the human rights of those concerned and they
show up the shortcomings of European societies.
WE DEMAND
We expressly oppose all forms of racism and we champion
policies designed to eliminate ethnic, gender and sex discrimi-
nation. Diversity is a source of prosperity and of social and
cultural development in Europe. This resource must not be
squandered by racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, but pre-
served and cultivated. A Europe of diversity is something that
needs to be pro-actively crafted. The EU anti-discrimination
directives need to be swiftly transposed in the national states
and underpinned by sanctions. Institutions that monitor rac-
ism, anti-Semitism and homophobia need to be established
and research as well as best practice examples of integration
and communication need to be promoted. NGOs tackling the
issues of racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and homophobia
must be given financial support, and the same goes for those
actively opposing neo-fascist trends. Educational measures at
schools need to be upgraded.
14 International Friends of Nature
Gene technology and research – for con-
sistent technology monitoring
OUR GOAL
Gene technology and genetic research need to be removed
from the capitalist valorisation context. The funds invested
into such high-risk technologies, should much rather be in-
vested in humane health technologies and near-natural farm-
ing methods.
WE KNOW
In our time, more food is produced at considerably lower prices
than ever before. Nevertheless, the incidence of famines has
risen in the past two decades. Briefly speaking, the industrial
agribusiness of rich countries combined with free trade keep
the small-scale producers of the South (as well as of the North)
in an economic stranglehold while failing to alleviate hunger
and poverty.
Against the backdrop of this power concentration, the de-
velopment of gene technology by big business groups with a
view to further increasing the yields of industrial agricultural
production appears highly dubious. Even now, more than 8
million farmers worldwide cultivate genetically modified organ-
isms (GMOs) on so-called ‘experimental patches’. The resulting
agricultural produce – mainly Soya, maize, cotton and rape –
inevitably appear in foodstuffs, even though the long-term,
human health consequences are impossible to assess. Under
EU law, companies must list all genetically modified ingre-
dients in foodstuffs (starting from a limit value of 0.9 per
cent). Moreover, it is totally unclear whether the inadvertent
release of GMOs, e.g. by way of pollen flight, constitutes a
danger to biodiversity. In the last analysis, there is the risk
that foodstuffs produced from GMOs increase the depend-
ence of poor countries on multinational business groups,
such as Monsanto or Bayer, rather than helping to improve
the food situation in the developing countries. The greatest
hazard of all is that products made from transgenic plants