MANIFESTO NFI 2007 MANIFESTO FOR A NEW EUROPE - ΜΑΝΙΦΕΣΤΟ ΓΙ | Page 9

committed to social justice, solidarity, democracy and peace
WE KNOW
Solidarity in European democracies is based on collective sys-
tems of social security comprising pension and health insurance,
on the reconciliation of interests between capital and labour
in the form of corporate consensual negotiations, on the col-
lective representation of worker interests at plant and supra-
plant level, for example by trade unions, and on promoting the
equality of disadvantaged groups. Fair distribution and equita-
ble response to needs, social fairness and worker participation
are core values in this solidary societal formation.
In the past twenty years, major components of this solidary
system have been eroded. First of all, the growing autono-
my of women has caused the nuclear family to disintegrate.
The number of children is declining and so-called patchwork
families are becoming the rule. Secondly, the flexibilisation of
working life has caused career trajectories to be interrupted,
atypical and precarious employment to increase and the risk
of unemployment to rise. This goes hand in hand with cuts in
social insurance benefits, e.g. in pension insurance, and with
the growth of the informal labour market, i.e. low-wage jobs
in the shadow and black markets without social security cover-
age. Thirdly, the changes in the labour market and outsourcing
for business management reasons have undermined solidarity
and the trade union movement at large. Its lessening influence
on distribution issues manifests itself in rising social inequality
and consistently low wage hikes for the mass of the gainfully
employed.
Overall, the changes in working and private life have sig-
nificantly diversified life circumstances and have atomised col-
lective interests, individualising social risks (such as unemploy-
ment, poverty in old age or social isolation). This process of
desolidarisation is boosted by talk of ‘more individual respon-
sibility’ and of devolving the provision of social security on
the individual and his/her willingness to perform. Due to this
development, the traditional social movements, first of all the
trade unions, are faced with the challenge of handling a new
variety of interests in the labour market. At the same time the
conventional linkage between social security, gainful employ-
ment and family is at issue, since full-time employment and
lifelong partnerships in marriage are being eroded.
The disruption processes within European national states
are exacerbated by the division between the ‘old’ Western
European states and the new EU states in Central and East-
ern Europe, where existing social security systems have been
ruthlessly cancelled in the transformation process and labour
markets restructured at the expense of workers, with massive
increases in unemployment as one of the results. As the EU is
being enlarged, the western countries tend to close their labour
markets from the new members, while maintaining them as
low-wage regions and sales markets and turning a blind eye
to the ongoing social disruption.
When it comes to claiming social security in times of eco-
nomic globalisation, the collective representation of interests is
gaining importance irrespective of national idiosyncrasies. Such
representation may take the form of European works councils
at the level of multinational companies or of NGOs, such as
Amnesty International or the World Social Forum, which op-
erate worldwide.
WE DEMAND
It is with this diversification and atomisation of social conditions
in mind that we argue for upgrading collective safeguarding
systems, designed to underpin intra-societal solidarity and to
counteract social disintegration in Europe. Public safeguards
against risks inherent in illness, accidents, invalidity or prob-
lems in old age need to be fashioned so as not to prevent those
concerned from participating in social life. The benefits of the
health system must be equally accessible to all, and pension
schemes need to guarantee the habitual standard of life, once
working life has ended. Funding of the public social security
system needs to be informed by the idea of solidarity, in other
words by the idea of a social balance between privileged and
underprivileged population groups. What needs to be discour-
aged in particular, are attempts to cut unemployment benefits
and to penalise those affected. Regulations, such as the Hartz
laws in Germany, and systems of forced labour at dumping pric-
es need to be reversed and replaced by models that safeguard
people’s autonomy and dignity. We plead for more ‘vocational
protection’ and ‘income protection’ as provided for under the
Austrian and German unemployment insurance systems and
for expanding sustainable, active labour market policies.
For the EU proper, we demand that more account be taken
of the social aspects involved in the integration process. Social
law directives must not be limited to stipulating the smallest
common denominator, i.e. the minimum standards of member
countries. They should much rather aim at raising the Commu-
nity level of social security. The ‘social dialogue’ is an instrument
that needs to be upgraded, and we demand vigorous efforts
on the part of the European trade union movement towards
establishing harmonised protection under labour and social law,
in order to counteract the effects of globalisation. Equitable dis-
tribution needs to be complemented by an equitable response
to needs. Such a two-pronged approach ought to result in a
system that provides for the basic needs of the population, ir-
respective of earned income, and that constitutes a sustainable
response to the poverty that is spreading in Europe. The power
of multinational corporate groups requires a strong regula-
tory environment. Institutionalising European works councils
will be an inevitable step towards this end. Finally, NGOs that
are even now largely organised on a global basis, need to be
systematically involved in transnational negotiations on social
and human rights, since they represent the very interests that
are marginalised by the labour-focused trade unions, including
the interests of migrants and asylum-seekers. Most of all, we
wish to counteract trends towards a division between the Eu-
ropean national states. Integrating new countries into the EU
must imply the integration of the people living in these coun-
tries into the European community of solidarity.
International Friends of Nature 9