Our main problem: the dismantlement of economic and social rights

Acceptance speech of Francine Mestrum at the ceremony of the ‘Jaap Kruithof Award’ in Ghent, 21 July 2016

Thank you very much for this wonderful award.

Its topic allows me to tell you something about solidarity, social protection and basic income. I want to be extremely clear.

First, poverty is a problem of income deficit. Poor people need to receive, without too many conditions, a serious allowance in order to be able to live a life in dignity. This is a matter of human rights. It means that our social assistance systems will have to be reformed, that rights have to be individualized, that humiliating controls have to be abolished, that allowances have to be at least at the level of the poverty line. That this still did not happen in a rich country such as Belgium is a real shame.

However, it is also a shame that at the same time some people are campaigning to give such an allowance to people who are not poor and even to the wealthy. They campaign for a universal basic income. It is something I cannot understand, probably because my priorities are different from theirs. Giving poor people an allowance equal to the poverty line hardly costs a couple of billion Euros; it is perfectly possible, right now. Giving one thousand euros to all people in Belgium will cost more than one hundred euros. This is far more difficult. Trying to promote such a ‘solution’ is a smokescreen in order to hide the real problems of our society. I cannot agree. Continue…

Social Justice: social protection for all, decent work, essential services, tax justice and other egalitarian alternatives to debt and austerity measures

Background note to the Asia Europe People’s Forum 11, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 4-6 July

At the level of people, the system does not work’ (J. Stiglitz)

Common challenges

When I started my research on poverty some twenty years ago, more particularly on the international poverty discourse of international organisations, I soon found out that this new focus in development had nothing to do with poverty, poor people or, for that matter, development. Ten years after the introduction of neoliberal structural adjustment programmes, it was mainly meant as a legitimation of these policies. Indeed, not only were there no worldwide poverty statistics, but the World Bank, who was the main proponent of this poverty approach, did not propose any change in its policies. From that moment onwards, 1990, neoliberalism was ‘sold’ in the name of poverty reduction. Continue…

The hidden logic of basic income

From cash transfers in the South to basic income in the North: many social demands are currently more oriented towards money than towards social and economic rights. The implicit risk is a system in which governments pay for people who will work for private interests – for free. Continue…

Why the basic income can never be a progressive solution

I have been following and participating in the debate around basic income for some years now.

The very frustrating element about it is that most of the advocates of basic income only answer the arguments of the right – mostly concerning the willingness to work – and never imagine there can be valid arguments for the left to resist their proposals.

In that sense we have to be grateful to Philippe Van Parys that he addresses social democracy specifically in his defence of basic income (Social Europe 11 April 2016). However, his answers are not very satisfactory.

Let me start with the easy point on which we fully agree: social assistance needs fundamental changes. Continue…

How to promote universal social protection and put ‘social commons’ into practice: the idea of political laboratories

It is easy to criticize poverty reduction policies, as it is obvious we have to put serious questions about targeting and minimalist ‘social protection’ systems. We defend and promote universal social protection and cannot be happy with liberal basic income proposals. Our alternative is a system of ‘social commons’, democratic and participatory, based on human rights and able to also protect societies.

The main question is: how to put this into practice? It is clear that all fundamental change, whether it is at the political, the economic, the social or the environmental level, will need other power relations. All over the world, the current elites still preach the neoliberal ideology, even if most of them know perfectly well this will never succeed in fulfilling its promises of growth, prosperity, let alone the sharing of wealth. Yet, this still is the formal discourse or ‘truth’ and many continue to say ‘there is no alternative’ (TINA). Continue…

Production and Commons: on the political potential of a commons approach for production and protection and the shaping of a better world

The world of work is changing. The European Union already has a very high unemployment rate, especially for its young people (respectively around 10 and 20 %). Moreover, the new technological revolution probably will destroy millions of jobs in the near future and consequently destabilize society. With the development of ‘on demand labour’ a general precarization is in the making.

The only answer so far given to these negative developments, is the emergence of new forms ow production and work: cooperatives, collaborative and sharing economy, self-managed enterprises, P2P, etc. coupled with a demise of social protection and the introduction of a basic income for all. While it is far from clear that these new modes of production and protection can mean a real alternative to the existing world of work, progressive forces should carefully examine their potential for the construction of ‘another world’. Continue…

‘What about Monsanto?’ Reflections on the future of work, transformative social protection and systemic change

The world of work is changing very rapidly. In the European Union, 11 million people are out of work, including 4.6 million young people.[1] World-wide, the ILO speaks of almost 200 million unemployed people and almost half of the total workforce, or 1.5 billion people are in vulnerable employment.[2] Governments are all in austerity mode and claim to have no other possibility than try and believe better skills and flexible labour markets will bring solutions.

Chances are minimal they will ever succeed. Continue…

Droits humains et communs sociaux: faux amis ou alliés indispensables?

(Conférence internationale à l’occasion du 30ème anniversaire de l’Institut des Droits de l’Homme, Lyon)

 

La protection sociale est aujourd’hui au centre de l‘attention politique. Il ne s’agit pas pourtant d’un renouveau de la pensée sociale, mais d’un projet politique néolibéral au service de l’économie. Il convient dès lors de la repenser et de redéfinir sa finalité. Dans un premier point, j’expliquerai que la protection sociale est un droit humain, au croisement de l’individuel et du collectif. Le deuxième point concerne une proposition pour redéfinir la protection sociale en termes de communs sociaux. En troisième lieu, il faudra se demander si ces communs, par définition collectifs, sont compatibles avec les droits humains. La réponse est positive, à condition de modifier le concept d’individu qui sous-tend les droits humains. Ainsi, quatrième point, il sera possible de faire de ces communs sociaux un projet d’avenir pour l’émancipation des individus et des sociétés. Continue…

The commons, social justice and systemic change

(Conferencia ‘Con todos y para el bien de todos’, La Havana, 25-28 de enero 2016)

We live in a paradoxical time. While, on the one hand, international organisations are promoting social protection in the South, on the other hand, existing welfare states are being dismantled in the North. However, there is in fact one single logic at work. What is being introduced in the North as well as in the South is a neoliberal social paradigm in which ‘social protection’ acquires a new meaning, different from what it was in the past. Hence, the North and the South are facing identical challenges and alternatives are urgently needed.

In this contribution, I want to first identify the major characteristics of neoliberal social policy. I then want to point to the difficult relationship the left has with social policies and welfare states. Third, while social policies certainly cannot be abandoned, the search for alternatives will have to take into account the needs of our times and of current generations. In the fourth section, I want to propose an alternative that uses the concept of the commons as an anti-systemic tool allowing to link up with the struggle for climate justice. Social commons, then, as I will explain, will be a transformative and emancipatory project promoting social and political agency, it will allow to defend the sustainability of life, of people, of society and of nature, while it can contribute to change the economic system.[1] Continue…

Social Commons and social transformation

In a remarkable essay on social movements in Latin America, published on ‘Upside Down World’ (http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index.php) Raul Zibechi states that social policies are ‘counter-insurgency policies, meant to tamp down on mass movement activity’.

It is not the first time I hear this. Many people think that most social policies are ‘assistentialist’, do not contribute to the constitution of social agents and only help to avoid revolutionary movements. This is far too generalizing. It explains why it is so difficult to put social justice on the agenda of leftwing social movements and parties.

I do not agree with this statement. Continue…