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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
(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…
(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…
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…
(Valdai Paper 2014): http://valdaiclub.com/publication/78440.html)
We live in a paradoxical time. While international organisations are currently promoting ‘social protection’ in third world countries, these same organisations, helped by the European Union and all national governments, are trying to dismantle the existing social protection mechanisms in Europe. What does it mean? What are the alternatives the left has on offer?
In this contribution, I want to propose a conceptual shift towards ‘social commons’ in order to focus on participatory and democratic decision-making, as well as on the collective dimension and the necessary protection of society itself. Social commons also allow for extending social and economic rights and for linking up with climate justice. They are transformative and contribute to systemic change: at the conceptual level through using feminist economic theory and an emphasis on ‘care’; at the practical level by changing power relations. Social commons are meant to preserve the sustainability of life. Continue…
Human Rights and the Common Good: why social protection is a ‘social commons’
Francine Mestrum* (2013)
Social protection has been put high on the international political agenda by the international development organisations. The ILO (International Labour Organization) has adopted at its International Labour Conference of 2012 a recommendation on ‘social protection floors’. UNDESA (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs), UNRISD (UN Research Institute for Social Development), UNICEF (UN Childrens’ Fund) and the World Bank have made their proposals for social protection programmes. The European Commission plans to introduce social protection in its development cooperation programmes. Many speak of ‘transformative’ social protection, though the meaning of this concept is different from one document to another. Continue…
