Our manifesto
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European, federal and regional elections will take place simultaneously in June 2024. The stakes are high as the scientific outlook for life on Earth becomes increasingly grim. As the IPCC writes in their last report, “there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all”. We believe such a future is still possible. But to secure it, we need to close the gap between a wealthy minority, who cause much environmental harm, and the majority of the population, who are confronted with the rising cost of living. Our goal is to build an economy that works for everyone, rebalances our relationship with nature and eliminates our negative impacts on communities and ecosystems in the Global South.
We therefore urge all Belgian political parties to design bold programs for all three levels of government. Programs that champion safety, fairness, well-being, resilience, justice and democracy for all.
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Well-being is a condition in which people are healthy and happy. This primarily depends on people's ability to comfortably meet their basic physical, psychological and social needs. Gross domestic product (GDP), on the other hand, is the main indicator for measuring economic output within a country. It includes all the goods and services we produce and consume irrespective of their social and environmental value or impact. Present politics remain largely focussed on growing GDP as a means to improve living standards. But beyond a certain point, increasing economic output brings more social and environmental damage than benefits. Many alternative indicators of progress have already been proposed and implemented in countries such as New Zealand, Finland and Iceland. Using such indicators will help our economies to serve the well-being of all. At the same time, strict policies should prevent economic development from degrading the ecosystems on which it relies, from exploiting people’s workforce and causing extra harm to communities in the Global South.
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If we do not want our lives to be disrupted by one natural disaster after another, we not only need to move away from fossil fuels. Also the use of raw materials and energy must be drastically reduced in the coming few years. Backed by recent scientific findings, we advocate for a 65% EU-wide reduction of natural resource use by 2050, as compared to 2020 levels. This brings us back to the share of resource use which everyone on Earth can consume without compromising global life conditions or depriving others from their own fair share. Limiting this use automatically reduces our country’s energy consumption as well as its ecological impact inside and outside of its borders. This is how we will stop our societies from further trespassing planetary boundaries and bring them back within a safe and just operational space. Next to climate change, the 9 planetary boundaries include biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, land use changes, nitrogen and phosphorus loads, freshwater use, atmospheric aerosol levels, chemical pollution and ozone depletion.
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There is no shortage of money for building a more sustainable society. The main problem is how the existing wealth is distributed and allocated, with huge inequalities and unsustainable investment decisions. As a first step to reorienting the economy we advocate for a minimum tax on all companies doing business in Belgium, with higher rates for companies with more environmentally and socially detrimental impacts, anywhere in the world. We also advocate for a progressive tax on total revenues from labor and capital. This will help reduce and limit excessive accumulation and concentration of wealth. And this will generate initial funding for improving and expanding welfare services, while reducing the oversized ecological footprints.
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We want to decommodify essential goods and services, enabling public stewardship and the fixing of maximum prices. Unprecedented public investment is necessary to ensure the accessibility, sustainability and high quality of public transport, housing, renewable energy, clean water, food production, healthcare, education, and cultural and social spaces necessary for living a good life. Everyone should have guaranteed access to these services, irrespective of their level of income.
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We advocate for a job guarantee: anyone willing should be able to find socially and ecologically useful work for a decent living wage. There is more than enough to do to achieve an ecological and just transition. Essential work like care, education, nature restoration, sustainable agriculture and food production, maintenance or public transport must be given the recognition it deserves. Emergency income for reskilling will allow for the phase-out of jobs in environmentally harmful sectors and the phase-in of sustainable jobs. Fairly sharing the necessary work to enable everyone’s access to it can furthermore bring about a working time reduction. This will help to reduce stress and free up time for friends, family, community and oneself.
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People are more than consumers. The political objective of growing our purchasing power should be replaced with providing the conditions for everyone to live decent and happy lives without overshooting the limits of our planet. Policies should be put in place to limit the promotion of ecologically and socially harmful consumption patterns. For instance, instituting a ban on advertisements encouraging such consumption patterns will help promote what really matters: building healthy and thriving communities.
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Our fellow human beings in the Global South already bear the consequences of an ecological catastrophe to which historically they contributed little. In the near and distant future loom unprecedented environmental impacts on communities and their living basis putting people at risk of forced displacement. We want international cooperation and solidarity, fair and environmentally sustainable trade deals, debt cancellations and reparations, as well as transfers of essential technological knowledge.
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Strict laws should curb the lobbying power of corporate interests. We advocate for a democratisation on the work floor: employees need to have a say on the transition of their companies and organizations. We want impactful citizens assemblies, organised and institutionalised by the governments and working closely with the social partners. This democratisation is needed to make the crucial decisions on which environmentally harmful sectors need to phase out at which pace, and which sustainable sectors need to grow. Absolutely everyone needs to be on board.