Lexit – European Manifesto

Against the background of the alarming loss of democratic rights, dismantling of welfare states and privatization of public goods, the emancipatory forces in Europe need to propose workable, credible alternatives based on popular sovereignty to the current project of authoritarian neoliberal integration. That is why a Lexit (left exit) must be advanced as a tool to reclaim Democracy.

Read on here

Spain’s Podemos – neither left nor right?

Here is the manifesto of Podemos for the regional elections in Spain to be held May 24 2015 (Spanish)

Here is a translation of Podemos’ manifesto for the European elections in 2014.

European elections: radical manifestos

The Party of the European Left (EL) has called for the cancellation of a part of an odious debt for many countries of southern Europe as part of a platform of anti-austerity policies that member parties will promote for the European elections.

The call came at a Conference titled “Together we can put an end to debt and austerity problems in Europe” where economists, sociologists, politicians of the European Left, trade unionists and members of the social movements of more than 20 countries of Europe and Latin America joined forces.

During a 10 hour day of debate on April 10, they analysed the causes, targets, experiences and proposals in order to jointly prepare a social solidarity and united alternative economic policy for the left.

Electoral program of Italy’s Civil Revolution

A programme to govern Italy

We want to create a civil revolution to implement the principles of equality, freedom and democracy in Italy’s Constitution.

We want a “new direction” in economic and social policies, starting from the Mezzogiorno, an alternative to the inequity and corruption of the twenty years of Berlusconi, and the destruction of social and labour rights, and the environment that has characterized the Monti Government.

We want a Civil Revolution

• For a Europe of rights. Against a Europe of economic and financial oligarchies. We want a Europe that is independent from financial power and a democratic reform of its institutions. We are opposed to the Fiscal Compact that [will force us to] cut [Italian government] spending by 47 billion euros a year for the next twenty years, weighing on workers and disadvantaged groups, destroying welfare and other social provision, accentuating the economic crisis. The Italian public debt must be dealt with through equitable and radical economic policies, aimed at the development, starting with the ending of the high interest rate. Alongside GDP there must be an indicator that measures the social welfare and the environment;

• For the rule of law and a new anti-mafia policy that has as its ultimate objective not only the containment but the elimination of the Mafia, which must be hit in its financial structure and in its relations with other power structures, starting with politics. An all out struggle against organized crime, corruption, the restoration of the law on false accounting and the integration of environmental offences in the Criminal Code are necessary to deliver economic development;

• For secularism and freedom. We affirm the secular state and the right to self-determination of the human person. We are a culture that recognizes difference. We abhor femicide, we will oppose all forms of sexism and want gender democracy. We will oppose homophobia and we want recognition of the civil rights of individuals and couples, regardless of gender. We will oppose all forms of racism and are for the citizenship of all persons born in Italy and welcoming immigration policies;

• For jobs. We do not want a precariat. We stand for national collective agreements and for the restoration art. 18 [that states that workers cannot be fired without just cause and, if fired, can sue their companies to be reinstated] and for a law on representation and democracy in the workplace. We want to create jobs through investment in research and development, industrial policies that bring innovation to the production system and the green the economy. We want to introduce a minimum income for the unemployed and the unemployed. We want Italian wages to increase starting from measures to raise tax threshholds [for the lower paid] and exemption from taxation of the thirteenth annual payment. We want to defend health and safety in the workplace;

• For small and medium enterprises, artisans and agriculture. Must begin with a great revival process of the country, freeing business from organized crime, the stifling bureaucracy. There should be tax incentives for companies that invest in research, innovation and create permanent jobs. Excellence in Italian agriculture, fashion, tourism, culture, the green economy;

• For the environment. We should change the current model of development, which is responsible for climate change, an unlimited consuming of resources, poverty, inequality and wars. The greenfield land and the natural landscape should be protected, projects like the high speed train project, TAV, in Val di Susa and the bridge over the Straits of Messina, Sicily, should be stopped. So should the privatization of public services and other common goods, starting with water. Quality agriculture, free from GMOs, should be encouraged, biodiversity and the rights of animals protected. Jobs should be created through a plan for energy efficiency, development of renewable energy, protection of the land, and sustainable transport that cuts urban air pollution;

• For equality and social rights. We want to eliminate the property tax, IMU, on first homes, but extend it to commercial real estate, banking foundations and the church, and establish a wealth tax. We want to stop tax evasion and reduce the tax burden on medium to low incomes. We want to strengthen the public, universal health system and launch a support plan for people who are not self-sufficient. We affirm the right to housing and want to see the restoration of existing buildings. We want a cap on the highest pensions. We want to repeal the Fornero pension counter-reform, eliminating the serious injustices generated, starting with the question of “esodati” [Italians who retired during a kind of twilight period created by pension system reforms leaving up to 350,000 without a wage or pension].

• For knowledge, culture and free information. We affirm the universal value of schools, universities and public research. We want to ensure that each and everyone has access to knowledge, because only then you can be free and conscious citizens, restoring meaning to art. 9 of the Constitution, by enhancing training and research. We want to boost Italy’s cultural, historical and artistic heritage. We want a democratic reform of the information and broadcasting system that breaks with the subordination to the economic and financial power. We want a law on conflict of interest and the end of party control over the board of directors of RAI. We want free Internet access, free for the younger generation and broadband spread throughout the country;

• For peace and disarmament. We must restore the function of the army according to the letter and spirit of Article 11 of the Constitution, starting from the withdrawal of Italian troops engaged in overseas war. We want to see international cooperation and Europe must take action for peace and disarmament, in particular in the Mediterranean. Military spending must be cut, including the cancellation of the order for F35 fighter-bombers;

• For a new ‘moral question’ and another politics. We want the ineligibility of convicts or those indicted for serious or financial crimes, or crimes against the public administration. We want to eliminate politicians’ privileges, the daily allowance for MPs, impose a rigid cap on the remuneration of the regional councillors and introduce the two-term limit for parliamentarians and councillors. We want a new era of democracy and participation.

Rivoluzione Civile

Syriza [Coalition of the Radical Left], Greece

After the May 6 2012 general election in which the radical left party emerged as the second largest in Greece, Syriza launched five points that would form the basis of a government platform:

• Cancellation of pending bailout measures of further cuts to private sector wages and pensions.
• Cancellation of laws abolishing collective labour agreements.
• Abolition of MPs’ special privileges and immunity from prosecution as well as reform of electoral law.
• Immediate publication of the audit performed on the Greek banking system by BlackRock.
• An international auditing committee to account for public sector over-indebtedness, with a moratorium on all debt servicing until the publication of the audit findings.

For more on the party’s thinking, check out this interview with Nadia Valavani, a Syriza MP elected on May 6 for first time, Athens News

Check out an indepth video interview (subtitles) with leader Alexis Tsipras just days before the May 6 election here 

Also see various position statements by largest component of Syriza, Synaspismos.

Communist Party (KKE), Greece

Programme

Jean Luc Mélenchon, Left Front, France 

Candidate for France’s Presidential Election 2012

Unemployment strategy

• Cap on Interim and Temporary Workers: 5% of the workforce in large companies and 10% in small and medium size companies
• Ban on redundancies by firms who are making profits
• The right (of employees) of a veto over strategic decisions (including relocation of production abroad or plant closures) and a  right of employees to take over a company and run as a cooperative

Working time

Restoring the 35 hour week

Vocational training

Fund national and regional training

Purchasing power

Wages

– Minimum wage of 1,700 euros gross in 2012 and 1,700 euros net in 2017
– Maximum pay differential of 1 to 20 in all businesses

Welfare

• Minimum welfare payments linked and indexed to the Minimum Wage
•  Expansion of ‘social rights’ to 18-25 years

Competitiveness

Help for business development

• Public aid linked to ecological and social standards
• Promote cooperatives by reserving public contracts for them
• Replace poles (clusters) of competition by  “pole of cooperation”
• Creation of regional level publicly owned industrial clusters bringing together research activities of public and private sector
• Creation of a large public technological and industrial research body that allocates funds according to environmental and social criteria
• Replace gross national product ( GDP ) with a “composite index of human progress” (personal development, social cohesion , social justice, respect for the environment)

French and European protectionism

• Establishment of “ecological and social visas” on imports
• Return production by French firms to France

Pensions

Retirement

• Full pension at 60
• Repeal of 2010, 1993 and 2003 pension reforms
• Revaluation of pensions benefits to at least 75% of final salary
• Indexation of pensions to wages not prices
• No pensions below minimum wage
• Finance the above by taxes on dividends, stock options and an increase in employer contributions

Public debt

• Tax high incomes to pay the debt
• Oblige French financial institutions to hold government debt (bonds)

Tax system

• Creation of nine new tax brackets
• Move towards an income-based tax to fund welfare, the general social contribution
• Taxation of tax exiles

Tax loopholes and taxes on the rich

• Maximum rate of income tax of 100% for incomes above 360,000 euros per year
• Increase wealth tax and tax on capital income
• Removing the tax shield (boucle fiscal), which caps total tax liability at 50 per cent of income

Corporation tax

• Taxation of companies’ financial income
• Remove exemptions from payroll taxes that have proved ineffective
• Adjustments to corporate tax based on employment objectives, training and wages

Banking and finance

Banking

• Separation of savings banks and merchant banks
• Block flow of capital to and from tax havens
• Create a public ‘financial hub’ transforming policy and the criteria for lending

Finance

• Ban stock options
• Ban on rating agencies issuing ratings on governments
• Tax on financial investment income to fund housing and a ‘cooperative solidarity fund’ under the aegis of the UN
• Tax on tax exiles

Agriculture and fisheries

• New common agricultural policy based on the goal of food sovereignty and focusing production on domestic needs
• A National Ecological and Agricultural Transitional Plan that changes rules regarding development on the land, and rural planning and settlement to support young farmers and responsible farming

Education

Schools

• Compulsory education from 3 to 18 years
• Same nationwide curriculum for all until the end of the college

Teachers and education professionals

• Stop job cuts
• Recruitment plan that restores all posts cut since 2007
• Creation of school social worker posts
• New reform of teacher training
• Training in disability

University and Research

• Repeal of the law on the Liberties and Responsibilities of the Universities that introduced managerialism and private funding and influence into the
• Students – Increase scholarships

Youth

• Early Childhood – Right to education from 2 years
• Apprenticeships – Increase by 50% investment in state vocational education
• Help for young – Creation of a young persons allowance

Housing

• Construction of 200,000 social housing units per year for five years
• Legal action against mayors not applying the solidarity and urban renewal (SRU) law on social housing
• Freeze/ lower rents

Land

Requisition of vacant units and ‘mobilization plan’ for empty homes

Health

• 100% reimbursement of health expenses (including abortion)
• Creating a publicly funded drugs pole
• Protecting state medical aid
• Axing regional health agencies
• Introduce a constitutional right to abortion
• Hospitals:  Repeal the reform establishing tariffs; Repeal of the Act of July 5, 2011 on Psychiatry (creating care in the home without consent)
• Shortage of medics – Removal of supply restrictions to boost the number of students

Help at the end of your life

Introduce in the Constitution, the right to “determine one’s own end and be assisted when one decides”

Family Law

Parent Families – Right to marriage and adoption for homosexual couples

Discrimination & Equality

• Restore the independent High Authority for the Fight against Discrimination and for Equality,
• Annual review of discrimination
• Overhaul of the Labour Code and the definition of sexual harassment
• Framework law to combat violence against women
• Establishment of a Ministry of Women’s Rights and Equality
• Disability: Reforming the law of disability February 11, 2005 by incorporating the definition of disability given by WHO; State based plan to create ‘all necessary facilities’

Culture

Creation of the National Media Council

Piracy and Internet

• Repealing of the Hadopi internet copyright law and creating a public download platform
• Initiation of consultation to ensure the rights of artists, writers and performers via a contribution from service providers, telecommunications operators and advertisers

Sport

• Compulsory physical education from kindergarten to university, 3 to 5 hours per week
• Increase the budget of the Ministry of Sports to 1% of state budget
• National Emergency Plan for construction and renovation of sports facilities

Institutional system

French institutions

Passage to a Sixth Republic, adoption of the Constitution by referendum

Elected officials and ministers

• Reform the status of head of state to be subordinate to Parliament
• Creating a new statute for local, national and European elected politicians
• Removal or thorough reform of the Senate
• Accumulated mandates limited in number and in time

Electoral system

• Proportional voting system in all elections
• Voting rights for foreigners in local elections
• Insert in the Constitution the principle of participatory democracy

Public service

• Improve job security for 800 000 civil servants on casualised labour contracts

Justice – Police

Police and gendarmerie

• Repeal of the Loppsi law that censors the Internet and “draconian security laws”
• Abolition of the security laws which allow derogation from the principles of the 1945 law on juvenile delinquency
• Creation of a National Violence Observatory that studies, promotes and evaluates policies

Overseas departments

• New model of endogenous development breaking with the current model of dependence
• Reform of local taxation

Secularism

Abolition of the Concordat

Environment & Energy

Taxes and antipollution penalties

• Mileage tax on goods transport at European level, allocated to a fund responsible for financing social development and environmental policies
• Creation of an international court of climate justice under the aegis of the UN

Development of clean technologies

• Creating a national centre for public transport to develop free public transport utilities
• Development of rail and maritime sectors

Energy

• Referendum on Nuclear energy
• Creation of a large public water utility
• Creating a public energy pole comprising EDF, GDF, Total and Areva
• Moratorium on all energy deregulation policies, repeal of the New Organization of Market in Electricity”  NOME law of 2010 which opens the electricity market to competition

Renewable energy

Development of geothermal and “massive funding effort” to diversify energy sources

 International policy

International Representation

• UN reform and establishment of a new hierarchy of international standards, founded on the primacy of social and environmental standards
• Debt cancellation for poor countries and establishment of a solidarity fund for cooperation under the UN-sponsorship, financed by a financial transactions Tobin tax

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Recognition of Palestinian State

Defence

• Withdrawal from NATO
• Withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan
• Denuclearization and multilateral disarmament and controlled all types of weapons

Europe

European institutions

• To introduce more democracy and environmental issues in European Institutions
• New treaty adopted by referendum in France, withdrawal from the Lisbon Treaty
• Decrease in the Commission’s powers in favour of Parliament

European economy

• Consolidation of statutes and missions of the European Central Bank that would finance a European social development, solidarity and ecology fund that will replace the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) established in May 2010
• Possibility for central banks to contribute directly to the financing of goods and public services

Immigration

Legal immigration

• Restoring single card of 10 years and right to family reunification [explain]
• Establishment of a residence citizenship
• Full and automatic right of the soil from birth
• The right to naturalization beyond five years of residence
• Facilitation of rights for women who are victims of violence

Illegal immigration

Regularization of all undocumented workers

Sources: Including Le Monde

Spain’s United Left 

Programme for November 2011 national legislative elections – ‘Economic Revolution’

•  Cut taxes on incomes below Euros 21,000, increase taxes on profits by banks, big companies and financial transactions, reinstate tax on assets (impuesto de patrimonio) and introduce tax penalties / incentives for green business activities
• Push back plans to cut deficit to 3% to 2016 as intermediate demand, with ultimate aim to reject the Euro Pact public deficit ceiling
• Reject bail-out of failing private banks and nationalise failing banks as part of plan to create a public banking system that directly funds small businesses
• Create a public banking system with social and economic development objectives. This will be banned from speculative activities or use of tax havens and will be controlled democratically
• End the black economy by boosting resources for the tax inspectorate, banning use of tax havens backed up by prosecution for infringers, removal of Euros 500 notes and introduce controls by the tax authorities of all cash transactions above Euros 1000
• Boost the real economy by better public administration payment terms for small and medium size businesses, upgrading dwellings, investing in reforestation and other parts of the natural environment, invest in labour intensive infrastructure projects and  job creation schemes, particularly for the young, funded by discounts on social security contributions linked to employment with permanent contracts
•  State must increase its role in the economy, not just to save failing private enterprise, and “correct” market failures, but on a permanent basis, in order to renationalise privatised companies, boost welfare and the efficiency and capacity of public services
• Change the model of labour relations including reversal of recent hire and fire labour reforms, reintroduce the primacy of collective bargaining, regularise all types of employment contract, cut the working week (to 35 hours) and impose limits on overtime, reduce the retirement age, boost the minimum wage and introduce a maximum wage
• Democratise the economy, including empowering workers to participate democratically in the economic planning and management of companies
• As part of changing the new productive model, green the construction and tourism sectors, and focus on agriculture as a strategic sector that is ‘productive, sustainable and social’
• Boost domestic public and private consumption, reinstating the role of the public sector in the economy
• As well as prioritising the creation of jobs, protect the unemployed, by offering free public transport and ending cuts to essential services such as heating, electricity, water
• Put in practice constitutional rights to a “dignified dwelling” including by stopping home repossessions/evictions

More on United Left’s proposed Seven Revolutions here (Spanish) 

Left Party (Die Linke), Germany

Link to 2009 manifesto

Link to English pages of Die Linke website

Communist Party, Portugal

Link to 2010 Programme 

Link to English pages of PCP website

Left Bloc, Portugal

Link to 2010 manifesto (Portuguese) – English synopsis pending

Federation of the Left (Communist Refoundation/Party of Italian Communists), Italy

Politics and democratic system

Defence of the Italian Constitution and for it to be put into practice in full, including all the commitments within its fundamental principles: genuine equality, centrality of work, individual freedoms, the need to remove obstacles that limit the full exercise of rights for men and women

Against federalism, for the prerogatives of the nation state and for a Republic of autonomous regions, provinces, communes to unite the country not divide it

Restore the central role of elective assemblies, providing them with significant decision-making powers that have been transferred to executive bodies and the their ‘leaders’

For a proportional electoral system at all levels to restore debate over political ideas and projects and to assure that the plurality of Italian opinion is represented which is a  democratic value for all, not just the Left

To permit the freedom of information and to be informed with a law on conflict of interest, against a TV oligopoly and for the freedom of journalists with respect to the owners of the mass media

To reform political parties giving substance to the right of citizens to freely associate to participate democratically in political life, as guaranteed by the Constitution

For the widest possible participation in the democratic life guaranteeing social actors’ participation in the public decision-making and reducing the obstacles to holding referendums and laws relating to popular initiatives

Economy, jobs, growth 

State intervention in the economy on the basis of an economic development plan that aims to achieve full employment and territorial rebalancing and that calls for public production of collective goods, from research, to the protection of the environment, to planning free from speculation to sustainable transport and the care of people

Tax policies that tackled evasion and avoidance, based on progressivity, that transfer taxation away from work to capital and (financial) income: to distribute wealth in favour of families and working classes and which sustain policies for jobs and social goals

Employment legislation that tackles precarious forms of work, with aim to promote full time permanent contracts and thus abrogating laws that promote casualisation, starting with the public sector, the vast numbers of workers in subordinate employment relations that are categorised falsely as self-employed

Specific policies to promote employment among women, which in Italy is the lowest in Europe

Defence of jobs with a law that introduces a temporary stop to redundancies and stops offshoring

Introduce a statutory minimum wage for those workers not covered by collective agreements and linked to existing nationally agreed rates in such a way as to guarantee dignity and tackle the phenomenom of working poor

A statutory minimum income for the unemployed and seasonal workers

Boost wages, pensions including through index linking

Extension to migrant workers the same rights as Italian citizens, campaign against gang masters and the exploitation of non-EU citizens, abrogation of the Bossi-Fini law, regularisation of migrants who report working in the black economy, an immediate amnesty for those who are already working in the country

Right to a decent pension, topping up through general taxation any consequent deficit in the existing pension scheme and increasing pensions so that the elderly are guaranteed a sufficient income

Concerted campaign against workplace accidents, boosting controls, penalties and legal sanctions for employers who do not respect workplace safety

A law that guarantees workplace democracy

Create a public credit ‘pole’ that via ownership or control of banks with strategic importance guarantees the protection of the savings of families and their use for productive investments in the the public and private sector instead of financial speculation that massively enriches a few small number of people and damages the great majority of savers and citizens

Tackle the Southern Question by affirming the principles of national unity, democracy and state intervention in the economy  and so make use of the human, cultural and environmental resources of the South via national policies including the use of our proposed public credit pole to invest in the South with one aim to fight organised crime.

Women

Forty years since the feminist revolution, the balance of social, economic and symbolic power between the sexes remains strongly against women…Women are the victims of male violence, in the home and in society more widely….rape often is not recognised on an equal footing to other forms of violence…the fundamental right of a woman to control her own body is undermined when not outright denied…women are exploited in the economic, political and cultural sphere…the casualisation of employment and cuts in the welfare state directly affect the freedoms of women…

We are committed to fight against any form or patriarchy and so that women can freely control their bodies and have full rights to equality in the family, society and at work

Environment 

Only state intervention in the economy can create the conditions for a ecological transformation of the productive system and project life on the planet that is being destroyed by indiscriminate exploitation for private gain. A new productive and consumer model but be based on the limits of a sustainable society and the idea that natural resources are a common good not commercial goods at the service of private profit

Oppose Nuclear energy, support renewable energies, back European rules on emission reductions

For ecological transformation of the refuse system following the objective of zero refuse

Food – For food sovereignty and support for small farmers and farm workers, organic farming, rejection of GM foods, protection of bio-diversity, agricultural land and rural environment

Public Services and Housing

Opposed to privatisation and right of Italian people to maintain water, energy and other ‘common goods’ and services in public ownership

Right to housing and full access to urban spaces via different forms of social and public ownership and intervention

Education and culture

Schools

Opposed to the privatisation of education and cuts, for raising spending to at least the European average with this new investment to go to public eduction only and not private schools that have been receiving large amounts of public funds in recent years

Expand pre-school provision to the whole of Italy, and in particular the South where there is very little provision

Boost education for disabled

Guarantee education to children of migrants

University 

End privatisation of university and research

End fees for low income families, and reduce them for working students

Boost spending on research to close gap with European average and make up for low spending by private sector

Combat casualisation of teachers and lecturers’ employment conditions

Human Rights. Religion, Church and State

End the Concordat and privileges of the Church

Protect rights of people who are discriminated on grounds of ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation/identity, belief, religion, disability

Legalise same sex marriages

End explosions, recognise migrant rights, close detention centres and replace them with structures that aim to integrate migrants into society

Right to vote in local elections extended to resident immigrants and introduction of principle of  jus soli  – granting citizenship to those born on Italian soil

Procreation, life and death should be an individual choice

Peace, disarmament 

Withdraw from Nato which should be dissolved

Unilateral withdrawal of Italian troops fro Afghanistan and move towards the establishment in the country of  a political alternative under UN control replacing military with civilian commitment. Spend Euros 550 million a year on cooperation, support for the peace process and assistance to the population

Closure of foreign bases in Italy and abrogation of Cold War era secrecy and prorogatives that are not subject to parliamentary scrutiny

Immediate end of US blockade of Cuba

Peaceful solutions to conflicts around the globe, including in Palestine, Kurdistan, Western Sahara, Colombia, Mexico etc

Abolition of EU’s ‘list of terrorist organisations’

Israel-Palestinian peace must involve end of Israeli Occupation of Palestinian lands, be on the basis of ‘two peoples two states’; dismantling of Israeli settlements, lifting of Gaza embargo; the Federation of the Left stands beside the Palestinian people in its struggle for the right to self-determination as under repeated UN resolutions

Opposition to an attack on Iran, which ‘would be devastating with unimaginable consequences’; a negotiated solution of the dispute requires a renounciation of nuclear arms throughout the region, including Israel. This would the first step towards the destruction of all the nuclear stockpiles worldwide. For a denuclearised planet.

Europe

A social and democratic refoundation of the European Union on bases opposed to the monetary and neo-liberal policies imposed to date

Substitute the Stability Pact with a pact for full employment and the social & environmental transformation of economy

Socialisation of the financial and banking system, with public control over credit

Redefinition of the role of the European Central Bank which must be put under democratic control

Harmonisation of the tax systems of European states, based on the principle of progressive taxation

A European plan for bringing back into public ownership services and industries that have been privatised with priority given to ‘common goods’ and essential public services like education, health, water, energy and transport

Introduction of the Tobin Tax (AKA Robin Hood tax) taxing speculative capital movements and the abolition of tax havens

A plan for full employment funded by the receipts of taxation of financial speculation and income (rendita)

A block on redundancies and offshoring; companies which receive state support must not fire or use these funds for offshoring

A minimum European wage and income

The current institutional framework of the European Union does not permit the realisation of the above objectives with treaties giving effective power to governments, technocrats, bureaucrats unaccountable to European peoples, thus we need a profound change that sweeps away the Europe of bankers and multinationals to build a social, democratic and popular Europe.

Opposition to the Fiscal Compact and for a referendum in Italy on the matter

Link to 2010 Political Document (italian) – English synopsis pending