For a democratic and serene transition towards sustainable and desirable societies

‘Without a minimum of resources, the new citizen cannot fully enjoy the republican principles of liberty, equality and fraternity”, Thomas Paine declared in 1792. But, two centuries later, this idea has not caught on. Basic goods are not accessible to all: housing, food, clothing, energy and drinking water, education, heath, conviviality. Regardless, our societies that have never been so prosperous insist on an always-greater wealth accumulation to realise this ideal. What if solving inequalities did not rest upon this exponential growth?

Through a critique of Growth society, development, capitalism and productivism, growth objectors offer an economic, social and emancipatory tool, enabling people to avoid the effects of the recession without always resorting to more growth. The Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA), coupled with a Acceptable Maximum Income, is an enabling tool for getting out of the deadly impasse this Growth society leads us into.

Beyond being a simple corrective measure, the UAA is designed to trigger dialogues and debates on what “living together” and how we create “more links” without creating more “goods” really means.

This Manifesto for an UAA begins with the origins of Degrowth and proposes pathways and food for thoughts with the potential to initiate a serene and democratic transition towards ecologically sustainable and socially just societies.

That is why the manifesto is a Degrowth project.

Vincent Liegey, StéphaneMadelaine, Christophe Ondet, and AnisabelVeillot, (2013), A Degrowth Project, Manifesto for an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA), Utopia.

After more than one and a half month of battle against the project of Notre Dame des Landes[1], about 140 support collectives opposing the airport project have sprung up in France. French Prime Minister Ayrault’s government asserted that the opponents were defending a vision that was not shared. But more and more people are convinced that the actual system is deadly and that we need to change it urgently.

NDDL(Notre Dame Des Landes) has become a federalising catalyzer that creates far-reaching networks. Sometimes we hear of “war”, ‘guerilla” when people talk about it…. But no one wants to play war games. Everyone wishes for peace… What is opposed at Notre Dame Des Landes, as with all the Imposed Useless Major Projects is a unilateral vision for the future, conceived by a minority for a minority… constituting many hurdles to a collectively-built future. Their world is agonising and we won’t succumb to the idea that they take us down with us into oblivion…

Today’s responsible citizens are those who defend a collective interest, resist, fight against the IUMP, and build alternatives everysinlgeday and re-invent tomorrow in a positive manner. Everywhere around the planet, in rural and urban environment alike, local initiatives are multiplying.

In a “democracy” such as ours, to enact violence against the system reinforces it. Our resistance can only be a non-violent one. Lets’ endorse change and multiply collective and local citizens’ initiatives, as bastions of disobedience to the injunctions of the dominant model. Even if they are still a minority, none can be discarded, since “ the essential is to trigger and reinforce in a sustainable manner new fields of resistance in order to create a power balance favourable to their sustainability”.[2]

Let’s chose resistance wholeheartedly because analyses, ideas, tools and practical initiatives abound. We just need to converge and give to each and everyone the courage that comes from knowing that we are many.

“Being optimist is a battle”. Eric-EmmanuelSchmitt

French Degrowth Party
PPLD- Parti Pour La Décroissance

Published in LesZindigné(e)s!.

Introduction

Presented by many as the solution to reduce inequalities, the minimum wage at € 1700 has all the makings of a false good idea: at first, it looks obvious, but on reflection it becomes an aberration, from an economic and environmental standpoint as well as from a political and cultural one.

Firstly, lets revisit the meaning of the SMIC, which is totally inscribed in the logic of our capitalist, productivist society: Minium Inter-professional Growth Wage… the name says it all, but lets’ go further.
Growth Objectors (Objecteurs de Croissance) are fundamentally opposed to this suicidal logic of unlimited growth. There are equally opposed to the accounting view of our lives that this increase of the minimum wage implies.

Increasing the minimum wage means an increase in the money supply, therefore the production, the exploitation of reified resources. It also means the will to prolong a system, that is neither sustainable nor desirable, by making it less unfair. It amounts to make a system socially acceptable even though it is doomed.

Let’s be clear: the Growth Objectors do not deny the right to the less wealthy to fulfil their needs but they propose that we get out of the capitalist economics and productivism to achieve a real autonomy and a good life for all. Autonomy; that is the re-appropriation of the meaning we want to give our lives.

1. An economic aberration

“Once the last tree is felled, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught, only then will you realise that money can’t be eaten” an Amerindian.

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Published in Moins!, the swiss journal about political ecology.

Over the last few years the idea of a living or basic income has been the object of more and more debates. Nevertheless it is quite difficult to make sense of it in view of the plethora of names referring to it and the ideas they entail; even more if we follow the history of this proposal, a basic income has been endorsed by some neo-liberals. Thus, Milton Friedman intended to attribute a set amount of money to the “certified poor”.

What is the Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA)?

At the heart of the propositions of some Growth objectors, the Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA) is shaping up as a social and economic tool able to initiate a democratic and serene transition towards societies based on Degrowth, caring for Nature and humans, sustainable and above all desirable.
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