40 people took part in the working group on January 6th (from 4 to 6.45 pm), 18 of which intervened in the discussion, followed by a dialogue in order to reach the final decisions.
These points were stressed:
1. the elaboration and writing process should be an open one, in order to include the social actors, because a constituent process of the democratic Europe should involve large masses and their organizations;
2. the process should be transparent and each step should be decided in an open and democratic way, although the schedule should not ignore that the European elites want to re-launch the Constitutional Treaty and the social movements ought not to be found unprepared;
3. ‘our’ Europe is a common and open space, the borders of which are not the geographical or the so called ‘natural’ ones, but it is the result of the construction of a society built around the pacifist democratic, social, feminist, ecological, multicultural values which represent the content of the new citizenship;
4. the way through which we can build this kind of Europe is the civic integration, which is in clear contrast with the antidemocratic method followed by the governments during the 56 years of construction of EEC/EU, based on the market and on the capitalist economic relations, aggravated by the present neoliberal policies;
5. the Florence assembly was a good start, more progress should come from Athens, without deciding any deadline now, but by organizing some activities in order to deepen the elaboration and to make another step in the writing process;
6. the proposals agreed on in the working group are :
a) to prepare a text by using the reports and the related interventions, with some introductory notes to explain the intentions and the aims of the Charter, which can be discussed in the Frankfurt EPA (on Friday, March 3rd);
b) to organize a set of activities in Athens, also in cooperation with other networks, to present the accomplished work to the largest possible audience, to deepen with this audience the themes already covered in Florence, to discuss subjects ignored until now and subjects on which controversies exist among ourselves;
7. in particular, the following were suggested:
a) a first assembly (on Thursday morning, NB all the dates are tentative) in Athens, which could be divided, after a general presentation, in as many working groups as the sessions held in Florence, in order to inform people, to involve them, to deepen the results of the Florence assembly. The text, which will be prepared for Frankfurt (which of course will strictly follow the reports), will be very useful;
b) some seminars and c) ‘controversial tables’ (on Thursday afternoon )
sub b)
Some seminars on subjects which have not yet been discussed, or not thoroughly, such as, for example,
- the knowledge society, the capitalist integration of science and production (ITC, pharmaceutical industries, biotechnologies, and so on);
– macroeconomic policies to fight against the neoliberal strategies (BCE, stability pact...);
– the democratic management of the social commons to produce the public services in order to be granted universal rights ( and in general the question of how and what we should produce, and who decides what to produce);
– poverty and exclusion in West and Eastern Europe;
– the democratic life in the enterprises: the cooperative mood of production;
sub c)
Some ‘controversial tables’ on issues for which we don’t have consensus, for example, :
– terrorism/terrorisms: definitions, analyses, how to fight them;
– the defense of the peoples’ rights : UN, the international law and so on;
– self-determination and the human right of each single member of a community which aspires to self-determination; minorities in Europe and their rights to preserve their identities;
– Europe: the civic integration in contrast with the integration - better the non-integration - through national States;
– economic growth or alternative economy based on democratic management and ecological sustainability of the resources;
– casualization, basic income, democratic rights of the workers ;
– patriarchy, capitalism, equality, differences.
8. a final assembly (on Friday or Saturday ) in order to assess the work done and to decide the next steps and initiatives.
All the previous items are only first suggestions, which will be put in focus within the next days. The working group stressed the willingness to cooperate with other networks so to avoid repetitions and to strengthen seminars, tables and the two assemblies. Also, it was said that it would be very useful to give an important role to the Charter of Principles of another Europe in the Athens ESF.
9 January 2006
(ed. by Franco Russo)