We operate at European Union level and champion a vision for society as a whole: the Society of Agreement. It is a very ambitious project. Why are we doing this? Why aren’t we content with local grassroots initiatives?
The reasons are as follows:
- to have a tangible impact, actions towards social justice and environmental sustainability must move beyond the niche of those already convinced and scale up to match the considerable scale of the problems to be solved;
- In this scaling-up, these actions come up against the obstacles established by the current legal, economic and social system, built around the social contract of consumer society: submission to the existing order in exchange for the promise of material prosperity arising from the sharing of the fruits of growth. It was a contract that worked in the 20th century as long as we could maintain the illusion of a planet with unlimited resources – but which no longer holds true today, and which is locked in place by social inequalities and political fragmentation. These barriers are detailed below. This is why we must change it and remove these barriers;
- we only destroy what we replace: it is not enough to say ‘let’s change the system, not the climate’. Honesty requires us to describe, with precision, the new system with which we wish to replace the current one, and how, as in any social contract, everyone stands to benefit from it;
- given the effort required to adapt in order to profoundly change our society, relying on voluntary participation is not enough. Furthermore, it is morally unacceptable that some people exempt themselves from this effort, particularly on the pretext that they are rich or powerful. For this shift to take place, and for the barriers posed by social inequalities and political fragmentation to be removed, we must, when the time is right, rely on the power of the law, and therefore on the democratic public institutions that define and enforce it;
- we have made the effort to define this social contract, and we are taking it upon ourselves to implement it, because, much to our regret, none of the organisations whose remit this should be are doing so on our behalf.
The current system is locked in its destructive model for the climate and life due to the barriers listed below:
- Social inequalities (in income levels, income security, wealth and skills) constitute a triple barrier to the transition towards sustainability:
- the existence, at the bottom of the social ladder, of a precariat living in extreme poverty, in every country and on a global scale, is both the excuse and the condition of possibility for an unsustainable supply. The excuse, because only products and services produced by destroying natural capital—which our economic system regards as free (the climate, biodiversity, soil, and the physical and mental health of workers)—and which are therefore unsustainable, have a monetary price low enough to be affordable to this population. The condition of possibility, because only production carried out under conditions of indecent exploitation of these populations’ vulnerability is capable of supplying, on a massive scale, the flood of products at derisory prices that clutter our supermarkets before cluttering our cupboards and, ultimately, our rubbish bins;
- the existence, at the top of the social ladder, of a caste of the ultra-rich amassing huge fortunes, displaying their contempt for the law and for solidarity through taxation, and leading an obscene and destructive lifestyle, constitutes an unsustainable model of consumption even on the scale of the tiny minority that practises it – let alone for the world’s population;
- within the social hierarchy, the objective advantages created, in an unequal society, by social superiority (high and secure incomes, personal safety, de facto impunity, access to scarce goods and services such as education, ensuring its reproduction from one generation to the next), and the corresponding disadvantages of inferiority (low and precarious incomes, administrative and police harassment, summary justice, and the closure of prospects for improvement from one generation to the next), justify the race for conspicuous consumption. Each and every one relentlessly pursues, amidst fierce competition—a source of constant insecurity and stress—their quest for higher incomes, in order to demonstrate, through their consumption, their membership of the ruling class, or at the very least, their non-membership of the class of the dominated;
- Political fragmentation, particularly amongst the 27 Member States of the European Union, is the root cause of public powerlessness. Subjected by the wealthy and multinationals to a race to the bottom on social and fiscal standards, states find themselves stripped of their resources and unable to provide the social protection and basic public services expected by their populations. They are too weak to impose the fiscal, legal and regulatory reforms necessary to transform our societies towards social justice and environmental sustainability.
