[D66] SYRIZA Proposal: The Exit from the Crisis on the Left

[Antid Oto]

[syriza (ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, pun ning on σύρριζα, sýrrhiza, meaning 'to the roots'), AO]



SYRIZA Proposal: The Exit from the Crisis on the Left
Posted: June 9, 2012 | Author: SOZ | Filed under: Economy, EU, Politics | Tags:
Syriza |2 Comments »
May 29, 2012

1. Cre­ation of a shield to pro­tect soci­ety against the crisis

• Not a single cit­izen without a guar­an­teed min­imum income or unem­ploy­ment
bene­fit, med­ical care, social pro­tec­tion, hous­ing, and access to all
ser­vices of pub­lic utilities.

• Pro­tec­tion of and relief meas­ures for indebted households.

• Price con­trols and price reduc­tions, VAT reduc­tion, and abol­i­tion of VAT
on basic-need goods.

2. Dis­posal of the debt burden

The national debt is first and fore­most a product of class rela­tions, and is
inhu­mane in its very essence. It is pro­duced by the tax eva­sion of the
wealthy, the loot­ing of pub­lic funds, and the exor­bit­ant pro­cure­ment of
mil­it­ary weapons and equipment.

We are ask­ing imme­di­ately for:

    * A morator­ium on debt servicing.
    * Nego­ti­ations for debt can­cel­la­tion, with pro­vi­sions for the
pro­tec­tion of social insur­ance funds and small savers. This will be pur­sued
by exploit­ing any avail­able means, such as audit con­trol and sus­pen­sion of
payments.
    * Reg­u­la­tion of the remain­ing debt to include pro­vi­sions for eco­nomic
devel­op­ment and employment.
    * European reg­u­la­tions on the debt of European states.
    * Rad­ical changes to the European Cent­ral Bank’s role.
    * Pro­hib­i­tion of spec­u­lat­ive bank­ing products.
    * A pan-European tax on wealth, fin­an­cial trans­ac­tions, and profits.

3. Income redis­tri­bu­tion, tax­a­tion of wealth, and elim­in­a­tion of
unne­ces­sary expenses

    * Reor­gan­iz­a­tion and con­sol­id­a­tion of tax col­lec­tion mechanisms.
    * Tax­a­tion of for­tunes over 1 mil­lion euros and large-scale revenues.
    * Gradual increase, up to 45%, of the tax on the dis­trib­uted profits of
cor­por­a­tions (SA).
    * Tax­a­tion of fin­an­cial transactions.
    * Spe­cial tax­a­tion on con­sump­tion of lux­ury goods.
    * Removal of tax exemp­tions for ship own­ers and the Greek Ortho­dox Church.
    * Lift­ing of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity for bank­ing and mer­chant
trans­ac­tions, and pur­suit of those who evade taxes and social insur­ance
contributions.
    * Ban­ning of trans­ac­tions car­ried out through off­shore companies.
    * Pur­suit of new fin­an­cial resources through effi­cient absorp­tion of
European funds, through claims on the pay­ment of Ger­man World War II
repar­a­tions and occu­pa­tion loan, and finally via steep reduc­tions in
mil­it­ary expenses.

4. Pro­duct­ive social and envir­on­mental reconstruction

    * Nationalization/socialization of banks, and their integ­ra­tion into a
pub­lic bank­ing sys­tem under social and work­ers’ con­trol, in order to serve
devel­op­mental pur­poses. The scan­dal­ous recap­it­al­iz­a­tion of the banks
must stop immediately.
    * Nation­al­iz­a­tion of all pub­lic enter­prises of stra­tegic import­ance
that have been privat­ized so far. Admin­is­tra­tion of pub­lic enter­prises
based on trans­par­ency, social con­trol, and demo­cratic plan­ning. Sup­port
for the pro­vi­sion of Pub­lic Goods.
    * Pro­tec­tion and con­sol­id­a­tion of co-operatives and SMEs in the social
sector.
    * Eco­lo­gical trans­form­a­tion in devel­op­ment of energy pro­duc­tion,
man­u­fac­tur­ing, tour­ism, and agri­cul­ture. These reforms will pri­or­it­ize
nutri­tional abund­ance and ful­fill­ment of social needs.
    * Devel­op­ment of sci­entific research and pro­duct­ive specialization.

5. Stable employ­ment with decent wages and social insurance

The con­stant degrad­a­tion of labour rights, coupled with embar­rass­ing wage
levels, does not attract invest­ment, devel­op­ment, or employment.

Instead, we are call­ing for:

    * Well-paid, well-regulated, and insured employment.
    * Imme­di­ate recon­sti­t­u­tion of the min­imum wage, and
recon­sti­t­u­tion of real wages within three years.
    * Imme­di­ate recon­sti­t­u­tion of col­lect­ive labour agreements.
    * Instig­a­tion of power­ful con­trol mech­an­isms that will pro­tect
employment.
    * Sys­tem­atic oppos­i­tion of lay-offs and the dereg­u­la­tion of labour
relations.

6. Deep­en­ing Demo­cracy: demo­cratic polit­ical and social rights for all

There is a demo­cratic defi­cit in the coun­try. Greece is gradu­ally being
trans­formed into an author­it­arian police state.

We are call­ing for:

    * The res­tor­a­tion of pop­u­lar sov­er­eignty and an upgrade of
par­lia­ment­ary power within the polit­ical system:
    * Cre­ation of a pro­por­tional elect­oral system
    * Sep­ar­a­tion of powers
    * Revoc­a­tion of min­is­terial immunity
    * Abol­ish­ment of eco­nomic priv­ileges for MPs
    * Real decent­ral­iz­a­tion to cre­ate local gov­ern­ment with sound
resources and expan­ded jurisdiction.
    * The intro­duc­tion of dir­ect demo­cracy and insti­tu­tions of
self-management under work­ers’ and social con­trol at all levels.
    * Meas­ures against polit­ical and eco­nomic corruption.
    * The solid­i­fic­a­tion of demo­cratic, polit­ical, and trade union rights.
    * The enhance­ment of women’s and youths’ rights in the fam­ily, in
employ­ment, and in pub­lic administration.

Immig­ra­tion reforms:

    * Speed­ing up the asylum process
    * Abol­i­tion of Dub­lin II reg­u­la­tions and grant­ing of travel papers to
immigrants
    * Social inclu­sion of immig­rants and equal rights protection
    * Demo­cratic reforms to pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion with the act­ive
par­ti­cip­a­tion of civil servants.
    * The demil­it­ar­iz­a­tion and demo­crat­iz­a­tion of the Police and the
Coast Guard. Dis­band­ment of spe­cial forces.

7. Res­tor­a­tion of a strong wel­fare state

Anti-insurance laws, the shut­down of social ser­vices, and the steep fall in
social expendit­ures under the Memor­andum have turned Greece into a coun­try
where social injustice reigns.

We are in need of:

    * An imme­di­ate res­cue of the pen­sion sys­tem, to include tri­part­ite
fin­an­cing and the gradual con­sol­id­a­tion of sep­ar­ate pen­sion fund
port­fo­lios into one pub­lic, uni­ver­sal sys­tem of social insurance.
    * A raise in unem­ploy­ment bene­fits until the sub­sti­tu­tion rate reaches
80% of the wage. No unem­ployed per­son is to be left without unem­ploy­ment
benefits.
    * The intro­duc­tion of a guar­an­teed min­imum income.
    * A uni­fied sys­tem of com­pre­hens­ive social pro­tec­tion cov­er­ing the
vul­ner­able social strata.

8. Health is a Pub­lic Good and a social right

Health care is to be provided for free and will be fin­anced through a Pub­lic
Health Sys­tem. Imme­di­ate meas­ures include:

    * Sup­port and upgrades for hos­pit­als. Upgrade of health infra­struc­tures
of the Social Insur­ance Insti­tute (IKA). Devel­op­ment of an integ­rated
sys­tem of first-level med­ical care.
    * Cov­er­ing the needs of med­ical treat­ment in both per­son­nel and
equip­ment, in part by stop­ping lay-offs.
    * Open and cost-free access to med­ical treat­ment for all res­id­ents in
the country.
    * Free phar­ma­ceut­ical treat­ment and med­ical exam­in­a­tions for
low-income pen­sion­ers, the unem­ployed, stu­dents, and those suf­fer­ing from
chronic diseases.

9. Pro­tec­tion of pub­lic edu­ca­tion, research, cul­ture, and sports from the
Memorandum’s policies

With regards to edu­ca­tion, we are call­ing for:

    * Con­sol­id­a­tion of uni­ver­sal, pub­lic, and free edu­ca­tion,
includ­ing cov­er­age of its urgent needs in infra­struc­ture and per­son­nel at
all three levels.
    * Com­puls­ory 14-year uni­fied education.
    * Revoc­a­tion of the Diaman­to­poulou Law.
    * Assur­ance of self-government for Universities.
    * Pre­ser­va­tion of the aca­demic and pub­lic char­ac­ter of Universities.

10. An inde­pend­ent for­eign policy com­mit­ted to the pro­mo­tion of peace

The capit­u­la­tion of our for­eign policy to the desires of the U.S. and the
power­ful states of the European Union endangers the country’s inde­pend­ence,
peace, and security.

We pro­pose:

    * A mul­ti­di­men­sional and peace-seeking for­eign policy.
    * Dis­en­gage­ment from NATO and clos­ure of for­eign mil­it­ary bases on
Greek soil.
    * Ter­min­a­tion of mil­it­ary cooper­a­tion with Israel.
    * Aid­ing the Cyp­riot people in the reuni­fic­a­tion of the island.

Fur­ther­more, on the basis of inter­na­tional law and the prin­ciple of
peace­ful con­flict res­ol­u­tion, we will pur­sue improve­ments in
Greek-Turkish rela­tions, a solu­tion to the prob­lem of FYROM’s offi­cial name,
and the spe­cific­a­tion of Greece’s Exclus­ive Eco­nomic Zone.

The incum­bent eco­nomic and social sys­tem has failed and we must over­throw it!

The eco­nomic crisis that is rock­ing global cap­it­al­ism has shattered the
illu­sions. More and more, people under­stand that cap­it­al­ist spec­u­la­tion
is an inhu­man organ­iz­a­tional prin­ciple for mod­ern soci­ety. It is also
widely acknow­ledged that that private banks func­tion only for the bene­fit of
the bankers, harm­ing the rest of the people. Big busi­ness and bankers absorb
bil­lions of euros from health care, edu­ca­tion, and pensions.

An exit from the crisis requires bold meas­ures that will pre­vent those who
cre­ated the crisis from con­tinu­ing their destruct­ive work. We are endors­ing
a new model for the pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­bu­tion of wealth, one that will
include soci­ety in its total­ity. In this respect, the large cap­it­al­ist
prop­erty is to be made pub­lic and man­aged demo­crat­ic­ally along social and
eco­lo­gical cri­teria. Our stra­tegic aim is social­ism with demo­cracy, a
sys­tem in which all will be entitled to par­ti­cip­ate in the decision-making
process.

We are chan­ging the future; we are push­ing them into the past!

We can pre­vail by for­ging unity and cre­at­ing a new coali­tion for power with
the Left as a corner­stone. Our strength in this endeav­our is the alli­ance of
the People: the inspir­a­tion, the cre­at­ive effort, and the struggle of the
work­ing people. With these, we will shape the lives and the future of a
self-governed people.

Now the vote is in the hands of the People! Now the People have the power!

In this new elec­tion, the Greek people can and must vote against the regime of
the Memor­anda and the Troika, thus turn­ing over a new page of hope and
optim­ism for the future.

For Greece and for Europe, the solu­tion is with the Left!

Ori­gin­ally trans­lated at left.gr
http://greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/syriza-proposal-the-exit-from-the-crisis-on-the-left/