Obi's Manifesto for Green Party London EU Elections 2019
Obi_Live OLSXWatching
Obi_Live OLSXWatching
I have always voted Green since 1988 and then became an active member of the Green Party in 2015, as part of the Green Surge. I decided to join when I was one of the witnesses and recorded Caroline Lucas being arrested in 2013 Balcombe, when she participated in the Reclaim the Power demonstrations.
The year afterwards, in 2014, Baroness Jenny Jones was arrested at the same demo I was participating in with Occupy Democracy, when we discovered that Parliament Square had been declared "private property". So I knew that my political home was the Green Party.
I started my political activism with Occupy London in 2011 and realised that we cannot just be active on the streets, we also have to participate in the corridors of power.
The Disastrous Climate Change oncoming and the end point of Capitalism, producing 8 men who hoard the same wealth, as 3.5 Billion of the poorest on the planet, has ensured that the future threat will be more Shock Doctrine against the 99% and fascism gaining sway world-wide.
The only way we can mitigate the Climate Breakdown is to be part of the EU. A trading bloc of 500 million people. Reforming it from a neoliberal body of rampant Capitalism, into an eco-socialist Europe. As the Green movement know, you cannot have environmental justice, without social justice.
1. Brexit and staying in the EU.- Brexit is planned to make the UK into a zero tax paradise for the world's one percent. The only industries to be left will be Finance in the City of London and the manufacturing of weapons to sell to all and sundry. I will campaign for a People's Vote and to have Article 50 revoked.
2.From Arm Trade to 1 million climate jobs. According to the charity Save the Children,100,000 babies die every year due to the British involvement with selling weapons to all and sundry. Britain is the second biggest arms dealer in the world. We have the biggest arms fair and murder festival happening this September 2019, called the DSEI, which is kept quiet by the media. I will campaign to change the focus of the UK from weapons, to murder children, to the 1 Million Climate Jobs.
3. Human Rights - Recent events have shown the British Government's Hostile Environment have reduced the citizenship of non- white Britons, into second class citizens. I was first arrested, in 2012, when Occupy London joined a Save the Badgers demo that turned into an anti-BNP demo. That means I could be deported for being declared a Domestic Extremist. . The Tory pandering to fascism has to be stopped and I will be campaigning to stop these attacks. I will also campaign in ensuring that refugees are treated with respect, the same way we would want to be treated if we were in the same position.
4. I will campaign for an Ecocide Law, which would ban things like fracking. Ecocide is “loss or damage to, or destruction of ecosystem(s) of a given territory(ies), such that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants has been or will be severely diminished.”Ecocide is illegal during war, but legal otherwise.
5. Campaign for the EU Universal Basic income. This would primarily be funded by LVT (Land Value Tax), and the removal of Corporate Welfare. Guy Standing in 'The Corruption of Capitalism', "the UK corporate welfare is estimated to exceed £93 billion every year, of which direct subsidies and capital grants account for £14.5 billion: tax benefits £44 billion; transport subsidies (especially for rail companies) £315 billion; energy subsidies £3.8 billion: and benefits from public procurement £15 billion."
Bring about an EU wide Country by Country Reporting, which would be an effective force to make it worldwide. This would also mean that I will campaign for the closure of tax havens controlled by the UK and the EU. The Magic Money Trees do exist and there's one in the Cayman Islands.
2. Keep Council + Parliament surely? But the Commission is the equivalent of the civil service so I would be in favour of keeping it too but reforming it to protect it from the aggressive lobbying. The problem is that the Europarl and national goverments are in the majority conservative so the answer is to make the Commission more answerable to citizens.
I agree with Frank that it would be good to flesh out some of these. What about taxing kersone and putting a levy on frequent flyers to reduce aviation for 3? What about a People's Quantitave Easing to fund 4. Would be good to propose your course of action for number 5 too.
Great platform. Good luck!
Le 05/03/2019 à 13:39, Foxtrot Tango a écrit :
Dear Obi,
I wasn't aware that there was anything left of Occupy, but I have been out of touch since I closed the Runnymede Gazette more than two years ago. I miss the meetings at Drayton, and still fondly remember Chris Fursdon-Davies and others. I live in Shropshire, which doesn't help. But some comments;-
Firstly I wasn't aware that there were going to be any more EU Elections. If there are I, as a confirmed Leaver, will certainly be spoiling my ballot. A few million spoilt ballots will send a powerful message.
I loathe the arms trade, but the problem always is that embargoes are only effective if done multilaterally. Otherwise the equipment will likely be obtained from other sources. I well remember what happened when France embargoed the delivery of Mirage 1V's to Israel. The Israelis simply manufactured the plane themselves and, to add insult to injury, partially redesigned it (with some US assistance) to make a much better plane.
The structures of the EU are set in granite in a series of treaties (the last of which was Lisbon, the almost 200 page eulogy on neoliberal economics makes interesting reading!) and will not change in the foreseeable future. I have always been fiercely opposed to the supranational principle by which countries are handed down decisions which are unchallengeable by their governments, parliaments or courts. What infuriates me is when supporters of supranationalism start yapping about 'empowerment', 'localism' and 'democracy'. International co-operation should be on an intergovernmental treaty-by-treaty basis. I don't know if you have ever come across Count Nicholas von Coubndenhove-Kalergi … look him up. It will make your hair stand on end. One of his predictions was that the world of the future will be government by five or six continental or sub-continental megastates. That idea scares the daylights out of me.
Agree entirely with Proportional Representation. I have always been an STV man, which preserves the constituency system (with constituencies around the size of a US congressional seat), delivers a good reflection on the balance of voting, allows cross voting, and gives a decent chance to hard working independents and small parties.
I absolutely agree with a Green New Deal, but you need to flesh this out somewhat … a 10-15 year programme, or putting a solar roof on every building, wholescale transport electrification, tidal lagoons, zero emission housing, geothermal energy, and so forth.
As regards local issues being decide by the local people, I have long been an admirer of the Swiss constitution, where power is highly localised and there is mandatory referendum on demand. Our counties should become like cantons, and the entire locus of power residing with the people. The problem always is that many might yap about localism whilst being closet elitists. If you really and truly are a localist you take it warts and all (and there will be warts; the perfect system of human decision making is an eternal chimera)
I have a schizophrenic attitude towards fracking. Even given the sort of crash programme envisaged above we will still need gas in quantity into 2030 or so. The trouble is that we either frack or import from some fairly unsavoury places and have to factor in the added cost of shunting the damned stuff halfway round the planet. I suspect that at least some of the animus against fracking is anti-corporate … of which I absolutely approve.
I approve in principle of Universal Basic income. It could be funded be funded by LVT provided that was also scaled according to income. And of course, all corporations should be taxed according to their actual UK profits, and personal higher level taxation should be based on citizenship regardless of where that person was domiciled,
In all this monetary reform (I remember the efforts of Brian Leslie) seems to have dropped of the agenda of late. It needs to be put back on and loudly. Government capital spending, could be covered by issuing credits without borrowing … People's QE. A Green New Deal could not be financed without it. If you will the end then you have to will the means. Some years ago I presented a paper to the then Bromsgrove Group on public capital financing by carousel and which attracted some interest, although no-one picked up the idea and ran with it. I will forward that paper to you, if you want.
As regards Brexit generally you seem to be advocating the old notion of a Europe de Patries. That is not on offer. Indeed there are reportedly many in the EU who would prefer to see the UK out of the picture so that they can put the final capstones on their continental megastate,
Hope these thoughts are of use,
Cheers
Frank Taylor
From: putneydebate...@lists.riseup.net <putneydebate...@lists.riseup.net> on behalf of Obi_Live OLSXWatching <putneyde...@lists.riseup.net>
Sent: 04 March 2019 20:02
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Subject: [putneydebates2014] Obi's Manifesto for Green Party London EU Elections 2019
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