ATALANTE
SOCIAL JUSTICE & ECOLOGY
ATALANTE is an international collective whose aim is to unite citizens of the world around two priorities: social justice and ecology.
ATALANTE’s presence in each country will ensure the defence and protection of this common foundation. Effective public authority will promote regulated capitalism, which will in turn provide the direction and framework for the actions of private stakeholders.
This collective responds to the absence of coordinated global governance which would put social justice and ecology at the heart of each government’s political decisions.
The free circulation of capital and the permanent competitive nature of activities between States encourages division and national egoisms. To beat your neighbour, you always have to go a bit further: fewer regulations, fewer taxes, fewer constraints.
This approach makes it impossible to fight against inequalities and the abusive exploitation of the planet and its resources. Without being anti-capitalists, we reject this headlong rush and are in favour of a better regulatory framework.
ATALANTE’s common foundation must serve as a basis for a renewed Europe and international cooperation. For new solidarity between peoples. Nothing is inevitable, so by joining our collective citizens can participate in determining the orientation of our societies.
Our motivation is simple: each child should benefit from the same opportunities for fulfilment and have the right to live on a healthy planet.
CONTEXT
The current health crisis is first and foremost a tragedy for those who have been affected at first hand. But it has also revealed the weaknesses of our societies to those who previously refused to see them: an increase in inequalities, a weakening in the three cornerstones of the welfare state (public services, social security and the right to work) and the complete absence of environmental awareness.
Born amidst the ashes of the social movements for Freedom of the 1960s and the fall of the USSR, the last forty years have been characterised by the development of neo-liberal ideology in nearly all countries. This rise in individualism, competition and power relationships has created its own normative space.
Whilst the State may have allowed the development of the Market, this does not mean that it is the State’s role to undertake its promotion. Indeed, the State should instead define limits by minimizing market excesses and by blocking its extension to areas such as Health and Education. Capitalism in its pure, neo-liberal form tends to transform Humankind (through work) and Planet Earth into mere consumable, replaceable objects. It is simply not sustainable to continue in this way.
Our movement is neither utopian, nor naive. We are not anti-capitalists and believe that regulated capitalism is possible. In fact, capitalism is just a tool and should be used with discernment and restraint. Neither do we believe that public authority should entirely replace private stakeholders in all areas: public power will only be fair and just if it is effective. However, this State model of justice that we so long to see doesn’t yet exist. The reactions of the various governments to the health crisis are proof of this: hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of billions (in many currencies) were used to save the economy and the system in its entirety. And yet just a few months beforehand, not even a fraction of these vast sums was available for the planet, health or education.
Of course, this financial and budgetary support for the economy is important because it meant that some people didn’t lose their jobs and that others were able to eat. But once companies appeal to the State for help, the State is entitled to demand compliance with social justice and environmental standards. This was not the case, or not sufficiently. It is a question of political choices. Choices will also be made to finance these deficits over the years to come. And this is why we owe it to ourselves to act now. To transform our anger into a constructive force and strive for a fairer world. We must unite our force so that ATALANTE’s common foundation (social justice and ecology) become our governments’ priority.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
“There is no lasting peace without social justice” Declaration of Philadelphia, May 1944
Every child, regardless of their country of origin and social background, should be able to enjoy opportunities to succeed and achieve fulfilment. The role of the State must therefore be to reduce and correct inequalities and not to further reinforce existing ones.
The fight against inequality is a necessary foundation for a fairer society, itself a prerequisite for the establishment of fair and just order.
ATALANTE’s action is only meaningful if it makes it possible to restore dignity and give hope to the most vulnerable amongst us.
We would like:
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To fight against material inequality
- increased taxation on high estates and inheritance
- increased taxation of large salaries
- a merciless fight against individual and corporate tax fraud. This will be achieved by the creation of a national and international register of capital ownership for improved transparency. Strict sanctions for “tax havens” will also help achieve these objectives
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A fight against education and health inequalities
- guarantee access to quality, emancipatory education
- ensure social diversity and restore meaning to the term “equal opportunity”
- guarantee access to treatment irrespective of age or location
- limit the increasingly influential role of the private sector, which only serves to accentuate inequality in treatment
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Review public and private work
- Social justice cannot be reduced to questions of redistribution alone. Work should also be reconsidered as a condition for human fulfilment and not simply as a constraint.
- Reassert the value of public service because it is the anchor of the Common Good
- Promote social capitalism: because companies have a much more extensive role to play than simply being a source of profit for their shareholders
Whilst we believe that these measures may bring about the advent of a fairer society, they are worthless if Humankind doesn't change its relationship with Nature.
ECOLOGY
Respect and harmony with Nature are possible answers in the quest for meaning that drives Humankind. But they are also and perhaps more importantly ways of thinking about future generations.
The current pandemic has highlighted the fact that economic imperatives very often take precedence over health imperatives, despite the warnings of numerous scientists. The same applies to the environment. If Humankind continues to ignore warnings, fails to change its behaviour, and doesn’t put an end to its exploitation of the planet and its resources, other catastrophes will follow in the wake of the most recent one.
Our battles for social justice and ecology are closely interlinked. They both require coordinated action by countries across the world to be effective. It will also be necessary to protect those countries and individuals most affected by this ecological transition.
Only ambitious public authority will be successful in overseeing this transition and providing the new direction and focus that we are waiting for.
We would like:
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Renewed public authority, driving ecological policies
- Tightening of the laws and the power of control exercised by States: we cannot rely on individual moral conscience alone, or on the denunciation of associations. The State must give itself the means to apply more restrictive environmental laws and to ensure that they are upheld.
- Greater repression against fraud
Orientation of savings and investments: if public finances will need to be allocated more towards environmental measures, governments can use incentives to encourage private stakeholders to take part in these large financing requirements.
- Protection of the most vulnerable against the background of environmental measures
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Considered and assumed ecological choices
- A global carbon tax to fight against climate change: its implementation will be an opportunity to readdress the offer and demand whilst taking the environmental cost into consideration
- Rapid and massive energy transition towards renewable energies
- Discontinuation of nuclear power: often wrongly presented as a green energy as it is not carbon-based, nuclear energy embodies a colossal human and environmental risk. Whilst its normal operations already create pollution (processing of nuclear waste, for example), accidents and mistakes are possible and catastrophic: Japan was nearly erased from the world map following the Fukushima accident in 2011.
- Increased numbers of sanctuaries: by protecting our forests, oceans, seas and mountains from the pollution caused by human activities, we can play a role in protecting biodiversity.
- Promote disarmament: in addition to its dramatic humanitarian consequences, the proliferation of weapons is an obstacle in the fight against resource management.