Documents for the End Times?

Two documents came into my hands this weekend – both with “Agenda” in the title. The first, fresh from the press, was “The New Agenda” (Jan 2022) produced initially by some Italian groups preparing for a G20 summit on global public health and assisted by the indefatigable Riccardo Petrella whom I got to know in the 1980s when, as Head of the EC’s F.A.S.T. programme he invited me to join one of its working groups. I actually wrote a paper for him on the issue  of community power - and remember his interest in global water shortages which went on to become one of his many concerns. The last time I met him was in the mid90s at one of his sessions in Bruges which I heard about and was able to snatch a quick chat. He has since written several books, his latest being In the Name of Humanity 

“The New Agenda” (a link to which I don’t have access to) is a short and curious read – as you might expect from one which has gone through a convoluted collective process of drafting and approval and was of interest to me mainly because it is structured around power – comparing the belief system of “the dominants” with the struggles of “the people of the earth”.

It draws on the annual World Inequality Reports and this recent NATO report on scientific and technological trends from 2020-2040 which I had noticed but not read. And this reminded me that I had also downloaded (and not read) another important report Global Trends 2040 – a more contested world (US Office of National Intelligence) 

What’s important in such documents are the recommendations and this is how it concludes - 

The following actions should be prioritised here and now:

 At the level of the narratives of life, of ethics

Multiply and intensify meetings, happenings, videos, films, shows, articles..., denouncing the ethical illegitimacy, the criminal character, of the current policies of the dominants, especially concerning health, water, dignity, fraternity, biodiversity.

Let's stop the petitions and replace them with denunciations, appeals to the courts, appeals in defence and for the strengthening of the institutions of democracy, especially direct democracy.

It is time for a strong global “I accuse” campaign.

 

 In the field of knowledge and education:

a) abolition of patents on life and on artificial intelligence. The new "lords of life" own more than 120,000 patents! Without this abolition, the predation of life will only intensify and, consequently, the strategy of survival for the strongest will impose wars, exclusions, walls... No real “Other Agenda” could be put into practice

 

b) put the university back into public control both in teaching and in research and development (R&D). The University must be freed from submission to the interests of large private multinational companies

 

c)  encourage the education system, in all its forms and at all levels, to become a place of critical shared learning – (re)knowledge – of planetary ecocitizenship, in the wake of innovative experiences promoted, for example, in Quebec

 

 In the economic-industrial field

Given the deterioration of living and working conditions, it is necessary to broaden the rights of the world of work and to fight for workers' control of their work and the products of their work. The most effective way to do this is to regenerate a new role for public intervention, not only at the national level, but also at the continental and global levels. The world of health care comes to mind in particular. The republicanisation of the entire health industry, including the pharmaceutical industry, must be put back on the agenda.

Health must be reinvented as a global public good and service. Water, health and knowledge must become the first three pillars of the “global res publica”.

 

 In the financial field:

a) stop legalized criminal finance: i.e. outlawing tax havens; abandoning derivative products, which are real leeches on the real economy; managing tax evasion; financing illicit activities (drugs, arms trade...)

 

b) replace the World Bank and the IMF by the creation of a People's World Cooperative Mutual Fund aimed at reorienting finance towards the objective of life security for all members of the global community of the Earth. To this end, hundreds of civil society organisations should launch a citizens' movement for alternative global finance, building on numerous ongoing initiatives, by convening in 2025 an Earth Inhabitants Convention for a new global financial system

 

 in the political-institutional field

C Creation of a World Citizens Assembly for the Security of Global Public Commons (starting with water, seeds, health and knowledge). 

 The second report I’ve been looking at since I discovered it is the United Nations’ Our Common Agenda (Nov 2021) which came out just too late for mention in Petrella’s report – although its origin is in a UN resolution of September 2020. As you would expect from such a rich organisation, the report is well-written if not, indeed, glib

We are at an inflection point in history.

In our biggest shared test since the Second World War, humanity faces a stark and urgent choice: a breakdown or a breakthrough.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is upending our world, threatening our health, destroying economies and livelihoods and deepening poverty and inequalities.

Conflicts continue to rage and worsen.

The disastrous effects of a changing climate – famine, floods, fires and extreme heat – threaten our very existence.

For millions of people around the world, poverty, discrimination, violence and exclusion are denying them their rights to the basic necessities of life: health, safety, a vaccination against disease, clean water to drink, a plate of food or a seat in a classroom.

Increasingly, people are turning their backs on the values of trust and solidarity in one another – the very values we need to rebuild our world and secure a better, more sustainable future for our people and our planet.

Humanity’s welfare – and indeed, humanity’s very future – depend on solidarity and working together as a global family to achieve common goals. For people, for the planet, for prosperity and for peace. 

What follows is a very detailed and comprehensive list of recommendations – stretching to 86 pages (compared with “The New Agenda”s 29). 

Sadly, however, the power structure of the United Nations means that the report is not worth the paper it’s written on. Every country of the UN is led by elites who pay lip-service to this rhetoric but have interests and ideologies which lead them to sustained and total opposition to, and contempt for, the rhetoric. For the most part (as I know from my short experience of working for the World Health Organisation) the staff of its various bodies are well-intentioned if privileged liberals who have diplomatic status - meaning their jobs are sinecures and amongst their privileges are tax-free salaries and monthly entitlements to tax-free products. It’s easy being a liberal when life is easy.

Update; I wanted to check what, if any, critical reviews had been done of the UN document – and was delighted to find that the Trans National Institute (TNI) had last month made available this critical analysis The Great Takeover – mapping of multistakeholderism in global governance