http://socialistviewpoint.org/julaug_16/julaug_16_24.html
Leap Manifesto
A call for Canada based on caring for the Earth and one another.
We start from the premise that Canada is facing the deepest crisis in
recent memory.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has acknowledged shocking
details about the violence of Canada’s near past. Deepening poverty and
inequality are a scar on the country’s present. And Canada’s record on
climate change is a crime against humanity’s future.
These facts are all the more jarring because they depart so dramatically
from our stated values: respect for Indigenous rights, internationalism,
human rights, diversity, and environmental stewardship.
Canada is not this place today— but it could be.
We could live in a country powered entirely by renewable energy, woven
together by accessible public transit, in which the jobs and
opportunities of this transition are designed to systematically
eliminate racial and gender inequality. Caring for one another and
caring for the planet could be the economy’s fastest growing sectors.
Many more people could have higher wage jobs with fewer work hours,
leaving us ample time to enjoy our loved ones and flourish in our
communities.
We know that the time for this great transition is short. Climate
scientists have told us that this is the decade to take decisive action
to prevent catastrophic global warming. That means small steps will no
longer get us where we need to go.
So we need to leap.
This leap must begin by respecting the inherent rights and title of the
original caretakers of this land. Indigenous communities have been at
the forefront of protecting rivers, coasts, forests and lands from
out-of-control industrial activity. We can bolster this role, and reset
our relationship, by fully implementing the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Moved by the treaties that form the legal basis of this country and bind
us to share the land “for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and
the rivers flow,” we want energy sources that will last for time
immemorial and never run out or poison the land. Technological
breakthroughs have brought this dream within reach. The latest research
shows it is feasible for Canada to get 100 percent of its electricity
from renewable resources within two decades;1 by 2050 we could have a
100 percent clean economy.2
We demand that this shift begin now.
There is no longer an excuse for building new infrastructure projects
that lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. The new
iron law of energy development must be: if you wouldn’t want it in your
backyard, then it doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard. That applies
equally to oil and gas pipelines; fracking in New Brunswick, Quebec and
British Columbia; increased tanker traffic off our coasts; and to
Canadian-owned mining projects the world over.
The time for energy democracy has come: we believe not just in changes
to our energy sources, but that wherever possible communities should
collectively control these new energy systems.
As an alternative to the profit-gouging of private companies and the
remote bureaucracy of some centralized state ones, we can create
innovative ownership structures: democratically run, paying living wages
and keeping much-needed revenue in communities. And Indigenous Peoples
should be first to receive public support for their own clean energy
projects. So should communities currently dealing with heavy health
impacts of polluting industrial activity.
Power generated this way will not merely light our homes but
redistribute wealth, deepen our democracy, strengthen our economy and
start to heal the wounds that date back to this country’s founding.
A leap to a non-polluting economy creates countless openings for similar
multiple “wins.” We want a universal program to build energy efficient
homes, and retrofit existing housing, ensuring that the lowest income
communities and neighborhoods will benefit first and receive job
training and opportunities that reduce poverty over the long term. We
want training and other resources for workers in carbon-intensive jobs,
ensuring they are fully able to take part in the clean energy economy.
This transition should involve the democratic participation of workers
themselves. High-speed rail powered by renewables and affordable public
transit can unite every community in this country—in place of more cars,
pipelines and exploding trains that endanger and divide us.
And since we know this leap is beginning late, we need to invest in our
decaying public infrastructure so that it can withstand increasingly
frequent extreme weather events.
Moving to a far more localized and ecologically-based agricultural
system would reduce reliance on fossil fuels, capture carbon in the
soil, and absorb sudden shocks in the global supply—as well as produce
healthier and more affordable food for everyone.
We call for an end to all trade deals that interfere with our attempts
to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging
extractive projects. Rebalancing the scales of justice, we should ensure
immigration status and full protection for all workers. Recognizing
Canada’s contributions to military conflicts and climate change—primary
drivers of the global refugee crisis—we must welcome refugees and
migrants seeking safety and a better life.
Shifting to an economy in balance with the earth’s limits also means
expanding the sectors of our economy that are already low carbon:
caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media.
Following on Quebec’s lead, a national childcare program is long past
due. All this work, much of it performed by women, is the glue that
builds humane, resilient communities—and we will need our communities to
be as strong as possible in the face of the rocky future we have already
locked in.
Since so much of the labor of caretaking—whether of people or the
planet—is currently unpaid, we call for a vigorous debate about the
introduction of a universal basic annual income. Pioneered in Manitoba
in the 1970’s, this sturdy safety net could help ensure that no one is
forced to take work that threatens their children’s tomorrow, just to
feed those children today.
We declare that “austerity”—which has systematically attacked low-carbon
sectors like education and healthcare, while starving public transit and
forcing reckless energy privatizations—is a fossilized form of thinking
that has become a threat to life on earth.
How we can pay for all of this? Read “How Can We Afford The Leap” by
Bruce Campbell, Seth Klein, and Marc Lee3
The money we need to pay for this great transformation is available—we
just need the right policies to release it. Like an end to fossil fuel
subsidies; Financial transaction taxes; Increased resource royalties;
Higher income taxes on corporations and wealthy people; A progressive
carbon tax; Cuts to military spending. All of these are based on a
simple “polluter pays” principle and hold enormous promise.
One thing is clear: public scarcity in times of unprecedented private
wealth is a manufactured crisis, designed to extinguish our dreams
before they have a chance to be born.
Those dreams go well beyond this document.
We call for town hall meetings across the country where residents can
gather to democratically define what a genuine leap to the next economy
means in their communities.
Inevitably, this bottom-up revival will lead to a renewal of democracy
at every level of government; working swiftly towards a system in which
every vote counts and corporate money is removed from political campaigns.
This is a great deal to take on all at once, but such are the times in
which we live.
The drop in oil prices has temporarily relieved the pressure to dig up
fossil fuels as rapidly as high-risk technologies will allow. This pause
in frenetic expansion should not be viewed as a crisis, but as a gift.
It has given us a rare moment to look at what we have become—and decide
to change.
And so we call on all those seeking political office to seize this
opportunity and embrace the urgent need for transformation. This is our
sacred duty to those this country harmed in the past, to those suffering
needlessly in the present, and to all who have a right to a bright and
safe future.
Now is the time for boldness.
Now is the time to leap.
https://leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto/
1 Sustainable Canada Dialogues. (2015). Acting on climate change:
Solutions from Canadian scholars. Montreal, QC: McGill University
2 Jacobson, M., et al. Providing all global energy with wind, water, and
solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and
areas of infrastructure, and materials. Energy Policy 39:3 (2011)
3 https://leapmanifesto.org/en/how-can-we-afford-the-leap/
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