We are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel coming out of, at least, phase 1 of the pandemic in Canada. In my idleness, I, along with Penny Joy and a friend, have created the attached manifesto for the post-Covid world, to attempt to unify our various social, environmental and climate movements for common purpose and to see the inter dependencies between them.
I send this to you, hoping that it will be taken into consideration in our planning as we face great challenges together. I do not expect that it will be adopted by any group, but feedback towards improving it would be welcome in the hopes of stimulating a conversation. Certainly, one unifying focus is the future of forests and we have daunting challenges with an intransigent industry and government, working hand in glove for maximum destruction of forests and their critical functions. We have never succeeded in altering the current model, developed after WW2 and accelerating to the present, of eradication of the original forest and its replacement by plantations, no matter how many times and in how many ways, science and our movement have shown the folly of this approach, except to enrich a few and provide fewer and fewer jobs over a dwindling time frame.
However, the time is different now and there is a major crack in business as usual.We have an opportunity to make real gains for the forests and forest management, but I feel we need to unite across movements and the manifesto is my humble, initial contribution to that end.
Saul
Friends of Carmanah Walbran – small but feisty!
“Most human pathogens originate from fauna, including HIV, Ebola, influenza, MERS, SARS, and now COVID-19. Science tells us that the destruction of ecosystems makes disease outbreaks including pandemics more likely. This indicates that the destruction of nature is the underlying crisis behind the coronavirus crisis.”(Germany’s Environment Minister, Sevenja Schulze)
Manifesto for a Just and Ecological Civilization
This pandemic reveals not only the crisis in the human interface with Nature, but also the flaws in economic globalization, global corporations and the industrial model of endless growth. It has shown us that the rule of the market, profit maximization and global supply chains cannot meet the health needs of people almost anywhere on Earth.
The future will be one of personal sufficiency and societal abundance where:
As human beings, we naturally come together for the common good, thriving through social cohesion and networks, that value restorative justice and equity. We are vastly more than self-interested individuals, alone in facing giant impersonal structures.
All peoples have a right to the natural wealth of the planet, our common wealth that, in our time, has been appropriated by corporate ownership, with most benefits flowing to an elite – the 1%. Cooperative structures and worker-owned enterprises become prevalent forms of economic organization.
Human enterprise is framed within the recognition of the inherent rights of Nature and the sustaining of biological and cultural diversity, embracing indigenous experience.
Work is transformed from working to live to living to work, through a universal basic income and social and health public infrastructure, releasing people to contribute to a giving and caring economy, individually and collectively.
Replacing state authoritarianism, society and economy become organized at the bioregional level and move towards re-localization. There is a goal of maximum self-sufficiency at each level, a bottom-up approach, with linkages at all levels for increased collaboration and coordination.
There is a shift from militarized security to sustainable common security. Peace building, peaceful dispute resolution and other infrastructures for peace replace the enormous infrastructures and investments in war and conflict. Peace education at all levels of society nurtures a culture of peace and nonviolence.
Media, including social media, serve community interests as well as involvement in the broader world, organized by cooperative enterprises and supported by the emergence of peace and justice journalism.
Humanity has always risen to great challenges. May our creativity blossom!