RISE UP BRUSSELS ! Invitation: Closing of the « Rise-up ! » campaign – 15-16th December On the week-end of 15th and 16th hundreds of European young socialists will gather in Brussels to drop their « Rise-up petitions » to the European Council and make their voices heard. On saturday, after plenaries and workshops, a rally will gather European young socialists to promote an alternative Europe and support European left wing leaders who are acting for a Europe of jobs, democracy and ecology. They will be invited to speak next to representatives of the European youth. An “anti-crisis” party will follow in the streets of Brussels. On sunday the petition will be symbolically given to the European council in order to close the campaign.
Provisional programme Saturday 15th Decem ber 11.00-12.00:
Introduction plenary: « Generation of the crisis, rise up ! »
13.15-14.45:
First workshop session: - Those responsible for the crisis must pay: how to tame finance? - The European Central Bank: an instrument for citizens’ good? - Investing in real economics, a popular and democratic necessity.
15.00-16.30:
Second workshops session: - Renewable energies: jobs, sobriety and democracy. - Reducing working to create jobs. - Tomorrow, our federal Europe.
17.30-19.30:
“Rise-up Brussels ! “ Rally: speakers from different generations of socialists in front of hundreds of young socialists. Jean-Marc Ayrault or Harlem Désir (anticipated) Elio Di Rupo or Thierry Giet (anticipated) Peer Steinbrûck or Sigmard Gabriel (anticipated) Hannes Swobda (anticipated)
19.30:
Buffet diner
21.30:
“Anti-crisis party” in the streets of Brussels
Sunday 16th Decem ber Symbolic end of the “rise-up” campaign at the European council and ground actions in the city
They support the campaign Marisol Touraine, Arnaud Montebourg, Delphine Batho, Stéphane Le Foll, Marylise Lebranchu, Valérie Fourneyron, Bernard Cazeneuve, Benoit Hamon, Dominique Bertinotti, Marie-Arlette Carlotti, Kader Arif, Martin Schultz, Harlem Désir, Bruno L,e Roux, Martine Aubry, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, Catherine Trautmann, Pervenche Bérès, Anne Hidalgo, Martin Malvi, Alain Anziani, Barbara
Signatory organisations Animo Young Left (Belgium), Federazione dei Giovanni Socialisti (Italy), Giovanni Democratici (Italy), Irish Labour Youth (Ireland), Joventud Socialista de Catalunya (Catalunya), Jusos in der SPD (Germany), Juventude Socialista (Portugal), Juventudes Socialitas de España (Spain), Mouvement des Jeunes Socialistes (Belgium), Mouvement des Jeunes Socialistes (France), Sozialistische Jugend Österreichs (Austria), Sozialistische Jugend Deutschlands – Die Falken (Germany)
Romagnan, Susan George, ...
Rise Up Brussels! The Worskhops
• Those responsible for the crisis must pay: how to tam e finance! Are citizens responsible for the crisis? Was it vain to hope to tame finance down? We are not living a crisis of public debt but of financial capitalism. Tackling speculatory finance, boosting the economy and finding financial margins are necessary objectives which require Europe to put forward a strong federal budget, fiscal harmonisation and fighting against tax heavens. Will our generation finally shatter the interests of money and finance? • The European Central Bank: an instrum ent for citizens’ good ? Today, European states are being smothered by the obligation to fund themselves on private markets and thus to reduce public spending. However another monetary policy is possible. It is a question of political willingness. The ECB must be able to lend the states directly and have its objectives changed in order to create jobs and engage the energetic transition. Its inflation target must also be modified. • Investing in the real econom y, a popular and dem ocratic necessity In Europe the financial sphere dominates the economical one. The billions responsible for the crisis are invested outside the real economy. Yet tools exist to put the economy back in the interest of citizens. We need to mobilise popular savings, promote social and solidary finance, support small innovating firms and invest in a social economy to redistribute wealth and decisions. • Renewable energies: jobs, sobriety and dem ocracy Climate change, dependency to fossil energies and the dogma of economic growth are the foundations of a system our generation suffers from: capitalism. The solutions to bring it to an end will be European. The best energy is the one we do not consume, hence why energetic sobriety must be our priority. Renewable energies represent significant economic and democratic leverage, which can create millions of non-relocatable jobs, reduce our trade deficit and allow energetic independence. How can we engage Europe in a voluntary and coordinated policy regarding the energetic transition? How can citizens be given their role place back in this battle? •
Reducing working tim e to create jobs
The productivity of workers has rocketted over the past 30 years thanks to technical and scientific progress as well as improvements in education systems. And yet unemployment keeps rising in Europe while growth is stagnating. Social Europe is constantly undermined by the competition between States and workers in Europe. We can only put an end to this dumping through a top oriented harmonisation of our social protection systems. Let us rethink work, how to share it in order to create jobs and move towards an emancipating society of free time. • Tom orrow, our federal Europe Abstention during European elections, citizens’ lack of interest for Europe and the opaqueness of EU institutional decisions are alerting us regarding the democratic crisis Europe is going through. European peoples have the feeling to be fooled and let down by “Brussels”. Whereas economic constitutionalism shrinks democracy, the idea of the European Union is historically linked to peace and cohesion. How can we rediscover the path towards these values and make a democratic, social and ecological Europe?