Rio+20 Portal

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This document has been put together by Gustavo Marín with the help of Germà Pelayo and contributions from Cândido Grzybowski, Matthieu Calame, Jorge Romano and Paul Raskin. It is based on presentations and discussions that focused on the economy during the seminar organized by Ibase, the Forum for a new World Governance (FnWG) and Euralat in Rio de Janeiro from 10 to 12 August 2011. It also served as discussion paper for the group on Fair, Sustainable, and Solidarity Finances and Economy at the Thematic Social Forum in Porto Alegre, January 24-29, 2012.

Introduction

The seriousness of the current environmental crisis is an expression of a deeper-reaching crisis, a crisis of civilization afflicting modern capitalism, characterized by the predominance of the unregulated market, financial speculation, frenzied consumerism, the constant quest for growth, economic injustice and widespread poverty. The current and foreseeable destructive consequences of a convergence of systemic and recurring crises stress the urgent need to make far-reaching changes to the economic and political organization of contemporary societies and open the door to a sustainable, fair and united world.

There is clearly an urgent need not only to abandon capitalism, but also to change the model of civilisation. Humanity has entered into a prolonged period of transition wherein a change of civilisation is not a merely rhetorical solution, but an historical challenge facing the human race in the 21st century. We therefore have to begin by exposing and dismantling the mechanisms of the dominant economic model and, simultaneously, initiate alternatives for change. This then raises various questions: what shape will the new economic models for the 21st century take? What will the new financial, production and distribution systems be? Using which energy mix? A great many ideas and initiatives already exist on the territorial and regional level concerning the new economy that needs to emerge. We must give concrete form to a viewpoint that links up local with global dimensions in order to strengthen the first steps towards the new economy that people and the planet need.

It is therefore essential to delegitimize the myths of the official economy and switch from neoclassical economics to political economics, in other words, a new economy with different ideas, concepts and visions that take into account the complexity of the processes at work during this transitional period. Political economics should be reclaimed and rethought as a human and inexact science, overthrowing the myths of a supposedly transcendent economy whose laws are set in stone.

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• 1. The fundamental principles of a new economy designed to satisfy human needs while respecting the natural systems of life and the planet
• 2. Tackling the tyranny of financial and speculative capital
• 3. Organizing a new monetary system linking together multiple currencies and strengthening the pillars of solidarity-based, sustainable and democratic monetary exchanges
• 4. Moving from unlimited growth to “differentiated degrowth” and “organic growth”
• 5. Production and consumption must be driven not by the market but by satisfying needs. Reducing inequalities and eradicating poverty is the urgent priority
• 6.The relationship between human beings and nature must be re-rooted in a cooperation paradigm
• 7. The care economy must be developed so that it can respond to vital and fundamental human needs
• 8. Promoting and developing food security and sovereignty
• 9. Developing and promoting an economy of common goods
• 10. Facilitating the transition to a biocivilization for the sustainability of life and the planet
• On the path to the Thematic World Social Forum in Porto Alegre and Rio+20