Nous sommes Parti·e·s Pour La Décroissance

Relocalisation is looking for the appropriate territorial scale for the best environmental and social conditions for the production and exchange of goods and services. Relocalisation creates real links and social interactions amongst residents. Relocalisation concerns all aspects of a territory’s life: agriculture, industry, trades, business, services, water, energy, housing, education, culture, community life, conviviality and health…and, of course… democracy. It concerns all spaces: rural, urban, sub-urban, peri-urban. It can be implemented by public, private or associative entities…
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The Greeks are being subjected to an unprecedented austerity plan by an illegitimate government under the thumb of the banks, the IFM and the EU.

During Sunday night February, 12th, the Greek Parliament has ratified a package, one we could label “a poverty package” (in a society advocating affluence) since it ties up international financial aid (IMF and EU) to unheard of, drastic, antisocial measures: reduction of minimum wage, axing public service jobs, slashing pensions, cuts to the health budget and an ongoing programme of privatisations.

The Greek Parliament has embarked on such a plan, following other austerity plans, to face up to its obligation to pay its debt back.
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Friday February 13^th, France saw its AAA credit rating downgraded to AA+. This decision is felt as a tragedy by economists, politicians, and medias from all allegiances.

Wouldn’t the real tragedy lie somewhere else?

What does this general panic mean? It is as if everyone considers financial regulations as natural and immutable, to the extent that they have resigned themselves to these malfunctions agreed to accept pseudo-solutions, instead of questioning the monetary and financial system.

At first glance, the downgrading means that France solvability is falling. In fact the debt amounts to 80% of the GDP, whereas it was 8% in the late 70s. It also means that France will only be able to borrow at even higher rates.

The tragedy is that the media-political field does not ponder over the structural origin of this debt; subjected to the economic machine with its tragic social, environmental and anthropological consequences.

Let’s go back to the function and the creation of money. Money facilitates the exchange of goods and services, allowing to defer them in time and to multiply the contributors. Furthermore borrowing money from a person, who has got money already, makes it possible to anticipate wealth production.
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By the way, what is this growth, we hear so much about everyday on the waves?!Tentative explanation: growth is a quantitative/mathematical index, a make-believe, a system. In fact it is an ideology:

– Growth is a mathematical/quantitative index: it represents the exponential production increase of services and trade in an economy.  It is measured by the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It does not include the quality of productions: an economy, which treats rather than prevents is in growth. The clean up of oil spills, waging war contribute to growth; as does building schools.

– Growth is a make believe: Growth is progress, the best. A plant grows. A child grows: growth is a positive. Growth brings happiness… growth is the condition for populations’ well-being.  Growth is synonymous with jobs.
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