Mensaje a la ciudadanía

Indignación [El 31 de Enero volvemos a Sol]

EL MANIFIESTO

Versiones originales y traducciones en:
Ultima LLamada - El Manifiesto

English Version below:

The Manifesto (English)

(en español)(em português)(en galego)(en català)

«Last Call»

This is more than an economic and political crisis: it’s a crisis of civilization.

For the most part, European citizens believe the idea that consumer society can “progress” into the future (and that it should). Meanwhile, a good part of the inhabitants of the planet hope to achieve our level of material comfort. However, we have succeeded in achieving this level of production and consumption at the cost of exhausting natural resources and energy sources, and disrupting the equilibrium of Earth’s ecosystems.

None of this is new. The most lucid researchers and scientists have warned us since the 1970′s: to continue with the current trends of growth (economic, demographic, in the use of resources, generation of pollutants and increase in inequality) the most probably result for the 21st century would be the collapse of civilization.

Today the news has accumulated that indicates that the path of unrestricted growth is already a genocide in slow motion. The end of cheap energy, the catastrophic scenarios of climate change and the geopolitical tensions over resources show us that the paradigm of progress of the past is bankrupt.

Before this challenge, the superficial mantras of sustainable development are not enough, nor are the bets on eco-efficient technologies, nor a supposed “green economy” that covers up the general commercialization of natural goods and the services of the ecosystem. Technological solutions, with so many environmental crises like the decline in energy production, are insufficient. In addition, the ecological crisis is not a topic that can be separated from all aspects of society: food, transportation, industry, urbanization, military conflicts… It concerns the base of our economy and our lives.

We are trapped in the perverse dynamic of a civilization that will not function if it does not grow, and if it grows will destroy the resource base that makes it possible. Our technocratic and commercial culture forgets that we, at the roots, are dependent on the interdependent ecosystems.

The producer and consumer society cannot be sustained by the planet. We need to construct a new civilization capable of securing a dignified life for an enormous (today more than 7.2 million), constantly growing human population that inhabits a world of diminishing resources. There need to be radical changes in the modes of life, forms of production, design of cities, and organization of territories. We need a society that aims to recover equilibrium with the biosphere, using research, technology, culture, economy, and politics to advance towards this end. For this, we will need all the political imagination, moral generosity, and technical creativity that can be deployed.

But this Great Transformation will confront two titanic obstacles: the inertia of capitalist life and the interests of privileged groups. To avoid the chaos and barbarity that up until today we are being directed towards, we will need a profound political rupture with the current hegemony, and an economy whose ends are the satisfaction of social needs within limits imposed by the biosphere, and not the accumulation of private profit.

Fortunately, more people are resisting the attempts of elites to make them pay for the consequences of crisis. Today, in the Spanish state, the awakening of dignity and democracy that created 15M (in the spring of 2011) is creating a constitutional process that opens possibilities for other forms of social organization.

However, it is fundamental that alternative projects aware of the implications of the limits to growth design much bolder proposals for change. The economic crisis and the crisis of regimes can only be overcome at the same time as the ecological crisis. In this sense, it is not enough to return to policies of Keynesian capitalism. These policies led us, in the decades following the second world war, to a cycle of expansion that brought us to threshold of exceeding the planet’s limits. A new cycle of expansion is unfeasible: there is no material basis, nor ecological space and natural resources that could sustain it.

The 21st century will be a decisive century in the history of humanity. It will be a great test for all cultures and societies, and for the species in their vicinity. A test that will resolve our continuity on the Earth and the possibility of calling “humanity” to the life that will be organized after. We will face a transformation analogous to major historical events such as the neolithic revolution and the industrial revolution.

Attention: The window of opportunity is closing. It is certain that there are many movements of resistance around the world pursuing environmental justice (the organization Global Witness has registered almost a thousand murdered environmentalists in the last ten years, who died in struggles against mining or oil projects, or defending their land and water). But we have at most five years to settle a broad debate on the limits of growth, and to construct democratic ecological and energy alternatives that are both rigorous and feasible solutions. We should be able to win large majorities in the struggle to change economic, energetic, social, and cultural models. Besides fighting injustices arising from the exercise of domination and the accumulation of wealth, we speak about a model that acknowledges realities, makes peace with nature, and makes possible the good life within the ecological limits of the earth.

One civilization is ending and we must build a new one. The consequences of doing nothing or too little will lead us directly to social, economic, and ecological collapse. But if we start today, we can still be the protagonists of a society that is caring, democratic, and at peace with the planet.

— Written in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Balearic and Canary Islands, in the summer of 2014.

BELIEVE

"Para que Carlos vea que su padre fué también joven con muchos besos y abrazo" escribió mi padre hace algún tiempo a finales de los 80 sobre esta copia de una vieja foto retrato tomada durante la Guerra Civil española (1936-1939). Fecha más probable 1937-38.

Un estudiante de Químicas con 18 años se ve de forma inesperada, y en el corto plazo de un par de años, luchando por la República formando parte de las Fuerzas Aéreas contra el golpista Franco Fue derribado, entregado a la Legión Cóndor alemana y -evidentemente- sobrevivió a la guerra y a la dura prisión y represión.
Una generación ejemplar. Ellos creyeron. Los últimos entre los mejores se están marchando, o ya nos dejaron. Honor a su Memoria.
---
"So Carlos could see that his father once was young too, lots of kisses and hug" wrote my father sometime back in the late 80´s on this copy of an old portrait photo taken during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Photo most probable date between 1937-38.

An 18 years old Chemistry student found himself suddenly, within a couple of years, fighting for the Republican Government as part of the Republican Air Forces against Franco. His plane was shot down, its pilot died, and he was handed over to the German Condor Legion in the first instance, and - obviously - survived the war and harsh prisons under Franco, eluding the death penalty - by pure luck - and also thanks to the struggle and tenacity of her sister, parents and family. An exemplary generation. They believed. The last best ones already are leaving us or left us already. Honor to their Memory.

Ver aquí: 
Rafael Ballester Linares. Piloto-observador (resumen bibliográfico).

S_Painish Rap

Aquí están. Son el Futuro. Enhorabuena y gracias.

Firma aquí en Change.Org: Petición a la Ciudadanía, sacad todas las banderas al balcón con crespones negros

Chaval rechaza un iPod en un concurso de Antena 3 - Young kid rejects an iPod on a TV contest (Antena ·)

Esperanza para nuestro futuro . Hope for our future

Cómo fui censurado por Antena 3

Firma aquí -Change.org- petición a la Ciudadanía: Sacad todas las banderas al balcón con crespones negros