The EU and tackling corporate greed

Making the case for staying in the EU, Green MEP Molly Scott-Cato reasons that we need to tackle corporate excess across international boundaries, by means of collective action.  

 

 

The Green Party says this about an economy many of us would like to see.

"A Green economy will use resources fairly and responsibly, with essential services run for public benefit a"nd a decent quality of life for all. Economic power will be transferred to individuals, households and communities, with smaller companies, cooperatives and social enterprises supported to create many socially beneficial jobs. By nurturing low-carbon industries and community economies, a stable Green economy will thrive within safe environmental limits."

P-CED (People-Centered Economic Development is a social enterprise which began in 1996 with a position paper making the case for an alternative to neoliberal economics.

In 2004 P-CED launched in the UK with a business plan to tackle poverty, saying:

"While the vast majority of people in poverty suffer quietly and with little protest, it is not safe to assume that everyone will react the same way. When in defence of family and friends, it is completely predictable that it should be only a matter of time until uprisings become sufficient to imperil an entire nation or region of the world. People with nothing have nothing to lose. Poverty was therefore deemed not only a moral catastrophe but also a time bomb waiting to explode. Poverty reduction and relief became the overriding principle and fundamental social objective in the emerging P-CED model.

Dealing with poverty is nothing new. The question became ‘how does poverty still exist in a world with sufficient resources for a decent quality of life for everyone?’ The answer was that we have yet to develop any economic system capable redistributing finite resources in a way that everyone has at minimum enough for a decent life: food, decent housing, transportation, clothing, health care, and education. The problem has not been lack of resources, but adequate distribution of resources. Capitalism is the most powerful economic engine ever devised, yet it came up short with its classical, inherent profit-motive as being presumed to be the driving force. Under that presumption, all is good in the name of profit became the prevailing winds of international economies — thereby giving carte blanche to the notion that greed is good because it is what has driven capitalism. The 1996 paper merely took exception with the assumption that personal profit, greed, and the desire to amass as much money and property on a personal level as possible are inherent and therefore necessary aspects of any capitalist endeavour. While it is in fact very normal for that to be the case, it simply does not follow that it must be the case."

A 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine

By the end of that year, P-CED had redirected its focus on Ukraine  where one of the uprisings predicted had begun with the Orange Revolution. A year earlier, P-CED's founder had ripped into Ukraine's corrupt government about the appalling conditions of children dying on the streets.

In 2005 the article Really Betraying a Revolution warned of the involvement of economic hit men to bing Ukraine to loan agreements in exchange for political influence and included a prescient warning of what was to come:

"Elimination of graft and corruption, and raising the overall standard of living for ALL Ukrainians rather than a few insanely greedy oligarch clans, was the main underlying and implied reason for the Orange Revolution – at least from hundreds of people, activists and otherwise, I talked with on the ground during and after the Revolution. Further, as director for any sort of peace institute, Mr. Aslund is obliged to review the connection between poverty and peace. Peace does not and cannot exist for people in poverty, unless they are harshly suppressed by government or other forces. Poverty is a horrible existence and lifestyle, and is bound to breed violence, not peace."

Turning our attention to the corruption in institutional childcare, the Death Camps for Children series of articles would not only expose the corruption within orphanages, but the personal greed of Ukraine's oligarchs, who were well connected with the British establishment, particularly EU Trade Commission Lord Mandelson.

"Excuses won’t work, particularly in light of a handful of oligarchs in Ukraine having been allowed to loot Ukraine’s economy for tens of billions of dollars. I point specifically to Akhmetov, Pinchuk, Poroshenko, and Kuchma, and this is certainly not an exhaustive list. These people can single-handedly finance 100% of all that will ever be needed to save Ukraine’s orphans. None of them evidently bother to think past their bank accounts, and seem to have at least tacit blessings at this point from the new regime to keep their loot while no one wants to consider Ukraine’s death camps, and the widespread poverty that produced them.."

In 2007 with the assistance of locals a 'Marshall Plan' proposal was delivered to Ukraine's government, with an argument that many others would soon follow, for business to be applied directly to resolve social problems. The case for a people-centered stratregy was made clearly: 

'This is a long-term permanently sustainable program, the basis for "people-centered" economic development. Core focus is always on people and their needs, with neediest people having first priority – as contrasted with the eternal chase for financial profit and numbers where people, social benefit, and human well-being are often and routinely overlooked or ignored altogether. This is in keeping with the fundamental objectives of Marshall Plan: policy aimed at hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. This is a bottom-up approach, starting with Ukraine's poorest and most desperate citizens, rather than a "top-down" approach that might not ever benefit them. They cannot wait, particularly children. Impedance by anyone or any group of people constitutes precisely what the original Marshall Plan was dedicated to opposing. Those who suffer most, and those in greatest need, must be helped first -- not secondarily, along the way or by the way. '

The 2008 EU Citizens Consultation

On the face of it, this was an opportunity to raise support for the 'Marshall Plan'  The EU by then was seeking to expand its relationship with Ukraine toward economic integration and the entire proposal was submitted as an entry for this seemingly democratic initiative.  A centre for social enterprise development was one of four manjor components:

"Underpinning this effort is a new Center for Social Enterprise to be based in Kharkiv National University. CSE will include an academic program combining business, social services, social sciences and modern medical science into a new interdisciplinary academic discipline and program, social enterprise. This Center will engage students, faculty, business leaders, policy makers and citizen organizations and citizens in a common, unified program toward fulfilling the initial objectives outlined herein. The Center will further create new programs as participants learn new, innovative ways of thinking in identifying, analyzing, understanding and resolving Ukraine’s social and economic problems."

Were the EU interested in social enterprise development? Apparently not, or so it seemed.

Economics for Ecology

Between 2009 and 2010 P-CED delivered two papers to the International Economics for Ecology Conference at Sumy State University.  The main theme was the risk to our own existence as a consequence of corporate capitaism. The 2009 paper concluded.

 "At this point, the simple fact is that regarding economic theory, no one knows what to do next.  Possibly this has escaped immediate attention in Ukraine, but, economists in the US as of the end of 2008 openly confessed that they do not know what to do.  So, we invented three trillion dollars, lent it to ourselves, and are trying to salvage a broken system so far by reestablishing the broken system with imaginary money.

Now there are, honestly, no answers.  It is all just guesswork, and not more than that.  What is not guesswork is that the broken – again – capitalist system, be it traditional economics theories in the West or hybrid communism/capitalism in China, is sitting in a world where the existence of human beings is at grave risk, and it's no longer alarmist to say so.

The question at hand is what to do next, and how to do it.  We all get to invent whatever new economics system that comes next, because we must."

The EU Social Business Initiative

iN 2012, i wrote to South West MEPs poining out that a recent EU social business consultation had resulted in several recommendatons which were to be found in the proposal I submitted in 2008.  MEP Sir Graham Watson agreed that there were many similarities and forwarded my complaint of plagiarism to Commissioner Michel Barnier.

In response, Commisioner Barnier said that these ideas had been developing over the past few decades across Europe, I have been unable to find any trace of them other than in our own work.

As I would later discover Commissioner Barnier is VP of the European People's Party who have since begun making their own call for a 'Marshall Plan for Ukraine..

People-Centred business in Europe.

There was no lack of funding or support in June 2013 when it came to an EU meeting to discuss people-centred business in development. As Cooperatives Europe put it 

with what  could have been lifted straight from the 'Marshall Plan' - "By putting people’s needs first, we have proven to be able to respond to sustainable, economic and social needs."

As a people-centred business of long standing, we were not invited , in spite of Commission Barniers suggestion that we might collaborate in future  

A plea for support from Maidan

As violence erupted on the streets of Kiev and spread to other ciites, friends at Maidan made a call on the EU for support. I forwarded it to South West MEPs  It included this request:

'Support political reforms and economic development: When the new government is in place, support Ukraine financially to get on a path of sustainable economic revival. A kind of „Marshall Plan“, can bring long-term economic benefits to Ukraine and save it from otherwise imminent long-term default.'

Perhaps another group were more successful in arousing their MEPs.  Some time later it came up in as part of an EPP motion:

"Calls upon the European Commission to develop a European- Marshall Plan for Ukraine, which would support the newly formed pro-European government and its reform agenda; invites this  plan to include the priorities, tangible benchmarks and the timeline of the implementation,"

MH17 and a dead boy in the Garden

To the children of Torez orphanage, the bodies from the sky looked at first like big birds

“I want to know why that boy died,” said one of the orphans, 14-year-old Ruslan. He and the other children read the news on line to find out the true reason behind the deaths of the Malaysian Boeing’s passengers and crew. Why did almost 300 children and adults fall six miles through space, their clothes ripped away by the blast and the rush of air, until they landed on roofs, in yards, on streets and in fields?

The orphanage at Torez was the location described in 'Death Camps for Children', where children were buried in the same garden on a regular basis.

“When we arrived at the orphanage we were met by older children without coats, they were begging us to give things to them and not to the directors. It is very hard to write about the rest of this part of the trip. I cannot give a step by step account because we were all in a state of shock. We spoke to the director about our program and he told us that he knows the children need more but he said, “I cannot ask my workers to do more, they work very hard, clearing the road, shoveling snow, cleaning the floors and the children, they have not time, they must work very hard all day and then they must dig graves and bury children.” What do you say to that?"

Agency for the Modernisation of Ukraine

At this point the plot begins to resemble the script of The Italian Job.  Gas oligarch Dmitri Firtash while held in custody in Austria, pending extradition to face corruption charges in the US, hatches a plan. A 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine to be specific.  Lords Mandelson, Risby and Macdonald are given roles. It will cost $300 billion, they estimate, without any plan at all to speak of.   

Sergiy Leshchenko, Ukrainian MP and anti-corruption activist describes The Firtash Octopus

"In an attempt not to be branded as a money launderer and to save himself from being transported to America in handcuffs, Firtash has launched a multifaceted campaign to clean up his image, recruiting dozens of politicians, intellectuals, lobbyists and cultural figures in Europe and the US. "

In 2009 chairing a social enterprise summit, it was Lord Mandelson who claimed his department were "helping firms who help others".  Even he must realise that Ukraine's oligarchs aren't helping anyone except themselves.   He certainly didn't help us as a social enterprise.   

A new Cold War

With OWS and the Arab Spring in 2011, the global uprisings we warned about were a reality. In Ukraine, it had tipped over into violence in 2014 following a decision to take £15 billion from Russia as incentive to keep Ukraine out of an EU access agreement. The fallout from one of the uprisings in Syria is today a major EU problem;

A doctor working for MSF in Lesbos recently expressed his ouitrage at the treatment of child refugees

"The most outrageous thing I saw however was many, many children kept in detention, left in miserable and indecent conditions, without proper food, education or even the chance to play, like children normally do."

As it had been described in Ukraine by my late colleague 

"Children are left in conditions of neglect and medical ignorance, without benefit of even the most basic modern medical interventions that could reduce their suffering and give them a life reflecting human compassion that the vast majority of Ukrainian citizens want for all of Ukraine’s children, in my experience. Whether these kids live or die is of little, if any, concern to mafia."

With the support of the EU, we could have done so much.