I’ve found it frustrating that the media and online commentary is more names and phrases — Yellow Vests, Green New Deal, Extinction Rebellion — ad infinitum than an actual discussion of the issues these people are demonstrating about. I had to spend some effort to find out what the demands and, thus, the issues actually are. Now I can decide what to think and do about it. May this information be of use to you.
In French: www.scribd.com/…
As translated on twitter: threadreaderapp.com/...
1. Housing for all homeless people
2. A more progressive tax system
3. Minimum wage of 1,300€/month
4. Measures to protect small businesses (stop building malls, no more “big box” stores), more parking spaces in downtowns
5. Government program for insulating homes & other buildings
6. Big businesses (McDonald’s, Google, Amazon...) should pay big taxes & small businesses pay small ones
7. Same health insurance system for all (including self-employed)
8. Keep retirement system the way it is now (working people pay the pensions of retirees)
9. No more increases on fuel taxes
10. No old age pensions below 1,200€/month
11. All elected officials should earn French median income + reimbursement of travel costs if justified + meal tickets
12. All salaries & government benefits must be indexed on inflation
13. Protect French industry, outlaw delocalizations
14. End the European system whereby workers from other European countries are paid the lower salaries and benefits of their respective countries rather than French wages and benefits
15. Job security. Larger businesses should be obliged to give more employees permanent contracts (CDI)
16. Create a French industry of hydrogen powered automobiles
17. End the politics of austerity
18. Treat the causes that are forcing people to migrate.
19. Better treatment for asylum seekers. Provide lodging, food, security & education for minors. Work with the UN to build camps in many countries to hold asylum seekers until their papers are processed
20. Accompany those who are not granted asylum back to the countries they came from
21. Create a program for integrating immigrants. Living in France entails becoming French (certificate program in French language, history, civics)
22. Maximum salary fixed at 15,000€/month
23. Jobs for the unemployed
24. Increase disability pensions
25. Rent control. More social housing and in particular housing for college students, contractors, gig economy workers, people without steady jobs
26. Outlaw the sale of French public property (dams, airports...)
27. Allocate much more money to the justice system, the police and the armed forces. Pay police officers overtime or allow them to take the corresponding hours off
28. The totality of sums collected at toll booths should go to maintaining the countries highways & roads and to road security.
29. As the prices of natural gas & electricity have risen since these sectors were privatized, we demand the re-nationalization of these industries and the lowering of prices
30. An immediate end to the closings of smaller train lines, post offices, schools and maternity wards
31. Well-being for our elderly. Outlaw for-profit elderly care. The time of “gray gold” has come to an end
32. A maximum of 25 students per class from nursery school through high school
33. More public financing of psychiatry
34. Write a popular referendum system into the Constitution. Create an on-line referendum site where citizens can propose new laws, overseen by an independent body. If a proposition receives over 700,000 votes it should be introduced into Congress, accordingly completed, amended and discussed before all citizens are allowed to vote on it (within exactly one year of obtaining the 700,000 signatures)
35. Return to a presidential mandate of 7 years (currently it’s 5) with interim elections of reps
36. Retirement for all at 60 years old and at 55 for people in professions that are hard on the body (construction work...)
37. Extension of public aid to parents paying for daycare for children up until 10 years of age
38. Incentivize transportation of merchandise by rail
39. No withholding of income tax
40. Presidents should no longer receive a salary for life
41. Outlaw the tax paid by shopkeepers each time a client pays by credit or debit card
42. Tax kerosene, air and maritime fuels
Another source in French
To compare and contrast,
here are Representative Ocasio-Cortez' proposed goals for a Select Committee on a Green New Deal (https://ocasio2018.com/green-new-deal) as part of the resuscitated House Committee on Climate Change:
"The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall be developed in order to achieve the following goals, in each case in no longer than 10 years from the start of execution of the Plan:
100% of national power generation from renewable sources;
building a national, energy-efficient, “smart” grid;
upgrading every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety;
decarbonizing the manufacturing, agricultural and other industries;
decarbonizing, repairing and improving transportation and other infrastructure;
funding massive investment in the drawdown and capture of greenhouse gases;
making ‘green’ technology, industry, expertise, products and services a major export of the United States, with the aim of becoming the undisputed international leader in helping other countries transition to completely carbon neutral economies and bringing about a global Green New Deal."
“That the Government must tell the truth about how deadly our situation is, it must reverse all policies not in alignment with that position and must work alongside the media to communicate the urgency for change including what individuals, communities and businesses need to do.
“Good intentions and guidelines won’t save the ice caps. The Government must enact legally-binding policies to reduce carbon emissions in the UK to net zero by 2025 and take further action to remove the excess of atmospheric greenhouse gases. It must cooperate internationally so that the global economy runs on no more than half a planet’s worth of resources per year.
“By necessity these demands require initiatives and mobilisation of similar size and scope to those enacted in times of war. We do not however, trust our Government to make the bold, swift and long-term changes necessary to achieve this and we do not intend to hand further power to our politicians. Instead we demand a Citizens’ Assembly to oversee the changes, as we rise from the wreckage, creating a democracy fit for purpose.”
My approach to climate change is
100% renewables ASAP
zero emissions economy ASAP
carbon drawdown ASAP
geotherapy (not geoengineering) ASAP
Resources: http://drawdown.org
https://www.crcpress.com/Geotherapy-Innovative-Methods-of-Soil-Fertility-Restoration-Carbon-Sequestration/Goreau-Larson-Campe/p/book/9781466595392
http://bio4climate.org
http://soil4climate.org
http://solarray.blogspot.com
At least as a thought experiment.
I also believe a solar civil defense is necessary NOW and could be a way to do a solar walk away or electrical utility boycott as an example of solar swadeshi, local production, and a Gandhian, non-violent economic system but that’s another story.