Some thoughts on and around economic degrowth

The degrowth movement must advocate a social and ecological political economy. Political and economic democracy based on a system of universal public services. Degrowth is a critique of capitalism as a system dependent on continuous economic growth, but also of productivism as the objective of economic activity.

The movement for degrowth must defend a model of social and ecological economy based on the precautionary principle. The economy must aim at providing goods, products and services essential to the well-being of the population within the limits of the biosphere. A model of political economy based on the pursuit of profit and the accumulation of wealth can never be sustainable. Capitalism is monopolistic by default and generates artificial scarcity, commodification is a way of barring access to goods, products, services, as well as spaces, based on the "fairness" of the user-pays concept.

The user pays concept is based on the false assumption of equal access. But a system that generates artificial scarcity prevents access to goods, products and services to the population that does not have the means to acquire them. Natural scarcity arises when products, goods or services do not exist in sufficient quantity to supply the population. Artificial or manufactured scarcity results from an economic system geared towards profit and the logic of market fundamentalism, which considers it preferable to deprive a part of the population of access to essential goods, products and services, rather than lowering the price or distributing them free of charge.

If the degrowth movement lets itself be parasitized, colonized or co-opted by an ecoliberal political consensus, it means the triumph of neoliberal ecofascism. Market fundamentalism, green capitalism, financialization of ecosystem services do not aim to save nature, but to perpetuate plutoligarchy, rentier class, FIRE sector and the interests associated with Anglo-American financial imperialism.

The definancialization of the economy is, in my view, a non-negotiable principle for sustainable degrowth. The degrowth movement must defend the democratization of the economy according to the principles of a social economy and a genuine ecological culture.

Ecoliberal ideology gives me the creeps. The last five decades of liberal democracy are paving the way to fascism based on the neoliberal doctrine. Liberal democracy is responsible for the financialization of the economy and the destruction of the social fabric. The movement for degrowth cannot follow the example of the environmental movement, to the point where we have green parties controlled by warmongers and supporters of the financialization of nature. The success of financial capitalism is the ability to co-opt, colonize, alter and use movements and organizations trusted by the public and turn them into instruments for implementing neoliberal policies.

Technological innovation can contribute significantly to reducing the environmental impact caused by economic activity, but we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the ecoliberal ideology that defends sustainable growth, because for them what really matters is maintaining the current power structure. Technological innovation and increased productivity should serve to reduce working hours, offer universal public services and make society fairer and more ecological.

Unnecessary consumption requires natural resources, produces waste and pollution that can and should be avoided, as there are many goods, products and services that do not contribute anything to the well-being of the population, but exist based on the logic of profit seeking.

The projects supported by the European authorities are based on market solutions with the additional aggravating factor of introducing the financialization of ecosystem services. The core of official green policies is to keep the capitalist system untouched and allow biochemical processes and genetic materials to be converted into financial assets, so property rights over them can be claimed by private entities.

Private property, the pursuit of profit, capital accumulation and the global dominance of finance capital over the real economy, based on the doctrine of market fundamentalism are the pillars of modern liberal democracies. Ecoliberalism does not intend to change this situation, it intends to extend it to everything that can be commodified.

Is Europe reactivating a war economy as part of the project for a greener economy? Cui bono with the revitalization of a war economy?

When there is political will, there are always alternatives. The war economy only interests the plutoligarchs who are willing to do anything to maintain the international order based on the hegemony of western financial and military imperialism. The western plutoligarchy prefers to bring humanity to the brink of a nuclear war, instead of embarking on the diplomatic path to create a new (irreversible) international geopolitical order.

In the temples of capitalism, City of London and Wall Street, the priestly rentier class and the FIRE sector realized that they could explore a much more profitable capitalist strand than industrial capitalism, the financial capitalism, putting into practice the neoliberal doctrine and taking advantage of the modern information technologies.

The liberalization of the economy (globalization) aimed to allow the relocation of production to countries with cheap labor (creation of special trade zones) and the recolonization of the Global South with investment projects for the plunder of natural resources and raw materials.

Ecoliberalism is the green facade of neoliberal ecofascism, which will never challenge the established powers, on the contrary, it will support the so-called green growth and discard any solution that implies the definancialization of the economy and implements a social and ecological economy for the common good based on the provision of universal basic services.

The degrowth principle will never work in a market fundamentalist system. What should be produced, or banned, has to come from democratic political choices. People cannot be compelled by necessity (manufactured scarcity) to accept jobs that go against their principles, conscientious objection must be extended to the world of economic activity.

The movement for degrowth must defend the allocation of UBI as a fundamental contribution for society to choose the economic activities that should be discontinued and prohibited without affecting the well-being of citizens.

Ecoliberalism, the promotional cover of green capitalism, defends massive investments in the so-called green transition and the involvement of financial capital in the process. A system that depends on economic growth has to promote economic growth.

The commitment to sustainable innovative technological solutions within the scope of the economy’s decarbonization strategy (ridiculous slogan) aims to maintain the superfluous consumer society as a given. The pursuit of profit and capital accumulation, the primacy of private property and proprietary rights will never be called into question. Financial markets and the financialized economy are a kind of sacred cows, beyond the comprehension of the common citizen, to be worshiped rather than challenged.

The degrowth that no one wants to talk about is the one imposed on the lower working class through rising inflation and political and fiscal austerity measures. This form of real economic degrowth has been practiced for decades without being seriously debated. Green capitalism will make the situation worse because the green transition is not programmed to make society fairer but to guarantee the perpetuation of the privileges of the affluent classes.

The energy transition must take place but oriented towards the implementation of a social and ecological economy, an economy of sobriety. The cult of opulence, luxury and vanity must be penalized rather than idolized. The sobriety society should abound with opportunities for citizens to meet basic needs without having to cause unnecessary suffering or deal with systemic cruelty.

The movement for degrowth must prioritize the reduction of poverty and social inequality, scarcity manufactured by capitalism and the consumption of superfluous and luxury goods, products and services. Other priorities: availability of universal public services, public housing, free public transport and reduced working hours.

The degrowth movement must support the economic development of the so-called Global South. Economic development to meet the needs of the population is fundamental, the problem is the model of development and over-consumption.

The governments and populations of each country need to identify the most strategic sectors of the national economy and design a development plan in which activities that are proven to be harmful to the environment and that require massive imports of raw materials are avoided, unless in cases where this is justified.

“The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.”— Mahatma Gandhi

The economy can produce enough to satisfy human needs without destroying the environment. Society must not tolerate the absurdity of protecting the right of some citizens to own luxury goods and properties in an unparalleled display of ostentation with a disgraceful ecological footprint.

The genuine advocates of abolishing these privileges are not driven by envy. Those who make these statements do not understand that some people do not feel the slightest desire to own this type of goods and privileges. Many people seek socio-professional, economic and financial security because society is merciless towards those who put freedom in the first place . Furthermore, simplicity and frugality with freedom can be the best source of genuine joie de vivre.

Injustice, inequality, manufactured scarcity, unnecessary suffering, uncertainty, cruelty, desensitization, dehumanization, intolerance and commodification inhibit and destroy the natural joy of living. When society becomes a dehumanized reality, individual and collective psycho-affective (biosociocultural) well-being is profoundly affected and people are compelled to make comparisons based on possession and privilege because that is the only form of social recognition that really matters and everyone knows it, even if most avoid talking about it.

The degrowth movement must defend a model of economy and society that values ​​a slower lifestyle. The frenzy must be replaced by the opportunity to savor life. The commodified society offers solutions to all kinds of problems, including the possibility of recovering psycho-emotional balance, physical fitness and spiritual well-being, but as part of a consumer society and not for a society of true well-being.

The underlying mindset makes us look for solutions requiring to adapt to the demands of a dysfunctional system rather than questioning the causes of the problems. We've all been told to complain less and do more. But most of the time, doing more means having to comply with the system we'd like to see changed. But to change the system you need a plan, unity and organization.

We are mentally conditioned to seek solutions within the framework of the system, what to do when the problem is the system itself, as is the case with the current model of society? Economic growth is the dominant dogma, we need to create more wealth to have a bigger pie to share. Most continue to confuse capital accumulation with wealth, but what we really need to satisfy basic needs is true wealth, capital accumulation is a source of power and control.

What should be considered wealth? Money? Or, the essential goods, products and services? In a financialized economy, investment banks, trust companies and asset managers, insurance companies, stock exchanges, financial markets control the economy, for example, the FIRE sector (basically, a rentier class) is responsible for real estate speculation that generates an inflationary spiral in the price of housing and rent.

If we could isolate a country with a financialized economy, it would quickly become evident that the wealth created by the financial sector, which only benefits 10% of the population, is virtual wealth created in a parallel dimension. Essential goods, products and services are produced by the real economy, which could and should have access to public funding to develop productive, socially fair and environmentally sustainable projects, instead of having a financial sector controlled privately plundering the real economy, destroying the fabric of society and trying to control nature.

Unfortunately, we live in a reality where virtual wealth acquires control of real assets through proprietary rights. The current financial system is based on normalizing financial fraud, financial market wizards create virtual wealth by turning everything into financial assets. The real economy and society as a whole are being driven to be completely enslaved by the financial matrix.

Capitalist societies resort to manufactured scarcity to coerce citizens to accept social and work conditions that are at the root of many of the mental health problems faced by our societies. Continuous stress, existential despair, meaninglessness lives, endemic poverty, etc. The mere need to survive turned into torture.

In capitalist economies dominated by neoliberal ideology, the wealth created is channeled upwards, while the working poor and the middle class have been losing purchasing power despite the immense "wealth" produced by the financial sector.

Capitalist economic systems apply the principle of competition to society as a justification for imposing a bottleneck rule on the poorest in accessing essential goods, products and services. For example, housing is an essential need, but the market treats housing as a mere tradable good (commodity) subject to financial speculation inflating the value of homes and rents, increasing the difficulty for poor families to access housing. The real estate market illustrates clearly how the rentier class accumulates wealth without creating value, that is, without adding anything to the real economy. Market controlled access to housing produces artificial scarcity in order to maximize profit. Wealth should be measured by the economy's ability to meet the needs of citizens and not by a monetary metric that benefits the rentier class. The GDP of financialized economies is disconnected from the performance of the real economy and does not serve as a reliable indicator of social well-being.

A degrowth movement that wants to be credible has to be anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-classist. Ecoliberal degrowth means more sacrifices for the working class because the ultimate goal is to protect the plutoligarchy.

The degrowth movement must defend participatory democracy, the definancialization of the economy and a classless society. If we allow ourselves to be fooled by a neo-bourgeois version of degrowth imposed from the top down by an elite of bureaucrats and technocrats aligned with the interests of green capitalism, we will have degrowth in the form of manufactured scarcity imposed on the “inferior” classes, including the useless class (Yuval Noah Harari). The goal is to move towards an ecological macro-economy without growth (steady state economy) based on the precautionary principle.

Neoclassical economists are not willing to put their reputations on the line to defend a degrowth economic paradigm. Nature represents value, nature is an asset. A free nature is anathema in the age of ecosystem services financialization. In the end what is at stake is to preserve the system and defend the interests of capitalist class.

The degrowth movement must defend technological innovation and scientific research that serve a social and ecological economy for a well-being society. Currently, techno-scientific development serves capital accumulation and power concentration, which is the same as saying that science is totalitarian and monopolistic. Scientific research and technological innovation, like all activities motivated by the pursuit of profit, transform economic activity into a destructive force, no matter the color of the facade.

The power imbalance between social classes makes it extremely easy to discredit, isolate and silence dissident voices and ideas, as well as making alternative projects unfeasible. Ecoliberalism will never question capital accumulation and the primacy of private property, it is delusional to believe that the ecoliberal class will implement policies aiming to democratize power relations, abolish class society and dismantle a culture in which nature is perceived as a reservoir of resources to be looted, commodified and transformed into capital.

Degrowth aims to reduce the environmental impact of human economic activities by reducing the consumption of natural resources, raw materials and energy, while promoting changes in production models and methods and consumption habits. The distribution of wealth must be done through universal public services, definancialization of the economy, public banking, sovereign currency issuance, including the use of this prerogative to inject money into the economy through the UBI, and a job guarantee program with the reduction of working hours.

Public investment in the real economy, that is, in the production of basic goods, products, services and in the construction of essential infrastructure to meet the needs of the population. Speculation and usury must be outlawed, activities and behaviors that feed on the socio-economic or psycho-emotional vulnerabilities of our fellow citizens must be considered crimes against humanity. The unlimited accumulation of wealth and the primacy of private property pave the way to idolizing sociopaths, psychopaths and unscrupulous opportunists. The ad nauseam repetition of epithets like meritocracy, entrepreneurship, democracy, freedom, free-markets does not change the reality. The problem is systemic, being easier to seduce, pervert and/or subjugate a thousand honest citizens than to rehabilitate an unscrupulous opportunist.

Degrowth policies for a steady state economy must be in the public domain. The myth that an interventionist state is incompatible with civil society initiatives is absurd. The state has the democratic duty to regulate and manage democratic policies for the promotion of a social and ecological economy. The decentralization of power does not mean handing it over to the private sector, but to local communities. It is a fact that our societies lack democratic participation and that makes the lower classes more vulnerable. More participatory democracy and more participatory economics require more political responsibility.

Existing or future leftist parties and organizations must include in their manifesto guidelines for a social and ecological political economy, which means that the economy must meet the basic needs of the population within the limits of the carrying capacity of the biosphere. If we allow ourselves to be deceived by ecoliberal or similar ideas, we will have an increasingly unequal society. Adherents of green capitalism will be strong advocates of increasing the environmental tax burden. The plutoligarchic class will continue to enjoy obscene privileges, while the majority of the population will be sacrificed with draconian austerity policies. Ecoliberalism paves the way for ecofascism and if we do nothing within a few decades we will live under a transhumanist techno-fascist dictatorship.

To be fair, the transition to a social and ecological economy has to be based on anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-classist policies. What is at stake is sharing the burden democratically by promoting a culture for a less consumerist society. We also need to change the educational paradigm “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them”. -Albert Einstein. The left must not present degrowth as a panacea to solve civilizational problems, degrowth is a political instrument to help correct the course of a dysfunctional society model. If we let the ecoliberals lead this process, which is what is happening, the degradation of living conditions will deepen, not only in access to goods, products and services, but also in everything that identifies us as humans.

Most of the solutions presented to solve environmental problems are based on or depend on technological innovation. China is an example of a society with a large-scale economy committed to being a world leader in technological innovation, while maintaining the productivist consumerist economic paradigm, which means that the overshoot problem will be aggravated. Technological innovation at the service of a society of opulence and superfluous consumption is not the way forward, much less the example to be followed by the left. The energy transition based on renewable energies has to be accompanied by a reduction in consumption, because the raw materials have to be extracted or mined somewhere.

Conquering territories, destroying ecosystems, exterminating species in favor of economic growth motivated by the pursuit of profit and the need to feed an insatiable society is something totally irrational. A model of society in which citizens feel entitled to satisfy any kind of whim 24/7 is an arrogant principle. Believing that there shouldn't be limits is a dangerous and delusional idea, limits exist and sooner or later they manifest themselves in the form of catastrophes, pandemics or irreversible changes in biological, climatic and geological systems.

The technological civilization is here to stay and only generalized systemic collapse can dictate its end. Earth is a planet transformed by technology in the insane pursuit of profit and capital accumulation. To control the problem we need to reflect on the connection between the pursuit of profit, capital accumulation, concentration of power and technological innovation. Technological innovation is a source of power, it is no coincidence that many technological innovations arise as the result of scientific research in the military area. In a reality of great power competition, military supremacy is the determining factor to impose an imperialist political and economic-financial order. If we fail to develop a geopolitical order based on cooperation and demilitarization, humanity has no future. The problem is systemic and will not be resolved by merely greening the economy.

The collective West is historically responsible for the current geopolitical chaos, and instead of participating in the creation of a new international geopolitical order for the development of a social and ecological economy, the Western imperialists insist on maintaining the rules-based neocolonialist order at all costs, including the possibility of nuclear annihilation.

The focus should be on the development of a just and egalitarian society based on a political-ideological system that recognizes limits, on consumption, wealth accumulation, private property, inheritance, intellectual property and patent rights.

When there are no limits to the growth of wealth accumulation, there are also no limits to the growth in the number of the left behind. Western societies are heading towards the fascist abyss, because the elites, instead of admitting the need to change the system, make us swallow green capitalism as the solution. A solution that will aggravate social inequality, will not solve the environmental problems and will increase the overshoot and postpones the collapse for a while.

Believing that we can maintain the current civilizational paradigm based on the blind faith in techno-scientism and technological innovation proves how vulnerable the human species is to ideological-cultural delusions.

What should be the top priority is the development of a society with principles and values ​​different from those that currently shape human behavior. To eradicate poverty we need economic development, which is correct, but what kind of economic development? Economic development to satisfy essential needs is one thing and economic growth to accumulate wealth is another. The eradication of poverty involves a fairer distribution of the wealth created, and true wealth is the products, goods and services essential to satisfy society's needs. Capital is not wealth, it is an instrument of power and that is why it is so dangerous and causes so much destruction.

The economy is part of society, as society is part of nature. Structuring the economy to meet the needs of society without destroying nature must be the mission of any system of political economy. The duty of the free market is to extract wealth to be accumulated by the plutoligarchic class.

The ecoliberal class is working hard on the financialization (privatization) of ecosystem services, to make us pay, as with the privatization of universal public services, for the right to access "services" provided by nature. This is yet another fraud set up by the gurus of the financial system, based on the user-pays principle taken to the extreme. The objective is not to save the environment, but to transform nature into financial assets, using the so-called ecosystem services as a reason to tax consumers as yet another source of enrichment for the rentier class and the FIRE sector.

The movement for degrowth must defend the definancialization of the economy. The speculative "economy" should be banned, 90% of the population is harmed by this form of financial parasitism.

The degrowth movement must defend a geopolitical economy based on international cooperation with the aim of: 1- Rationalize the consumption of energy, natural resources and raw materials. 2- Encourage the relocation of production. It makes no sense to import what can be produced locally with identical quality and resource savings. 3- Stimulate technical-scientific cooperation in the search for solutions to implement a steady state economy.

The pursuit of profit distorts the true objective of the economy, which must be to satisfy the basic needs of the population. The idea of ​​having countries that function as factories to supply the world is absurd.

Degrowth aims to question the idea of ​​unlimited growth. The mentors of green capitalism deceive the public with ideas of green mega-projects as a solution to the problem of global warming, without ever questioning the existing societal order and the current political economy system. Carbon dioxide is labeled public enemy and following a recurring pattern, a relentless war is declared against CO2.

The transition to a green economy presented to us does not foresee a radical change in the system that created the problem and the degrowth movement has the obligation to expose the hypocrisy and tricks of a system focused on expanding the scope of financial predation to the core of biological and geoclimatic processes in order to capitalize on them.

One of the roles of the degrowth movement is to challenge preconceived ideas that regulate the way we understand reality and adapt to it. Neoliberalism, market fundamentalism remains the dominant ideology. An ideology that demonizes the role of the State and glorifies the supposed efficiency of markets. The free market assumes that the law of supply and demand makes economies more efficient without ever mentioning that there are no markets free from manipulation.

During the reign of Thatcher-Reagan, the neoliberal doctrine was imposed as the dominant culture for a new era of prosperity. The concept of dominant culture describes the implicit perception patterns that normalize a certain reality conditioning human behavior to adapt to it.

The TINA dogma imposed during the reign of Thatcher-Reagan has to be deconstructed once and for all so that we can focus on democratizing the economy and dignifying the lives of the common citizenry. It is time for the productivity gains achieved with technological innovation be used to implement a social and ecological economy.

Inter-generational solidarity is one of the structural pillars for a welfare society. Caring for all those who need social support, in childhood, old age, illness or any other situation of vulnerability is the cornerstone for just and fair society. The professional work in the area of ​​social assistance must essentially be done by genuinely motivated people who must be duly rewarded and socially recognized.

The role of the family and the community continues to be extremely important, the children should grow up with the feeling of belonging to a living community, contrasting with the current social atomization culture.

Sovereign currency must be created by the national treasury and used to fund universal basic services, social security, UBI, guaranteed employment program, construction and maintenance of essential infrastructure, public housing and all the rest required for a functional steady state economy.

A network of public banks with the aim of financing the needs of the real economy, that is, individual, collective or community projects that contribute to a social and ecological economy.

The International bank transfers must be regulated in a way that respects national sovereignty.

A predatory, neocolonialist and imperialist financial system like the one that exists must be eliminated. Financial markets are arguably the worst man-made system, dominated by a plutoligarchy rentier class enslaving the humanity.

We have to create a banking, monetary, financial and tax system that is simple, transparent, fair, functional and democratic. “Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws.” - Mayer Amschel Rothschild. This quote illustrates the role of money in controlling society. The creation and management of money is vital and letting that power fall into the hands of the private sector is fatal.

Issuing currency requires just a few strokes on a computer keyboard. This is how more than 95% of the money in circulation is created, in most cases by private banks. The UBI is a way for governments to put money into circulation in the real economy. Inflation can be controlled by increasing taxation, which is how money is destroyed to "cool down" the economy. Combating inflation can also be done by imposing restrictions on the consumption of superfluous goods, products and services, especially imported ones.

The relocation of the economy must be a priority. Public, cooperative and social banks must create lines of credit available to citizens and communities to invest in productive (non-speculative) projects and economic activities based on short cycles of production and consumption.

A social and ecological economy must give citizens more freedom to choose a different professional path, because not all citizens feel fulfilled dedicating their entire existence to a single career or activity and, instead of being penalized, they should have the possibility of having different experiences as a way of giving meaning and purpose to their lives.

UBI helps citizens to have more freedom to choose non-monetized activities, develop more creative projects and seek to give more meaning and purpose to their existence. For reasons of equity in the sharing of tasks that are considered less desirable it may be necessary to draw up a democratic plan to regulate some civic and social obligations. There has to be a balance between individual freedom and the need to meet the needs of the community. The social and ecological economy requires the contribution of each one of us so that we can all have a more dignified existence in a fairer society.

In financialized neoliberal economies, the working poor have long lived in degrowth mode, austerity is a political instrument to enforce manufactured scarcity. It is simply impossible to make a transition to a more ecological and just society while maintaining the current power structure. The degrowth movement must advocate for a participatory economy and the imposition of a ceiling on the accumulation of wealth and property. An economy with limits is a society with a future.

The neoliberal regime imposed as the rules-based international order by the Anglo-American financial imperialism transformed the vast majority of sovereign countries into vassals of the globalized capital.

Open economies, foreign investment, unrestricted capital circulation, market liberalization result in loss of sovereignty. National governments are prevented from taking protectionist measures for fear of capital flight, currency devaluation, collapse of the banking system, worsening financing conditions, political isolation and economic sanctions.

A political-ideological movement for a political economy based on sobriety has to go through cooperative agreements between countries for a society of sufficiency. The purpose of the idea of ​​degrowth is not to impede development, but to avoid excess and waste, the culture of sobriety aims to make citizens aware that the consumerist culture cannot continue on the terms we are used to. More cooperation and less competition, demilitarization and definancialization of the economy.

The degrowth movement must be based on the implementation of a social and ecological political economy. Green capitalism is adding more gasoline to the fire and a productivist socialist political economy following the model of a westernized consumer society is equally wrong. The idea of ​​degrowth is, above all, the awareness of the need to build an ecological society.

The role of the western left in implementing a social and ecological political economy in the context of a new geopolitical, economic and financial order

The left is often described and identified with parties such as the Democratic Party (US), the Labor Party (UK) or equivalents. For the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist left, these are not left parties, they are at best progressive liberals, nowadays controlled by rabid neoliberals. The left advocates a socialist political economy, universal public services, sovereign currency, public banking and a classless society.

The conservative right defends traditional values, private property and proprietary rights, unlimited capital accumulation and a class-based society. The primacy of private property, capital and class society unequivocally defines in which side of the ideological-political spectrum an organization, movement or party places itself on. Any political party is defined by the political choices it makes, not by the facade it presents.

Progressive liberals, centrists and social democratic parties are often identified as left and even radical left, pejoratively labelled as communists/socialists. Progressive liberals, social-democratic and centrist parties were partially or totally co-opted by neoliberals or at least deeply influenced by the neoliberal doctrine.

In western or western-controlled countries, only the anti-capitalist left resists being bought by neoliberalism and, consequently, has been politically marginalized and culturally ostracized for taking positions deemed unrealistic.

Environmentalist movements and “green” parties uncritically support the policies dictated by green capitalism. A substantial part of the non-profit Industrial Complex (NPIC), which most people rely on, is used to spread capitalist propaganda and promote policies aimed at strengthening the system that created the problems.

The far right is pro-capitalist and will gladly implement neoliberal policies even more radical than their liberal counterparts. Fascists love to impose austerity, structural adjustments, anti-labor measures, social security cuts and anything that resembles a public safety net.

Waving the flag of nationalism and denouncing social and cultural degeneration is an easy way to manipulate the public. These people have not the slightest intention of draining the swamp or weeding out the malignant tumors that are destroying the fabric of society in order to supposedly restore the original purity and the lost normalcy. What they have in mind is to oppress the working class and criminalize poverty.

Lower-class citizens who allow themselves to be seduced by far-right and fascist rhetoric and help them seize the reins of power are shooting themselves in the foot. Far-right and fascist politicians are skillful manipulators, presenting themselves as counter-power and restorers of dignity and values, while feeding on the disappointments of ordinary citizens by resorting to incendiary slogans to instrumentalize them, not to solve their problems.

The anti-capitalist left was politically marginalized by the triumphant wave of neoliberalism. The primacy of globalized capital, the financialization of the economy, the privatization of public services, the liberalization of the labor market, the opening of the economy to international investment.

A new world order of entrepreneurship, innovation, growth and development, an opportunity for all nations to be recolonized by the second wave of globalization. The honor of contracting a perpetual debt with the institutions representing the Anglo-American financial empire.

The new paradigm of geopolitical economy was instituted as a set of organizational rules for the post-end history civilization. For several decades, neoliberalism has been the dominant, almost exclusive, doctrine of geopolitical economics, ubiquitous in all areas of activity and corners of society.

Neoliberalism is much more than a political economy project, it is a social, cultural and civilizational project with the "responsibility" of writing, dictating and imposing the rules of global economic, monetary, financial and geopolitical governance.

Citizenship means equal rights and opportunities, not just equality before the law, but democratic, political, economic and social equality. The capitalist economy is the opposite of a participatory economy, in the absence of economic democracy, democracy is just a set of formalities to maintain the facade.

In liberal capitalist regimes, it has become the norm that electoral programs presented to the electorate are not to be taken seriously. There is no harm in voting for a party based on ideological identification, but the electoral program is the document that should serve to confirm that we are voting for the right project.

No, lying is tolerated as if it has no impact on people's lives. Living in a democracy requires responsibility, if we lightly accept giving a vote of confidence to those who lie to get to power, then we are disrespecting ourselves. Our obligation as citizens who want to live in democracy is to defend democracy. Politics does not cease to influence our existence because we despise it, politics is not the struggle for power, it is the struggle against power, that is, it is the struggle for political, economic, social and cultural democracy.

Collective welfare must be the objective of any democratic government and the guidelines for implementing that objective must be clear in the electoral program, which must be a binding document, not a promotional leaflet or a piece of misleading advertising.

Universal public services are structural democratic pillars that guarantee that all citizens, without exception, have access to minimum welfare. The purpose of the economy is to satisfy the basic needs of society.

The pursuit of profit is not the objective of the economy, it can stimulate innovation, increase production and sales. The objective of the search for profit is the accumulation of wealth, and if possible, to be part of the rentier class, that is, the unproductive parasitic class, a caste of usurers who earn money with money and thus contribute to the increase of social inequality.

Not all capitalists become rentiers, but the capitalist ideal leads many oligarchs and plutocrats to pursue the goal of becoming part of the rentier class. The unlimited accumulation of capital is a way of guaranteeing the governance and control of society by the capitalist class. The FIRE sector in a financialized economy is the example of rentier capitalism, a form of capitalism that does not contribute to the real economy but generates inflation by creating "wealth" through financial and real estate speculation and is responsible for increasing social inequality. The problem is that we find this normal, and even worship people, who individually may be good people, but as a social class they represent a danger to society.

It is crucial to know the trends, processes and systems on which political and ideological actors/manipulators rely to shape historical events, so that we can better understand what is happening in the present and what are the prospects for the future.

We need to learn to identify patterns and trends that denounce the evolution of the historical process so that we can consciously avoid falling into mistakes similar to those of the past.

A culture based on narratives with heroes on one side and villains on the other is an infantilized culture that promotes dependence on saviors and the use of scapegoats to divert attention from the heart of the problems.

Understanding the present requires more than focusing on political actor A, B or C. We cannot ignore/circumvent the importance that a single politician can have in triggering, unfolding and resolving a historical event, a war, the institution of a political regime, an economic system, etc.

It is also true that bringing down the main political actor can be enough to end a crisis. But if we never assume that political actors do not operate in a vacuum, we never focus on systemic problems that persist over time. We can be naive and believe in the bad apple theory and not even think that the problem could be the basket, or we can choose to live in denial so we never have to take a stand.

Looking for facts, interpreting them as part of a process that takes place in an artificially complex system. Human societies do not function impartially, laws, rules and regulations, values ​​and principles are designed by influential groups that implement political ideologies that defend their interests.

Individual actors can play a decisive role in the unfold of historical events, nevertheless, the mass of the governed must cultivate a systemic view of the problems instead of focusing almost exclusively on political leaders.

Political agency is almost nil, ordinary citizens, apart from voting, are not encouraged to participate in anything relevant in terms of effective political choices and decisions.

Instead, ordinary citizens are subject to psycho-cognitive and behavioral conditioning to accept the rules of a system designed to serve the minority at the expense of the common good.

If we truly believe we have the right to resist being used and abused, then we shouldn't spend our lives waiting for charismatic saviors, heroes and leaders. We have to consider changing the system so that we can have political agency in modeling the historical process. History, like life, happens while we are literally being milked, in every sense of the word.

It is equally important to know why we believe what we believe. Politics is the means by which ideas can become reality. Ideas have two kinds of consequences, the ability to turn us into useful idiots or to contribute to the development of a free and just society. There are ideas that liberate and ideas that appeal to blind faith and obedience to established powers. Liberating ideas do not demand to be followed blindly, they encourage us to learn how to identify forms of fallacious reasoning, to identify manipulative perception techniques, in short, everything that can cloud the capacity of discernment. Liberating ideas do not demand sacrifices in vain, nor do they impose third-party sacrifices to save the world. Liberating ideas do not impose absurdities. “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” -Voltaire

Leftist values ​​for an ecosocialist society:

social equality, classless society, reduced working hours, universal public services, social and ecological economy (steady-state economy), public banking, sovereign money, definancialization of the economy.

The aim of the economy is to meet the basic needs of the population. An ecosocialist economy should follow the precautionary principle for ecological guidance. We must reduce and in certain cases prohibit the production and consumption of products, goods and services with excessive negative impact on the environment, due to the volume of consumption or the destructive poisoning potential.

The current paradigm is unsustainable and what will happen, in fact what is already happening is that we will have an economy producing luxury goods, products and services for a small elite that simultaneously owns properties, mansions, resorts, private jets , yachts, and everything else imaginable to satisfy the whims of an out of touch class. Around 10% of the population at the top of the social hierarchy will be rewarded with substantial privileges and the majority of the population will be condemned to survive in a techno-feudal regime.

More individual freedom and less material accumulation. An ecosocialist society does not have to ban private property rights altogether, but private property, as well as capital accumulation have to be limited by law. Ownership and wealth controlled by the private sector becomes a political lever, that is, the wealthier the citizen, family, company, organization, the greater the ability to influence political choices and decisions and over time, society will gradually become controlled by the wealthy minority.

A class-based society does not stand on the shoulders of giants, stands on the shoulders of the underprivileged. Social equality begins in a culture that does not encourage, normalize, justify, and reward inequality. Humiliation is more common than many people are willing to accept. Who has never been subjected to a top-down look, a manifestation of superiority culturally accepted and in certain cases encouraged. Prejudices affect primarily minorities, disadvantaged citizens and all commodified living beings.

The left ideology is incompatible with social liberalism, social democracy and center-left, because these political currents defend the capitalist economy as the standard model.

It is an undeniable fact that productivist industrial capitalism has contributed to economic development, but we cannot forget that this development is indelibly linked to access to mineral resources and cheap raw materials in third world countries controlled by the West, under colonialist or neocolonialist domination.

Productivist economies, capitalist or socialist are environmentally unsustainable. The first seeks profit and capital accumulation, therefore consumption growth is inseparable from the logic of unlimited economic growth and consequently the market has to be flooded with appealing products capable of stimulating consumption and debt, another structural pillar of the capitalist economy.

The status of consumer replaces that of citizen and, in order to fulfill the obligation of being a consumer, the citizen is led to buy what he doesn't need with the money he doesn't have. A substantial part of the goods, products and services purchased or contracted are unnecessary but still contribute to environmental devastation and produce waste.

The socialist productivist economy should only be used in cases where the economy of a country is in a state of underdevelopment, as it is desirable for socialist economies to abandon the productivist model.

Energy consumption continues to grow, as does waste production, soil contamination, freshwater aquifers and ocean pollution. It is imperative that the European population leaves the capitalist cocoon and begins to realize that the neoliberal elite that dictates the European policies will lead us to fascism. The question is not if but when.

Ecosocialism with European characteristics is the solution for a green and democratic Europe, but for this to happen it takes a great effort to raise political, ideological and cultural awareness, but it is achievable and it starts by bringing politics to the table, less virtual and more real, more mobilization and organization and less opinion thrown into the bottomless pit of social media.

Current western capitalism is based on the financialization of the economy and ecosystem services, as part of the vision for a green society. Proprietary rights are used as legal instruments by the FIRE sector and the rentier class to accumulate more and more capital with the blessing of the political class.

Public-private partnerships represent the merger between capital and the state in order to benefit private stakeholders at the expense of impoverishing everything that is or should be part of universal public services. Economic fascism is already a reality, and political fascism is on the way.

The benefits of productivist capitalism were largely outweighed by the economic, social and environmental losses. Financial capitalism is a lethal weapon for the real economy, society and the environment. The capitalist political economy practiced in the West represents the degenerative stage of Western society/civilization.

As long as we continue to look the other way and keep kicking the can down the road, hoping the problem will go away, it won't. What will come true with our consent, is the institution of a techno-fascist dictatorship.

The West is dominated by a single ideology, or to be more exact, the lethal mixture of two ideologies, neoconservatism and neoliberalism. Center-left socialist, social democratic, and progressive liberal parties, to some extent, attempt to reconcile the values ​​of social democracy with the principles of neoclassical economics, the standard school of economic thought. Center-left socialist parties gradually gave in to neoliberal onslaughts. But the main reason that led center-left socialist and social-democratic governments to implement neoliberal policies was the pressure from the international institutions behind the expansion of neoliberal capitalism. Financial capitalism requires open economies, lifting controls on capital flows, removal of tax barriers, privatization of the economy and public services, drastic reduction of social protection and liberalization of the labor market.

The US influenced the architecture and creation of the EU with the aim of aggregating the European continent into a homogeneous group managed by a centralized power. Neoliberalism would never have been so uniformly imposed in Europe without the European Commission and the ECB dictating macroeconomic, monetary and fiscal policies. A common market is a good idea, but with a caveat, the architects of the project designed it to serve a globalized financial economy excluded from democratic scrutiny. The European Structural Funds were important to develop the economy of the most "backward" countries. The funds were intended to build infrastructure and modernize the economy, but much of that money was wasted, and in that sense it was a missed opportunity for economic development rather than phantom projects and make-believe training, just to spend the money. Society's problem is always the same, lack of democratic control, and if this problem is never solved, we will never stop shooting ourselves in the foot.

The process of modernizing the economy meant liberalizing the economy and opening the doors to a globalized free market. In the Portuguese case, agriculture, fishing and the clothing industry were seen as sacrificial lambs, with the opening of the economy to imports of agricultural surpluses of the EU and imports from Asian countries. The Political class from the peripheral countries sold the EU as an opportunity that could not be missed, but never fully explained that the contract required full conversion to neoliberalism, the official doctrine for the entire EU. Aware of the risks or not, politicians at the time believed that the positives outweighed the negatives. The public was never made aware that adherence to the single currency implied the loss of monetary sovereignty, that is, the countries in the euro zone do not enjoy the right to issue currency like the US and UK, being at the mercy of the markets to finance themselves.

The ECB's mission is to provide stability to the financial markets. The ECB is concerned with inflation, interest rates and other monetary and financial issues that affect the interests of financial capitalism, not yours or mine, that is the mandate of Christine Lagarde. The creation of the single currency was another important step to integrate the European economy into globalized financial capitalism.

The main role of European institutions is not to defend the interests of Europeans, but to ensure that Europe is kept under the yoke of globalized financial capitalism controlled by Anglo-American financial imperialism. The EU does not act as an independent political entity, it follows a geopolitical strategy subordinated to the geostrategic interests of the US/NATO. Europeans are continuously bombarded with propaganda that aims to defend the globalized neoliberal order, that is, the interests of the Western oligarch and plutocrat class.

Neoliberalism, financial capitalism or market fundamentalism has institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank as partners for the liberalization of the global economy. The core business of these institutions is to place sovereign countries in a situation of perpetual debt peonage to meet the Western neocolonialist objectives, particularly the USA.

Western countries have been contemplated with austerity measures, privatization of public services, systematic attacks on the rights of the working class with the aim of weakening the bargaining power of middle and low wage earners.

The last five decades of market fundamentalism were marked by the systematic attack on the social state, the common good and public services, by the increase in social isolation and the replacement of political agency by pseudo-activities of emancipation and personal liberation.

Austerity, precariousness and all the factors that contribute to increasing social alienation, end up generating learned helplessness, which leads citizens to lose hope of having a life with meaning and purpose.

Clara E. Mattei argues that austerity paves the way to fascism. Economic and fiscal austerity is a way to enforce social, political and cultural conformity. TINA dogma supported by a barrage of public-private propaganda transformed the Western democratic regimes, the so-called liberal democracies into public-private partnerships under the aegis of neoliberal doctrine, in which the public side serves to leverage private hegemony.

It is critical, but unfortunately not to be expected, that Western citizens realize that the aim of demonizing all countries that resist being reduced to protectorates of Western neocolonial imperialism, depicting them as brutal dictatorial regimes, is propaganda designed to manufacture consent among the western population.

Western citizens are subject to a campaign of mass deception that could lead humanity to annihilation, while preparing us to accept a technofascist transhumanist society in which citizens will be reduced to the status of techno-feudal serfs.

The EU owes allegiance to NATO, the protective military alliance of financial capitalism (Wall Street and City of London), the backbone of world governance engineered by the Western PlutOligarchy.

The “progressive” liberals spread the political and cultural wokism and part of the anti-capitalist left joined the movement, a wrong strategy but they don't seem to want to let go.

The protection of individual rights and the defense of the dignity of minorities are left-wing values. The woke ideology is not a leftist ideology, it is a political weapon to generate social division. The purpose of the woke campaign is not to defend the rights of minorities, but to explore ad nauseam the divisive and controversial issues as a way to divert people's attention from what really matters, the struggle against imperialism, capitalism and the abolition of class society.

Cultural and intellectual liberalism is used as a vehicle for ideological propaganda of political neoliberalism. The anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist left defends a social and ecological political economy, the end of labor exploitation, social equality, in short, the materialization of basic human values, has to assume what it stands for and transmit it clearly, consistently with the principles it upholds.

The left does not have to apologize for what it stands for, nor feed unnecessary controversies. At the moment, most citizens do not see the possibility of breaking up with the omnipotent capitalist system. But we are in a time of transition and more and more citizens are starting to realize that the current system is the problem, and the left, must learn how to read the signs and act accordingly. In the current historical moment, far-right populism is more attractive to European citizens, but this should not inhibit the left from devising a populist strategy to reach a wider public.

We still tolerate a societal model of political economy and based on manufactured scarcity as a way of coercing citizens at the base of the social pyramid to accept carrying out tasks considered undignified, monotonous or dangerous so that the cream of society enjoys the deserved rewards for the services they render to that same society.

A society organized in classes or castes rationalizes the right to coerce the lower classes to serve the higher classes. We talk a lot about freedom and at the same time want to maintain a class society with rigid hierarchies supported by narratives that justify and normalize the enslavement and exploitation of people based on the concept of class inferiority acquired by birth, education or indoctrination to serve an unjust system and dysfunctional.

The proponents of this scheme believe, or intend to have others believe, that the system evolved organically as a rational way of organizing society. The development of agriculture, namely the cultivation of cereals, gave rise to sedentary communities. The type of personality, one of the most celebrated by the capitalist class - opportunistic sociopaths and psychopaths. As soon as they realized they could put the community to work, they developed a strategy, designed a narrative to convince them to trust their proposals to make society more efficient and organized.

Efficiency is a consensual concept, but it is not innocuous. A class system is more efficient than a system where each citizen occupies a place in the community based on age group and gender. The social division based on work is a dishonest way of assigning a place in society, but the main problem is the structure of power concentration and wealth accumulation that makes the situation irreversible, because those who control society will not hesitate to resort to violence to defend the established order.

The most common practice since human beings have existed on this planet is the assignment of social roles based on age and gender in the service of the common good. This form of organic cooperation preserves the unity of the community.

The problem is when this organic democratic system is usurped to give way to a hierarchical pyramidal system with the attribution of increasing privileges and powers. The study of the Indian caste system allows us to understand how it is possible to develop an intricate system of castes and sub-castes, devaluing the lives of those belonging to lower castes based on religious justifications.

Capitalist ideologues tend to sweep the idea of ​​class under the rug. Society is portrayed as a collection of individuals competing with each other based on the rules of law and demand and the contribution of the market invisible hand. Diligent entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed and create the jobs that the rest of society lacks. This is a sanitized version of the free market, no monopolies, no special interests, no rentier class, no oligarchs, the invisible hand keeps the economy running in perfect exemption.

Among the exploited there are those who believe in the inherent order of the system, after all there has to be someone in charge, otherwise there would be chaos. Between performing a democratically controlled system and having the effective power to coerce, exploit, and treat one's fellow man from the top down, there is a substantial difference.

A group, movement, organization or party can bear any label that seems convenient to them, but ideological and intellectual honesty must always be above everything else. Politics has to be rehabilitated and the left must strive to play that role. A political-ideological project exposed in a manifesto must define what the party really is about. If the left concept is too eroded, we have the responsibility of rehabilitating it.

Radical Left, Democratic Left, Progressive Left, Center Left, Liberal Left, and Libertarian Left. All these politico-ideological labels share the term left, which is not completely unreasonable, but in the end it does more harm than good to the left, at least what I understand as the left, the alternative to the capitalist-imperialist order.

The ideas I defend result from a process of refinement of “eclectic” influences of decades, my iconoclastic vein allows me to admire and respect, never to idolize. Neither idols nor authorities, individual progress always depends on collective progress, instead of following the phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" we stand on the shoulders of the LITTLE PEOPLE."

I am a self-taught citizen and I went through the hardships of living with meager means trying to survive. I have always felt the need to reflect on social, cultural and environmental issues, political awareness came later.

The words of the poet António Aleixo came to my mind: "I don't have great views, nor great wisdom, but the bitter hours give me philosophy lessons." "Eu não tenho vistas largas, nem grande sabedoria, mas dão-me as horas amargas lições de filosofia."

Unnecessary manufactured suffering has been a seminal issue in my thinking about the society in which we live. Cruelty, indifference, desensitization are normalized by the process of adapting to the conditions imposed by a dysfunctional economic system. In a system of political economy based on manufactured scarcity, most have to sell their labor power in order to survive, and have to follow orders in order to keep their jobs, which means turning a blind eye to what is going on around them and keeping focused on fulfilling the functions for which they were hired.

Competition, efficiency and productivity, technocracy and techno-scientism, optimizing results and maximizing profits, superhuman commitment to build a dehumanized and trans-humanized society.

We “invest” in interpersonal relationships with the expectation of them being “profitable”, the mercantile logic permeates the entire social fabric. As employees, we are obliged to comply with orders and follow rules and regulations established by the employer. The established ideological-cultural and socio-economic order normalizes behaviors that cause manufactured suffering and in many cases those involved are even not aware of it. Profit maximization generates a vicious cycle in which practices, methods and work processes cause unnecessary suffering, but which is not questioned because people are mentally prepared to find the situation normal, or do not even realize it due to ideological-cultural blindness.

Technological innovation contributes to improving working conditions and increases productivity. Any person of good faith recognizes that, in principle, this can be an indicator of prosperity and well-being. The problem is that profit maximization always comes before human and animal welfare. The human being is literally domesticated to perform repetitive, monotonous and mechanized tasks, in which what defines us as humans is purely and simply superfluous.

Domestic animals for meat and dairy production are treated like machines, resorting to bio-engineering to increase productivity. More meat, more milk, faster, more profitable.

In the era of financialized economies and market fundamentalism, the gap between the real economy and the world of financial markets exacerbates the dehumanization process. and consequently increases situations of manufactured, artificial and unnecessary suffering.

People and animals are subject to manufactured suffering because the dominant economic ideology does not encourage or reward citizens who put respect for life first. Compassion, empathy, solidarity and fraternity are encouraged as a parallel path to the economy. The economy is studied and implemented as a system separated from society, which is why unpaid work is not part of the economy and externalities are dropped from economic accounting. The economy exists to generate profit and accumulate capital, people, animals and the environment exist to be exploited, plundered by the economic activity for the benefit of those who control the means of production and financial capital.

A humanized, social and ecological economy is a mirage, because it does not serve the interests of capital. Capitalists show their philanthropic side by funding charities and NGOs, creating foundations and getting involved in diversified humanitarian projects.

What is important to remember is that compassion, empathy and solidarity are kept out of the economic loop. Capitalism generates artificial scarcity, social inequality, poverty and misery because profit maximization is always ahead of respect for life.

Philanthropic projects are selective and contribute to alleviating a small portion of the suffering and destruction caused by the capitalist class. Indeed the capitalist class resorts to philanthropy to expand its influence, wealth and power. Of course, there are cases of philanthropy that do not have dubious agendas, but perhaps they are in the minority. Once a capitalist, always a capitalist.

Left political-ideological principles: 1-Anti-imperialist 2- Anti-capitalist 3- Anti-classist 4- Universal public services 5-Public banking 6-Soverign money issuance 7- Public property 8-Dedolarization 9-Definancialization

1-Anti-imperialist

Anti-imperialism is the total opposition to any economic, financial, cultural and military political-ideological project with the aim of colonizing, enslaving, occupying and plundering the natural resources of foreign territories.

2- Anti-capitalist

Anti-capitalism begins with the fight against manufacturing scarcity. Capitalism uses scarcity as an instrument of socioeconomic oppression. Anti-capitalism means reversing the process of commodification and financialization of the economy. Capitalism gives primacy to private property, the pursuit of profit and the accumulation of capital. The capitalist doctrine induces and feeds the illusion of the possibility of realizing the capitalist dream. Anti-capitalism demands a social and ecological political economy that guarantees access to public housing at controlled costs, universal public services, guaranteed employment, more free time to develop personal, group or community projects.

3- Anti-classist

The abolition of class society is more than a question of social justice, it is a moral imperative. The idea of ​​class is implicitly demeaning to justify exploitation. The conservative right understands class dynamics better than the pseudo-progressive liberals and the woke "left". The conservative right defends the existence of classes, privileges, property rights and hereditary rights. The liberal and pseudo-progressive modern left turns a blind eye to the class problem.

The idea of ​​limiting or suppressing the rights of others dates back to the invention of civilization, prisoners of war made slaves, ordinary prisoners condemned to forced labor. The “uncivilized” Africans used as a source of free/cheap labor during the first wave of globalism.

Class ideology has to be understood as a way to rationalize power relations in which those on one side of the equation acquired the right to demand, order and partially or totally control the existence of those on the other side of the equation. There is no limit to the human capacity to accept barbaric practices, when properly rationalized. Class-based society is nothing more than the rationalization of exploitation justified, legalized and glorified by the people, organizations and institutions that control society.

The ruling classes amass the monopoly on privileges and distribute them according to the relevance of the services provided by different socio-professional groups. In short, it is not possible to talk about human rights, freedom, democracy and at the same time believe in the goodness of an oppressive and exploitative class system. Defending leftist values ​​is not the same or enough to visualizing and wanting to build a classless society.

4- Universal public services

Universal public services guarantee psychosocial well-being because they free citizens from unnecessary and weakening existential anxieties. The essence of any society is to provide mutual protection and universal public services are the ideal way to ensure that every individual and family has access to essential goods, products and services. It is not the invisible hand of the market, but the conscious intervention of the State that can guarantee equity in universal access to basic services.

Universal public services must cover health, education, housing, transportation, basic food basket, potable water and energy as a way to guarantee social justice to all citizens without exception.

The universality of public services must be a non-negotiable principle of any societal project based on left-wing ideology.

5-Public banking & 6- Sovereign money issuance

A brief explanation of how most money is created by the banking system. Banks do not lend money, banks are authorized to create new money when they give credit. The money is credited to the customer's account and in a separate balance sheet the money/debt is "destroyed" each time an installment is paid. Banking profits of interests and commissions and are allowed to use customer debts as assets.

Today's Source of Money Creation - Prof. Richard Werner (GDI)

Money creation should be a state monopoly as a means of financing the real economy, universal public services and public infrastructure.

Private banking must be replaced by public and cooperative banking. Monetary, financial and fiscal policy issues are unattractive to the general public. However, it is imperative that ordinary people understand the concepts, ideologies and interests behind the monetary, financial and fiscal policies because political economy priorities can be undermined by constraints manufactured to defend special interests.

It is impossible to implement a social and ecological political economy within the current monetary, financial and fiscal system. Supposedly independent central banks follow BIS guidelines designed to protect the globalized financial order controlled by Wall Street and the City of London.

Until we develop a comprehensive understanding on how the financialized economy really works, we will not be able to challenge the established order because we continue to subscribe to the myth of the separation between economics and the monetary and financial policies.

7- Proprietary and hereditary rights

Private property rights are not democratic rights, on the contrary, they are a way of generating socioeconomic asymmetries that tends to worsen over time. A society that institutes the right to private property without limits is a society in which the majority of citizens will end up being victims of abuse of power and influence. Private property means ownership and control over something, or living being. It is the most insidious of all established values. The right to enjoy the necessary means for a dignified existence does not imply the need for private property. Private property is at the origin of the parasitic rentier class that currently controls financial capitalism. If the lower-middle-class citizens, that is, the majority of the population, think carefully about the issue of private property and the sacrifices one has to make to own a house, it would not be difficult to devise more democratic and less painful alternatives to having the right to a shelter. Housing is the example of what should be a public good, instead of being the object of financial speculation, which obliges people to go into debt to buy a house at inflated prices to pay in thirty years or more.

Property and hereditary rights are rationalized and ideologically framed in such a way that the vast majority accept them as morally and legally just in a society where private property is the most revered right. The unlimited accumulation of wealth and property is the main objective for most people, not only because it is the established reality, but because the alternative is destitution. Most individuals and families aspire to have a better life, fight for it and tend to cling to what they own. Most people believe in hereditary rights as part of the natural order, that is, it would make no sense to have it any other way. The hereditary transmission of property was not instituted to favor the lower classes, but to perpetuate the concentration of wealth in the hands of the most influential families. Without the imposition of a legal limit on the accumulation of wealth and property, the tendency is for the richest families to use their influence to control the structural institutions of society and with time society ends up transforming into a system in which the interests of the Wealthy minorities merge with the interests of society.

The greater the concentration of wealth and property, the deeper the social, economic and cultural asymmetries. A large part of the population knows that this is true, but the reality of the struggle for survival forces people to live in denial because they do not see a realistic possibility of change and people are fed up with promises of reforms that never materialize.

To visualize the benefits of a different societal system, we must be able to critically analyze the existing order on comparison with the imagined order. For most of us it would be far better and more just to have an economic, social, and cultural system in which private property was prohibited or controlled to prevent excessive accumulation of influence and power. The critical point of any system of political economy is the concentration of wealth and property transformed into political influence and social control.

8-Dedolarization & 9-Definancialization

The Western-controlled globalized monetary and financial system is irreformable. Sovereign countries have to develop alliances and create alternative systems to bypass the current Western-controlled payments system. For many decades, many countries of the so-called Global South have been subject to neocolonialist "financial assistance" programs by institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.

A new international order of bilateral and multilateral relations is emerging and the BRICS already have a development bank, the New Development Bank https://www.ndb.int/ with the aim of supporting the economic development of partner countries. The de-dollarization process had to be accompanied by the de-financialization of the economies as a strategy to disengage from the globalized neoliberal order used as the financial arm of Anglo-American imperialism.

Most sovereign countries will have to choose between continuing to pay homage to Western neocolonial imperialism or look for solutions to circumvent the economic and financial sanctions applied to dissident countries. The obvious solution is to make alliances and partnerships with countries in a similar situation willing to cooperate against the globalized neoliberal dictatorship. The Western imperialism is an obstructive force to the development of the Global South. The so-called rules-based international order exists to unilaterally dictate the global economic-financial governance. Most international institutions in place were designed and perfected to defend the Western imperialist interests. Countries where most of the world's population is concentrated cannot rely on these institutions to solve geopolitical disputes. The solution is to create alternatives that effectively respect international law.

The left has to fight for an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist international order.

De-dollarization and de-financialization of the economy are political priorities for those who defend a social and ecological political economy based on internationalist solidarity.

Woke culture, virtue signaling and political correctness cannot be placed at the top of the left's political priorities. These issues have been weaponized and the "progressive" liberals and the "intellectual" left wave them as major political banners, while the far right takes the opportunity to ridicule and attack the left as a whole, undermining leftist parties focused on universal issues aimed at improving the lives of all citizens without distinction. The intention is not to diminish the importance of the problems of minorities, but to put everything in its proper place. Does the left want to be taken seriously or be a mere punching bag?

All citizens who identify with left-wing values ​​must take a more active role in politics. The far right will continue to surf the sociopolitical discontent and cultural divisions. Left-wing organizations have to produce new ideological-cultural formats, language framing is crucial for successful communication. I have no idea what strategies to follow to deneoliberalize minds shaped by the free market doctrine, TINA. I believe we need to do it together, collectively, organized, building synergies and grown camaraderie.

What's missing is the will to get our hands dirty, overcome the inertia that keeps each of us in our little corner sharing stuff. In recent decades, we have witnessed the loss of effectiveness of protests and demonstrations, because there is a lack of structured political organization, ideological-political unity and a clear notion of what is the societal project that we collectively want to build.