Manifeste pour une Dotation Inconditionnelle d'Autonomie

Vincent Liegey, a qualified engineer and a PHD student in economics is a member of the Parti Pour La Décroissance (Degrowth Party). He co-authore : Un Projet de Décroissance: Manifeste pour une Dotation Inconditionnelle d’Autonom. He is answering questions from Sarah Nemno about his perceptions about gender.

Sarah Nemno: Do you feel any specific responsibility towards the promotion of subjects relating to gender discrepancies?

Vincent Liegey: I am a Growth objector and, as we often say, the first degrowth must be degrowth in inequalities. Thus, I feel responsible for all forms of injustice and inequality; this automatically implies that I must have a position on the fight for gender equality… In a society where money is paramount, it is essential: as example loaded with a strong symbolism, I can mention wage discrepancies between men and women.

S.N.: What you are promoting, this degrowth in equalities, does it have to go through a deconstruction of gender stereotypes? Continuer la lecture →

Vincent Liegey: “We can no longer grow in a finite world”

Libération – Economy – April 21, 2013, 19:06

INTERVIEW – The spokesperson for the supporters of degrowth, this engineer campaigns to give society an ecological and humane meaning.

By Coralie Schaub

Whilst France is desperately seeking a pathway to growth, Vincent Liegey, co-author of the book: A Degrowth Project (Un Projet de décroissance – Utopia 2013) proposes alternative pathways to get out of the crisis.

To advocate for degrowth whilst unemployment is exploding, isn’t it indecent?

Growth does not guarantee full employment, it’s a myth: for the last forty years, the GDP has increased but so has unemployment. Imposing austerity plans with damaging human consequences and hoping for a return to growth oblivious of the ecological collapse is rather irresponsible. We cannot grow infinitely in a finite world.

The word Degrowth is scary….

It is a provocative word to trigger an in-depth debate. What are we producing? How?  Why? Growth forces us to produce more useless things by depleting resources. How can we get out of it by inventing a society valuing humane relationships, a different relation to tools, production, and nature? What is happening in Latin America around “buen vivir” (Well-Living) interests us. It is certainly not a return to candlelight. The first of all degrowths must be degrowth in inequalities.

In reality, how can we do it?

First we must abandon the cult of the economy. We must re-appropriate money creation, not pay back the illegitimate part of the debt, nationalise part or all of the financial sector, ban fiscal paradises and tax financial transactions. Implement as well a Maximum Acceptable Income at around four times the minimum income, which today is at a ratio of 1 to 4 000. Simultaneously we propose the Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA) allowing everyone to enjoy a decent and frugal life, from birth to death. It is not a minimum income paid in euros, but a non-monetary allowance. Housing for all is possible in our well-off societies. The same goes for the redistribution of agricultural lands or a re-appropriation of real estate to set up production- recycling- repair workshops. Some resources must be free, to cover basic needs. The UAA could be issued in usage rights. At the beginning of the month, the gas or water meter could be credited with a certain amount of cubic meters democratically determined according to reasonable, local consumption criteria. We also advocate for free rights to public services: education, health, transport, news, etc.

Are property rights under threat?

Doing so often leads to authoritarian regimes, but we are opting for a democratic transition. The stakes are to open a debate to reframe this right when it infringes on common sense and some human rights. It will take time and political courage. But the actual system is no longer bearable. To evict people, when they can no longer pay their mortgage because of austerity plans, is an extreme form of violence. Some kind of eco-fascism driving people into misery. Against this barbary, this enforced austerity imposed by the oligarchy, we propose a democratic degrowth by choice.

Vincent Liegey, spokesperson for Degrowth supporters and co-author of a Degrowth Project, Manifesto for an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (Un Projet de Décroissance: Manifeste pour une Dotation Inconditionnelle d’Automonie) in Paris , April 12 2013 (Photo:Frédéric Stucin).

Aren’t you advocating for a society of idle, welfare-assisted people?

Quite the contrary! People will be autonomous and responsible. We could talk of an autonomous or convivial society, along the lines of Cornelius Castoriadis and Ivan Illich. The point is to free people from the subservience to work, as we have known it since the first industrial revolution, both within capitalist and communist regimes. To tend towards voluntary and fulfilling activities, to re-appropriate ones’ life choice, productions and solidarities. To lean towards greater democracy, in its noble sense: local, collective decision-making by the persons concerned.

Isn’t it an inward turn?

Not at all. We want an open re-localisation. We must produce locally – it has an ecological and humane dimension – but also keep borders open for goods and, mainly, for people: travels and encounters contribute to wellbeing and culture.

You are hoping for “a strong endorsement from all”. Aren’t you dreaming a bit?

Transition is already on its way. More and more people, entrapped in debt, a stressful job and planned obsolescence realise that the system is absurd. And alternatives are multiplying at great speed: direct trade, Network of Associations for the Preservation of Agriculture Smallholdings, transition movement… On a daily basis, citizens are setting up free expression spaces and experiment with new ways of living together. The younger people use non-violent communications means, as we have seen with the Indignados movement (The Outraged). We are a hyper minority, but the dynamic is interesting. It would not take much to tilt the balance.

There are strong resistances…

It is true for the elites imprisoned in the myth of Growth, they ascertain that there is no alternative. They are defending their privileges.

What about financing?

The accounting argument is fallacious. Take a look at food: we are producing far more than necessary and a billion people are malnourished. It is a matter of organisation and priorities. We need to get people to pay for the real ecological and humane price of goods. We do not live alongside the children who have made our “Made in China” baskets. In a re-localised society, we would see the consequences of our purchases.

In the end: a utopia or not?

Thinking is a utopia. We must be humble, have enough humour, understand that it is a goal. Not falling into dogmatism, wanting to create the perfect man for a perfect society, but to say to oneself: “See, I could be happier if I chose that direction”. Creating a new imaginary.

Curriculum Vitae

1979: Born in Besançon (France)

2004: Engineer Master Degree.

2008: join the PPLD – Parti pour la Décroissance  (French Degrowth Party)

2011: Starts a PhD on Degrowth at Budapest University of Economics.

2013: co-author with Stéphane Madelaine, Christophe Ondet et Anne-Isabelle Veillot, Degrowth Project, Manifesto for an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance, Éditions Utopia, 2013.

http://www.projet-decroissance.net/

In total rupture with the equation: Growth=jobs=wellbeing, some authors propose to “decolonise our imaginary” in order to leave the “religion of Growth” with its productivist corollary.

“Whoever believes that growth can be infinite in a finite world is either a madman or an economist?” deplored the American economist Kenneth Boulding 40 years ago. Today we wonder if our leaders aren’t fools advised by economists. Indeed, in 1972 a report from the Club of Rome The Limits to Growth called for “a stop on growth”. Ever since from an ecological and economic standpoint, the limits of growth have endlessly been pointed out.

Yet the overwhelming majority of politicians continue to see it as the be all and end all of every political project. In their view, salvation depends on an increase in GDP and all the diverse governments’ public policies are designed around this indicator. “My objective is employment, my guiding principle is growth”, François Hollande affirmed recently.

But the president is wrong on the destination as well as the pathway to reach it. That is what the four authors of A Degrowth Project: Manifesto for an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance argue.

Decolonise our imaginary
Continuer la lecture →

This interview was made by the French magazine S!lence. Three questions were asked to the members of the Collective « Un projet de Décroissance » (« A Degrowth Project » ) about the differencies, the complementarities, and the convergences between the Degrowth and Transition movements.

S!lence magazine: Paul Chatterton’ and Alice Cutler’s book: The Rocky Road to a Real Transition starts with an observation made by Great Britain activists who have noticed a disconnection between the movement and the great ecological battles. In your practice within a transition group (or as an observer), do you think this critic applies to the French movement?

A Degrowth Project: Transition Towns movement² is a practical approach by design. It is based on two unavoidable future threats: climate change and peak oil and it proposes to anticipate them. It argues that political parties and movements have lost any credibility in addressing these major issues. Transition Towns movement’s aim is to function outside sterile and political ideologies, favouring action at the local level thus creating a dynamic of resilience in anticipation of the oncoming catastrophes. In France this raison-d’être is at the heart of its concrete alternatives. We do not think that the French movement’ spirit is disconnected from the great ecological battles.
Continuer la lecture →

Over the last few years, concepts of an unconditional basic income and a maximum acceptable income, the extension of free usage spheres, taxing misuse, fluid local currencies, open re-localisation and transition, as well as issues of political strategies and organisation of the movement, have been, at the centre of the discussions and debates within all the groups associated with Degrowth.

Over the last few months some topics have been developed in depth; mainly the political approach vis à vis the debt and monetary creation, on the post-oil era, the means to do away with capitalism and productivism or the way to re-politicise society. Thanks to Growth Objectors, for the most part, these discussions resulted in the Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA), coupled with a Maximum Acceptable Income, that have become the umbrella for economic and social measures imbued with the potential to trigger virtuous circles towards a sustainable, serene and convivial Degrowth.

With this manifesto, we are hoping to start a constructive debate, so that this transition project can be discussed, lived and incrementally adapted here and there. Without being the definitive tool, this UAA is a lever to get us out of the impasse growth society brings us ever closer from.

Vincent Liegey, Anisabel Veillot, Christophe Ondet, and Stephane Madelaine
A Degrowth Project – Manifesto for an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance, Edition Utopia, Janvier 2013.

More articles about Degrowth in English here.