«Wealth, moneys, struggle against poverty: New approaches, networking and sharing of experiences»
Once it is understood that inequalities between humans have never been so important on this planet, once it is clear that neoliberalism systematizes this tendency, after one says “no way”, what’s to be done? What’s to be done, in orderly and disorderly fashion, to take steps towards this other world that is possible? What’s to be done to make sense, to unties contradictions, develop a sense of togetherness with wealth, pleasure, happiness and a future for everyone, this within the limits of available resources and particular histories and legacies.
What’s to be done to “dream logically”, as said Yvette Muise, a woman from Quebec living in poverty?
The will to be constructive leads to many simultaneous explorations in different contexts. Just like when many persons start to sort and reconstruct mixed puzzles among a jumble of single pieces, everyone seek logical building strategies, not without the fear, in this particular case, of reproducing the errors and iniquities that motivated this quest for new possibilities in the first place.
In the era of Porto Alegre, it becomes self evident that this approach does need to be pluralist, inclusive, open, humble and realistic: we have to start from reality as it is and remain available to the unpredicted. For a good lot of time, this means we will have to ask ourselves: what new frame of reference are our different constructions talking about and might they fit together in it, as separate or contradictory as they might appear?
It is in this state of mind that I would like to present two linked processes that concurred in the past five years to instigate in Quebec the idea that we could give ourselves the means and concepts to implement a “Quebec without poverty”. I will also draw from those experiences some questions to reflect upon in the perspective of a world without poverty and with more solidarity. To know more about these experiences, please check our website, www.pauvrete.qc.ca. It is well documented, though mainly in French.
So what is it? Zoom on Quebec in North America.
First experience to share: A law aiming to implement the basis for a Quebec without poverty.
“I am a leaf besides the tree. After the law, I will be in the tree.” Lucien Paulhus, a citizen who died in great poverty
Since 1998 a large grassroots movement, formed in a Collective for a law on the elimination of poverty, requested from the Quebec National Assembly a law based on the formal proposal that was assembled from a survey in which thousands of persons were involved, including many persons living in poverty. Five years later there is a result: the Quebec National Assembly has just adopted unanimously a bill aiming to act against poverty and exclusion. It is not the proposed bill, but it retains some of it. And it’s a “first time”: the first time in the world a legislation coming from the bottom up engages a State in a concerted action toward a society free of poverty. This does not mean poverty is eradicated as a result though. Here is a brief account of the process.
The idea of a law about the eradication of poverty was born in Quebec in the midst of a social struggle denouncing a reform of social welfare that was undertaken between 1995 and 1998 in a period of restrictions in public spending due to a zero deficit legislation that worsened the situation of the poorest.
First drafted in 1997 as a simple way to show that another law could be possible instead of the one brought by the reform, the idea of a law on the elimination of poverty became more serious and started to make sense by itself. Its name comes from the International Year for the eradication of poverty (1996) that was followed in 1997 by the first United Nations Decennial for the eradication of poverty. Another wording was progressively preferred: implement the basis for a Quebec without poverty.
In 1998-1999, a Collective composed of grassroots organizations and unions is formed to work on the idea and leads a large consultation throughout Quebec about what should be the contents of this law. A petition is circulated asking the Quebec National Assembly for a bill based on this work.
In 1999-2000, the Collective draws from this consultation a formal proposal written with the same rigor as a regular bill and validates its contents with its network. On November 22 2000, the petition is presented to the National Assembly with its 215 307 signatures.
During the following two years, a constant effort was made to convince both the government and members of the Assembly. First, the government rejected the idea of a legislation. Then, facing an insistent citizen’s movement that had built strong regional roots, it tried to create a diversion by launching an operation called ” Ne laisser personne de côté ” (” Don’t leave anyone out “) which proposed orientations for a ” strategy ” to fight against poverty without even mentioning the requested legislation or its content. During the following consultations, the Collectif’s network of close allies and a growing number of supporting institutions constantly put back the Collectif’s proposal on the agenda. Real political pressure was building. Government sponsored researches confirmed this citizen will.
June 2002 , in an “end of term context”, the Quebec government finally put forth a legislation to act against poverty and exclusion that was structurally similar to the Collectif’s proposal but with much less substance. The Collectif and its network then demanded a modified legislation to be voted before the coming election. A parliamentary commission heard a lot of groups during Fall 2002. After these hearings, members of the commission worked to modify this fist draft. At the end of this surprisingly unpartisan process all parties with seats at Quebec national Assembly unanimously voted a rather improved law, a somewhat uncommon event in Quebec political life. That’s where the story is. The rest remain to be experimented.
In a context of globalization of solidarities, what real gains did this movement make and what challenges does it face? Some of these gains are:
-The movement itself and its capacity to convince its government to adopt a law that goes against mainstream ideology.
-Participation of individuals living in poverty in the process.
-A legislative tool that imposes a continuous and permanent action toward a Quebec without poverty. That law admits that protecting dignity, fighting against prejudice, improving wages and living standards of the poorest is needed and that it should be done while taking into account the necessity of covering one’s essentials needs. All this translate itself into a permanent strategy in which citizens have space to participate, including those living in poverty. That strategy has five orientations (prevention, improvement of social security, jobs, mobilization of society, coherence and constancy in actions) that are implemented through a periodically evaluated action plan equipped with targets and follow-up institutions (a Consultative Comity, a Observatory and periodic public and parliamentary participation to the planning and evaluation of actions).
Some of the challenges for what’s to come are:
-To be realistic when evaluating gains and stakes for what’s to come in a situation where the “glass is either half empty or half full.”
-To maintain citizen’s vigilance, to learn how to use the law in a short, average and long term perspective without forgetting the aims of the Collective’s own proposal.
-To get into the increasingly unavoidable habit of associating at all levels persons in situation of poverty to the processes where they are concerned .
-To obtain results with substantial budgetary consequences on urgent measures directly improving the living standards of the poorest segment of the population, which supposes inducing authorities to integrate new criteria in their ways of making decisions pertaining to public finances.
-To continue advancing, in Quebec and in the world, towards a new paradigm that will clearly recognises that poverty violates equality in rights and prevents the effective realisation of recognised rights, which must be understood as indivisible. To decide on a prime objective impossible to circumvent and to carry it out: the coverage of essential needs for everybody. And to hold to measurable objectives of inequalities reduction.
Second experience to share:
the Knowledges Crossroads on Public Finances
or The necessity of thinking in another way about producing and sharing wealth, and doing it with people living a situation of poverty.
During the same period, a small group of people in a situation of poverty from Quebec formed the ” Carrefour de savoirs sur les finances publiques”. They attempted, approximately from 1998 to 2000, a dialogue with Quebec’s Minister of Finance and with staff persons from his ministry. The Carrefour generated new concepts that constantly nourished the Collectif pour une loi sur l’élimination de la pauvreté in its work towards a law and urgent measures. However no official bonds existed between these two experiments. This shows the importance of letting ourselves explore flexible ways of thinking and of doing, in plural mode, far from corporatism and dogmatism. Approximately, the process was as follows.
-In December of 1997, Quebec’s Minister of Finance came to visit a month long “Parlement de la rue” (Street Parliament) – where, by the way, the idea for a law on the elimination of poverty was born. Participants challenged him to get into a dialogue with people living poverty.
-Extensive exchanges “between Billions and Pennies” followed. A group of about ten persons living a situation of poverty formed a “Carrefour de savoirs sur les finances publiques” and met several times with Finance Ministry top people and with the Minister himself (who later became Prime minister and was a key player in the decision to pass a law on poverty). They also won the right to be part of the lockup that precedes any budget in Quebec, where you get to read the budget a few hours before it’s made public. It has since then become a habit that the Collectif took on. The budget lockup, which is a place where you can question Finance Ministry staff and thus get key information was until then the domain of an elite. Carrefour’s members created a pedagogy of public finance, which the Collectif later used to educate its network in public budgets analysis.
-Roughly from January 1998 to 2000, Carrefour members met one day a week to think about and build “economic theories” and to prepare for the exchanges with Ministry people. These meetings lead to a set of documents that circulated in activist circles.
Here are a few concepts developed by the Carrefour de savoirs sur les finances publiques. It’s too soon to do a fine analysis of their impact on public decisions but different observers concur to recognize that this expertise of the poorest did contribute to the process that the Collectif initiated.
Soft Interior Product (produit intérieur doux) and Hard National Spending (dépense intérieure dure) :
Soft Interior Product (SNP) cracks the frame in which Gross National Product (GNP) puts poor people and makes them vanish. SNP encompass all non-monetary, not paid for and/or not payable contributions to collective and human wealth. Hard National Spending (HNS) designate costs to people’s, society’s and planet Earth’s life that are unaccounted or paid for.
These concepts could help bring forth a new way of dealing with mutual obligations between society and it’s members, namely toward a more universal form of income guaranty and toward new criteria to decide on public spending striving to eliminate human deficits. Quebec’s Treasury Board Chair his still not convinced… That’ why its important to be able to build on researches that confront classical methods of National Accounting, like those of Patrick Viveret, from France.
Vital, functional and exceeding dollars:
In order to contrast differentials in utility of dollars in income depending on the size of that income, three layers of dollars where imagined.
-There are Vital Dollars that are used for bare needs.
-Functional dollars are used to function as a member of society.
-Exceeding – or “inflatable” – dollars earn more dollars.
It was posited that vital dollars are local dollars, which go around many time in the economy, and that “inflatable” dollars are fleeing dollars often invested elsewhere in the whirlwind of Corporate Globalization. In Quebec, some recent budget measures that were influenced by these concepts had a very positive impact on the economy, but still not positive enough for poor people!
A few questions that are raised
Citizen’s movement and the World Bank both talk about a world without poverty. What makes or will make the difference? How to judge what really makes us go forward in a world full of contradictions?
What ingredients are needed to nurture long lasting citizen’s movements that can continue to build support and make political and economic gains while retaining a dose of radicalism despite contradictions?
What do we learn by confronting these experiences with the topics discussed at Porto Alegre?
How can we work together, at different levels, with persons living in poverty, to generate new knowledge and see to its application?
Author: Vivian Labrie, Collectif pour une loi sur l’élimination de la pauvreté
