PES Manifesto

1. Stanishev: international solidarity by Duncan Anderson on Sunday, January 6, 2008 at 19:07

Talking about international solidarity is easy, but maybe the E.U. should first consider European solitary. For example, nobody has done more for the poor and malnourished in Africa than Gordon Brown. Very few have done as much as Robert Mugabe to force people into poverty and malnutrition. Yet who does the European Union and African Union actively and positively support?
And then the Africa Union stands by and watches as Kenya descends into civil war.
Hypothesising about solidarity should be left to academics. Politics should be about putting theory into practise. So if the European Union is going to take a practical approach to solidarity, which route it going to take? Is the E.U. going to follow a similar route set by somebody who has done the most good to somewhere like Africa or is it going to follow a route similar to one set by somebody who has done so much bad to Africa?
It's quite simple really, should it be good solidarity or evil solidarity?

2. A comment to Duncan by fairness on Friday, January 11, 2008 at 14:32

Dear Duncan - the example you have chosen seems a little easy and yet I wonder how you can state that the EU is supporting Mugabe's regime, when all his bank accounts have been frozen and no visas can be issued for anyone of his clan. If supporting Mugabe in your eyes means not allow him to take part in the last EU summit and take the risk to cancel the whole EU-Africa summit, then your definition of the word support is not the same the one generally appreciated. The UK has an understandable position as its interests in Zimbabwe are more than threatened, the solidarity to Mugabe’s regime of some neighboring African countries seems a little odd, but nevertheless they are sovereign states and the international community needs to deal with the situation as it is. Simply boycotting them doesn’t exactly reflect international solidarity principles and won’t help the situation to evolve in a positive way.

It is true that PM Brown and before him PM Blair have tried to put Africa on the EU's agenda and it needs to be credited to them. But in my eyes when we are talking about international solidarity, and especially with the African continent, as this is the example you have chosen the EU is present, sending troops of peacekeepers in countries like Congo, Central Africa, Ivory Coast and very soon in eastern Tchad... Ivory Coast sinks into civil war, the French government, sends troops into his old colony (under UN mandate) due to the tight relations both countries have, I haven't heard the British government planning to send troops to Kenya, or to activate some of it’s numerous troops stationed in the country and help it to avoid sinking into a terribly sad ethnical war so far...

So let's be positive, solidarity is not good or bad, if it was so Manichean the world politics would be easy to handle, but it isn't. When PM Stanishev speaks about international solidarity he means to help growing democracies to reach the same political and social standards than those shared in the northern parts of the globe and I think that the PES is the best political force to support and encourage an international solidarity with a face that is much more human than the one defended by the right wing parties...