The following table describes the status, the proposer and other metadata of this motion.
| Consultation: | FYEG General Assembly 2023 |
|---|---|
| Agenda item: | 1. Resolutions |
| Proposer: | écolo j, Giovani Europeisti Verdi |
| Status: | Published |
| Submitted: | 04/13/2023, 21:55 |
R10: No one sacrificed for European economy
Motion text
A brief description of the dynamic
Around Europe, in many industrial cities human lives are daily sacrificed for
the "greater wellbeing". In the name of economic success, the European Union and
its members close their eyes and allow to die thousands of people. To add
insults to injury, these deaths are ignored by the media, as institutions do
everything possible to make these catastrophes invisible.
The damage has three main axes: environmental, economic and social.
These industries are first of all environmental hazards. Do not follow the
safety rules, releasing toxic products that pollute the air, the ground and the
water. This pollution impacts not only nature but also, of course, human health.
The working-class is the first impacted, but everyone within a range of a
hundred kilometers is affected and risk to have health issues, notably cancer.
This environmental impact affects also the economic system of the area around
these factories: the polluted area is unable to be properly cultivated, and the
environmental situation makes the region touristically dead. The local economics
become therefore intrinsically linked to the factory which caused this
situation, creating a loop.
The last axis, the social axis, is defined by how this economic and
environmental hazard creates a local social struggle, where lower, middle and
upper classes continue dying for EU's and national economic development, and the
enemy is the employer and the institutions who let it be because intervene would
cost more than human lives.
A clarification is needed: talking about "sacrificed industrial cities" we are
not talking about big polluted cities constantly attacked for their pollution,
but about normal cities with a higher cancer and pollution rate that are
normally ignored and tend to not appear in statistics.
A concrete example - #IlvaIsAKiller
To make these dynamics tangible, the city of Taranto, often called "Italian
Chernobyl", will be used as a model.
Taranto has been home for a steel mill since the 60s, Ilva, and during the last
40 years this city has been affected by this mill that has escaped EU
environmental regulations duties, polluting all the area around for kilometres
and creating health issues other than an economic and environmental catastrophe.
Taranto has been subject of many environmental and health studies, by academics,
governmental institutions and international organisations (including WHO), and
more than once it has been demonstrated how the steel production affects the
lives of everybody in the area, creating an immesurable damage. Nonetheless,
still today its residents fight against the inaction of the Italian government
and the European Union, as it has been said through words and sometimes through
actions that Ilva brings too much to the Italian and European economy.
To this day, it has been proved that:
- Ilva causes at least 50 deaths per year, and influences more than 1000
indirect deaths per years;
- Ilva does not respect EU regulations on environmental security;
- Ilva is a danger for its workers, with many accidents through the years;
- Because of Ilva's pollution, Taranto's province has an abnormal higher
rate of cancer and other health issues;
- The concentration of steel particles in the air is higher than allowed by
the law, at the point that "curfews" are organised during some days for
students and workers.
Conclusion
This dynamic is present with some variations in different parts of Europe, and
as this dynamic is hidden from mass media, it's safe to say that these are not
isolated cases and that indeed it's more common than it appears.
With this resolution we request:
- -That the Federation of Young European Greens acknowledges the existence
of these "invisible" industrial cities, standing in solidarity with the
hundreds of victims affected by this situation every year and the
thousands who died;
- -That the Federation of Young European Greens aknowledges these cities and
their activists as one of the best examples of green activism, where
climate justice and social justice interconnect perfectly;
- That the member organisations of FYEG make an effort to acknowledge
industrial cities in their own countries that follow the aforementioned
criterias, having as goal to make them visible and push institutional
measures to change the social and environmental context of these cities;
- Where these industries are totally necessary to the existence of the local
economy (and not for that for the national or European economy) because of
the dependence created by the aforementioned reasons, an ecological
reconversion must be privileged and pushed with immediate urgency.