International Affairs: For a New Peace Movement

Germany: for a peaceful, open, safe country

The Federal Republic of Germany is not yet a country in which all people can feel safe. We want to change this and make Germany a peaceful country for all its inhabitants.

We emphasise and support the need of all people for a life in safety and with respect for human rights. Openness and a willingness to help those seeking protection go without saying, in view of Germany’s history.

Peaceful and trusting coexistence among all people is the foundation of prosperity and our highest goal. In doing so, we firmly oppose fundamentalist and fascist ambitions and misanthropy.

A state for all

We want a state that is not necessarily territorially anchored, but represents an administrative structure that has permeable borders and keeps in view the people who live, or want to live, there together in peace. An inside and an outside “dissolve” into a permeable space in which everyone is welcome. Every state activity should serve only people and not abstract state goals to which the citizen has to submit.

Internal security for inhabitants

We are committed to a tightly defined monopoly on the use of force resting solely with a state conceived as open. We want to tolerate everything military only for a transitional period, until its necessity no longer exists. The security forces that serve peace in people’s everyday lives, we want to equip at most so that they have what is necessary to exercise this peace-keeping power. Their weaponry must in no case have a threatening character (for example at demonstrations). We want to monitor their work closely through independent parliamentary oversight bodies.

We consider police work to be useful for protecting fundamental rights and the constitution, the population as a whole and democratic institutions from attacks by terrorists. This important work must under no circumstances be privatised.

Help for the homeless

We want to help homeless people and leave no one in involuntary homelessness. Independently of that, we oppose any hostility towards homeless people. The devaluation of homeless people quickly turns into hostility, exclusion and violent attacks. We firmly reject the widespread utilitarian thinking, that homeless people are idle and contribute nothing to society, and are therefore useless and thus worth less than other, working people. To end the discrimination against homeless people, we want to raise the issue publicly and draw attention to misanthropic practices. We reject clearance operations and the banishment of homeless people from cities and public space. We want to better train staff of security and public-order authorities in dealing with homeless people. We want to publicly commemorate the homeless people murdered by the National Socialists. We recognise the criminalisation of homeless people in West Germany until 1967 and in East Germany until 1989 as a violation of human rights, and we are committed to compensation.

Peaceful citizens without weapons

Peaceful citizens are, as a rule, unarmed. We want to strictly regulate private gun ownership and to handle it restrictively in sport and hunting too.

Reliable data protection for the population

Data-hungry giants such as Google maintain extensive collections of our data, to which domestic and foreign intelligence services can gain unhindered access. The protection of the population is thus not ensured. We want to reliably protect end-to-end encryption and thereby combat suspicionless mass surveillance. If private data are read, it must be legally required that the person affected is informed immediately. In addition, we want to introduce a rule that requires discovered IT security gaps (zero-day exploits) to be reported directly to the manufacturer and not to better-paying third parties, so that these gaps can be closed directly and data systems remain untouched.

Abolishing the domestic intelligence services

The past has shown that the domestic intelligence services do not fulfil their tasks and that democratic control is lacking. The Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) is unable to protect the Bundeswehr from extremism, in particular right-wing extremism; the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has repeatedly cooperated with repressive dictatorships and uses illiberal practices; and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is unable to protect the constitution, as could be observed in the NSU complex. We therefore want to abolish the domestic intelligence services (the state offices and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution) and hand their range of tasks to the civilian investigative and prosecution authorities (police and public prosecutors), so that they can handle this in an accountable manner that complies with the Basic Law. Moreover, we will introduce close parliamentary control of the BND and the MAD.

The Bundeswehr in public life

Like any military, the Bundeswehr is fundamentally at odds with a free and liberal, and thus peaceful, society. For this reason, the Bundeswehr must disappear visually (for example through advertising or the wearing of a uniform) from public space. Furthermore, we want the Bundeswehr to no longer be allowed to advertise at schools, universities and the employment office.

Legal protection for everyone

We want access to the justice system to be open to everyone without financial hurdles. Public prosecutors should not be bound by instructions, a practice still used in Germany that violates European law. This opens the door to politically motivated and other abuse. We want to introduce an independent democratic oversight body here, to prevent undesirable developments.

Rehabilitation instead of punishment

We want to rethink the prison system. Rehabilitation, not punishment, must move to the centre. The penal system in Norway can serve as a model here. Work in prison must be voluntary and paid at least the minimum wage. Prisoners should not have to cover the costs of their accommodation.

Standing up for humanism and democracy

We stand for humanism and democracy. As the population showed in 2015 during the “migration crisis” and again and again, a humanistic society is possible. That means helping people in need, giving them safety and the right to life. Our policy is based on the Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of every person. We understand the legal phrasing “every person” literally and not as “every person born within the EU”.

Uniform treatment of migrants

We are committed to making no distinction between so-called “political” and “economic” migrants or refugees. It is a fictitious distinction that leads to discriminatory policy and a discriminatory society, which takes away the agency of the people who have arrived and ultimately pushes them into underemployment, exploitation and the margins of society. We recognise that migration is an extreme circumstance and rarely happens voluntarily or lightly.

Fast, fair and conclusive asylum procedures

We want to implement fast and fair asylum procedures without hollowing out the legal guarantees of asylum seekers. To this end, we want to abolish the bureaucratic separation of asylum entitlement and asylum application and to speed up the procedures. In addition, procedures should be concluded, so that an end is put to the constant extension of toleration permits, which denies people a dignified life. Furthermore, access to legal support must be granted from the day of entry into the EU.

Recognising and supporting newcomers

We want to grant access to language courses and qualification from the outset and without distinguishing between migrants with “good” or “bad” prospects of staying. In addition, we want to implement unrestricted access to education and vocational training and to introduce the full recognition of foreign qualifications and professional diplomas. In this way, people can build a dignified life in line with their work experience and qualifications.

A right to work for migrants

In our system, migrants are kept in illegality and then have to do unskilled, poorly paid work. We therefore want equal rights to apply to asylum seekers, so that wage dumping can no longer be practised. Everyone must be entitled to the same rights, benefits and protection as other workers. The job guarantee will prevent different population groups from being played off against each other and will offer everyone a well-paid job.

Access to healthcare for all

We want to provide equal and unrestricted access to physical and mental healthcare. In addition, we want to guarantee particularly vulnerable groups the help they need. For this reason, staff specially trained in trauma should handle the reception of women* and minors and provide psychological help. Furthermore, accommodation must be a safe place for women* and minors, where they do not have to be afraid.

Enabling family reunification

Under international and European law, states are obliged to protect the family. On the basis of non-discrimination, people who enjoy subsidiary protection (refugees who are not recognised) must have access to the same rights as recognised refugees. Another major obstacle for people with international protection status in accessing family reunification is the high documentation burden that member states can demand when submitting an application. We want the UNHCR to help in obtaining the necessary documents. We also want to respect the right to family reunification and to apply a broader definition of family members, in order to include people who do not belong only to the nuclear family.

Improving reception facilities

In the current situation, attempts are made to make reception facilities more flexible by lowering standards across the entire EU. Instead of standardising European reception facilities and bringing them down to the lowest common denominator, we want to introduce minimum quality standards that are implemented directly in all member states. Grounds for flight such as gender or gender identity must be taken into account in accommodation.

Strengthening municipalities

We want to provide municipalities with more capacity and resources. We want to equip them, in terms of staff and finances, so that they can help migrants, especially during their time of arrival.

Europe: a space for peace and progress

The humanitarian crisis and the dying in the Mediterranean, the permanent economic crisis for large parts of the population, the ongoing conflicts especially on the periphery, and a beginning climate catastrophe show that Europe is not the continent of human rights and peace as which it likes to portray itself.

Our goal is to make the European continental and Mediterranean area a space of peace and progress, through a new, lived humanism, disarmament and the Green New Deal for Europe.

We are committed to finally ending the dying in the Mediterranean and to leading the EU back to its values. We want no more fossil fuels to be extracted in Europe and the Mediterranean region, that is, no new drilling to take place and no new gas pipelines to be built. Instead, we are counting on a common sustainable energy union of the European countries and the neighbouring countries to the south and east.

Border regions as spaces of encounter

We put activities that promote and cultivate peace and friendship in focus. In border regions, relationships between people unfold through friendly ties to one another, which are also often culturally based. Catalonia, the Basque Country, Moldova, Germany/Belgium, Germany/Luxembourg, Germany/France, Greece/Turkey, Romania/Hungary, Austria/Czechia are just a few European examples of this. We want to promote cultural and sporting exchange in such border regions.

Forming a pan-European security architecture

Existing conflicts, such as in Ukraine, can only be defused and resolved through a pan-European security architecture that includes all European countries. We want to build this pan-European security architecture and thereby make NATO superfluous. The core goals of this security architecture should be joint disarmament, the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the practice of a peaceful culture across the entire continent. The military forces that cannot be dispensed with for defence during a transitional period, we want to equip in such a way that they are perceived as a threat neither internally nor externally.

Ending the politics of threat

We consider threat-based politics in any form, whether as a punitive aim, in international politics or as a military means, to be outdated and not fit for the future. Threat-based politics only works through the artificial construction of an enemy image. Insisting on security-policy interests and acting accordingly (for example arming up to achieve deterrence) ultimately leads to political instability and is diametrically opposed to peace. To end the age of threat-based politics and arming up, Europe should commit to cooperation among all countries, with the goal of destroying all military means.

Honouring existing obligations

We want to implement and honour the existing treaties and obligations of the EU and its member states regarding humanitarian measures. We stand for the respect, by the EU member states and by countries that cooperate with the EU as partners (for example in the case of Libya), of the internationally protected fundamental right to non-refoulement. Asylum applications must not be rejected by invoking the concept of the “safe third country” or the “first country of asylum”, as this means the de facto end of the right to asylum in the EU.

Abolishing Frontex and replacing it with a search-and-rescue mission

Thousands of people drown in the Mediterranean every year. For years, non-governmental organisations have filled the gap in SAR (search-and-rescue) operations and are punished for their life-saving missions with harsh criminalisation and restrictions on their missions. Only the EU can comprehensively coordinate the saving of lives in the Mediterranean, but for that the rescue of people must become the top priority. Any intervention by the military or the coastguard in the Mediterranean that aims to combat smugglers’ boats must be stopped, because the best fight against smugglers is the opening of safe routes. The example of the Greek-Turkish border shows that increased border surveillance with the support of Frontex has driven migrants to choose more dangerous routes.

Frontex is part of the problem here, not the solution. We therefore want to abolish Frontex and use the agency’s resources to launch a European search-and-rescue mission in the Mediterranean that exceeds the scale of the Italian Mare Nostrum operation. Our goal is the full responsibility and commitment of state actors to fulfil their mandate to save lives at sea.

Evacuating the camps on the Greek islands

We are committed to evacuating all camps on the Greek islands, but also along the Balkan route and elsewhere. We want to distribute the people to municipalities in Europe that are ready to receive them. We want to end the so-called “hotspot system” of migration control and to quickly improve the living conditions of migrants. The holding of immigrant people in closed detention camps must be ended, in particular the internment of children.

A common European asylum procedure

We want to abolish the Dublin procedure and replace it with a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) that respects international and European law and guarantees the fundamental rights of migrated people. The right to non-refoulement must be ensured, we must not send people back to places where they face persecution, torture and other human-rights violations.

Stopping the externalisation of the external borders

We want to stop the externalisation of the EU borders and of migration controls. States outside the EU are currently encouraged to prevent migrants from travelling on, or to intercept and send them back (for example the EU-Turkey agreement, the EU-Sudan agreement or EU-Libya cooperation). The aim here is to prevent migrants, including asylum seekers, from entering the jurisdiction or territory outside the EU’s own territory, without individually examining the merits of their protection claims.

We therefore want the immediate suspension of any externalisation of EU borders and migration controls, the rejection of the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM), and to live up to the EU’s responsibility by allowing people to ask for protection on European territory. We also want to develop a sustainable, human-rights-based long-term strategy in cooperation with civil society and experts.

Supporting humanitarian work

We want to immediately stop the criminalisation of humanitarian aid. We want to thank fishers, firefighters or other people who rescue migrants, rather than punishing them. Ships of private search-and-rescue NGOs should be released immediately, so that more lives can be saved. Civil society already shows, through the commitment of groups and movements such as Seebrücke or Sea-Watch, that there is a social interest in making Europe a place for everyone. We want to support these organisations financially, institutionally and operationally. We also want to introduce specific EU visas for human-rights defenders, persecuted opposition figures and other activists, in order to enable quick evacuations, but also conference participation and international networking.

Peaceful coexistence

We want to address emerging and ongoing conflicts proactively and non-violently through mediation, and to manage them through civilian-oriented peacekeeping measures with a neutral mandate. In societies that have lived through a conflict, we want to work actively on coming to terms with what happened and restoring justice. We want to break through the hegemony of violence in our culture and replace it with the lived values of a peaceful global humanity.

Global justice: internationalism or extinction

We acknowledge our historical responsibility and know that our actions have fostered the climate crisis and environmental destruction.

These are the consequences of a system in the interest of the finance and agriculture industries, which is largely responsible for the current mass extinction of all non-human life on our Earth, for global warming, soil erosion, water scarcity, agrochemical pollution, and the perpetuation of the imperialist oppression and extermination of indigenous people and smallholder farmers in the Global South.

We regard the destruction of the environment and the climate as an attack on humanity. The destruction must be regarded as injustice and as a crime against humanity when it is committed or tolerated by states or companies.

We want to fight climate change together and decisively and to create a world that lets humanity live in harmony with the environment. Because if we do not finally think internationally, we will die out.

Expanding international cooperation

We want to expand cooperation in all areas, but above all in science, culture and the economy. This cooperation must take place on an equal footing, and the distribution of any form of capital must be made fair. We are committed to a stricter framework of treaties on international waters and Antarctica, and to creating a framework of treaties on the shared use of outer space.

As part of the Progressive International (PI), we want to fight, together with our allied organisations and friends, for a peaceful world and global justice.

International solidarity as a matter of course

In times of a global pandemic, solidarity becomes a duty. In Germany, publicly funded research contributed to the development of a first-class mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. That is an enormous achievement. However, the effectiveness of vaccines is zero for those who have no access to them. The fact that a small number of vaccine manufacturers control, in monopoly-like fashion, how much vaccine is produced where has led to a serious shortage of vaccine doses. Billions of people are without access to vaccines.

Donating surplus vaccines to developing countries is important, but not a sustainable solution, the problem of vaccine shortage concerns both distribution and supply. This challenge is complicated by the fact that Germany and other high-income countries want to offer their citizens booster shots while billions of people are still unvaccinated. There are qualified manufacturers all over the world that, with a temporary suspension of intellectual-property rights and the necessary transfer of knowledge and technology, could produce billions more safe and effective vaccine doses needed to combat the pandemic. It is essential that countries of the Global South can produce their own vaccines and drastically increase their supply. We need vaccines for everyone, and that more than ever.

We are therefore committed to German and European pharmaceutical companies sharing the life-saving mRNA vaccine technology quickly and transparently with qualified manufacturers all over the world. This also includes cooperation with the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and the mRNA hub in South Africa. We support the temporary suspension of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) intellectual-property rules. Germany must commit immediately and at the forefront to ensuring that the world’s population can be fully vaccinated as quickly as possible, and this approach must be exemplary for future epidemics and other global events.

International debt justice

No one deserves to pay interest their whole life on loans they took out to save a family member’s life, to complete an education or to feed children. We want a truly internationalist solidarity movement that makes clear the connections between debt and (racialised) capitalism, and that aims at justice and not just at short-term relief.

We live in a world of debt. The scale of global “indebtedness” cannot be overstated. Different dynamics, hedge funds making profits in a pandemic, students fighting for their education, micro-borrowers on the brink of bankruptcy, are different manifestations of the same fundamental structural mechanism at the heart of the global financial system: the endless cycle of privatised gains and socialised losses. Put simply: the rich keep getting richer, while the poor, deliberately, stay poor.

We want to end this cycle, together with movements of solidarity all over the world and as part of the Progressive International (PI), and to set up a plan for a new, just international financial architecture.

A new development policy

The daily life of billions of people on this planet is determined by post-colonial structures of exploitation. This reality ranges from international military affairs and violent border protection to global trade and health agreements. As the basis of development policy, we want a serious reflection on colonialism and its continuing legacy on the part of the former colonial powers, which include Germany.

We want a paradigm shift in development cooperation that leaves behind the racist narrative of donor and recipient states. Instead, international funds are to be understood as reparations for colonial crimes and for the substantial responsibility of industrialised countries such as Germany for the climate crisis. Since it is especially the countries that have historically contributed almost nothing to greenhouse-gas emissions that suffer from the consequences of the climate crisis, Germany and Europe must make a corresponding compensation and contribute to the decarbonisation of economies and to the renaturation of societies in the Global South.

We want to overcome the Eurocentric notion of the superiority of Western development and to value and support the social-ecological structures of indigenous peoples. This is necessary not least because 80% of the planet’s remaining forests are protected by 370 million indigenous people.

Protection for regional self-sufficiency

In our economic system, an international race to the bottom on social, human-rights and ecological standards often occurs. This is also a reason why real wages in Germany have barely risen in recent years.

State sovereignty is increasingly limited by the legalisation of corporate interests within free-trade and investment-protection agreements. Agreements such as TTIP, CETA and Mercosur are negotiated behind closed doors under strong influence from the business lobby. The state’s room for manoeuvre to pass laws for the common good keeps shrinking, because companies and investors can sue states in undemocratic international arbitration tribunals when such laws lead to losses of profit.

We therefore want to actively support less industrialised countries in effectively protecting their own economy, in order to build up local and regional structures and to become more independent of imports from richer countries. In addition, we want to remove undemocratic international arbitration tribunals from all international agreements.

Transparent and fair supply chains

Global value chains exert pressure on working conditions. This is particularly true for countries that depend on low-skilled and low-value export sectors (for example grain, textiles, clothing), or in countries that are heavily dependent on the extraction of raw materials. Because value chains are organised ever more flexibly and the most profitable location is always chosen, the producing countries are in tough competition with one another. To attract foreign investors, they are forced to create incentives in the form of tax breaks, low labour and environmental standards or so-called special economic zones (enclaves subject to special economic and labour-law rules). As a result, an estimated more than three quarters of workers in low-income countries are in precarious employment.

We want to oblige German and European companies, through corporate due-diligence duties, to uphold human-rights and ecological standards for their entire value chains. Those affected along the value chain should be able to sue in the country of the company’s headquarters in order to claim their rights. To this end, we want to implement comprehensive legislation at the national, EU and international-law level.

Distributing value creation fairly

There are compelling reasons to restructure the existing international division of labour, in order to regionalise and localise trade relations and to promote shorter value chains. The social and ecological costs that companies have so far externalised must be reflected in the price of a raw material or (intermediate) product.

To minimise the volume of what is traded, we want the state to promote the circular economy and sufficiency. Shorter value chains are also more resilient to shocks such as the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, regional trade means a smaller ecological footprint.

International tax justice

International taxation must reflect value creation more accurately. Currently, the taxable profits generated in global value chains are divided among the countries involved according to the value created in each country. Value creation is measured in monetary terms. This leads to injustice, because low prices for labour and goods from poorer countries reflect imbalances of power. Digitalisation exacerbates these trends further, as it shifts value creation even more towards sophisticated services. It also enables various forms of tax evasion.

To counteract these effects, we want to work towards a new form of progressive taxation within a global system. Countries in which only a low monetary added value was created, because of cheap labour and raw-material prices, must receive a proportionately higher share of the total sum of taxes paid.

Ending unilateral and harmful sanctions

International sanctions have become an instrument of coercion and collective punishment. We want to use this instrument only as a last resort and in limited areas, while completely excluding sanctions on essential goods and services. Only trade in tools of civil oppression and arms can, in exceptional cases, be subject to sanctions. We also want a definitive end to the imposition of unilateral sanctions and to European complicity in supporting them.

Fair trade instead of free trade

Free trade is sold with promises of prosperity and understanding between peoples. It is advertised with a global division of labour that is supposed to bring benefits for all. But power relations, the persistence of colonial structures and the profit interests of multinational corporations usually go unmentioned. Less industrialised countries are left behind stronger economies that have gained a competitive advantage over the past centuries. They are therefore reduced to the export of raw materials and cheap products, while economies such as Germany’s profit from high-priced exports (machinery, vehicles, services and so on). This keeps reinforcing global inequality. On top of this, free trade fuels the climate crisis through long transport routes and the clearing of rainforest for agricultural land.

We want to restructure world trade, starting with EU trade. Regional production should be promoted, in order to shorten transport routes. We want to terminate existing agreements and renegotiate them with the goal of better working conditions and environmental standards. In doing so, imbalances of power and colonial injustices should be acknowledged and addressed.

Shared prosperity worldwide

Combating the causes of flight, as a central goal of current German development policy, must not mean combating those who flee. Instead, trade, industry and agriculture must be put at the service of employment and ecological balance. Development-policy goals can only be achieved if agricultural, industrial and trade policy do not, as they currently do, work counterproductively.

More production in the Global South will contribute to creating jobs and prosperity. We want to fight together and in solidarity for shared prosperity worldwide, for all people.

Combating hunger and implementing food sovereignty

Although farmers produce enough food to feed 1.5 times the world’s population, around a billion people go to sleep hungry every night. Added to this are almost two billion people suffering from “hidden hunger” (chronic deficiency in micronutrients) and a steadily growing number of overweight people.

The greed for profit of a few destroys all the diversity of life on our planet. Just one per cent of agricultural businesses farm more than 70 per cent of the world’s cultivated land. And yet small-scale food networks feed 70 per cent of the world’s population. Smallholders worldwide work with an estimated 7,000 species. And although traditional indigenous territories now cover only 22 per cent of the world’s land area, they preserve 80 per cent of the terrestrial biodiversity we have left.

We want to correct this grotesque imbalance and reshape the global chain of materials into regional cycles. That is why food sovereignty is our top development-policy goal. Beyond this, the building of resilient structures in the areas of business, education and health must be promoted. Development-policy projects should not be selected and implemented according to Western ideas of profit maximisation, but must serve the building and strengthening of local structures. In authoritarian states, closer cooperation with civil-society groups and initiatives must be sought. Development funds must not be used as start-up financing for one’s own private sector, as is currently often the case.

Dismantling all border fortifications

Everyone must have the right to move freely on this planet, to leave countries and to enter countries. Sealing-off neither serves its purpose nor can it be reconciled with a peaceful world. It is a misanthropic idea that has shaped our world for far too long. Closed borders lead to inequality and death, which is why our goal is to keep them open and to consistently dismantle existing walls, barbed-wire fences and other border fortifications.

Worldwide nuclear and military disarmament

We want to live in a world without weapons of mass destruction, so that people do not have to fear annihilation. We therefore want to ban the possession of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, atomic, biological and chemical). For us, there is also no “world police” sent on so-called peace missions. Such forces always constitute a threat to peace.

We know that German and European arms exports contribute to refugee movements across the entire planet. We acknowledge that the causes of this forced migration lie in European actions throughout world history and the present. We therefore want to immediately ban exports by the German arms industry, with the goal of abolishing arms production altogether. We also want to drastically cut the budget for armaments and for the research and development of new forms of warfare, such as robotics and cyber warfare. Internationally, joint military disarmament and corresponding treaties must be enforced.

Banning the export of digital surveillance technology

We want to ban the export of digital surveillance technology intended to be used for monitoring and persecuting journalists, whistleblowers, opposition figures and activists. For technology that at least makes surveillance and persecution possible (dual use), we want to introduce strict export controls tied to compliance with human rights and press freedom.

International justice

We want to work towards an effective international justice system. War crimes must be punished, no matter who commits them, where they are committed and for what purpose. The only exception to this can be a general amnesty, where that makes sense for the peace process.

Furthermore, we want responsibility to be taken internationally for other kinds of crimes too. Fines must not only be claimable from companies, since that is simply factored in, but individuals too must be able to be held liable for their actions.

In addition, we want to reshape international law so that it supports the ideas of justice and equality, it must then also grant redress. Such reparations could take the form of compensation payments to individuals, groups and countries for the violation of fundamental norms of humanity that have underpinned international law from the beginning.