POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
At Global, European and National Level
“Curbing climate change, mitigating the consequences of climate change and shaping a
socially just global economic system: these are the challenges of the 21st century…”
Manfred Pils, President of Naturefriends International
The Network Naturefriends Greece adopts as its principle the action of citizens "on
environmental and social justice". On the one hand, wars, poverty, hunger, unemployment,
discrimination, species extinction, animal abuse, natural disasters, pollution etc. are
experienc ed in various degrees of intensity by the greater percentage of the global
community.
The inequality gap opens for the benefit of rich countries whose richer people leave the
largest ecological footprint on the planet. The gap of inequality opens simultaneously in the
rich countries where there is a growing disappointment among the grassroots classes. The
phenomenon that "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is confirmed at both country
and social class levels.
According to the recent report of Oxfam (22.01.2018) "82% of the wealth that was created
last year in global scale, ended up to the hands of the 1% of the richer people of the planet,
while the women kept paying the highest price due to the intensifying inequality.”
Since 2010, two years after the outbreak of the 2008 Crisis, the wealth of the so-called
"economic elite" is still being increasing on an average of 13% in annual base, Oxfam
explains. The pick of the phenomenon was recorded between March 2016 and March 2017,
in a time-period, when “the bigger increase, in the history, of the number of people whose
fortune exceeds one billion dollars” was recorded, with a rhythm that reached one new
billionaire per each two days.
World Trade Organization
In the last session of the World Trade Organization M11 in Argentina 11-13.12.2017-
13.12.2017 the "WTO members have failed to repeal the constraints of the WTO regarding
the ability of countries to meet the food needs of starving populations and to improve the
livelihoods of farmers with a functional special safeguards mechanism (SSM). They have also
failed to abolish selective subsidies that distort trade and harm the livelihoods of farmers
around the world."
Network of Organizations Our World is Not for Sale (OWINFS)
Europe
The Greek Network of Naturefriends adopts the COVENANT OF MAYORS OF EUROPE for a
fair system of trade and globalization. The covenant states among others that "trade can be
an important tool in achieving citizens' prosperity. To make this feasible, however, trade
policy is required to serve goals like human rights, the implementation of the Paris
agreement (2015) commitments to prevent climate change, fair taxation, defense of the
labor rights' high standards, the protection of the environment etc. The trade and
investment agreements should be designed, to support these objectives. They must not