“We are the generation of change”

On the left, initiatives flourish as the presidential election approaches. While a coalition of young activists and social entrepreneurs tries to make the “popular primary” initiative exist, another movement is launching into the battle with “The Wind of Change”, which intends to defend the prospect of an “ecological Republic” and form a “French Sunrise” named after this American movement which distinguished itself during the Democratic primaries by campaigning for the Green New Deal. The initiative is based on a manifesto, “For a human scale” (Bouquins éd.), Signed by forty civilians, senior officials, political leaders, all under 40 years of age. This July 1 begins a Tour de France organized in twenty cities on the model of the Republican banquets. Two causes have been put forward for the moment: the guarantee of green employment and social food security. Here is his launch platform.

“We are the generation of change”

To meet the great challenges that endanger the future of humanity, we no longer accept resignation. We are launching a popular education movement to advance and win the ideas of the change bloc.

The awareness of a generation

The peace and prosperity which were to come definitively with the end of the Cold War have given way to the great evils of the 21st century: the social divide, the authoritarian drift of our societies and above all the climate crisis. This multifaceted debt, contracted in the name of liberalism and progress, then aggravated in an unprecedented way by the pandemic we are going through, it is we and our children who will have to pay it.

Because climate change also has economic, social and political consequences, because it brings all individuals and groups back to their human condition, it also opens the way to the definition of a new general interest.

Rediscovering a sense of the common good is the condition for the full exercise of popular sovereignty. Acting for the benefit of the greatest number and planning ecological reconstruction: these are the main missions of the Republic that we want. The latter must reconnect with the spirit of the French Revolution, the foundation of its vitality and its patriotism in the service of the universal.

Serge Audier: “Yes, an ecological Republic is possible”

The ecological Republic, a collective horizon

The world to come is a world of conflict and the climate crisis will unleash new international competition for resources. Without a powerful and revitalized state, protective rather than bothering, no ecological reconstruction is possible. This thus implies a vast centralized effort.

Our country needs an alliance between individual and collective initiative, between local and national, between popular education and public instruction. France must walk on the two legs which have enabled it to contribute to the history of humanity: its democratic effervescence and its state organization.

Taking back control of our country also means taking back control of our lives. We must revalue our solidarity, by which each one endeavors to leave no one on the side. We no longer accept misery, isolation, work empty of content and purpose. We must put meaning and value back into human activity.

After the long months of restrictions and deprivation we have endured, our social interactions have been greatly disrupted. It is urgent to recreate the common before the anthropological changes caused by this pandemic are irreversible.

Behind the “Ocasio-Cortez generation”, a revival of the American left?

Popular education for change

Faced with the noise of social networks and continuous television channels, it is essential to create new spaces of knowledge and emancipation. Conferences, café-debates, film clubs, training spaces, citizen campaigns, our generation can rise on the condition of seceding with the absurd spectacle that disfigures our country.

The parade of personalities and controversies has become a shadow theater disconnected from popular aspirations. Partisan structures are no longer able to channel the desire for change. Each passing day increases their discredit. Transforming our country involves thinking about new organizational forms that allow collective intelligence, as well as deploying what Gramsci calls the cultural battle.

It is the work to which we wish to contribute through this movement whose tools are in phase with new forms of engagement. Twenty local groups already exist in the country and more will be added in the coming weeks.

Are “guaranteed green jobs” a good idea?

We call on our generation to seize this tool. The absence of an electoral outlet should not be resigned to us, let us impose our ideas on the agenda of the crucial year before us! The fights are not lacking. The guarantee of green employment and food social security are the new flags of the eco-republicanism that is to come. It is up to us to make them triumph.

Signatories:

Lou Plaza (spokesperson), Leo Rosell (president), Clément Cateloy (Amiens), Guillemette Magnin (Bordeaux), Anthony Jacques (Bordeaux), Marion Stutz (Caen), Gabriel Ferrette (Caen), Théo Laubry (Clermont-Ferrand ), Jules Brion (Grenoble), Laura Chazel (Grenoble), Nawri Khamallah (Lille), Chloé Mourant (Lille), Quentin le Brisois (Lyon), Laurie Guerrieri (Lyon), Lauric Sophie (Guyana), François Berry (Marseille) , Claire Baraduc (Marseille), Pablo Rotelli (Montpellier), Manon Milcent (Montpellier), Romain Mamert (Nancy), Sonia Amiour (Nancy), Damien Bastian (Nantes), Pauline Debray (Nantes), Victor Woillet (Paris), Rebecca Rogly (Paris), Jules Meméteau (Poitiers), Yana Chueire (Poitiers), Ewen Bazin (Rennes), Zoé Samin (Rennes), Antoine Longo (Rouen), Fabien Schnetzler (Saint-Etienne), Noa Koama (Strasbourg), Aymeric Chouquet (Toulouse), Fanny Pic Will (Toulouse), Eleonore Aubry (Tours).