ILO recommendation on Social Protection Floors
- Details
- Written by ILO
- Category: Documents
Final text of the ILO recommendation concerning national floors of social protection, as adopted by the latest International Labour Conference.
See also our analysis on this site - based on the preparatory documents. An updated version will appear soon.
Robin Hood in the United States
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- Category: Analysis
Why is the Incredible Hulk smoothly whistling on YouTube as he takes a dollar and draws a Robin Hood mask on George Washington’s mug?
Because Mark Ruffalo -- who plays the green superhero in the movie The Avengers -- stars in a video to kick off the U.S. Robin Hood Tax campaign. The video also features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Chris Martin of Cold Play, nurses, clergy, AIDS activists, students, urban farmers and, yes, yours truly, a climate activist. (Please help us spread it far and wide!)
NGO Statement at Rio+20 Summit
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- Category: Documents
Thank you President
I am making this statement on behalf of the NGOs
It feels amazing to be sitting in this room among all the world leaders, and feeling all this power around me that can shape the World. We all know the threat that is facing us, and I do not need to repeat the urgency. Science is very clear. If we do not change in the coming five to ten years the way our societies function, we will be threatening the survival of future generations and all other species on the planet. Nevertheless, you sitting here in this room have the power to reverse all of this. What you can do here is the dream of each one of us: to have the opportunity to be the savors of the planet. It is all up to you.
On the social dimension of the climate justice agenda
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- Category: Analysis
‘Sustainable development’ remains a controversial concept, though it is still part of the dominant discourse on ecology and climate change. Activists have pointed to the impossibility and undesirability of ‘development’ – a western concept intrinsically linked to economic growth and to a reprehensible modernity, so they say – and the equally unacceptable and undesirable ‘sustainability’ which, according to them, perpetuates an unjust world order.
Read more: On the social dimension of the climate justice agenda
Trade Union statement on Rio+20
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- Written by ITUC
- Category: Analysis
In order to replace the existing model, the trade union movement must play a decisive role in fighting for an alternative development modell for our societies grounded on peoples' needs, on solidarity, on economic democracy and on a fair distribuytion of wealth ...
Semeta: FTT is possible in 2012
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- Written by Peter Wahl
- Category: News
If at the upcoming EU-ECOFIN Council meeting one government would ask for vote on the EU 27 version, the procedure for Enhanced Cooperation could be triggered.
Brazil Pushes to End Tax Haven Secrecy
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- Written by Sam McWilliams
- Category: Analysis
(From Global Financial Integrity)
Brazil’s Parliament is considering measures to eliminate tax havens. These havens are problematic for Brazil and other nations because they reduce tax revenues, hurting spending budgets. Brazil has 33 conventions and one agreement signed with countries for curtailing tax abuse. However, among them all, there are no provisions that require exchanges in financial information from the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, or the Bahamas, among others. For those three jurisdictions alone, Brazil has a total estimated US $61.2 Billion of direct investment. Opaque systems such as this allow for large scale tax evasion. Brazil needs the financial transparency necessary to monitor activity moving in and out of tax havens.
Reflection Group proposes changes that future justice for all will require
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- Written by Reflection Group
- Category: Analysis
Two weeks before the United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro (Rio2012), 18 leading civil society activists and scholars from around the globe proposed concrete measures to effectively overcome the obstacles that prevent the world population to achieve a real sustainable development that enhances social equality and protects the environment.
Read more: Reflection Group proposes changes that future justice for all will require
Two weeks before the United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro (Rio2012), 18 leading civil society activists and scholars from around the globe proposed concrete measures to effectively overcome the obstacles that prevent the world population to achieve a real sustainable development that enhances social equality and protects the environment. |
Read more: Reflection Group proposes changes that future justice for all will require
A just transition now - no to the green economy
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- Written by Gothenburg Conference
- Category: News
On 20-22 June 2012 NGOs, governments and businesses gather at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro. Simultaneously social movements from around the world organise an alternative meeting with focus on human rights and environmental justice on 15-23 June.
Progress on FTT
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- Written by Peter Wahl
- Category: News
German chancellor Merkel has spoken out in public for an FTT in the framework of Enhanced Cooperation.
Also the German Liberal Party (FDP), which is in the government, has given up to insist on an FTT in the EU 27.
The price of inequality
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- Written by J. Stiglitz
- Category: Analysis
America likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity, and others view it in much the same light. But, while we can all think of examples of Americans who rose to the top on their own, what really matters are the statistics: to what extent do an individual’s life chances depend on the income and education of his or her parents?
Nowadays, these numbers show that the American dream is a myth. There is less equality of opportunity in the United States today than there is in Europe – or, indeed, in any advanced industrial country for which there are data.
