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POLICIES Ecotourism
Policy Economic
Policy Green
Policy HIV/AIDS
Policy 1. eThekwini ECOPEACE Economic Policy April 1996 Free human potential. Enrich the nature of work and shorten work times. Develop appropriate labour-intensive technologies and self-managed cooperatives. No taxation on labour or production. Promote economic freedoms and independence. All commercial, industrial, military, agricultural, private and state entities must be entirely transparent and accountable, ecologically viable, sustainable and open to audit. Technologies must be safe. Reject abusive relationships. Decrease local authority management costs for increased coexistence with nature. Essentials to well-being are: water, food, housing, clothing, fuel, electricity, health-care, sewers and refuse removal, communication, education, a clean safe beautiful environment, and a spiritual-cultural life. Support and encourage recycling. Affordable accessible public transport and safe cycle paths are urgently needed. Reform inaccessible insensitive official structures and personnel. State control requires service not; cumbersome bureaucracy, low quality products, production failures, shortages of food and other commodities, which gives little concern for the environment. Oppose monopolies and exploitation. So-called `free markets' are synonymous with environmental destruction, inequality in consumption, rank, status and power, a hierarchy based on money and possessions, accumulation of personal property, private control over economic development, polarity between rich and poor. One quarter of the world's population consumes three quarters of the world's wealth. Ever increasing consumption is damaging and cannot be sustained. People-friendly ecopolitics for a sustainable economy for the benefit of this and future generations.This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us. 2.eThekwini ECOPEACE Ecotourism Policy April 1996 Everyone should experience our indigenous heritage, for personal and social growth, and to develop spiritually. Ecological education provides knowledge which is integrative, a holistic experience. Ecotourism requires rehabilitation, respect, integrity and diversity of biotic systems. This is also fundamental for elimination of poverty. Halting environmental degradation and loss of land, biomass and water resources is basic for sustainable development. Management systems in harmony with nature require investment in long term research and development, decreased management costs for increased coexistence with nature, and an economy within ecological limits. Management must be freed from selfish motives and not be carried out through slow and ineffectual cumbersome bureaucracies. Improvements in quality of life, vitality and well being, and diversity of the natural environment are the foundations of future wealth. Trust and caring are needed for self-reliance, cooperation, autonomy and responsibility. Nurture pro-african positive cultural values of solidarity, self-help, equity and organic relation to nature. Our city should be greened by the intensive growing of trees and adequate provision of natural areas to improve the living conditions and health of its inhabitants. Affordable public transport and safe cycle paths are needed. Green Awareness will help all communities to grow prosperous safe and healthy. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us. 3. eThekwini ECOPEACE Green Policy April 1996 A positive expression of the energies that sustain life cannot be reduced to material explanations only, everything that exists cannot possibly be measured. The more diverse and complex an ecosystem is, the stronger and more harmonious it becomes. We urgently need management of resources in harmony with nature rather than wasting resources on competition for overlapping projects. This means harmonious enhancement and linking of investments, technology, resources and institutions for current and future human and global needs and aspirations. We have to choose life affirming, sustainable, long term solutions and invest in long term research and development projects rather than look for quick-fix ‘cheap’ alternatives. We need to recognise and encourage `environmental achievements' not views limited to a term of office. We pollute the Earth. We consume irreplaceable substances and we produce things we don't really need which wear out quickly and cannot be recycled. We constantly change the environment far beyond our needs until we now threaten our own survival and that of many other species. Our population growth is much higher than our social and economic development. This inevitably leads to a higher rate of environmental degradation. Ecological and economic degradation leads to bloody conflicts, which reinforce environmental destruction through dislocation of people to marginal lands or to towns and cities. Political change is needed or we face extinction. Violence and factionalism are obsolete and must be overcome to create a better living environment. Force and wealth must be dissociated from and replaced by new symbols of power. Ecological rehabilitation requires a change from income and possessions as measures of wealth to a concern for health and well-being. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us.4. eThekwini ECOPEACE HIV/AIDS Policy August 2000 It will take more than condoms or politicians slogans to stop the HIV/AIDS genocide. Any organisation demanding its members follow a simple line, while stifling dissenting calls for a holistic multi-faceted approach is culpable in the death of millions. It takes many points of view to find solutions. The female/male double standard, such as glorifying multiple partners for men whilst stigmatizing this for women, must be changed no matter how difficult or unpopular this might be. Otherwise we face a multinational controlled militaristic future where the indigenous population is a welfare dependent minority. To achieve healthy, well educated, non-violent, self-reliant communities it is necessary to stop non-consentual sex and start a revolution in social and personal relationships and identities. Ecopeace members call for honesty about HIV status. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us. 5. eThekwini ECOPEACE Legal Policy April 1996 Environmental rights underpin our existence and therefore precede all other rights. We support the following constitutional amendments: Recognise the intrinsic rights of animals, plants, ecosystems and natural materials. Allow all ecosystems to evolve naturally, provided that any ecological, social and economically sustainable development must promote biodiversity. Animals must be protected from human abuse. Animal use must be ecologically sustainable and of benefit to society. Such use of any animal must not involve any (undue) harm to that animal. No-one should abuse any being, species, ecosystem or natural materials. Any adversely effected beings, species, ecosystems and natural resources must undergo redress and reversal of any such harm, neglect or exploitation. Every person is entitled to social protection, an ecologically sustainable standard of living, and a quality of life that is full and rewarding. Victims of environmental injustice must receive full compensation and reparations for damages, and top quality health care. The burden of proof must be on the polluter and those creating toxins. No unconditional acceptance of possibly dangerous activities. Prevention comes first. Extensive tests are needed to prove that a product is safe even in various combinations with other products. Industry must implement clean technologies for recycling, re-use of energy, and to minimise waste. This must include Waste auditing and effective monitoring of hazardous waste production and disposal. The effect of pollution on the community must be measured. Producers of toxins, hazardous waste and radioactive materials must be strictly accountable for detoxification and containment at the point of production away from residential areas. No transport of hazardous waste. No pollutant discharge into marine ecosystems. Charges for all solid, water, air, heat, noise and electromagnetic pollution, culprits must pay for all levels of contamination. Any polluter who does not do this, and cannot prove its actions are harmless must face closure, meaningful fines and/or imprisonment. Full access to information about all activities that impact upon our lives and the ecosystems upon which we depend. Prohibition of censorship without excluding anyone from responsibility, accountability and transparency. Intellectual property must not be secret, denying scientific, social and economic advancement. Intellectual property holders must forfeit their patents if they do not develop their investments. There should be no privilege by law of commercial secrets. Commercial institutions must be responsible and accountable and their transactions transparent and open to audit. Democracy cannot be curtailed at the whim of commerce and industry, decision making must include all those affected. Promote a sustainable balance between ecological, social and economic development; guarantee environmental and consumer protection; promote rehabilitation and conservation to protect the quality of the human and natural environment; protect indigenous cultures; and prohibit activities that endanger the public and/or their environment. Food production must enhance the quality of land, not sap it. Monocultures and chemicalization of agriculture must be halted. Extensive mining is not sustainable and must stop. Energy policy based on renewable materials. Taxation must be based on pollution and consumption of resources. Rates reforms must involve levies on high use of non-renewable materials, and therefore encourage recycling, solar power, new and appropriate technologies. The state should put tariffs on thermodynamically expensive industries (e.g. overseas companies that use SA as a cheap energy provider and/or consumer of uneconomical substances). Excise on exports which subsequently are used in imported products, and on imports which use South African materials and hence deny investment within the country. Everyone must have the right to engage in legitimate, ecological and socially sustainable economic activity. This cannot preclude the protection and improvement of the environment and its ecosystems. Every person shall have the right to live in a viable and vibrant ecosystem. Everyone must have the right to be secure in, and control their own body. Primary health care is dependent on the right to shelter and basic amenities for adequate sanitation. Conscience, predilections, attire, appearance, status, intellectual or physical ability, should in no way prejudice any person, positively or negatively, in terms of quality of life, standard of living, economic independence or due care and attention from society. There must be no discrimination in education. No institute of learning may limit academic freedom. Everyone must have the right to instruction in any of the official languages of the Province. The State should enable access to instruction in any of the other official languages of the Republic. No one may be denied access to instruction in their mother tongue, without obliging the Province to supply such instruction. The family including extended and other family units must be protected. Whenever any of the rights expressed by the constitution are threatened, those rights need to be strengthened and supported. Where a system of ward representation applies this must be within an overall system of proportional representation. Anyone involved in violence or human rights abuses must forfeit their right to hold public office. Any political parties whose members have taken part in intimidation or violence against their opponents must not be allowed to take part in elections in those areas where such abuse has taken place. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us.
6. eThekwini ECOPEACE Political Policy April 1996 Life is a fragile interdependent network yet our consumerist society damages itself and the world around it. Planning and intervention are necessary to balance the finite resources of ecology and society. But political, economic and industrial power are the greatest obstacles to the healing of environmental and social deterioration. The barriers of alienating ideologies must be countered. Racial, national, economic and political divisions, and competition for power and position are impractical, destructive and detrimental to our society and environment. Irrational beliefs and infighting amongst allies prevent us from fully nurturing our ecosystems. The political arena, is a scene of divisions and exploitation. We call for participatory democracy and proportional representation. Other eco-friendly peoples parties may then help us assure important governmental and ministerial positions and influence. Our aim is a healthy, sustainable, equal society with an economy in ecological limits. Small support for specific issues should not deter us from consciousness raising, creating public interest and overall awareness. Encourage healthy debate and cooperation, not conflict. Public relation strategies of principle and ethics, empathy and experience support an intelligent discourse of policies and enhance campaign tactics. Specists work in an authoritarian manner, develop superior attitudes, form groups to protect each other, and take advantage of their position merely to gain privilege and amenities for themselves. Their state of mind is revealed in conduct. Specists insist upon the need for organisation and authority. Every army and every industry in the world is run on the basis of a chain of command from the top downwards. Those in a higher grade in the hierarchy have a more comfortable standard of life than below since it adds prestige to authority. Forget your systems, forget your ideologies, forget your power, let us be concerned with human suffering, human needs, food, clothing and shelter. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us. 7. eThekwini ECOPEACE Public Relations Policy August 1995 Green Awareness is an ethical theory involving an evolution of consciousness, the highest culmination of politics, it is a combination art, gender, science, ecology, education, and social issues in a unified culture. Do not be concerned only with your own immediate problems and ideologies, by placing being as the basis, intelligent appreciation of life is valued. There is no goal, design or purpose necessary other than to express our own being. Political argument is made accessible by avoiding dreary cliché, conventional superficiality and stupid black and white morality. Anticipate petty, irrelevant yet vehement attack, which is evasive and passive aggressive. The appropriate counter is non-aggressive assertiveness and confidence. Transform your consciousness to have a different kind of education, a different kind of society. Change the content of your consciousness so that in that transformation you affect the consciousness of humanity. In that freedom to transform, you have tremendous energy which is the essence of intelligence, and that awareness can operate in every field of the total human existence.
Advance the views of: 1 Ethical human nature 2 Attainable equality of fortunes 3 Impermanency of war 4 Remediability of poverty and thus 5 The removal of unnecessary government, obedience, or resignation. Govern from the heart. Diminish restrictions. Serve people in difficult things, and in easy things. Serve people in great things, and in small things. ELIMINATE WAR POVERTY AND WASTE Create public opinion to change the outlook of society. Provide encouragement and leadership. Arouse and trust people, win over the middle and unite with the majority to develop mass awareness. Put people-friendly ecopolitics in command. Foster discussion, oppose elitism, invite debate and action from all. Do not incite members against each other, they can reach unanimity. Protect minorities, debate must be conducted by reasoning not coercion or force. Every member is good at thinking things out for themselves. THINK SPEAK ACT Learn and teach, don't be one-sided or narrow. Green politics should be combined with insight, meditation, therapy, and productivity, to develop ethically, intellectually and physically. Learn appropriate technologies, permaculture, healing arts and promote Green literature and art. Awaken and nourish Green Awareness, cultivate it in city and countryside, this will help all communities to grow prosperous safe and healthy. Challenge any idea counterpoising Green Awareness. Criticize specism, specist ideology, and exploitation. Criticize specist views in philosophy, history, political economy, education, literature, art, science and other fields. Resistance comes from entrenched, out of touch authorities, it also comes from habits. Challenge those who dominate, expose refute castigate and discredit specists, neutralize their influence, they should turn over a new leaf. Distinguish between specists, and people with ordinary ideas. Help technicians and scientists transform their outlook. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us. 8.eThekwini ECOPEACE Rates Policy 1 Set attainable minimum service standards for Durban Metro. 2 Establish a timetable for an incremental increase in minimum standards to reach equity for Metro inhabitants within a reasonable period. There must be no decline in services in any area. 3 Create a uniform rates basis for all ratepayers. 3.1 This should be fixed on per capita usage of resources such as electricity, water, land, paved area (i.e. increased runoff). Higher use of these resources indicates higher use of other services, a better indication than just using property values. 3.2 This should also be calculated exponentially (i.e. sliding scale) so that higher users have an immediate rates reduction incentive to use less and invest in appropriate technologies such as solar energy. 3.3 Wherever possible there should be direct payment for services. 3.4 Rebates for recycling. Active encouragement for waste reduction, recycling and job creation. Also rebates if water-bourne sewerage is not used. An increase in policing wil cost more, we propose quality not just quantity. Community police must be qualified, well trained and payed sufficient for their risk and commitment. We cannot put a mere material value on human life, property rights must be protected without denying other rights and without an escalation in violence. An increase in living standards and well-being together with an effective end to corruption and political violence, to regain confidence in a just society, are the only long-term solutions to the present crime epidemic. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us. 9. eThekwini ECOPEACE Policy on Violence August 1995 Only completely free and fair elections to demonstrate the choice of the people will begin to relieve persisting political violence. A continually updated population register to avoid intimidation during voter registration is necessary to help eliminate irregularities during voting. It is only through will and determination for effective efficient management that a true ballot can be reflected. Without this other steps towards peace and reconciliation are futile. South Africa must renounce force as a means of dealing with disputes. All war potential must be diminished. Any actions to disturb peaceful relations should be illegal and weapons of warfare must not be manufactured, transported or marketed. No armed force or military force or armed organisation or service should be established in or for the Republic other than those established by an Act of Parliament, with strict regulation of production and distribution of all types of weapons and ammunition. Citizens rights to bear arms must be qualified and monitored. Community Policing depends on appropriate training and decent salaries commensurate with risks, but the underlying causes of crime must also be dealt with for it to be alleviated. Our sense of justice must be sustained, changes in laws, procedures and mass amnesties outside the courts have altered perceptions. People who have abused human rights must be denied positions of power and privilege especially in public service. Political escape from justice means everyone should expect the same including those who still suffer from the effects of politically imposed poverty. Violent criminals should be isolated from mainstream society, not to be reintegrated before they are rehabilitated. They must be treated separately from those whose crimes are economic. We must never put a mere material value on human life, hence property rights must be ensured without violence, aggression or the undermining of basic living standards for all. It is the improvement of these living standards for all that is our insurance against crime and other infringements of our rights. People will affirm principle and ethics over strategy or corruption when they perceive the benefits of the former. Only sustainable ecologically viable economics based on diversity of the natural environment can be the foundation of health and prosperity. Democratic accountability must not be curtailed by bureaucrats who's allegiance to self outweighs that to the community. The inordinate influence of multinational industries and big money on a short sighted government must be restrained. Power and profit only for an elite minority has no place in the New South Africa. eThekwini Ecopeace is committed to peace and safety through transparent participation of all. This document is dynamic and open to constructive suggestions. Please give us your views. You are important to us. |
