We live in an increasingly interconnected world, facing
existential challenges that succeed one another and are interrelated. When we
were leaving a painful global financial crisis, an also global pandemic
reminded us about the fragility of our existence (and the potential for
government action), just to witness how the aggression of Putin in Ukraine
tested our mechanisms of secutirty, protection of human rights, access to
energy and cooperation. Meanwhile, the increasing threat of the climate
emergency is ever more present and demands urgent and massive action at all
levels, making sure to put the welfare of the poor and the most vulnerable at
the forefront, and not as an afterthought.
Wars, refugees, and migrations have never stopped, although
we have also learned that living in democracy is possible, although fragile.
We have lived through great technological progress in the last
two centuries but have also experienced great catastrophes. The European Union
has proved a sophisticated and necessary mechanism to prevent wars on its soil,
but is insufficient to stop disasters in its neighborhood, such as the Balkan wars
or the war in Ukraine.
The new generations grow full of hope but also full of
concern for their future and the future of the Planet, and are not shy to
express their rage and fear whenever they can.
Addressing the challenges of our times requires
unprecedented levels of cooperation. Cooperating, however, is not easy. It
requires a social sophistication that nation states are far from reaching. In
our hopefully post-pandemic scenario, the climate crisis, increased poverty and
inequality will only get worse with additional doses of national populism. It
is the time to accelerate the promotion of alternatives, and in particular the
promotion of federalism as a set of principles and values, the principles of a
multilevel democracy and the values of cooperation and acceptance of diversity
and pluralism.
If a small group of illustrated progressive leaders could
conceive of a federal Europe in the isle of Ventotene in Italy when the
fascists were still in power, now the same visionary ambition should be
displayed at the global level. There are people willing to fight for this more
cooperative world.
The EU must evolve towards a more integrated and democratic
Union, and at the same time elements of a global federation must emerge.
Governments and communities must be stronger at all levels and promote
individual freedoms in a context of true equal opportunities.
Tax cooperation among jurisdictions should be promoted and
tax havens should be eliminated. A multilevel democracy were no level has the
monopoly of sovereignty is crucial precisely to achieve tax justice.
Inequalitites must be addressed directly at their source. The Laffer curve (the
notion that reducing tax rates will magically increase tax revenues) and
“trickle down economics” are zombie neo-liberal ideas that have been
discredited by empirical evidence.
Egalitarian ideologies that were born as alternatives to
capitalism can today join forces with those that want to promote deep reforms
in capitalist economies. In the fight for equality, mistakes have been made
over history. One of the most important of these mistakes is the belief that
equality is compatible with nationalism.
Peace and diversity are promoted through democracies with
equal rights instead of ethnocracies. There is almost no piece of land in our
Planet that can be closed in borders and include only members of a pure
identity. That can be only the result of ethnic cleansing or a distorted view
of collective freedom. All borders are artificial. We should waste no time
trying to change them, but we should spend more time trying to promote
cooperation and friednship over them.
Federalism is a necessary ingredient to leverage the fight
of the new generations to save the Planet and change the world. We must promote
the values of solidarity, fraternity and cooperation. A society guided only by
the profit motive or by material interests ends up being a poor society in all
respects.
Those that take advantage of the problems and exploit
identity feelings are powerful and effective in the use of new communication
technologies. Those who want to oppose
them cannot remain in their ivory towers, limiting themselves to explore new
theories and regretting that the world has changed. No more lives must be
wasted fighting for “us against them”, when the fight for the Planet and for
solidarity is both the most important and the most urgent of our times.
We must use the green and digital transition to promote a
better world, where the standards of living can improve for everybody without
destroying the natural resources and without compromising the existence of
future generations. More than ever, we must multiply the initiatives (and make
them multiplicative) –in the form of virtual exhibitions, videos, web
resources, apps…, in a process of trial and error, to promote federalism as a
social cause in our complex world.
To promote human dignity for all, we need institutions that
bring out the best of human beings, and not the worst. These institutions may
evolve from the existing ones, or be the result of social innovation. If
continents drifted away from Pangea, they must come together again, at least
symbolically, in the fight to save the Planet.