Yanis Varoufakis: Inequality is Rising with Coronavirus, We Must Save the Planet

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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Progressive International was launched with a mission to unite, organize, and mobilize progressive forces around the world today (May 11).

This September, the "Summit" of the International will be convened for inauguration in Reykjavik, Iceland. Progressive International has over 50 advisors from 31 countries, including Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Naomi Klein and Iceland's Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir as well as Ertuğrul Kürkçü and Ece Temelkuran from Turkey.

CLICK - Launching a Progressive International

Economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis from Greece has spoken to bianet about the founding purposes and goals of Progressive International.

Ranking second in the world thinkers survey which was announced by the Prospect magazine in April 2015 and participated by around 3,000 people, Varoufakis was the first Finance Minister of SYRIZA government in Greece. However, he resigned from office, criticizing the fiscal policies embraced by the SYRIZA, which accepted the imposition of the Troika.

First of all, what was the primary objective behind the establishment of the Progressive International?

We are in a longstanding crisis, which is global and very painful. It started in 2008 when the Wall Street collapsed. It was our generation's 1929.

This virus/pandemic is aggravating it. Creating a lot of pain for the weakest of all citizens in the world... The only ones who have benefited from the international coordination in the last twelve years have been the bankers.

It is about time for the progressives to come together in order to create common goals and common interests. And to serve those common interests globally... This is what the Progressive International is about.

Contribution by Bernie Sanders

The Progressive International consists of more than 50 advisors from 31 countries (for now). How did these figures come together?

We started in December 2018. It was Bernie Sanders and myself among many other people. It was started spontaneously and what we did was to make open calls, sometime ago, about who could be interested in being the first members of this council.

And this is not the last list, I mean, it is not the final list. These are a group of people excited about participating in this genuinely international movement.

We need a lot more progressives to join us from different countries. Definitely from Turkey, definitely from Asia, Africa... I am very much looking forward to expanding this circle of friends, of colleagues, of fellow travelers.

Someone who brings strength to our organisation and more relevant to particular communities and countries around the world...

'We want to be inclusive'

You previously served as the Finance Minister in Greece, you are an expert in the fields of politics and economics. How did you personally involve in this movement?

It was in December 2018. Bernie Sanders and myself looked for how Progressive International must be. Then, we came up with a manifesto, a declaration and an open call.

We have been very open in receiving contributions, gestures and proposals. And, now, as those participating and responding to the open call (those 50 councils of the movement), we have been invited by the Prime Minister of Iceland, who is a member of the council.

We will plan the policy, agenda and the manifesto and the structure of the organisation. We want to be inclusive. So, everyone who wants to join should think of doing the same.

'Our priority is to save the planet'

What kind of international campaigns are you planning to coordinate?

Well, there are two campaigns that we want to produce. One of them is putting a plan together for creating good quality jobs on the way to green transition: Saving the planet and creating good quality jobs for millions of billions people... That's our number one priority.

At the same time, we also want to defend people falling prey to predatory corporations, I mean, the corporations like Amazon that are making few dollars and in unhygienic conditions.

We need progressive forces to defend the weakest around the world.

'Coronavirus has made the world a worse place'

How do you think the coronavirus pandemic will change the world and how do you think it will affect this new "progressive" initiative?

This virus is making the world a worse place because disadvantaged people are dying more frequently and they are losing their jobs.

At the same time, Central Banks around the world are printing mountains of money. The disconnection between the world of money and the people who are really suffering is widening. So inequality is rising.

Unless we, I mean the progressives, gather for hope and show an international reaction to this, only those who want to pit one person against another, one nation against the other will benefit.

From the declaration of the Progressive International:

"The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated once again that the capitalist system is in a serious, serious crisis. We have known about this crisis for a long time, but we have also known that people's movements, left movements, in this period, have been weakened by the very processes of crisis that capitalism has engendered. Our struggle is to strengthen people's movements, strengthen the left movement, and move us toward the utopia of the future. The present is unsustainable. We need a new future."

(PT/SD)