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The terrorist interventions of the French state against Notre-Dame-des-Landes are not surprising. Because what works differently, the « off-system » attempts, act as a mirror that reflects the abnormality of this normalized everyday life in which we indulge. And this pathological continuity, the capitalist state does not want it to change. We must continue to want to consume, produce, work, privatize, not share. The Frenchman has to waste his daily average of oil, driving, eating, living. The Belgian and the others too. Those who have not reached the level will only have to « develop ».

The ZAD should strike all consciences, give us the glasses that would allow us to see the reality of our societies for what it is: a zone of generalized nonsense. The city, in this role, is perfect. Let’s think about the stale air we breathe, while every day the traffic is getting denser; about those who scream about an obstacle to their individual freedom when we propose to close the street to cars one day a month (one day!), or to replace parking spaces by bicycle spaces, chicken coops, vegetable gardens… They are convinced that they are defending their freedom, while they are only perpetuating a way of life imposed at birth, and that they have made their own. Everything is the same: these waves that make you sicker and sicker, in the intimacy of homes, while the state and industry, with universities, are working to provide us with 5G(The « free « University of Brussels in particular). This continues with the obsolescence of the products we consume, programmed not to last, which therefore implies more work, more waste, more consumption. This is what is needed: more throw away to consume more and work more: until 70 years old, 38 hours/week. Growth.

Nothing goes right, especially when everything seems to work. Every day, in our jobs, our non-jobs, our under-jobs; in our food, pestiferous, with additives and colorings; in our supermarkets, monopsones* that put producers in competition, one against the other, create alienating tasks and destroy them whenever they want. Such jobs should no longer be defended, because this is only working to perpetuate what is harmful. Meaningful activities should be substituted. We should put an end to our wars, which serve no purpose except to enrich the multinationals and gun merchants, feeding the hatred of the West. It would be necessary to give up these supposedly essential smartphones, to refuse to progressively make digital school a pedagogical priority, with these technologies colonizing our brains and dumbing down our children. We should change our streets, our roads, our paths, where cars cause, every year in the world, 1.3 million deaths (the WHO predicts 2.3 million deaths and some 50 million injuries for 2030). We should clear our skies of air traffic that brings hordes of tourists colonizing the last virgin places on earth or joining the formatted tourist areas, releasing tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. There should be other media than those that do not give any key to understanding the world and belong to the same people who make the wars, the banks, the supermarkets, the fashion.
The ZAD should strike all consciences, give us the glasses that would allow us to see the reality of our societies for what it is: a zone of generalized nonsense
 » Ethiopia is dying little by little »,  » We are the world, we are the children « … Ah, these shows affected by the good conscience of the West, which insidiously put in our children’s heads in the 70s and 80s, the idea that famines were accidents, the result of a lack of aid, of « development », while we were happily plundering them, constituting our reserves of slaves and foodstuffs. The success of digital technology would remind them that the West appreciates them and needs them to produce our useless objects and to recover the waste when we change them. A child dies of hunger every 5 seconds, let’s not complain any more: it is the price to pay on the altar of growth.

If the Notre-Dame-des-Landes ZAD can serve a global objective, it is, in addition to the indispensable localized struggle that it leads, that of no longer tolerating anything from this world that makes us less human every day, and thus distances us from nature and from each other. The State will not let go, it does not want this to spread, because private property (of the soil, of the places of life, of the water, of the seeds…) is the base of the bourgeois society.

However, all this will have made sense only if the revolt spreads. Everywhere. In all these indecent places and projects, it is obvious, but also, and especially, where we thought they were not: in the areas of « normality ».

Alexandre Penasse

* « An economic situation in which a company has the exclusive privilege of purchasing a product or service. »

Until recently, « ordinary » advertising for connection-enabled items was not very pervasive. Many of our contemporaries are captivated by the new technologies that allow us to create a multitude of virtual links. The technique for baiting buyers is therefore subtle. Thus, Apple is a specialist in hooking potential customers. It announces the launch of a new machine, but leaves uncertainties about the technical advances of the novelty. The geeks get excited, exchange on the networks, the interest grows and the day of the launch of the new machine, Apple realizes a very mediatized event on which some tens of fanatics rush. The video of these unleashed people reaching out to snatch the object is widely circulated. Anyone who bought a similar item just a year ago will feel that they too must acquire this coveted device. In fact, they will never use the few new functions, but they will be able to proudly show off the new toy to their acquaintances, some of whom, out of jealousy, will acquire it in turn. René Girard would speak of  » mimetic desire « [note] and Thorstein Veblen of  » conspicuous consumption of the leisure class »[note].

THE RETURN OF THE CLASSIC 

It would seem that the fascination with this hardware is beginning to wane. The novelty is not really new anymore and then there are some spoils of trade: the telephone operators, to convince you to subscribe to them, offer you a smartphone for 1€… If it’s free, it’s worthless, say those who have well integrated the codes of the all-powerful market. 

It is therefore necessary to use the good old advertising methods but adapted to modernity. This is how Qualcomm starts to multiply the ads. Not familiar with Qualcomm? It is however a giant firm in the technology sector. Founded in the United States in 1985, it specializes in  » telecommunication solutions  » and has become one of the world’s leading companies in the design and marketing of cell phone processors ($24 billion in sales, 33,000 employees). She makes advertising videos which are very well done and which show us, for example, what a non-connected world would be like.[note] To sell one of her chips, she also made another video that could be the envy of the best science fiction film directors[note] (if we show them to you, it is not to let you be bewitched, eh!). 

Lately, in Brussels, Qualcomm has been using STIB buses and street TV (animated billboards) to get its message across:  » We invent. The world leaps forward. The tech the world loves « [note]. Technological imperialism, language imperialism: it is clear that they want to impose another world, theirs. 

But cell phones were only the vanguard of connected objects. Now, everything has to be connected and advertising is there to convince us of this. For example, a few days ago, the Vandenborre appliance store sent me an e‑mail with the following message:  » Imagine: a fridge that helps you shop. A coffee machine programmable directly from your smartphone. A food processor that prepares your meals automatically and groups its recipes on an app… Would it make your life easier? With our selection of smart appliances, you can create the connected kitchen of your dreams « . So this is the world they are preparing for us: a world where machines will do everything for us and where we will never be where we are[note] but in permanent link with the objects we will remotely control (I wonder who will drink the coffee I will have made in my connected kitchen and if my fridge will be polite with the drone that will come to deliver the groceries it has ordered). 

If we accept the logic of hyper-connection, it will not only be our kitchen that will be permanently connected, whether you like it or not: the connected electricity meters (soon to be mandatory?) should allow you to continuously measure your household’s consumption. For what purpose? To check if your fridge isn’t messing with your toaster? Or is it to find out your habits and send you advertisements adapted to your lifestyle?[note]

Finally, let’s not forget the constant advertisements for autonomous cars: they will only be able to move without too much danger if they are connected with a whole complex system. If they and other connected objects multiply, current microwave links will not be able to handle the enormous wave rates that this will represent. 4G, 5G, xG… will be necessary to broadcast these waves whose effects on our health are known to be absolutely deleterious. But you can’t stop progress, can you? Besides, these autonomous cars are not really desired by motorists who, in general, prefer to drive rather than to be passive. In fact, the real interest of these autonomous vehicles is to be able to do without truck, bus and cab drivers whose salaries prevent companies from making more profits. It’s like the Deliveroo & Co and other Uber bike deliverers whose activities are only possible thanks to their permanent connection with the central office that enslaves them. 

So expect to see more and more advertisements and other reports extolling the virtues of the connection, for the greater good of capitalism 4.0…

Alain Adriaens

Program:

6:00 PM — Documentary « Take Back Your Power » by Josh del Sol (2013).

7:00 p.m. — Intervention by Wendy de Hemptinne and Paul Lannoye

8:00 pm — Buffet (cheese from Chant des cailles, bread, soup and quiches from Farilu)

8:50 p.m. — Speech by Bernard Legros

21h30 — Debate: Alain Adriaens (moderator), Bernard Legros, Wendy de Hemptinne, Francis Leboutte.

10:15 pm (at the bar): Fred Deltenre’s concert

_______________

Catering: 5€ or 10€ / Reservations required!Reservations HERE or at 02 672 14 39

The elected officials of the commune have been personally contacted to attend this evening (at least the debate at 10:00 pm): we want to know what they intend to do against smart meters and to define limits to the technology (in schools, on the street, etc.)

Invasive technology: « smart » meters, interactive whiteboards, 5G… Can we still say no?

The Brussels and Walloon parliaments voted this summer, in the greatest opacity, for the deployment of so-called smart meters (connected electricity meters that will communicate the reading of your consumption remotely); in schools, interactive whiteboards and tablets are becoming teaching tools; universities, politicians and companies are preparing the 5G…

Always presented as beneficial to the citizen, the deployment of these new technologies touches on the issue of technological invasion in our lives, which would require, like a manifestation of nature, no citizen debate.But have you been informed of the health risks that these technologies entail, of the extraction of raw materials on which they are based, of the dangers of accidents that they represent, of the increased consumption that they imply?The effects of « smart » meters and other tablets on people’s lives should be known and publicized. This would allow them to make an informed decision on whether or not to accept them.

The kairos 37 is out, in bookstores from today and tomorrow.In summary:With 5G… all guinea pigs?Paul Lannoye; Belgium and the restitution of African cultural goods, Robin Delobel; Ecolo Schaerbeek : Nepotism and unpaid overpayment, Claude Archer; Greece looks bad, Valery Witsel, Decarbonizing the climate, Michel Weber; Sons of pub, Alain Adriaens; The useful idiots of the imperial reconquest, Jean-Pierre Garnier; The identity refuge, Alain Adriaens; Venezuela, repetitions make the truth, Thomas Michel; The reality of squats in Brussels, Texas Vandervliet; « It’s a scandal! « , Jean Pierre L. Collignon; The class struggle and its future, Bernard Legros

Plus your short stories, reviews, free speech…

To subscribe for the next issue, click here: http://www.kairospresse.be/abonnement. 18 euros for 6 issues.

Preamble

Do we remember when 5 years ago, 3 years ago, 1 year ago, seeing that the world we were in was sinking, we had the secret hope that a real change was coming. 5 years, 3 years, 1 year have passed and things have gotten worse, both in social and climatic terms. Slowly, we are going towards the abyss, who can still deny it?

But while we should draw the inevitable consequences, each time we forget to remember our past hopes, now disappointed. This faculty of not remembering what we hoped for in order to always start again from the present, if it is a condition of hope, remains however tragic, because it signs a submission to a perpetual present. However, we should always be able to imagine the future to anticipate how what we do now could lead us to regret it later.

But we have to admit that we are always one step behind, which makes us feel something infinitely desperate, that the worst continues, that no real change has yet taken place, and that the current measures are part of the continuity; and that, perhaps, the real change we are waiting for will never take place. Those who have children are afraid to leave them in a world that is likely to become a hell, the premises of climate change being there to remind us; those who do not have children yet tell themselves that they may never have any. But let us be « reassured », because if we can think the thing, it is because we are not part of these past dead or of these present survivors, dead in reprieve because of our ways of life. They don’t have the opportunity to philosophize and wonder if the future will hold hell for their child, it already does every day.

Poles are stretched out…

Yet, we have opportunities. But today, while the « yellow vests » are revolting and refusing the rules of the game dictated by the state, socio-reformist movements are asking ministers to act to save the climate. Where the former have understood that those who governed them had put them and left them in the misery of this abandoned peripheral France, the latter still beg those who have destroyed nature — with our tacit consent most of the time — and continue to do so, so that « they understand that the rules of the game must be changed at all costs ». It is there to show a fabulous naivety[note], while creating in the same time a consequent popular demobilization, to ask those who organized the chaos to now come to their senses.

You’d think it was a joke, but it’s not. Act for Climate Justice » has launched the  » Interpelle tes ministres! » action where  » everyone is invited to send a message to the four ministers in charge of climate and environmental issues: Marie Christine Marghem (federal), Jean-Luc Crucke (Wallonia), Céline Fremault (Brussels) and Joke Schauvliege (Flanders ). What do you think they give a shit about my dear? Wasn’t Mrs Marghem’s lesson enough for you, when two days after the climate demonstration, Belgium voted against a proposed directive on energy efficiency? Its nuclear inconsistencies either? Or those of Jean-Luc Crucke, Minister of Budget, Finance, Energy, Climate and Airports (yes, climate and airports…), who recently decided to replace discharge lamps (sodium and others) by LED lights on the entire Walloon highway network, which will cost the Walloon people 600 million euros, for the sole benefit of SOFICO, its suppliers and their shareholders[note]. Or Céline Fremault, who gives us the gift of 5G deployment in Brussels?

 » Politicians today are part of the problem, not part of the solution; indeed, the decisions that would have to be taken to bring about a significant change in attitude make them very unpopular, and they are well aware of this. Stephen Emmott, 10 billion

And even if the elected officials were to act in a way that would be unanimous, we can only expect it to be in a deceptive, fictitious form, following communication campaigns whose objective will have been to make us accept the project decided by the elites, that is to say to bring us where they want by letting us believe that we are the ones who have traced the path. Long before the public’s « climate » upheaval, they had already set about it with the National [« public-private »] Pact for Strategic Investments, launched with great fanfare at the Tervueren Museum on September 11, 2018… At the helm of this Pact: Michel Delbaere, CEO of Crop’s (production and sale of vegetables, fruit and frozen meals) and former boss of Voka[note]but also, among other multiple functions, President of Sioen Industries; Dominique Leroy, CEO of Proximus; Marc Raisière, CEO of Belfius; Michèle Sioen, CEO of Sioen Industries(world leaderin the field of energy efficiency) of the market for coated technical textiles and high-quality protective clothing.), former president of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB), Dutch-speaking manager of the year 2017, incidentally involved in Luxleak; Baron Jean Stéphenne, well established in academic and political circles, like his other acolytes, former vice-president and general manager of the pharmaceutical multinational GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, but also chairman of the board of Nanocyl, spin off of the universities of Liege and Namur, specialized in carbon nanotubes (batteries, cars, electronics…); Pieter Timmermans, administrator of the FEB[note].

The troops are moving in, or the planned breakthrough of the private

The CEOs have in this report « wanted to make concrete recommendations for urgent investments in Belgium. « So understand that, long before students were demonstrating on Thursdays or you were walking the streets of Brussels on Sundays, the « decision-makers » had other concerns and urgencies than the climate. They only expect investments that will  » strengthen the foundations of our economy. As a result, economic growth should accelerate and new jobs will be created. In this way, we can preserve the Belgian social model. « The  » Belgiansocial model « ? where one child out of 4 lives below the poverty line, where the number of people sleeping in the street is growing every day, where the poorer you are the more you miss out on school… ? In this pact, which is a real employer’s plan for the coming decades, there is no possibility of questioning the model of society and therefore no chance of « saving the climate ». The business leaders tell us  » promised, « we do not want a questioning of an economic model, but not the opposite either »  » (Le Soir, 06/02/19). Translation: they know what they want, but they don’t want us to know it.

The most naive might have thought that parliamentarians would be indignant about the composition of such a panel of business leaders who are supposed to think about the future of Belgium. On the contrary, they are all very enthusiastic, if not asking for more. This pact is only  » the starting point for the realization of these urgent investments « , organized at a transnational level and with relays in each country. It is interesting to note that very quickly after the signing of this Pact, but also the creation of an ASBL, Mandat climatique, which we will see acts as a grey eminence, leaders appear whose spontaneous character is doubtful[note]. The young Swedish woman Greta Thunberg launched a strike for the climate that would quickly be emulated in Europe, including Anuna De Wever and her friend Kyra Gantois, who launched the Youth for Climate movement, starting in July 2018. What is less known is that it is the start-up We Don’t Have Time that has  » orchestrated its media success. Indeed, the first photos of Greta Thunberg that circulated on the internet were taken by Mårten Thorslund, marketing and sustainability manager of We Don’t Have Time (…) tech start-up that intends to use the power of social networks to hold leaders and companies accountable for climate change « [note]. In Belgium, the organization Mandat climatique will play this role of  » making leaders and companies accountable  » by setting up real advertising campaigns, such as Sign for my future, which will promote its flagship product: the « climate emergency ».

Lhe climate, more political than ever

Youth for climate muse Anuna De Wever, who « does not believe in the political system  » and for whom  » the environment is apolitical and concerns everyone »[note]She loses her verve and her criticism when she takes the microphone in front of an audience of business leaders at the inauguration of Sign for my future on February 5, an initiative ratified by many multinationals such as BNP Paribas, Unilever, Bpost, Google, Colruyt, business leaders, NGOs and all the Belgian press groups owned by the largest fortunes…

Sign for my future wants to be « without any political color or commercial objective, neutral and different  » (JT RTL, 05/02/19).  » No commercial purpose « Even if Marc Dubois, administrator of the Spadel group (Spa, Bru, Devin…), will say this day of launching of the campaign: « In sustainable development, there are the three P’s, one of the P’s is profit, next to planand and people, so I have no problem talking about profit in a sustainable development framework, no problem with that « . It is obvious: no sustainable development without the P of profits, the other two (« people and planet ») being there only as a decoration-alibi.

Macron’s tendency to refuse to be of the right or the left is part of a modernity that wants to blur the lines, claims to be without ideology, apolitical, while maintaining that one can be a billionaire and save the climate. The melting pot of « Sign for my future » is proof of this, with the ambiguity of the « climate fight » slogan contributing to this confusion. It is necessary to reread these words which date from 1983 and could be written today, everything is said there:  » The alarmist campaigns about the planet’s resources and the poisoning of nature by industry certainly do not herald a plan by capitalist circles to stop growth. The opposite is true. Capitalism is now entering a phase where it will be forced to develop a set of new techniques for the production of energy, the extraction of minerals, the recycling of waste, etc., and to transform into commodities a part of the natural elements necessary for life. All this heralds a period of intensified research and technological upheaval that will require huge investments. Scientific data and ecological awareness are used and manipulated to construct terrorist myths whose function is to make people accept as absolute imperatives the efforts and sacrifices that will be indispensable for the fulfillment of the new cycle of capitalist accumulation that is coming. « [note].

If the media got carried away,  » from the Washington Post to the New York Times « The only reason why the media have been able to broadcast a message to save the climate posted on Facebook by a young unknown woman is that it does not carry any clear charge against the capitalist system and its principle of unlimited accumulation. As the sociologist Alain Accardo puts it,  » the generalized apology of « openness » and « dialogue » in all directions ignores the fact that the only dialogue that is well perceived in the system is the one that takes place between variants of a even and that the only audacities welcomed are those that come under the heading of ritual sacrilege and the passing excesses of fashion « [note]To believe that such a contestation could provoke a media tipping point was an ignorance of the role of the mass media in a capitalist system, which has been participating for decades in the teaching of ignorance. This Saturday, February 9, Anuna De Wever was on the cover of Le Soir, with a double-page spread inside. It is notably at BeCentral that she received the journalists of the daily newspaper for the interview. BeCentral is the new « digital campus », created and supported by 40 entrepreneurs, to  » fill the digital skills gap and help accelerate the digital transformation in Belgium « . Among its founders, notably: Bart Becks, CEO of Angel.me, a platform for investing in startups, promoting the tax-shelter; Karen Boers, co-founder and director of Startups.be; Chris Burggraeve, former commercial director of AB Inbev, who recently invested in greenRush, the largest online marketplace for the legal sale of cannabis; Herman Derache, director of Sirris, a company that focuses on business and technology strategy for companies; Pascal Van Damme, who works for Dell; Peter Hinssen, CEO of Nexxworks, which is a  » community of thought leaders that helps companies thrive in the age of disruption « ; etc[note].

Whether the leaders of these climate movements are victims or willing protagonists is not the most important thing, if we remember that their  » ritual sacrileges and temporary outrages  » are undoubtedly the result of a little-known communication strategy of the government, called astroturfing. This one  » is carried out through a variety of communication means (Web, printed documents, creation of a false interest group, fraudulent solicitation of support for a cause, etc.) that imply that they are of citizen origin and/or that they defend the interests of citizens. Rather, they are the work of another actor, keeping his real identity secret and having his own agenda not publicly admitted. Based on misrepresentation, astroturfing is part of communication strategies carried out daily in the public space, whether they are related to public relations, marketing communication and/or social advertising practices, among others « [note]. This is a modernization of the techniques that Edward Bernays, the father of « public relations », initiated at the beginning of the 20th century.

We were therefore a little hasty when we saw the « state of climate emergency » as a mobilizing concept. Indeed, this permanent « crisis management » has generated a state of perennial anxiety (« JI’m 17 years old and I’m guided by the fear of climate change « , 08/02/19, Le Soir;  » The fear of the climate guides me « , Le Soir, 9–10/02/19) facilitating the citizen’s receptivity to the messages created by climate propaganda agencies.

The urgency of some was not the urgency of others, and the legitimate urgency of a large part of the population in the face of climate disaster paradoxically constituted an opportunity to associate the need for speed, inherent in danger and fear, with the employers’ project of technological transition. « For almost 40 years now, we have been told by the voice of the oracles that time is running out, that we have only 10 years left to change course, to face this radically new challenge, « magnificent but formidable », etc. (in 1992, 1,600 scientists, including 102 Nobel Prize winners, signed a « warning to humanity » stating that « there are only one or two decades left before that we lose all chance of escaping the threats that lie ahead and that the future prospects of humanity are drastically reduced »). One could make fun of a state of emergency established with so little haste, but the explanation is quite simple. It was only necessary that, once a threshold had been crossed in the attacks on natural balances, known as « negative externalities », capitalist management learned to recognize the possible positivity of these and came to envisage, through the only « awareness » that can be attributed to catastrophist experts, a source of perpetual profitability, of which all that remained was to convince the principals and shareholders « [note].

Under the argument of climate change, the heist of the century is being prepared, organizing a massive transfer of public funds to the private sector. Sign for my future, together with the employers’ federations, is demanding, for example, an « investment plan » to come into effect by 2022 at the latest and a « climate law » to adapt the legislative framework for increasing profits. The signatories’ request is addressed to the whole political world. « The goal is to broaden the audience but also to show that the climate has no political color », explains Koen Verwee, who initiated this text and is also CEO of De Persgroep.[note]one of the major Belgian press groups, owned by the Van Thillo family, the 18th largest Belgian fortune (€1,066,410,000). It is almost a copy and paste of the employers’ demands found in the National Pact for Strategic Investments or in the documents of the European Commission. In this Pact, we read:  » If we do nothing today, we will miss out on tens of billions of euros of prosperity by 2030. If today this is unfortunate, tomorrow it will be a serious problem. We urgently need this additional growth and prosperity. Belgium is indeed facing a significant aging of the population. This means that fewer and fewer workers will be contributing to prosperity while we will need more and more money to pay for rising pension and health care costs. So we need to make sure we accelerate growth and create more prosperity. If we stay the course of prosperity, we will increase the means available to meet these costs. With greater prosperity, we can also continue to invest in education, research, development, mobility and the technologies of tomorrow. And that is how we will also preserve growth and prosperity for future generations and make Belgium a leader in Europe in all areas. « Growth, prosperity. Amen.

Strikes of destruction mass destruction

The targeted shootings then become multiple and varied, all the more impactful as they are not perceived for what they are (offensives of the economic world), but for solutions resulting from a political consideration of people’s concerns; this confusion itself resulting from a massive propaganda of the mass media which plays the role of prepare the opinion, the public channel RTBF excelling in this function. Thus, in a context of « digital transition », the Parliament voted in the middle of the summer the deployment of smart meters in Brussels; simultaneously, the Fremault cabinet was refining its strategy for spreading 5G throughout the Brussels territory, the texts of the draft ordinances and decrees having been approved in first reading a few weeks later by the government; on the teaching side, the SETT, School Education Transformation Technology, planned the « 1st Digital School Event » for April 2019.

Do you have reservations about digital in schools?  » Education must get involved and take the plunge. From basic to higher education, the school has the mission to shape the youth of today for the world of tomorrow (…) In many ways, the digital transition is already underway: you and all of your teachers are the key players . The French Community will even issue a circular (6960): « Two days to discover technologies adapted to the world of teaching « , which it will include in the catalog of teacher training. Interesting when you know that SETT will welcome as exhibitors Microsoft, Ricoh, Hewlett-Packard, Technobel (Competence Center specialized in digital), etc. On Monday 4 February 2019, the same « decision-makers » were present at the « FEB Electoral Forum », with Béatrice Delvaux (Le Soir) as master of ceremonies, accompanied by Christophe Deborsu (RTL), Indra Dewitte (Het Belang van Limburg), Ivan De Vadder (VRT) and Pieter Timmermans (FEB); since January, Good Planet, sponsored by Axa, Ikea, Deloitte, Delhaize, etc., has been proposing to  » tocollect the voice of young people on the climate  » (see the photo below, the forces of order protecting the bosses, at the entrance of the Beaux-Arts).

But it is the creation of The Climate Mandate VZW on July 13, 2018, which formalizes the employer’s concern to accelerate the pace by the establishment of an ad hoc organization, composed of advertising agencies and the voluntary sector. This one will officially have  » The aim is to carry out actions to encourage political leaders to take all necessary measures to ensure that the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement are met in Belgium. These objectives should limit global warming to a maximum of 2°C « . If this wish is in itself pious, being unfortunately too late to not exceed the 2°C[note], the only origin of the members of the ASBL lets suppose much less noble interests. They are: Guy Weyns, Tomas Wyns, Piet Colruyt, Annemie Goegebuer, Piet Wulleman, Sylvie Irzi, Davy Caluwaerts, Antoine Lebrun, Céline Tellier, Mathias Bienstman, David Leyssens, Frank Van Swalm[note]. If most of these names do not tell you much, except for Colruyt, the profiles draw three poles that trace the real aims of the ASBL.

1. The employer’s pole:

-Guy Weyns, formerly of Morgan Stanley, is the current director of Paradigm Capital Investments[note]

- Piet Colruyt is in the management of the Colruyt Group, cousin of the big boss Jef Colruyt. If the businessman seized the money that could be made on the misery he contributes to while providing some palliative care (called in the novlangue « social entrepreneurship »), Piet became aware a few years ago of the financial niche that the environment represented and that he absolutely could not miss the boat:  » A company that wants to contribute to sustainable development has every interest in ensuring that its project is profitable in order to ensure its sustainability. « [note]

2. The media/communicationsagencydivision:

- Koen Verwee is director of « news media » at Persgroep Publishing, a press group that publishes, among other things, L’Echo, De Tijd, Het Laatste Nieuws and De Morgen, and, in case anyone has forgotten, is owned by the Van Thillo family, Belgium’s 18th largest fortune. Koen Verwee was previously Vice President at UPC Cablecom, a Swiss operator (TV, internet, telephone) serving more than 1.2 million customers; he also held the same position at Telenet[note].

- Annemie Goegebuer has worked in ministerial offices after the cultural scene in Milan, Geneva, Paris, to land at the advertising agency Publicis where she is « strategic director ». At Publicis, she was responsible for communications for BNP Paribas Fortis, Orange, Hello bank and Carrefour[note].

- Piet Wulleman ishead of strategy at the advertising agency Guillaume Duval, a member of the Publicis group. He defines himself as a « consumer psychologist » with over 20 years of experience. His passion is  » helping creative teams find deep consumer insights to turn them into powerful communications « [note].

- Sylvie Irzi is a management director at Mediabrands, an advertising agency, after having held senior positions at Microsoft[note].

- Davy Caluwaerts, is the director of Publicis Emil Benelux[note].

- David Leyssens is responsible for the operational management of The Shift, a kind of organization that brings together actors, organizes trainings, notably on the theme of ecological transition[note].

3. The NGO/association pole: a sort of relay between the employer pole and the citizen:

- Céline Tellier is deputy secretary general of the Federation of environmental associations Inter-Environnement Wallonie.

-Mathias Bienstman, an economist, is policy director at Bond Beter Leefmilieu, a federation of more than 140 Flemish environmental associations.

- Antoine Lebrun is the director of WWF Belgium, the famous…[note]

The proposals of this capitalist caste

The pole that leads the dance is obviously the first one, which requires the services of a propaganda organ (pole 2) and a relay to « civil society » (pole 3) which will calm the doubts and worries of some. As our friend Demosthenes says in his recent book, this universe of young capitalists is characterized by four propositions of its own:

1. the first, political, would be:« We are the masters because we are the bearers of the spirit (knowing that the true masters are those who know how to bring the « slaves » to serve causes that surpass them) »;

2. then, about this art of governing by hiding:« We have the duty to hide our objectives (since we want them to succeed) »;

3. the third, neo-Malthusian, concerns the future of the world:« The survival of the world is at stake in the short term »;

4. the last and fourth, well described by the same author, refers to Mandeville’s fable of the bees, whose principle could be summarized as follows:« Private vices make public virtue and Only capitalism, because it is amoral, can save the world »[note].

The employers’ side of the Climate Mandate organization in fact condenses these four proposals. Didn’t Piet Colruyt, mentor of the ASBL, participate in the collective work  » All for the social 3.0. Will entrepreneurs save the planet? « He is therefore the bearer of the knowledge and spirit that the masses do not have (point 1); however, it is known that the shareholder of Colruyt has invested in multiple companies and start-ups related to the energy transition and renewable energies, but he hides his objectives under philanthropic and ecological values[note] (point 2); Climate Mandate is based on the primary principle of enforcing the objectives of  » limiting global warming to a maximum of 2°C  » and, on the social level, Piet Colruyt himself was won over by social entrepreneurship when he read How to change the world. Social entrepreneurs and the power of new ideas. A savior, that is (point 3); finally, Piet Colruyt and his cronies urge politicians to take measures to « save the planet », but do everything possible to prevent these same politicians from taking measures so that families like his cannot amass indecent fortunes and occupy the second position in the kingdom in terms of wealth, with 2 billion 417 million euros.

The counter-insurgency

 » The bourgeoisie working for itself alone, exploiting for itself alone, massacring for itself alone, it is necessary for it to make believe that it works, that it exploits, that it massacres for the final good of humanity. It has to look like it’s right. And she herself must believe it « Paul Nizan, Les chiens de garde, 1932.

The « climate » protest, so far still harmless to the established order, should not turn into an offensive movement that would target those who are structurally responsible for the ongoing disaster, namely the big investors and other multinationals, and those who serve them, i.e. the politicians. Sign up for my future consecrates this first counter-« insurrectionary » act, anticipating an unexpected reversal unfavorable to capitalism. As we have seen, the employers, the marketing agencies and the press groups were already working together to perpetuate the plundering of the planet and to subjugate a majority of the beings. In the National Pact for Strategic Investments, Belgium’s top bosses clearly stated that  » Belgium urgently needs investments. That is why we hope that this report will result in a clear pact. We want to implement it by 2030 (…) It is clear that this Compact is only the starting point for making these urgent investments. The Strategic Committee wants to prepare the Belgian economy and social model for the next decade. The Committee therefore expects its opinions to be translated into concrete action quickly. To achieve this goal, we need the cooperation of companies, citizens and authorities. « So you have understood that if they have the collaboration of themselves (the companies) and the politicians, they absolutely need ours, that of the people. The bosses who sign this pact are indeed aware of the growing reluctance of a part of the population to the technological invasion of our lives. They therefore know that it will take « pedagogical » work, i.e. effective propaganda, to get the people to accept a transition that the employers are so keen to see, since it represents the ultimate metamorphosis of capitalism (which they call « the new world »). disruption  ») that will allow it to ensure profits for the next few decades, and to perpetuate the climate disorder due to the destruction of ecosystems.

 » A major obstacle to new installations is the opposition of a certain part of the public. It is therefore necessary to continue to inform and educate the public in an objective manner, and to dispassionate the debate as much as possible « . Fremault Committee on the health impact of electromagnetic waves.

The demonstrations of the last few months thus imply the implementation of a com plan aimed at defusing any truly revolutionary popular ferment, the war reference speaking for itself:  » The big guns were brought out: the marketers and ad agencies went full throttle to make the message as audible as possible. The press groups have offered the equivalent of 5 million advertising spaces  » (Le Soir, 06/02/19).

Advertising agencies making the message audible, i.e. disguising the reality to seduce the citizen-consumer and let him believe that it changes while it continues, and release of funds to ensure the promotion… We are really in a media war. The power in place operates strikes at various levels, which are mediated in reality by the press organs at their service. We know that the one that took place on the ground to extinguish the beginning of the Yellow Vests insurrection had used arbitrary practices worthy of the dictatorships that Belgium and Europe like to point to[note], such as arrests and searches based on posts on Facebook. If the people were not to be fooled and the war waged by the advertising belligerents and the big press groups were to be lost, we know that the authorities will move on to the second stage, the violent phase where they will physically repress the revolt. He is not thinking about it yet, assured for the moment that advertisements always bring in customers.

The big joke

In addition to all this, the demands of groups like Act for Climate Justice, promising to stop their disobedient actions on the condition that they are assured that « our » ministers will support and do everything in their power to pass this « special climate law » in parliament, are somewhat anachronistic. It is indeed too late to ask criminals to repent and change their ways completely. We must not exhort the guilty, but in every possible way increase the power of the people. The rest is a waste of time. Asking ministers to make decisions replicates the infantile, outdated act of embodying decision making in elected political bodies for decades. To urge them to do so is to deprive us of our freedom, to adhere to power rather than overthrow it, to admit defeat before fighting, is to tacitly accept the existing order proper to those compromises of which the middle class is accustomed, which consists of fighting within the system and not against the system, unlike the « yellow vests » who refuse to play the game of power.

This wasted valuable time. And to do that again today is to prepare for our disappointments, in 1, 3, 5 years. The people and only the people have the decision. Ministers and other rulers have never been at the service of the people, let alone of nature, and asking them to be what they are not can only lead us to a serious impasse, the consequences of which we will bitterly regret. We must not let ourselves be fooled and seize the historic opportunity to overthrow capitalism, to fight not « for the climate », but against capitalism and for life.  » What too many citizens have not yet understood is that the same historical evolution that led to the « globalization » of the liberal economy is also creating the conditions for overcoming this system. And far from the human race being condemned to the endless reign of capitalism, we can say on the contrary that never has the utopia of a liberated, fraternal and just humanity met in reality such solid material and symbolic bases. Still douIs it necessary to fight to take advantage of it, and therefore to fight also against the false pretenses and the decoys that the system implements to abuse, slow down and divert the struggles. The political function of social democracy today is precisely to recover for the benefit of the system the criticisms of which it is the object « [note].  » What characterizes today’s capitalism, the capitalism of « globalization » and « post-modernity », of « openness » and « mobility », of « innovation » and « flexibility », is that it has established as a fundamental operating principle the ability to accept, and even to take the initiative, of all possible and imaginable changes, as long as they leave the essential intact, namely the possibility of accumulating maximum profit in the shortest possible time for the benefit of the large investors « [note].

 » Signe for the future »… of profits

 » This transition is going to put at risk entire sectors of your economy, the most strategic ones. It will precipitate into distress hordes of redundant workers who will soon provoke social unrest and repudiate your democratic gains (…) The energy and digital transition will devastate the environment in unprecedented proportions. In the end, your efforts and the toll on the Earth to build this new civilization are so great that it is not even certain that you will succeed (…)your power has blinded you to such an extent that you no longer know the humility of the sailor at the sight of the ocean, nor that of the mountaineer at the foot of the mountain. But the elements will always have the last word ! »

Guillaume Pitron, The hidden face of the energy and digital transition.

Joining Mandat Climatique or the com campaign Sign for my future that the association has launched, is tacitly endorsing the position of advertising agencies and multinationals as credible actors in this society. If some signatories from civil society defend themselves from committing their organization when they sign as ambassadors, it is ambiguous, to say the least, when we see that the signatures of Arnaud Zacharie (CNCD), Céline Tellier (IEW) or, among others, of Olivier Marquet (UNICEF) sit next to those of Axa, BECI, BNP Paribas, Fortis, Cargill, Carrefour, Colruyt, Decathlon, DEME, EDF Luminus, Facebook, Groupe Rossel, Ikea Belgium, JC Decaux, KBC, PUBLICIS[note]…

We cannot hope to change things by joining forces with the climate murderers. Without this, those who (de)make this world will continue, well assured that  » if the young people have taken to the streets, it is not with the will to create chaos or to overturn the tables « [note].

Alexandre Penasse

If this new year will undoubtedly see the vote of new laws which will allow to come to seek us even more easily at home for incitement to insurrection because of certain remarks which we will have dared, finally released from the burden of the fear, it is not serious, we will continue to say them. Let them come, their repression will have less impact the more we are numerous.

« Those who do not move do not feel their chain« right? The free media will be indispensable to this movement, parts of the revolutionary machinery, tools of conjunction between consciousness and action. The French popular uprising (which is expected in Belgium) is a terrible opportunity to grasp the fundamental importance of the free press in real social change, the contrast between reality and the reports of BFMTV, France 2 or TF1 in France, of RTL-TVi or RTBF in Belgium, underlining by itself the conformist and anti-subversive role of the media in the service of the maintenance of order and therefore of power. Our last article « Flagrant censorship at La Libre », taken from the September issue of Kairos, offering the most beautiful expression of the role of the media: above all, do not designate enemies and risk provoking revolt!

In Belgium, Kairos remains the only newspaper that holds an anti-productivist, radical, social ecological editorial line, taking into account the traditional struggles of the left but also underlining their sometimes deep contradictions: the redistribution of wealth cannot be done without thinking about the reduction of production and consumption; « purchasing power » is a demobilizing slogan that does not take into account the social and ecological destruction on which this « power » rests; renewable energies will not replace oil, a chimerical refrain that always postpones real change; liberalism produces its effects as much in the economic as in the cultural fields and defending the latter without seeing that they have the same clothes as the former is a nonsense and a powerful artifice. Basically, it’s about finally deciding what the people want and not basing our needs on those dictated by the advertising industry.

We love life, but we suffer from those beings torn out of existence because of our way of life, whether it is for the defense of the jobs of the FN of Herstal or the various gadgets filled with rare earths that our « purchasing power » will allow us to afford; we appreciate nature more than anything else, because we are nothing without it, and we suffer when a tree falls for an absurd real estate project or a piece of furniture from Ikea. This suffering is inscribed in commercial exchanges, in smartphones, tablets, connected objects, etc. It’s not about making people feel guilty, it’s about saying, and recognizing that we can’t do this anymore. If guilt ensues, it is only an effect that can be overcome.

In particular, 2019 will be a fundamental year for opposing 5G, smart meters and all the crap that technocratic power wants to impose on us. As such, we requested an interview with Minister Fremault about 5G technology. We want to prove that we should expect nothing from these zealous political servants of capital. After more than 8 emails, the minister’s office has just accepted that we ask our questions by email. We do not want and ask for a filmed interview.

Free information will be essential. It will be necessary to link the class struggle, the fight of the yellow vests, to antiproductivism. One will not go without the other.

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With a law passed in June 2015, the Belgian parliament ratified the choice of the Michel government and its Energy Minister, Marie-Christine Marghem, to extend the operating life of the two oldest reactors at the Doel atomic power plant, known as D1 and D2[note].

No doubt these authorities imagined passing this decision in the same way as the extensions of 2003 and 2012, that is, without consulting the citizens and ignoring international conventions and the law’s requirements. This was without counting on the annulment appeal filed by the associations Inter-Environnement Wallonie (IEW) and Bond Beter Leefmilieu Vlaanderen (BBL) before the Constitutional Court, in January 2016. The appeal alleges violation of the Espoo and Aarhus Conventions as well as of several European directives, the Habitats Directive, the Birds Directive and the EIA Directive[note]. It is revealing of the functioning and practices of the state that, at the time the Aarhus Convention was transcribed into Belgian law in December 2002, the government was preparing the first law on the extension of atomic reactors, already without any consultation with the population.

In June 2017, a year and a half after the appeal was filed, the Constitutional Court found it necessary to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) about the interpretation of these conventions and European directives, which had the first effect of extending the duration of the proceedings by 2 years. In fact, 3 and a half years after the appeal was filed, it was only on July 29, 2019 that the CJEU issued its ruling, which is summarized in the title of its press release as follows[note] :  » The Belgian law extending the life of the Doel 1 and Doel 2 nuclear power plants was passed without the required prior environmental assessments « ; with the subtitle:  » However, it is not excluded to temporarily maintain the effects of the extension law in case of a serious and real threat of disruption of the electricity supply « .

Clearly, by extending the life of the two reactors without first conducting an environmental impact study, Minister Marghem and the Michel government have violated the law, which more than any other they must know and respect. On the other hand, the only reason that could have or could today justify keeping these reactors in operation would be a  » serious and real threat of disruption of the electricity supply « . Yet all the evidence available in 2015 showed (and still shows) the uselessness of these reactors in terms of security of electricity supply:

- The Commission de Régulation de l’Électricité et du Gaz (CREG) had issued a negative opinion on the extension. This opinion had been ignored by Minister Marghem who also argued that the CREG should deal with prices and not volumes…[note]

- During the period 2012–2018, the average utilization rate of Belgian atomic reactors fell to about 70% instead of the 90–95% considered normal for this type of reactor, which is equivalent to the loss of a quarter of the nuclear fleet, i.e. the disappearance of a large reactor (1GW) plus that of a small reactor (0.5GW)[note]. Reactors D1 and D2 have a lot to do with it. Indeed, in April 2018, the D1 reactor entered the annals of national history by recording the first leak in the primary circuit of a Belgian reactor, which led to a 10-month shutdown, along with D2, its twin brother. These two reactors are therefore anything but a safe source of electricity, but above all these events have shown that it is possible to do without them, without the slightest blackout ensuing.

- 4 years after their extension, the safety upgrade works foreseen in the November 2015 agreement between the Belgian State and Electrabel, estimated at an amount of €700 million, have still not been completed. This work is finally expected to begin in late 2019 and will require a further shutdown of at least 7 months. Not to mention that nothing has been budgeted or planned to bring them into compliance with the new anti-seismic standard issued in 2014 by the Western European Nuclear Safety Association (WENRA)[note] — and the convention — under the pretext put forward by the AFCN that it  » has not been transposed into binding legislation « .[note].

From these elements, it is clear that it would be inconsistent and irresponsible to consider that such obsolete and unreliable reactors are essential to ensure the security of Belgium’s electricity supply, as Energy Minister Marghem has repeated throughout her mandate.

What is striking in the discourse of the authorities, but also in the highly technical considerations of the Courts of Justice concerned, is the total absence of consideration of the risk that these obsolete reactors pose to the Belgian and European populations. The older these reactors get, and the longer their expected life span of 30 years, the more dangerous they are and the greater the probability of a major atomic accident[note]. The priority is clearly that of Engie-Electrabel and its shareholders, at the expense of the Belgian citizens who, after having ensured large profits to the above-mentioned, must assume the risk of an atomic disaster and almost all the financial consequences that would result.

All that remains is for the Constitutional Court to make up for lost time and demonstrate its independence by confirming that the shutdown of the D1 and D2 reactors does not constitute a  » serious and real threat of disruption of the electricity supply « , ordering them to be stopped until an environmental impact study has been carried out.

Contact : Frédéric BlondiauFrancis Leboutte — info@findunucleaire.be

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