[fse-esf] Petition presented to the president of the Hungarian NA

Wed Feb 15 14:48:30 CET 2006

   A socialist cannot be a liberal - socialist president of the Hungarian 
National Assembly has told on wednesday, by receiving a four members 
delegation of the the Hungarian Social Forum Coordination Working 
Group, presenting a three pages Petition on Human and Social Rights. 
(See below!) I agree with the immediate demands of the HSF about the 
disminishment of Poverty, particularly of extreme poverty in Hungary - 
has added Ms Katalin Szili. Petition by the title "We want Job, Peace 
secure existence!" has been defined by President Szili a "working 
paper document" overpassing the political parties' limitations, focusing 
on the basic problems of the Hungarian Society. Ms Szili has also told, 
that at her opinion "a totally different social system had to be 
established" at the service of the Society. She has urged the 
continuation of the dialogue with us, by asking to share with her our 
experiences of the forthcoming European Social Forum in Athens, and 
the positions of the european social movement about the future and 
the transformation of the neoliberal Europe into a Social Europe of 
Peoples.+++

We want Work, Peace, Secure Existence!
                                Petition for human and social rights

In Hungary, more than 3 million people are living below the social 
minimum, daily struggling for survival. More than 1 million of them are 
getting continuously ever poorer into deep misery. The number of acts 
of distraining is between 15 to 20.000. There are families who are 
evicted from their flats, because, through no falt of their, they can not 
pay the rent, and the bills, over and above with the pretext, they have 
no home, their children are taken away from them. It is estimated that 
the number of undernourished people is between 150-200.000 
amongst them there are many children who don’t get the 2.700 
calories daily. There are huge number of people who live in total 
insecurity of existence, in humiliating conditions of exclusion, valuable 
human lifes are wasted. While one third of the society is getting ever 
poorer, a handful of financial people are getting ever richer to an 
unimaginable extent. The split of the society to poor and rich, questions 
not only social justice, but  the nature of human freedoms and 
democracy. Our social problems are getting worse and worse 
because, – regardless of their political affiliation, non of the former 
governments have sold them. We, the undersigners of this petition, we 
are of the opinion that the causes of the existence problems are firstly 
the lack of income, in other cases the extremely low incomes compared 
to the cost of life, and the health condition of the population. The lack 
of income is due to the unemployment, the lack of sufficient income to 
the wages and social assistances cut down the social minimum level. 
With the changing of the social system in Hungary in 1990, 1,5 million 
employments have been suppressed and not replaced during the 15 
years passed since. Employment policies are subordinated to the 
interest of market economy in spite of the fact that material existence, 
as main economical factor of life, is a human right category and not a 
market one. Worthy living conditions can only be ensured by work 
providing worthy wages. We have to create such conditions in which 
people are capable to earn their own living. In our country the situation 
is the contrary: employment has decreased continuously, privatisation 
is being continued accompanied with the decrease of employment, 
illegal work without contract is continuously increasing, employees are 
materially, morally and physically more and more exploited. At the same 
time, social cohesion is getting ever weaker. The growth of economy is 
not accompanied by social progress, improvement of the society, with 
the raising of the cultural level of society and general human 
development.
This situation can be changed only by the transformation of the present 
distribution system, by the shifting of material resources in favour of 
the world of work, otherwise the material base of equal chances can 
not be established. The present economic and financial policies do not 
serve the increase of employment and the decrease of poverty. The 
main aim of the national budget is the introduction of the Euro in 
Hungary and a  policy in conformity to achieve it. The demand of the 
European Union and the European Central Bank is to carry out 
restrictive financial policies and stimulates financial solutions unconform 
with the necessity to increase employment. With the accession of 
Hungary to the European Union, more and more national jurisdictions 
are beeing transferred on EU levels, escaping from the possibility of 
democratic national control. Socially excluded stratas and working 
classes can not have any influence in EU governance and control, they 
can not enforce their interests and rights for secure existence. Two 
years after the accession of Hungary to the EU, we can see, that 
financial circles and different political interest groups refer to the 
necessity of the introduction of Euro and the respect of the Stability 
Pact in order to hinder the solving of existence problems in Hungary. 
This problem becomes more serious because the European 
Constitutional Treaty has been ratifyed by the Hungarian National 
Assembly without the approval of the electorate, in violation of the 
right of the citizens to the free expression of their opinion. 
In order to stop the deterioration of the social situation, it is necessary 
to change the existing conditions. Human and social rights must be 
entirely fulfilled in Hungary and the European Union both. We demand 
that people in need should be provided with work and safe material 
existence, workers should be provided with honourable living 
conditions, people should be granted of peaceful and safe living 
conditions.
Our immediate demands:

1.	Immediate mesures must be taken to begin for eliminating 
the extreme poverty and to stop the  further impoverishment.
2.	Homelessness must be done away,  its main cause has to be 
removed: the evictions must be stopped! We demand the “Zero 
Eviction”: nobody could be dislodged, no matter what the reasons are, 
unless accommodation should be provided for them during the period 
of their social needs. The State must take care of all those people who 
have already been put on the streets. The right to have a proper home 
must be amended to the constitution, as part of the Human Right to 
Life. 
3.	Undernourishment must be done away with! Food must be 
provided to all those, who are not able to get proper nourishing. It 
must be organised that all those in need could get at least one hot 
meal per day.
4.	Without deferring any longer, social and material assistance 
should be provided to all those people, uncapable to ensure their own 
and their children’s simple existence!
5.	In Hungary must be forbidden the introduction of 65 hour 
long working week, permitted by the European Commission! At the 
same time it must be made possible that people above the pension 
age could work if they want and they are capable to work.
6.	The raising of the retirement age must be taken off from the 
agenda!
7.	In order to improve purchasing power, the social minimum 
and minimum wages must be raised sensibly.
8.	Immediate actions are needed to avoid the crisis of ever 
increasing social tensions caused by the problems of material survival, 
social injustice, inequality and discrimination, in order to avoid the 
putting in danger of the democratic rights of freedom!
9.	It must be finished the accumulation of capital financed from 
tax-payer’s money!
10.	Progressive taxation, just distribution of public burdens must 
be introduced by a system in which people with high incomes would 
pay 45-50%, and taxation of commodities which are consumed by low 
income-groups should be decreased!
11.	Trade unions and other interest organisations of the 
employees must gain back their rights, their rights at workplaces must 
be guaranteed entirely and those employers who violate employment 
laws, must be punished severly!
12.	The privatisation of public services, like health, education, 
culture and media, must be stopped!
13.	In order to decrease inequality, the poorest sections of 
society must be provided with material and background assistance in 
the field of education!
14.	It’s necessary to achieve an EU budget which helps the 
catching up of the newly joined countries and which would strengthen 
social cohesion in Hungary!
15.	We demand Public Cleanness and Morality!
16.	We demand public security!
17.	We want to have correct information about the real problems 
of our society: the problems of existence, health situation, housing, 
Peace, the evolution of the implementing of human and social rights. 
The media, first of all the public media, should transmit the interests, 
demands, and the opinions of the employees and of the excluded!

Our demands for middle-range:

1.	A European social minimum must be introduced!
2.	Contributions to be payed after the employed work force 
must be moderated!
3.	In order to increase employment, cooperative forms of 
production have to be stimulated, cooperatives and national industry 
must be provided with high priority state subsidy!
4.	In order to improve the health of the population, the 
healthcare system must be developed! Health institution and services 
must be owned exclusively by the state, the local governments, and 
the health employees. Health services must be equally accessible to 
everyone, all sick people should get health services of the same 
standards. Health services must be controlled by the health profession, 
legal experts in the field of health, and interest protecting 
organisations, the system must be compulsorily financed from 
mandatory contributions and taxes. In each country it must be based 
on unified risk taking, the principle of solidarity, and it must be 
guaranteed by the state!
5.	Social organisations must be provided with the necessary 
financial support in order to enable them to carry out their tasks! The 
rights of social an civil organisations must be extended to the 
codification and legislation of laws and the defining of guidelines of 
social policies. We urge the reform of the electoral and institutional 
system in order to realise social rights: civil forums, civilian veto.
6.	It must be enacted that gained social rights can not be 
withdrawn without the consent of the workers!
7.	Human and social rights for the Romas must be insured: 
equality in the field of politics, economics and culture! Roma 
settlements with inhuman conditions must be done away with!
8.	Necessary conditions have to be created in order to assure 
the physical and intellectual human development. (Sport, culture)

Our political and institutional aims:

1.	It is necessary to brake with the ultra liberal economical and 
social policies. Human and Social Rights have to be implemented in 
Hungary as well in Europe, to which Hungary belongs. It’s necessary to 
modify the system of distribution in order to entirely guarantee the 
right to life, to existence, to the equality of chances. A qualitatively 
different development is necessary, with the priority of the existence, 
employment, and the defense, re-establishment, enrichment of the 
natural environment.
2.	The Sovreignity of the People has to be extended to the 
european levels: the European Parliament must be invested of 
legislativ powers, Commission, European Council and Central Bank 
have to be put under democratic control. Traditional representative 
democracy has to be completed with participatory democracy 
institutions: european civilian control, civilian forums.
3.	In the frame of the European Citizenship, equality of rights 
must be guaranteed to all inhabitants of the Union. The Social Europe 
of Peoples must be based on the equality of rights of the Peoples. 
Members of National Minorities must enjoy individual and collective 
rights to the free use of their mother languages, free education on 
mother tongue, to national culture, autonomy, free movement and 
contacts with the mother-country and Europe.

Approved by the Co-ordinating Working Committee of the Hungarian 
Social Forum in December 2005.

We ask to the organisations and the individuals wishing to join this 
petition to send their name, profession or the name of the organisation 
they belong, the e-mail address or the phone number to the following 
address:
mszfkmb at freemail.hu 

Endre Simó

Text translated from the original Hungarian text, by Lajos Benczekovits

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