Jean Ziegler: Brussels is unspeakably hypocritical

Vice-president of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, Jean Ziegler has just published Destruction massive. Géopolitique de la faim (“Mass Destruction: the Geopolitics of Hunger” published in France by Seuil). In this essay, the Swiss socialogist recounts his experience as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008, and analyses the reasons for the current global death toll from malnutrition, which kills 36 million people every year.

Why are people still dying of hunger?

There are five major reasons: first and foremost, financial speculation in in raw materials for food, which have resulted in soaring prices in recent years and made it almost impossible for aid agencies like the World Food Programme (WFP) to fulfill the needs of malnourished populations. Then we have bio-fuels, which have diverted farmland and crops from food production. Thirdly, there is the problem of external debt, which has a stranglehold over the poorest countries and prevents them from investing in subsistence agriculture. Then there is the dumping of agricultural surpluses, which has resulted in the sale of fruit and poultry from countries like France, Greece, Portugal and Germany etc. on markets in places like Dakar and Cotonou, at a third or half the cost of locally produced African products. Finally, there is the monopolisation of land by investment funds and major multinationals, who drive out local farmers to cultivate products that are exclusively destined for western markets.

Is the EU responsible?

It is 100% responsible for agricultural dumping, which is actively supported by France. In 2005, on the occasion of WTO talks in Hong Kong, the Secretary General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, proposed to progressively eliminate export subsidies over a five-year period. And this proposal met with vigorous opposition from France, which is in favour of sustaining export subsidies, notably because of the political influence of agricultural chambers of commerce. And so the dumping has continued in Africa, which is under populated even though it has an extraordinary peasant class… but this class has been decimated because farmers are unable to sell their produce.

Has the EU played a role in the drive to combat hunger worldwide?

The current European Commission is made up of fully fledged mercenaries in the service of monster corporations in the agri-food business. The power of lobbies in Brussels is incredible. If they wanted to do it they could put an end to agricultural dumping tomorrow.

Brussels is also unspeakably hypocritical: while Europe presents itself as a supporter of global justice and development, the 87 countries of the ACP [the African, Carribean and Pacific Group of states, most of which are former European colonies] are maintained in unacceptably inferior conditions.

The fact that we oblige them to accept investment deals that demand equal terms for local companies and western multinationals beggars belief.

The European Commission says to these countries: "Are you contesting our policy of agricultural and export subsidies? Okay, we are going to reconsider our development aid operations." It is worse than colonialism: it is external facism. Human rights stop at the borders of Europe; thereafter we are faced with a cannibal order that privileges violence and the law of the jungle.

What are the causes of the current crisis in Europe?

The crisis has been caused by enormous debts, that have accumulated in the course of two successive bank bailouts. First in 2008 and now in 2011, governments have recapitalised banks with public money that they do not have, and so they have been obliged to take out loans and cut their budgets. As a result, the purchasing power of workers has declined, and so too has the quality of social services. And the very same states are incapable of imposing risk management standards on their banks! Nothing has changed in this field since 2008.

What are the solutions?

Two things will have to be done: first the banks will have to be dismantled, so that there is a clear separation between "investment" and "deposit" branches with a ban on a individual institutions being involved in both sectors. Then the banks will have to be nationalised. This is not an ideological issue – after all, De Gaulle nationalised banking in the postwar years. Today, the inability of western political leaders to impose decisions and rulings on banking oligarchies in the name of the public good is unbelievable.

What do you think of the “indignados” movment?

We are close to a rebellion of consciousness: on Saturday [15 October], the “indignados” all over the world are going to demonstrate. At the same time it is hard to say where all of this is leading. Revolutionary processes in history are always highly mysterious, and we are unable to anticipate them. As the Spanish poet Antonio Machado put it, "Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar." Collective consciousness knows what it does not want: we do not want a world ruled by a cannibal order, where human beings are directly responsible for the massacre through starvation of 35 million people a year. And we should not be afraid of not being able to make an impact: democracy and mulitlateral diplomacy are not powerless.

Human rights, press freedom, the mobilisation of the people, elections, general strikes… We have weapons that we can use to fight the mechanisms of hunger. The markets are subject ot the rule of law: it is possible to introduce an outright ban on speculation in foodstuffs overnight. We have the power to impose prohibitive taxes on imported bio-ethanol. European agriculture ministers can demand an end to agricultural dumping. The finance ministers in countries that are members of the IMF could effectively vote to write off loans to the most indebted countries.

photo and interview by Gian Paolo Accardo