A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

Chapter I
FROM ‘COMMON GOODS’
TO THE ‘COMMON GOOD OF HUMANITY’
FRANÇOIS HOUTART
All around the world there is deep unease caused by the growing divisions
in society, lack of respect for justice, youth unemployment, abuse
of power, destruction of nature. A new wave of social movements has
emerged. The Social Forums enabled their globalization. A collective social
consciousness is developing that things cannot go on like this. The
economic development model that we have, with its political, cultural
and psychological consequences, is at the origin of these imbalances.
But it is necessary to find solutions urgently. The time has come to put
forward new orientations and not just adaptations of the existing system.
To reflect on this and to bring together the forces for change has
become a top priority.
Alongside the Italian initiative for a referendum on water (one of the
‘common goods’), the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation organized a conference
entitled From ‘Common Goods’ to the ‘Common Good of Humanity’,
at Rome in April 2011. The aim was to reflect on the connections
be tween the two notions, i.e. ‘common goods’ and ‘Common Good of
Humanity’, in order to encourage thinking about the links between the
two notions and to integrate the demands and social struggles for a
change of society.
Why associate the notion of ‘common goods’
with the concept of ‘Common Good of Humanity’?
The defence of the ‘common goods’ is, these days, an important priority
for many social movements. The phrase includes both the indispensable
elements for life, such as water and seeds, as well as the ‘public services’
that are today being dismantled by neoliberal policies, both in the
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