Today (26 January) sees the launch of The Future is Public: Global Manifesto for Public Services https://futureispublic.org/global-manifesto/. The Manifesto is supported by dozens of civil society organisations and actors including EPSU, and represents a rallying cry for public services providing a concrete alternative to the dominant neoliberal narrative that has failed to ensure a dignified life for all.
The Future is Public positions public services as the foundation of a fair and just society, implementing core values of solidarity, equality and human dignity. The Manifesto advances a series of ten principles for universal quality public services in the 21st century, and outlines how funding universal quality public services is possible. Hundreds of organisations across socio-economic justice and public services sectors, from education and health services, to care, energy, food, housing, water, transportation and social protection, are coming together to address the harmful effects of commercialising public services, to reclaim democratic public control, and to reimagine a truly equal and human rights-oriented economy that works for people and the planet. We demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.
The Manifesto is a timely illustration of global activism by civil society and trade unions for quality public services for all. It builds on the 2019 international conference in Amsterdam and the resulting book The Future is Public: Towards Democratic Ownership of Public Services, compiled by TNI (Transnational Institute). The book showcases examples of (re)municipalisation of public services as well as the creation of new public services, building on research identifying more than 1,400 successful (re)municipalisation cases involving more than 2,400 cities in 58 countries around the world.
The Manifesto remains open for signatures and is also available in French and Spanish.
Español: https://bit.ly/3XfDOTT
Français: http://bit.ly/3QHLBaR
See also the 2021 Global Manifesto for Public Services and Manifesto on Rebuilding the Social Organisation of Care.
For a previous article (June 2022)
For a summary article on the Santiago Declaration
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