- ATD Fourth World

Considering the great number of people who registered in this prospective European session on the theme of poverty, I wondered if it was still the consequences of 11 September, and I was a little bit worried because if it was the case, there would be a big risk that poverty would not be mainly motivated by the refusal of the condition led to the poor but by the fear which is expressed in the following question: "What is the relation between the increase of terrorist attacks in the world and poverty?", as about two decades ago some people wondered "what was the link between poverty and the deterioration of the environment ? ". We would have then remained in the big wave of fear towards the poor about whom Mr Geremek told us yesterday that he was crossing the centuries and that it led to confinement and hard labour.
If we listen to the contributors and the participants to this meeting, I feel reassured because this encounter is situated in the idea of the refusal of misery. And if we are invaded by fear, it is the fear which inhabits the poor themselves compared to Europe and the future of their children, as this mother who was saying: "School is not anymore able to teach my children to read and write properly in French, so how will then they be prepared to learn foreign languages?”
This is a fear built on the experience that must incite us to ask us questions at a time when we talk about the European construction.

Project the Fourth World into a future 

 We came to make together a prospective effort on the future of Europe. Let me cite Father Joseph Wrésinski who expresses himself in 1981 in front of a group of ATD Fourth World volunteers with words that seem to explain quite well our demarche:
"Write the history of the Fourth World first means write the history which will follow. It is projecting the Fourth World into a prospective; it is in some way being a prophet of the Fourth World, guessing what it will contain now about its future. This is the real historian of the Fourth World already included in certain determinism. It is not the fact that he would think that history is rigorously determined, but he necessarily enters into the hopes of a nation, and these hopes always project him into a future. (…) This is why we have said that the real creator of history is somebody who has a great sensibility, plenty of imagination and even more love, because imagination is the daughter of love.
We will then look for the history that arises because it was already alive in the suffering of the today's nation. The history of tomorrow is already expressing itself in this suffering, in the contempt, but also in the rebellion, which lies underneath and boils in the heart of the nations. The hope expresses also the history of tomorrow by refusing injustice. We will write the history of the refusals which are tomorrow's omen".

This obsessive fear of Father Joseph to create the history of the Fourth World about which Mr Geremek told us yesterday how much he had been impressed of it, leads to a prospective which first starts from the experience of the poorer, of their suffering, their revolt and their hopes to look for perspectives for the future. I think that our two days work corresponds to the idea of Father Joseph: "Today, we must have a twenty year ahead vision if we want to fight against misery ".

Crossing pieces of knowledge 

Some participants in our work have brought the knowledge of their experience and the reflexion of persons who are victims of exclusion and misery. We have been able to evaluate how important it is to mix their experience with the one of other participants who has favoured exchanges concerning their own experience and reflexion.
Make together an attempt of prospective démarche as we just tried during those two days is an outstanding effort, and we can all be happy to have brought our contribution.
I do not believe that we have still gone far enough in the creation of real conditions of crossing of pieces of knowledge such as the ones we expressed this morning. It is a goal, which is still ahead of us, because we cannot pretend to prepare the future of Europe and fight against poverty without finding a support from the understanding and the reflexion of the poorest.

A growing stream: the refusal of misery recognised as a denial of human rights.

We are linked by the same idea, I think: if we came to work together, it is because fatality of misery does not exist, only that it could maybe be fought against with success. It is not only a belief of principle but also the result of the experience of all those who got involved in the long term and with a determined way, meeting the efforts of the poorest. We have heard here some detailed stories of persons involved in this neighbourhood, in companies, in a commune, at the scale of a country or even European instances that gave us examples of changes which can occur at a legal level and also in the field of social habits.

The examples we have found during these two days represent a small part of what happens, and they are the sign of the existence of a real stream of the fight against the refusal of misery.
What we discussed expresses the fact that it is possible to do something starting from international bodies: the affirmation of the necessity to fight misery as a priority grows in the adopted texts. We will of course all remember the decisions taken in Copenhagen in 1995, which were recalled by Xavier Godinot yesterday, or the ones taken in the Nice Summit, which led to the involvement of the European Union in a programme to fight poverty.

The recognition of misery as a violation of human rights consists of establishing in the best possible way, as it was recognised in the work of the Council of Europe or of the UN in Geneva. 

It would be wrong to think that the growth of this stream of the refusal of misery as a violation of human rights has arrived incidentally: it is the consequence of the work of a great number of persons and NGO, on the field as well as on the international level. The battle is not won yet, and caution is recommended.

The objective to eradicate the great poverty must be written in the text of the future constitution of the European Union. A managerial framework would help implementing the objectives concerning the fight against poverty and the social exclusion as well as the access to the fundamental rights. In the first workshop, the question of motivating the creation of new texts was not raised. Since its creation, the Movement ATD Fourth World research seeks to influence the existing texts or to promote new texts according to the experience and the feeling of the poorest. We know that it is not enough to make proposals; it is also important to put the texts into practice.
We must keep on working during the next few years in order to know more about this matter, on the writing of texts as well as on the way to be able to apply them with efficiency.

The importance of partnership 

With the ever growing stream of recognition of misery as a violation of human rights and thus the refusal of misery, appears also more and more the stream that creates a partnership with the persons and the peoples in a situation of great poverty as a prerequisite for the success of all types of actions and all types of policies related to the fight against poverty. 

It is demonstrated by the way some legal texts have been written in different countries. For example, the law on orientation against exclusion and poverty voted in France and the general report on poverty presented in Belgium is signs that this partnership is possible.

The awareness of this imperative to become partners with the poorer persons and populations is becoming more and more a reality but still a long way to go. The Workshop No 3 has insisted on the necessity to set up training for the persons who have a role in these partnership systems. 

It 's necessary not only to acquire a know-how, but also to be convinced about them. If the texts clearly express this need for partnership, it is not why we are all convinced that it will lead to something really new. We have not sufficiently experienced the importance of crossing pieces of knowledge and of partnership. Too many people have only integrated it as a theory and did bit have the opportunity to put it into practice to be able to realise its importance.

It is very likely that we remain on words if a dramatic effort is not made to set up this partnership, which is a real change in our mentalities, a shift in our priorities!

I would like to say something regarding the construction of an "enlarged" Europe. This word "enlarged" is a trap because it implies that there is a good Europe, the one of the 15 that will decide for the whole of the European countries on the conditions of its enlargement. Is this Europe of the 15 presently able to create the conditions of an equal relationship where the experiences, the expectations of each country concerning the fight against poverty would be taken in charge without any prejudices? What are the requirements of these candidate countries? We hardly dare talk about the requirement because we are not yet in a phase of dialogue in which we allow these countries to demand whatever they want, even justice.

We agree with the words of Mr Abdelmadjid who said this morning with very cautious and diplomatic words concerning the questions that Africa can ask to Europe concerning justice matters. He invited Europe to create such a dialogue with the African continent. The relations between the Europe of the 15 and the other countries and peoples must be fed on what we have learned from the necessary dialogue and conditions of partnership with the persons in difficulty. We have understood that the fight against poverty without the experience of the poorer would not be efficient.

The experience made with populations in situation of great poverty must really give us ideas concerning the problem of the European construction. We must have the same ambition of participation, openness, equal dialogue with the candidate countries and those that do not dare become candidates considering the requested accession criteria. Let's take the example of Moldavia that could not be represented during these two days. The measures taken by Europe to protect its borders have prevented Ms Nina Orlova from obtaining a visa to participate in our work. How this people of Moldavia, among other things, through its experience, in particular concerning the fight against poverty, could bring us a very helpful assistance if our laws do not make possible the conditions for a dialogue? We are completely deprived from it because we do not use the right means.

And in this field also, we react in function of the experience of the poorer families: if these countries are not properly associated right now to the European construction, then we will loose their support and will create breaks that could be deep and lasting.

The way to enlarge Europe does not mean suppressing the requirements that we must apply within this Europe of 15 already constituted to go through what we intend to realise and for which we want to be a model. 
This wish to be a model at a European level, I felt it in Spain where I lived for several years. This country has arrived in the European Union among the last countries allowed in. How many times did I see social workers or members of NGO involved on the field helping poor families saying how they felt humiliated that in the European construction they were constantly told about their "delay" in the development of social services, social income. The fact that in countries like Greece or Portugal the fact was never valued that the poorer families face the hardness of life by the family solidarity and by the practice of various works, declared or not, that make heads of families, even the least qualified, men or women who can stand up.
The models of fight against poverty in the Northern countries of Europe which were taken as a reference, have reinforced in these countries the exclusion of the weakest, broken the poorer families by policies of placement without having the real support for the parents and locked in the least qualified workers by assisting them and converting them to lifelong useless persons, refusing their wish to contribute to the common life. Spain must know and study these models, but why copy them with the risk of arriving to the same failures instead of inventing new possibilities?
We really must respect the ways leading to the fight against of poverty and the way with which today the poorer countries already fight against poverty. We must take it into account in order to understand the values that enable these peoples to cope with it.

To be able to cope with the requirements that we must have inside this Europe of 15, we must keep our ambition to go ahead in the respect of human rights. For example, we must follow the application of the Nice Treaty. It will only be possible if we write a report every two years, which is previously discussed in the Parliament. These reports have to be elaborated in partnership with the persons in a difficult situation. We know that it did not happen for the writing of the two first reports or at least not much. We also have to give concrete expression to the access of everyone to the fundamental rights. I would like to talk about four special aspects.

1. The implementation of the reinforcement and the support of policies regarding the family: put an end to policies breaking up families. We must refer ourselves to the experience carried out by NGO in the field of family advancement.
2. A strong policy against the illiterate people with sufficient deadlines and means, but also access to foreign languages, new technologies that are the tools needed by European people.
3. Transform the situation of "below-right" created by certain measures of insertion into a real right to a decent work and associate companies to this goal. 
4. Redefine asylum and migration policies: put an end to the situation of clandestine and the deprivation of the rights that could lead to the risk of falling into misery.

To conclude, I would like to say that all the work we have done during these two days is an important stage within the prospective effort. We must be very demanding with ourselves but also with society.
The world of today gives enormous means to prospective, i.e. companies, universities. Further to these two days, we must all call on public representatives and universities at all levels to demand means to support the countries, and even outside the Europe of 15 that want also anticipate the future. How would it be possible to associate the countries of other continents unfairly disadvantaged compared to others to our reflection on prospective?
We must understand better the big tendencies that are related to poverty and better understand the responsibility of the actors of this change.
However, we must be careful, if we want to be up to the expectations of persons who live in a state of great poverty, shame and exclusion in misery, we must be very ambitious and conscious that it is a real society project that we must create in partnership with them.