 | |
| Abbreviation | ATTAC / attac |
|---|---|
| Founded | 3 June 1998; 26 years ago (1998-06-03) |
| Type | Voluntary association |
| Location |
|
| Origins | Asingle-issue movement that was founded in France afterIgnacio Ramonet published an editorial inLe Monde diplomatique that read « Disarm the markets[1] ». Supporters founded an association to promote theTobin tax. |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Method | Popular education,meetings,conferences,counter-argumentsdocuments |
| Members | 90,000 |
| Website | www.attac.org |
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TheAssociation pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action,ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the establishment of a tax onforeign exchange transactions.
Originally called "Action for a Tobin Tax to Assist the Citizen", ATTAC was asingle-issue movement demanding the introduction of the so-calledTobin tax oncurrencyspeculation.[2] ATTAC has enlarged its scope to a wide range of issues related toglobalisation, and monitoring the decisions of theWorld Trade Organization (WTO), theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD,) and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF). ATTAC representatives attend the meetings of theG8 with the goal of influencing policymakers' decisions. In 2007, ATTAC spokesmen criticised Germany for what it called the criminalisation of anti-G8 groups.[3]
At the founding, ATTAC had specific statutory objectives based on the promotion of the Tobin tax. For example, ATTAC Luxembourg specifies in article 1 of its statutes that it:
...aims to produce and communicate information, and to promote and carry out activities of all kinds for the recapture, by the citizens, of the power that the financial sector has on all aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life throughout the world. Such means include the taxation of transactions in foreign exchange markets (Tobin tax).[4]
ATTAC refutes claims that it is ananti-globalisation movement, but it criticises theneoliberal ideology that it sees as dominating economic globalisation. It supports those globalisation policies that their representatives characterise assustainable andsocially just.[2] One of ATTAC's slogans is "The World is not for sale", denouncing the "merchandisation" of society. Another slogan is "Another world is possible", pointing to an alternative globalisation in which people and not profit is in focus.
Attac was founded to promote theTobin tax by theKeynesian economistJames Tobin. Tobin has said that Attac has misused his name. He says he has nothing in common with their goals and supportsfree trade — "everything that these movements are attacking. They're misusing my name."[5]
In December 1997,Ignacio Ramonet wrote an editorial[1] inLe Monde diplomatique in which he advocated for the establishment of theTobin tax and the creation of an organisation to pressure governments around the world to introduce the tax. ATTAC was created on 3 June 1998, during a constitutive assembly in France. While it was founded in France it now exists in over forty countries around the world.[6] In France, politicians from the left are members of the association.[citation needed] In Luxembourg,Francois Bausch of the left Green party is the founding politician in the association's initial member list.[4]
ATTAC functions on a principle ofdecentralisation: local associations organise meetings, conferences, and compose documents that become counter-arguments to the perceived neoliberal discourse. ATTAC aims to formalise the possibility of an alternative to the neoliberal society that is currently required of globalisation. ATTAC aspires to be a movement of popular education.
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CommunistJuhani Lohikoski, previously a chairman ofCommunist Youth League andSocialist League, served as the chairman of Finnish Attac for two terms (2002 - 2004).Yrjö Hakanen, chairman of theCommunist Party of Finland, was a member of the board and a member of the founding committee. In March 2002Aimo Kairamo, the long-time chief editor of the party organ of the Social Democrat Party, resigned from Attac and recommended the same decision for other social democrats because of the left-wing minority communists' leading positions. Soon also the social democrat foreign ministerErkki Tuomioja considered to follow Kairamo's example.[7]
Researcher Malin Gawell covers the birth and development of Attac Sweden in her doctoral thesis on activist entrepreneurship. She suggests that Attac in Sweden was formed by people seeking a new way of organising with flat hierarchy, and with the strongly sensed need of making a change as the driving force.[8]
From another perspective,Sydsvenskan newspaper suggested that the downturn of memberships in Swedish Attac after the hype in the beginning of 2001 may be due to its views on trade policies.[9]
The main issues covered by ATTAC today are:[citation needed]
In France, ATTAC associates with many otherleft-wing causes.
In 2008, the Swiss multinational food and beverage companyNestlé was hit by a scandal which was later called Nestlégate by the media. Between the years 2003 and 2005, Nestlé hired the external Security companySecuritas AG to spy on the Swiss branch of Attac. Nestlé started the monitoring when Attac Switzerland decided to work on a critical book about Nestlé.[10]
In response to the Nestlégate, Attac Switzerland filed a lawsuit against Nestlé. The lawsuit was decided in favour of Attac in January 2013, as the personal rights of the observed were violated. They received a compensation for damages of 3000Swiss francs each (about 3230 USD at the date of the proclamation of sentence).[11]
