In the current market-centred paradigm, many programs currently available specialise on the topic of CSR. But none, that we are aware of, expect corporations to compensate all their workers in the world with the exact same sense of fairness and, thus, the same benchmark; so that all workers worldwide may enjoy the same standard of living, within their own socio-economic ethos. This perpetuates a pattern of injustice and exploitation engendered by a zero-sum-game business culture.

In contrast, TLWNSI does precisely the opposite. It puts living wages above all other considerations and makes the point that there cannot exist any acceptable degree of Corporate Social Responsibility without all workers enjoying a living wage.

We advance our mission through a program that generates long-term benefits for all: workers, corporations, governments and Civil Society at large. In fact, from a corporate perspective, TLWNSI is a long-term investment strategy to create a less unfair global market system. In this way, fair labour remunerations would be instrumental in meaningfully reducing labour exploitation and social injustice.

The above notwithstanding, Jus Semper believes that in the best case scenario a rather limited reduction in labour exploitation and, thus, social injustice, can be achieved in the current market-centre paradigm, given its completely unsustainable fixation on the reproduction and accumulation of capital. Consequently, we believe that in order to achieve a true sphere of sustainable social justice —where all human rights: social, economic, civil, political and environmental are fully enjoyed by all societies in the world— we must aspire to build a completely different paradigm centred on the welfare of the people and the planet ethos and not on the welfare of the owners of the market-centred system ethos, as it is today.

To achieve this, the “Demos”(the People) must work to create a radical transformative tectonic shift to build the new People and Planet paradigm to break the shackles that the current system has imposed to capture most societies in the world. We live in a diametrically opposed ethos to the just and sustainable ethos that we envision building. We are enduring market-based oligarchic governments where the dictatorship of the market, or marketocracy, reigns supreme and the vast majority of elected officials are truly proxies of the market’s owners, the institutional investors of international financial markets, instead of representatives that were bestowed with the sovereign power of the Demos to carry out their will.

For this reason, if we want to aspire to a sustainable planet where future generations would enjoy a dignified quality of life, we must completely replace capitalism. The sole purpose and principle of capitalism is the reproduction, accumulation, and maximisation of capital regardless of any other consideration and at the expense of all other stakeholders. Needless to say, that the argument in favour of the concept of a capitalist democracy or of a democratic capitalism is unsustainable, for we can hardly find a more direct antagonism between the raison d’être of democracy and that of capitalism. The underlying rationale behind capitalism is beset with contradictions. This is why it has always been in conflict with a truly democratic ethos. Nonetheless, beyond the many contradictions and our philosophical beliefs, it can be asserted as an axiom that capitalism is completely unsustainable for the simple reason that it requires the infinite consumption of resources in a planet with finite resources. Hence, we must transcend the market-based system and replace it as soon as possible if we aspire to bequeath to future generations a planet worthy of human dignity. In this way, Jus Semper works to advance the construction of the new paradigm by proposing and inviting other analyst/thinkers that share our concerns to embark in an exercise that generates the necessary ideas for the new transformative vision that would shape the People and Planet paradigm that we must build.

The spirit of The Jus Semper Global Alliance is embedded in the following mission and principles:
 

Vision Statement

Achieving an ethos of sustainable social justice in the world, where all communities live under truly democratic spheres that provide the full enjoyment of human rights and sustainable living standards worthy of human dignity.
 

Mission Statement

Contribute to the generation of ideas for the transformative vision that would give form to the truly democratic and sustainable People and Planet paradigm.
 

Principles


True Democracy and True Sustainability
The new People and Planet paradigm to which we must aspire is anchored on two pillars: true democracy and true sustainability. True democracy requires that the Demos be in permanent control of the public agenda, so that it always sits in the driver’s seat. This cannot be done under so-called representative democracy, a mockery as practiced today. The radical transformative tectonic shift to build the new paradigm must be done under direct democracy, where the Demos permanently participates directly in all areas of the public sphere to set the agenda, establish priorities, and monitor its execution —with the power of correction— by the public servants elected by the community. The sole purpose of a truly democratic ethos is for communities to organise to go in pursuit of the welfare of every rank of society, with special emphasis on the dispossessed. If that is not the purpose of a community of people, then the community is not truly the Demos, and therefore there is no justification for us to be members of any community lacking this raison d’être. The welfare of a community must be anchored in the full enjoyment of all human rights. As part of this imaginary, human rights are essential to the true democracy ethos. Until these rights are enjoyed to the utmost by all members, the welfare of the community cannot be achieved. Consequently, true democracy, human rights, and welfare are inextricably joined. One cannot exist without the others.

Sustainability, the other pillar of the new paradigm, demands that we seek the welfare of communities by providing a dignified standard of living that is sustainable by our planet. Maintaining a consumeristic lifestyle, the dominant understanding of “welfare” today, is completely unsustainable if we want to recover and preserve the resources produced by our planet. Our ecological footprint, a major driver of climate change, must be drastically reduced until we reach a stage where we can reach a stationary state that would allow the planet to replenish its resources at the same rate we consume them. We can imagine this as a process of a gradual but strong shift from consumerism to holistic sustainability through a process of degrowth in all our human activities. This would drastically decrease our ecological footprint by completely changing our values system and lifestyles.

Vision

Mission

Principles