Campaigners for a citizens' service initiative have succeeded. The committee submitted 107,764 signatures validated by the authorities to the Federal Chancellery on Thursday.
The aim of the initiative "For a Switzerland that gets involved" (so-called citizens' service initiative) is to get all young people involved in working for the community and the environment, instead of just young Swiss men who must serve in the military, say the authors of the initiative in a press release. These include rehabilitating forests after storms or working with young people at risk of addiction as part of civilian service, and joining army rescue troops.
The committee wants to launch a nationwide debate on the value and future of the commitment to a militia in Switzerland. Citizens' service is an important issue for the future of society and for the country's social cohesion.
The initiative would also make it possible to guarantee staff numbers. The campaigners believe that the text puts forward a "constructive proposal for reform in order to face up together to the security, social and environmental challenges we are facing, such as pandemics, wars, climate change and the polarisation of society".
Launched by the Geneva association Service citoyen, the initiative is supported by several centrist parties and associations. ...
Hmm... cheap labor under the disguise of community. Brought to you by the people who are not affected.
Somehow ths rubbs me the wrong way. We have discussions about something like this service in Germany too and though I somewhat understand the community aspect, it somehow feels extremely disingenuous to me. It feels like: we have problems in society that we cannot solve with the free market, so let's take a group of people who cannot vote against it and just make them do it! Also we can just pay them some arbitrary little amount, because they are unskilled workers and we do this by not drafting a huge part of the population, which only profits from this initiative, so we have enough votes to push this through. For me this is generational warfare.
But maybe it's just me. I remember finishing school and wanting nothing more than to go to university. Imagining being forced by law to go to some arbitrary other work makes me angry and I don't want that for other people. Try to bring this through for people of all ages and see how much support there is for that.
There's a social cohesion aspect to community service that we shouldn't ignore. For a country as diverse and individualistic as Switzerland, forcing everyone, once in their lives, in a big melting pot sounds like a big win for everyone. So, as long as it's done well, I think it can be a net plus for the community, and thus completely defendable.
Of course, I say that as someone who did my "service" as a one-day thing in France, so take my words with a grain of salt.