| STONY POINT,
NY — Representatives of more than 100 North American
church and grassroots organizations met here Jan. 11-14 for a
consultation entitled “Just Trade Agreements? Churches in
North America Discuss Globalization.”
The consultation was convened by the Education and Advocacy
Program of Church World Service and by the Canadian Council of
Churches as a “joint ecumenical process for clarification
and critique of policies as they exist and for the offering of
alternatives.”
In addition to Church World Service, the ecumenical groups represented
included the World Council of Churches, the World Association
of Reformed Churches, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, and the
Lutheran World Federation.
Consultation conveners spoke of a “spirituality of resistance”,
and of using a “communal lens to transform economic organization,
and a theological imperative to think together to find the ‘moral
nerve’” needed to address globalization issues.
They identified a contradiction between the mandate of the churches
and the thrust of economic globalization, and urged churches to
criticize the “engine of growth” and promote alternative
actions.
In his keynote address — “God, Globalization and
Free Trade: For Whose Good?” M. Douglas Meeks, economics
professor at Vanderbilt University, suggested that the churches
must speak concretely about God, justice and peace.
In candid reports on what globalization looks like in North
America, participants from Mexico, Canada and the United States
touched on experiences related to industry take-overs, free trade
and price depression,
“What we see in Mexico is poverty and loss of the country’s
economy,” said Dora Esther Davila Cordillera of the Centro
de Estudios Ecuménicos. She noted that the Mexican economy
has grown less than one percent since the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed. Factories are being moved
to Mexico in order to take advantage of lower wages but even so,
existing contracts are being lost to Asian markets, where workers
receive even lower hourly wages.
Most social services have been taken away, including health
and schooling, she reported.
Maria Riley of the Center of Concern, a U.S. oganization, commented
on the
undemocratic nature of how regional trade policy is negotiated:
“NAFTA dissembled defined policies that were important to
the people, such as health and the environment,” she said.
“Canada’s economic dependence on the US has gone
from 30 to 60 percent,” said John Dillon from KAIROS: Canadian
Ecumenical Justice Initiatives. “So,” he noted, his
country “makes an effort not to upset the U.S., but to harmonize
with its policies on immigration and refugees and militarization.”
For Dillon, “just trade” must incorporate a right
to development.
Alvaro Salgado Ramirez from the Centro Nacional de Aydua a las
Misiones Indigenas reported that corn from the U.S. was brought
to Mexico, replacing a 9,000-year-old seed line and bringing contamination
and allergies. Not only is the population losing its right to
the seeds it has farmed for centuries, but it now depends on those
who provide the new seed. Corn, the national staple, is now private
property and royalties are charged for a gene, Ramirez explained.
Representing the Independent Farmworker Center in New York state,
Aspacio Alcantara reported that 90 percent of the agricultural
workers in the state are economic refugees from Mexico. The Center
works for justice, dignity and respect of these notoriously exploited
workers, who have no right to insurance, organization or overtime.
“Behind these trade agreements are people,” said
Lina Aresteo from a Mexican union of women textile workers. The
union is campaigning for amendments to the Textile Labeling Act
so that consumers will know where products are made and can assess
the likelihood that they are made in sweatshops.
Stephen Bartlett of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Agricultural
Missions warned that “suicide is the number one cause of
death among U.S. farmers, along with cancer from pesticide exposure.
Of every 10 former dairy farmers in Wisconsin, only one is now
still producing milk because of depressed prices.”
The Stony Point consultation was the last in a series of six.
The first was held in 1999 in Asia, and subsequent consultations
took place in Central and Eastern Europe and the South Pacific
in 2001, in Western Europe in 2002, and in Latin America in 2003.
Participants in the earlier consultations reported to the North
American gathering.
The consultation produced a document on “Fair and Just
Trade” and a plan of action that will be released later
this month. |
