World Council of Churches -
Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release:
15 January 2004
Trade agreements and alternatives to globalization discussed at North American churches' consultation
Cf WCC
Upcoming events, January
Over 100 church and grassroots organizations' representatives met 11-14 January for a North American consultation entitled “Just trade agreements? Churches in North America discuss globalization”.
The consultation in Stony Point, NY, 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, ecumenical groups represented include the World Council of Churches, the World Association of Reformed Churches, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, and the Lutheran World Federation.
At the opening, consultation convenors 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.
A keynote address on “God, globalization and free trade: for whose good?” was given by
M. Douglas Meeks
, an economics author and professor at Vanderbilt University. Considering that God’s economy is about the way God redeems the world, Meeks suggested that the churches must speak concretely about God, justice and peace.
Participants from Mexico, Canada and the US touched on experiences related to industry take-overs, free trade and price depression, in candid reports on what globalization looks like in North America.
“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). Factories are being moved in-country in order to pay lower wages but even so, 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
, O.P., from the Center of Concern in the US, 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%," said
John Dillon
from KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives. "So," he noted, his country "makes an effort not to upset the US, 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 US 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 ninety 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 Canadian union of
women textile workers. The union is campaigning for amendments to the Textile Labelling Act so that US consumers will know where products are made and can assess the likelihood that they are made in sweatshops.
From the Presbyterian Church (USA) Agricultural Missions,
Stephen Bartlett
warned that “Suicide is the number one cause of death among US farmers, along with cancer, from the pesticides. Of every ten former dairy farmers in Wisconsin, only one is now still producing milk because of depressed prices.”
The Stony Point consultation is 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. Representatives from the earlier consultations reported to the North American gathering.
The consultation produced a document on "Fair and just trade" and a plan of action which will be released next week. Responsible for ethics and ecology at the WCC, Dr Martin Robra described the consultation as “significant for the churches in North America and an important contribution to the global ecumenical process on economic globalization".
Media contact and reporting from Stony Point:
Ann Walle, Church World Service.
Tel.: (+1) 212 870 2654; email:
awalle@churchworldservice.org
This material may be reprinted freely.
Additional information:
Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
