GLOBALISING JUSTICE

By Rigoberta Menchu and - - Reprint | | Print |

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MEXICO CITY, Jan 1 2003 (IPS) - The world has seen the globalisation of capital and communications but not of justice, solidarity, respect, and tolerance because the forces that unilaterally drive globalisation have not permitted it, writes Rigoberta Menchu, recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. In this article for IPS, Menchu writes that these forces have opened up the markets of countries that produce raw materials for their own products while blocking these countries\’ access to many of their own markets. They have used security as an excuse to create obstacles to migration. And they have made war into their economic engine. Popular demonstrations against a discredited international system and events like the World Social Forum represent the legitimate endeavour to give globalisation a human face, to transform it into a process that takes into account the interests of the people and not just of giant transnational corporations. Menchu calls for reform that breaks the system of exclusivity that until now has transformed government representatives into servants of the major corporations, corporate mafias, and supranational interests. Such reform must open the way for the participation of social actors that thus far have no representation in the existing institutional systems.

The world has seen the globalisation of capital and communications but not of justice, solidarity, respect, and tolerance because the forces that unilaterally drive globalisation have not permitted it. To the contrary, they have opened up the markets of countries that produce raw materials for their own products while blocking these countries’ access to many of their own markets; they have used security as an excuse to create obstacles to migration; and they have made war into their economic engine.

Popular demonstrations against a discredited international system –like those in Seattle, Genova, Prague, and elsewhere– and events like the World Social Forum, represent the legitimate endeavour to give globalisation a human face, to transform it into a process that takes into account the interests of the people and not just of giant transnational corporations.

Free trade and the ever more visible hand of a market open to a few and closed to most must not be allowed to continue to destroy economies. The scandalous accounting fraud committed by some the largest companies of the world has undermined people’s confidence not only in these firms but also in government regulation. Security cannot continue to be an excuse for aggression, nor can war continue to be the locomotive of the economy.

History has shown that peace, not war, mobilises the economy. The Gulf War of over a decade ago is a clear demonstration of that fact. While the well-being and opulence of a few grows, their insatiable voracity for resources that should satisfy the minimum needs for everyone is growing even faster. Just over two years ago world leaders expressed their commitment to cut the number of people suffering from hunger by 800 million by the year 2015. However, the Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that the way things are going –with 25,000 people dying of hunger per day– it will take over 100 years to reach that goal. The Horn of Africa is on the verge of a gigantic humanitarian catastrophe (yes, yet another) in which over 10 million people could lose their lives.

The unjust international order imposed on over four-fifths of the world’s population has caused unprecedented movement across borders by people seeking work or merely survival — movement that is largely illicit, as borders have become legally permeable to capital but not to people.

After oil, this phenomenon accounts for the largest international transfer of currency. The human rights of immigrants, with or without documents, are being trampled by government policies and transnational mafias that deal in the smuggling, slavery, and even murder.

It should be noted that globalisation by no means involves the end of sovereignty or state responsibility, which are merely being modified, complemented, and strengthened by the emerging presence of other social actors.

The current economic model is characterised by production designed to achieve the maximum generation of wealth. In the case of the indigenous peoples, we do not aspire to become rich. While we are interested in material development, we are more interested in the spiritual. We want to make economic progress because our needs are urgent, but neither we nor our ancestors have ever aspired to great wealth if this offends our sacred planet.

In Latin America, we see the devastating effects of the economic and political destabilisation of fragile democracies by decisions of the international financial organisations. The evolution of globalisation means the reform of these entities too, as well as of the political institutions of the international system. The latter is an urgent priority, given the fact that their growth and level of complexity has greatly diluted their political role, reduced their efficacy, and converted them into giant bureaucracies.

For globalisation to have a truly human face, what is required is reform that breaks the system of exclusivity that until now has transformed government representatives into servants of the major corporations, corporate mafias, and supranational interests. Such reform must open the way for the participation of social actors that thus far have no representation in the existing institutional systems. Peoples without a state, citizens initiatives, civil organisations, and social movements demand recognition and co-responsibility for major decisions regarding peace, justice, development, and democracy in the new map of the international institutions. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)