Abdoulie A.
Jallow
"If you will tell
me why the fen
appears impassable, I then
will tell you why I think that
I
can get across it if I try."
I May, I Might I Must - by Marianne
Moore
Africa: Statements on Globalization
Date
distributed (ymd): 991115
Document reposted by
APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document
Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas:
+political/rights+ +economy/development+
Summary Contents:
This
posting contains slightly condensed versions of two
documents on the occasion
of the meeting of the Commonwealth
Heads of Government in Durban, South
Africa, November 12-14,
1999. [The full text of both documents is available
at
http://www.africapolicy.org/docs99/com9911.htm]
The first is
an address by the General Secretary of the Congress of
South
African Trade Unions (COSATU) to a meeting in Durban organized
by
the Commonwealth Trade Union Council (CTUC). The second is
an official
declaration by the Commonwealth meeting. Nineteen
of the 54
Commonwealth member states are in Africa.
Links for additional
background:
COSATU: http://www.cosatu.org.za
Commonwealth
Trade Union Council:
http://www.tcol.co.uk/comorg/ctuc.htm
Commonwealth
Summit in Durban:
http://www.chogm99.org
+++++++++++++++++end
profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU General
Secretary
Address to a meeting on Globalisation and Social Justice
-
Trade Union View
12 November 1999
The theme chosen for this
Commonwealth Heads of Governments
Meeting "Globalisation and people
centered development"
reflects both a desire and a challenge we all face
in the
rapid and deepening process of globalisation.
To a growing
number of the world citizens in particular from
the developing nations,
globalisation has become synonymous
with the mostly negatives issues rather
than the positives.
The survey conducted by UNICEF and the UNDP on social
spending
in Africa reveals that only three countries in Africa
are
allocating more than 20% of budget funds for use on basic
health care,
education and nutrition -- a target set by the
1995 UN Social Summit in
Copenhagen. According to Kofi Annan,
the Secretary General of the UN, 44% of
all Africans -- and
51% of these in Sub-Saharan Africa live in absolute
poverty.
At the same time Africa's debt stock has increased from
$344
billion to $350 billion in 1998, and is equivalent to more
than 300%
of exports of goods and services from Africa. The
average African household
today consumes 20% less than it did
25 years ago. Economic growth rates in
the African continent
continue to decline, as well as development assistance,
which
has dropped from $23 billion in 1992 to $18,7 billion in 1997.
On the other hand, according to the UNDP report, Americans
spend more
than $8 billion a year on cosmetics - $2 billion
more than the estimated
annual total needed to provide basic
education for everyone in the world. In
1996 alone Ethiopia
had a total foreign debt of $10 billion, whilst in the
same
year Europe spent $11 billion on ice cream alone! The three
richest
people in the world have assets that exceed the
combined gross domestic
product of the 48 least developed
countries.
At the end of 1997
nearly 31 million people were living with
HIV, up from 22,3 million the year
before. With 16 000 new
infections a day -- 90% percent in developing
countries -- it
is now estimated that 40 million people will be living
with
HIV in 2000.
The struggle for alternatives to the type of
globalisation
system is under these circumstances a struggle for
the
survival of human civilisation. To billions who have been on
the
receiving end of brutal global system, globalisation
has
meant:
Growing gap between the rich and the poor within nations
and
between nations in particular between the North and the
South
Destruction of quality jobs and their replacement
by
casualisation and temporal jobs brought to bear by a process
of sub
contracting of so called non core business activities
Growing
unemployment in particular in the developing
countries, which goes hand in
hand with poverty that itself
leads to more social problems such as HIV/AIDS
and violence.
Growing number and accidents of using children in the world
of
work without due regard to their health, well being
and
future.
Displacement of government's role in the economic and
social
responsibilities as a result of the growing power wielded by
the
multinational corporations who seek more mobility at the
expense of nations
development
Intense competition between nations to attract the
scarce
investment and in the process involve themselves in a race to
reach
the bottom first and consequently trample on human and
trade union rights.
No wonder that some citizens of the world are beginning to
shout
slogans such as "down with globalisation -- down with
the WTO, IMF and
World Bank."
Globalisation is an objective reality we face and it is
here
to stay, industrialisation process can not be altered. The
challenge
is not to push our heads into the sand like an
ostrich or wish it away. The
greatest challenge to humankind
as we move closer to the 21 century is to
make globalisation
relevant to the ordinary people of the world. ...
A people centered development as the theme of this the
1999
Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting should be a battle
cry for
all the human kind interested in contesting the
direction of
globalisation.
The Commonwealth Trade Union Council (CTUC) has sent
a
delegation of six senior leaders to this august CHOGM 1999
meeting. We
have come to lobby governments about the need to
take a new direction. We
have compiled a submission for the
1999 Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (CHOGM). ... We
have come here to make a call for the
globalisation of core
labour standards and human rights. ...
In this
century we have seen lowering of labour standards
mainly but not limited to
Export Processing Zones where labour
laws are suspended in the name of export
promotion. We have
also seen the creation of sweatshops by multinationals.
...
The majority of the members of the Commonwealth are the
developing
countries, the countries of the South. These are
the countries that are
underdeveloped and are crying for
development. The children from these
countries suffer from
many diseases and malnutrition. Many of the inhabitants
die
from HIV/AIDS. Children cannot go to school because their
education is
no longer subsidised. The solution that has been
imposed on the majority of
these countries has been the
Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes
(ESAP's).
The ESAP's have resulted in heavy debt for those
countries,
removal of subsidies for social services,
tariff
liberalisation, all this to smoothen the entrance of MNC's.
These
countries have been promised that if they stick to the
ESAP plan their
economies would attract more investments and
only good things can flow from
there. For a long time these
benefits have been hard to come by. Instead
these countries
are drifting further away from development, and their
debt
obligations increase yearly.
We need to define clearly what we
mean when we call for the
globalisation of social justice. Our starting point
is a call
to all the members of the Commonwealth to ensure that
they
ratify the core conventions of the International Labour
Organisation
(ILO). These conventions are:
conventions 29 and 105 on forced
labour,
conventions 87 and 98 on the freedom of association and
the
right to collective bargaining,
conventions 100 and 111 on
discrimination, and
conventions 138 and 182 on child labour.
These
core conventions have been in the ILO system for a long
time, but most
governments have chosen to ignore them. ...
It is our belief that the
ratification and implementation of
the core conventions should be
pre-requisites in any trade
agreements that are signed by member states.
Without this it
means having to conduct trade with countries that use
forced
and child labour to produce goods. ...
We also want to support
the calls and efforts of the Jubilee
2000 campaign for the cancellation of
debt. It is our belief
that the unfair terms of trade where developing
countries
produce primary goods and sell them at low prices
for
manufacturing and processing in the developed countries, and
then buy
the processed goods at higher prices, is grossly
unfair. There can be no fair
trade in such conditions, and our
developing countries will forever be in
debt if the situation
is not turned around. We therefore call for the removal
of
unfair terms of trade.
We further call on those countries and
governments that want
to sell their gold reserves to refrain from doing
that,
because that will not help the developing countries it is
intended
to help. We will continue to campaign against gold
sales until those who want
to do that at the detriment of
developing and poor countries abandon such
plans. It will be
very important for the Commonwealth member states to take
a
clear position on this issue.
A significant number of the
Commonwealth member states are
guilty of human and trade union rights
violations. The
statistics and cases that are quoted in the CTUC
submission
disturb us. It pains us that some governments and states do
not
appreciate the value and contribution of the working
people in their
economies. It is disturbing to us that the
Commonwealth still has a soft spot
for country like Swaziland,
which has been sanctioned for years by the ILO
for the
violation of trade union rights.
If it was unacceptable to
accommodate South Africa and
Nigeria, and is unacceptable to accommodate
Pakistan for the
recent military coup, it surely should be unacceptable
to
accommodate countries that do not treat their working people
fairly. We
call upon the Commonwealth to pronounce itself on
the violation of trade
union rights in member countries. We
also call upon the Commonwealth to take
action against those
member countries that fail to live up to the 1998
ILO
declaration on the core conventions.
In conclusion we must say
that all the demands made above will
not be given on a silver platter. We
will never be able to
make any impact if we are not strong on the ground. ...
For the world to notice us we have to take up campaigns on all
the
issues that have been identified above. The unions in
Africa have recently
committed themselves to campaign on the
12th of April 2000 for an end to
military governments that
exist in the continent. We need to extend this
campaign beyond
the African continent.
We have to campaign against
those governments that refuse to
ratify the ILO conventions and continue to
violate human and
trade union rights. We need to take up campaigns for
the
scrapping of the third world debt, in collaboration with
our
governments and friendly social movements. For far too long
the
creditors have been the ones who have been offering
solutions, which are no
solutions. We support moves to get the
highly indebted countries to define
the terms of the debt
relief measures.
...
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The
Fancourt Commonwealth Declaration on Globalisation and
People-Centred
Development
Sunday, 14 November 1999, George, South Africa
In
today's world, no country is untouched by the forces of
globalisation. Our
destinies are linked together as never
before. The challenge is to seize the
opportunities opened up
by globalisation while minimising its
risks.
On the positive side, globalisation is creating
unprecedented
opportunities for wealth creation and for the betterment
of
the human condition. Reduced barriers to trade and enhanced
capital
flows are fuelling economic growth.
The revolution in communications
technologies is shrinking the
distance between nations, providing new
opportunities for the
transfer of knowledge and the development of
skills-based
industries. And technological advance globally offers
great
potential for the eradication of poverty.
But the benefits of
globalisation are not shared equitably.
Prosperity remains the preserve of
the few. Despite the
progress of the past fifty years, half the world's
population
lives on less than two US Dollars per day. Many millions
live
in conditions of extreme deprivation. The poor are
being
marginalised. Expanded capital flows have also brought with
them the
risk of greater financial instability, undermining
the hope that a commitment
to open markets can lift the
developing world, especially the least developed
countries,
out of poverty and debt.
The persistence of poverty and
human deprivation diminishes us
all. It also makes global peace and security
fragile, limits
the growth of markets, and forces millions to migrate
in
search of a better life. It constitutes a deep and
fundamental
structural flaw in the world economy.
The greatest
challenge therefore facing us today is how to
channel the forces of
globalisation for the elimination of
poverty and the empowerment of human
beings to lead fulfilling
lives.
The solution does not lie in
abandoning a commitment to market
principles or in wishing away the powerful
forces of
technological change. Globalisation is a reality and can
only
increase its impact. But if the benefits of globalisation are
to be
shared more widely, there must be greater equity for
countries in global
markets.
We call on all nations fully to implement the Uruguay
Round
commitments to dismantle barriers to trade for the mutual
benefit of
all. Moreover, recognising in particular the
significant contribution that
enhanced export opportunities
can make for reducing poverty, we call for
improved market
access for the exports of all countries,
particularly
developing countries, and the removal of all barriers to
the
exports of the least developed countries.
Strong export growth
remains a key element in the ability of
developing countries to improve their
living standards to the
levels enjoyed in the industrialised world. We
support efforts
that would enable developing countries to build up
their
skills and manufacturing capacities, including the production
and
export of value-added goods, so as to enhance growth and
achieve
prosperity.
Likewise, we urge that the forthcoming ministerial Meeting
of
WTO to launch the next round of global negotiations on trade
be one
with a pronounced developmental dimension, with the aim
of achieving better
market access in agriculture, industrial
products and services in a way that
provides benefits to all
members, particularly developing countries. The
Round should
be balanced in process, content and outcome.
We fully
believe in the importance of upholding labour
standards and protecting the
environment. But these must be
addressed in an appropriate way that does not,
by linking them
to trade liberalisation, end up effectively impeding
free
trade and causing injustice to developing countries.
We also call
on the global community to establish innovative
mechanisms to promote capital
flows to a wider number of
countries; and to urgently initiate reform of
international
financial architecture to minimise financial instability
and
its impact on the poor.
We believe that the elimination of poverty
is achievable - but
only if we take determined and concerted action at
national
and international levels. We reiterate our commitment to work
for
a reversal of the decline in official development
assistance flows. Urgent
action is also required to tackle the
unsustainable debt burden of developing
countries,
particularly the poorer, building on the recent
initiatives
agreed internationally. We believe such development
assistance
must be focused on human development, poverty reduction and
on
the development of capacities for participating in expanding
world
markets for goods and capital. ...
If the poor and the vulnerable are to
be at the centre of
development, the process must be participatory, in which
they
have a voice. We believe that the spread of democratic freedom
and
good governance, and access to education, training and
health care are key to
the expansion of human capabilities,
and to the banishment of ignorance and
prejudice. ...
We are concerned at the vast gap between rich and poor in
the
ability to access the new technologies, at the concentration
of the
world's research resources in market-driven products
and processes, the
increasing tendency to claim proprietary
rights on traditional knowledge, and
at bio-piracy. ...
We welcome the spread of ideas, information and
knowledge in
building civil support for social equality, and in
opposing
all forms of discrimination and other injustices based
on
ethnicity, gender, race, and religion. But, while better
communications
have increased human contact, there is for some
a growing sense of social
exclusion and a general failure of
moral purpose. Persistence of inequalities
faced by women,
continued high levels of youth unemployment, lack of
adequate
support systems for the aged, children and the disabled in
many
parts of the world and increased threats to the diversity
of cultures and
beliefs all contribute to the undermining of
just and stable society. We
therefore call for a renewed
commitment to eliminate all forms of
discrimination and to
take measures that promote respect for the diverse
languages,
cultures and beliefs, and traditions of the world, which
enrich
all our lives.
Recognising that the full exploitation of the
opportunities
for development created by globalisation is not
possible
without security, political stability and peace. We
commit
ourselves, in partnership with civil society, to promote
processes
that help to prevent or resolve conflicts in
peaceful manner, support
measures that help to stabilise
post-conflict situations and combat terrorism
of all kinds.
Good governance requires inclusive and participatory
processes
at both national and international levels. We call on the
global
community to search for inclusive processes of
multilateralism which give
more effective voice in the
operations of international institutions to
developing
countries, and which recognise the particular
vulnerabilities
of small states. ...
Fancourt
George, South Africa
14 November 1999
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