Bill Howard
Sat, 03 Feb 2001 19:25:59 -0800
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Subject: [CubaNews] Granma: Movement against neolib. More jobs,work. UN WFP
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subject: Granma: Movement against neolib. More jobs,work. UN WFP
© Copyright. 1996-2001. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. GRANMA INTERNATIONAL/
ONLINE EDITION
February 2, 2001
Popular international movement against neoliberal globalization.
IN Havana President Fidel Castro attends debates at the 3rd
International Economists Encounter on the theme of globalization and
development problems
BY RAISA PAGES (Granma International staff writer)
PROTESTS in Seattle, Prague and Davos left a clear message
scrawled on the walls of the universe: a popular movement
transcending national borders is emerging.
These are the words of warning that opened the 3rd International
Economists Encounter in Havana on globalization and development
problems, attended by Fidel Castro. At the close of this edition the
conference sessions are continuing with the participation of experts
from 45 countries and 11 international organizations.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos the main issue was how to
save the U.S. economy from recession, replacing the original proposal
to discuss the conflicts between rich and poor. Meanwhile, the Havana
meeting is seeking alternatives to the present world economic order
which is leading the planet into inevitable disaster.
José Antonio Ocampo, executive secretary of the Latin American
Economic Commission for
Latin America (ECLAC), focused on the
distortion of the present globalization process
which lacks a social agenda and is dominated
by issues relating mainly to the industrialized
countries.
Ocampo pointed out that, from 1975, the
distribution of wealth has deteriorated for 57% of
the world's population, has improved for 16%
and the situation for the remainder has no
clear trend.
He proposed regional linking as the best way
to create a more balanced globalization
process. The ECLAC executive secretary
indicated that at present there is no correlation
between stability and economic growth,
because the current emphasis has been displaced by
only considering fiscal balance and
inflation control, and ignoring other important factors
like full employment figures and productive
and creative development.
Ocampo suggested that the economy has to be
subordinated to wider social issues, hence the
most positive concept can be summed up by
human development, advocated as a
fundamental action issue by the UN.
"What we are seeing today in Latin America
and the world is the destruction of society," he
added. For the ECLAC secretary, promoting a
more solid and collective development and
building a mechanism for social cohesion are
among the most important tasks ahead.
In his lecture on poverty and global power,
Pablo Casanova from the Institute of Social
Research at the Autonomous University of
Mexico, argued that the privatizations promoted
by neoliberalism are killing nations' social
development.
He affirmed that the key is to be found not
in giving to the poor but in not taking from
them, and that the first thing needed in the
quest for an alternative policy is to preserve our
dignity and lose our fear.
The Mexican, a visiting professor at Oxford
University, warned that we should prepare for
an economic war against the nations enjoying
global power and move on from a policy of
resistance-as in the case of Cuba, which he
cited as a magnificent example-to one of
building a new correlation of forces.
The economic problem is not an economic one,
he explained, but one of power. The march
to liberate humanity without losing dignity
or abandoning our peoples is beginning in
Seattle, Havana and Porto Alegre.
Robert Solow, U.S. citizen and president of
the International Economists Association, and a
Nobel Prize winner in his field of
expertise, advised that other countries should follow
Cuba's example in health care and education
to raise the quality of life and reduce
inequalities that can emerge in any nation.
The U.S. academic considers Cuba to be in a
better position than other countries to move
forward by opening up its economy, due to
its strong protection in social sectors that have
been severely hit by the globalization
process.
Solow, who supports freedom of the economy
in general, proposed that measures should be
taken to curb the influence of speculative
capital, which upsets stability.
The professor agrees with his country's tax
system and criticized tax reductions for the rich
promised by the new U.S. administration.
He lamented the state of the U.S. social
system, particularly where health and education are
concerned.
At the close of this edition the debate in
Havana continues, thus confirming that differences
of opinion are useful in terms of reaching
consensus, as was demonstrated by the presence of
executives from the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB), Inter-American Dialogue
and the World Bank.