Another Economy is Happening.

The View from Montevideo: Day One.

Hola! I am writing this from Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, where I am participating in a three-day workshop on Solidarity-Based Economics. The event was convened by the Justice and Solidarity unit of CELAM, an organization that supports the work of 22 national conferences of Catholic bishops throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. There are representatives from 17 different countries in the Americas participating in the workshop, all of whom work every day in different ways to promote economic justice and realize the elusive vision of Catholic Social Teaching on the economy: the economy should serve people, and not the other way around. We are only in the first day of the event, but the verdict is already in: another economy is happening.

You may be familiar with the slogans “Another world is possible,” or “Another economy is possible.” These phrases were born out of the World Social Forum as a way to express both the rejection of a global economic system that has failed so many millions of poor people and the conviction that it can be changed. Well, the folks here — particularly the Brazilians — have updated the slogan to reflect the fact that in all of the countries where we work, there are thriving projects that have advanced the cause of economic justice: the “Solidarity Economics” movement in Brasil, the “Communion Economy” initiative in Uruguay, countless microfinance operations, hundreds of Fair Trade cooperatives and at least one effort to blaze a path into Fair Trade tourism!

More as the event unfolds. Meantime, thanks for being part of “the other economy,” which, in case you missed it, is happening.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 and is filed under 100% Fair Trade, Fair Trade . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Another Economy is Happening.”

john Stack Says:
June 26th, 2007 at 8:17 am
What is your opinion about the proposed changes in USA Immigration law? is there anything you would suggest that would have the effect of helping ” the other economy.”
Fair Trade Beginner Says:
June 26th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Folks may be interested to know that the US Social Forum begins tomorrow in Atlanta. The website is
https://www.ussf2007.org/ Organizers hope that the USSF sends a message to other people’s movements around the world that there is an active movement in the US opposing US policies that contribute to injustice at home and abroad.
Robert Wheeldon Says:
June 27th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Thank you for enlightening me.

I am trying to figure out what “Another U.S. is necessary” means. I would say, many more U.S. are necessary. As a matter of fact, I hope that some day every nation on Earth is another U.S.

But I don’t think that is what is meant.

And unless someone convinces me that CRS does not support the social-progressive desire to fundamentaly change the nature of the U.S., CRS will not longer need to worry about what to do with the 2% of my annual income I have given to CRS each year for decades. And CRS will not need to worry about being named in my will.

Robert Wheeldon
Jefferson County, WA, USA
Michael Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Robert:

Thank you for your comment and your contributions to Catholic Relief Services — we deeply appreciate both your engagement and your financial support. The discussion here in Montevideo has not been focused on the United States or on tearing anything down, but rather on the autonomous and innovative efforts of poor people in Latin America to change their reality — to participate in the global economy in ways that more closely reflect the values of our faith. The Church in Latin America is actively accompanying communities in this effort — an activity that has deep roots in the Catholic social tradition and an urgency that the Church has confirmed in recent years. During a visit to Chile in 1987, His Holiness Pope John Paul II told the UN’s Economic Commision on Latin America and the Caribbean, “I believe that our best hopes for the region lie in solidarity economics.” I was invited to participate in this Solidarity Economics workshop because local churches throughout the region are increasingly seeing Fair Trade as an effective, market-based way to promote a brand of economics that is rooted in the principle of solidarity.

Your comment, I suspect, was in reference to the comment posted by Fair Trade Beginner regarding the U.S. Social Forum. CRS has no affiliation with the U.S. Social Forum, and is not driven by a social-progressive desire to fundamentally change the nature of the United States. Our agenda for change in the United States is rooted in Gospel values and reflects our mission to assist poor and disadvantaged people around the world. We work to achieve this mission every day in nearly 100 countries around the world through highly professionalized programs in Agriculture, Community Health, Education, Emergency Response, HIV/AIDS, Microfinance, Peacebuilding and Safety-Net Programming for highly vulnerable individuals. This work is necessary but not sufficient for us to achieve our goal, since it does not alter the structures and systems that may have contributed to the human suffering that our programs address.

To this end, we work to identify issues that affect disadvantaged people around the world, and to shape U.S. policy in these areas to ensure that they do not perpetuate inequality or injustice. In our advocacy work, we collaborate closely with our Church partners overseas to ensure that our positions on these issues accurately reflect the realities of the communities affected. In recent weeks, this commitment has led us to raise our voice on behalf of disadvantaged people overseas on issues related to foreign aid, hunger, immigration, peace in the Holy Land and the U.S. Farm Bill. I invite you to visit our advocacy Action Center at http://www.actioncenter.crs.org to learn more about our work in the area of legislative advocacy. I hope that you will find our advocacy agenda consistent with your values and our work as agency worthy of your continued support.

Thank you again for weighing in, Robert.
Robert Wheeldon Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Michael says:

“In recent weeks, this commitment has led us to raise our voice on behalf of disadvantaged people overseas on issues related to foreign aid, hunger…”

So what is CRS doing to prevent the conversion of foodstuffs (for example, corn) into motor vehicle fuel (ethanol). It has already been reported that the rise in price of corn is making it more difficult for poor Mexicans to feed themselves.

In Washington State, our all Democrat state government has really jumped on board promoting biofuels and is using taxpayer dollars to convert foodstuffs (corn and soybeans) into motor vehicle fuels. This is totally immoral as long a people go hungry.

Sincerely,
Robert Wheeldon

BTW, Michael, why are you allowing a CRS blog to be used to promote anti-American propaganda?
Michael Says:
June 29th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Robert:

Thanks again for your comments. I confess I am not fully informed about the ethanol debate, and don’t know what, if anything, my colleagues on the advocacy team are doing/planning to do about it. I think this is a perfect example, however, of just how hard it is to make good policy. I think it is safe to say we are moving toward a national consensus around the need to develop alternative and sustainable sources of fuel, so initiatives like the one you mention in Washington are trying to create positive change regarding the environment (less reliance on finite natural resources, cleaner-burning fuel), the economy (expand market opportunities for farmers, reduce fuel costs) and the state of the world (reduce importance of fuel as a strategic resource in volatile regions). But even the best-intentioned policies can have unintended or unforeseen effects, like the one you mention. Perhaps there is another aspect here that is worth exploring — that corn-based fuels could also bring benefits to poor Mexican farmers, who have been growing corn for millennia? Again, I am far from expert on this theme, but it occurs to me that it is a good example of the complexity of making good policy…I will check in with the advocacy folks and update this comment thread when I have more info.

Meantime, I think the theme of complexity may be helpful in finding a more moderate ground for discussing the issue of U.S. policies. No one at CRS — and no one who has posted to this blog, as far as I can tell — has been spreading anti-American propaganda. I think the suggestion that has been made here is that making policy that doesn’t adversely impact the poorest and most vulnerable people — even policies designed to do great things — is hard. And we see part of our role in accompanying local churches and marginalized communities throughout the world as listening to those communities and churches and bringing their perspectives to bear on the dialogue here in the United States when we feel they are not adequately represented. I am sorry if you have been offended by any of the content posted here, but I really appreciate you weighing in to raise different perspectives. In the end, I think that is precisely the function good blogs can serve — they become spaces for fruitful debate, spaces for people to articulate and, hopefully, work toward agreement on issues that really matter. Limiting the comments posted here to only those that are totally aligned with our mission would make it hard for this blog to serve that function. Personally I am convinced that, as my university president once said, memorably, “bad ideas will perish when bathed in the bright light of scathing moral scrutiny.” And thoughtful dialogue. Scathing moral scrutiny and thoughtful dialogue. Thanks again for proving some of both here!
Michael Says:
June 29th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Hey, John Stack!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on the immigration-economic justice connection. I am not an expert on the immigration issue in general or the latest legislation in particular, so I have asked for help from a few folks who will be able to give you a better perspective than I might — colleagues in our Advocacy Unit (www.crs.org/get_involved/advocacy/index.cfm) and our Mexico program (www.crs.org/our_work/where_we_work/overseas/latin_america_and_the_caribbean/mexico/index.cfm), as well as our partners at Cafe Justo (www.justcoffee.org).

The experience of Cafe Justo, a partner of our Mexico program and our Fair Trade Coffee program, illustrates in a powerful way the connection between the issues of migration and economic justice. The organization grew out of the work of Frontera de Cristo, a project of Presbyterian Border Ministry, a joint effort of the Presbyterian churches of Mexico and the United States. Mark Adams, Frontera de Cristo’s director, explains that during his work with Mexican migrants, he began encountering lots of coffee farmers who abandoned their farms when coffee prices were too low for them to support their families. To make a long story short, this initial conversation led to the creation of Cafe Justo, a farmer-owned Fair Trade enterprise that was founded with the explicit mission of creating enough economic opportunities in coffee-farming communities in southern Mexico so that farmers didn’t have to migrate to the United States in order to support their families. When I first met Eri Cifuentes, Cafe Justo’s president, he told me that Cafe Justo has allowed countless members to exercise their right NOT to migrate — to remain in their communities and cultures of origin and earn a dignified living…Yet another great reason to support Fair Trade!

I will post again when I hear something from my better-informed peers…Thanks for the question!
Michael Says:
July 6th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
John & Robert:

Cheers! Our Country Manager for Mexico, Erica Dahl-Bredine, was kind enough to take time from her busy schedule to share her thoughts on your questions about the ways that our economic justice work might be affected by immigration legislation and ethanol production. Her thoughtful answers are below…Thank you both for your concern. And thank you, Erica, for your generous response!

Michael

IMMIGRATION BILL

Although the Senate immigration bill was far from perfect, CRS and the U.S. Bishops were supporting efforts to move it forward and to get several key amendments passed which would have improved it considerably. CRS and the Bishops do believe that our current immigration system is broken and no longer fits the economic realities of our time. Mexican farmers and workers are being displaced from their country, in part because of trade and economic policies which the U.S. has had a part in shaping. Therefore while the U.S. is reaping the benefits of increased economic integration with Mexico, it must also be prepared to share the social costs of that integration. In addition, immigrant workers are contributing enormously to the U.S. economy and to our Social Security system. We know that the U.S. is facing a significant labor shortage and without immigrant workers, key sectors of our economy will suffer.

Given this current economic reality, it makes no sense to continue forcing people to risk their very lives to cross the border, only to reward them with a job if and when they do make it across alive. We need a safe and humane way to regulate immigration so that people can cross legally with a work visa, which is currently nearly impossible to obtain, and so that our border patrol agents can stop chasing potential hotel maids and meat packers through the desert and concentrate instead on fighting the real threats to our national security.

So, in that sense, yes we believe that creating safe, legal pathways for migrants to enter the United States to work is one part of creating a more just and humane global economy. It shouldn´t stop there, however. We also believe that making international trade more fair is a very important part of supporting development efforts and reducing poverty in the countries that are producing so many migrants. Finally, our foreign aid to these countries should increase and should be targeted at the kinds of programs that can create sustainable and equitable development at home so that ultimately people do not feel compelled to migrate in search of work.

ETHANOL

CRS does not have a policy on corn production for ethanol at this time. The recent increase in tortilla prices in Mexico was not related exclusively to ethanol production. It also had to do with alleged speculation and hoarding by unscrupulous corn traders and the fact that Mexico’s corn flour industry is almost completely controlled by two very large companies. Having said that, our partners in Mexico are quite concerned about what you accurately describe as the conversion of land for food production into production of biofuels. They are concerned about the implications of this for Mexico´s food supply as well as the environmental implications of dedicating more and more land to large-scale industrial production of ethanol. We would welcome your thoughts on this as we work to develop a position on this important issue.
Chris Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 10:15 am
John -

I just wanted to add a bit in response to your question on immigration. As the Church came to the issue of immigration, they did so from the framework from the joint Pastoral Letter Strangers No Longer (http://www.usccb.org/mrs/stranger.shtml). It is a pretty impressive document, more so in the fact that it was written jointly by the Bishops of the United States and Mexico.

In it they outline several principles based in Catholic Social Teaching. The first of these, and I’m paraphrasing here, is the right not to migrate. They actually say:

“All persons have the right to find in their own countries the economic, political, and social opportunities to live in dignity and achieve a full life through the use of their God-given gifts. In this context, work that provides a just, living wage is a basic human need.”

From the principles outlined in this pastoral letter, the Justice for Immigrants campaign was born (www.justiceforimmigrants.org). One of the principles in the campaign for a just and fair immigration reform includes addressing root causes of migration, including economic inequities between the nations. To get at this, since the inception of JFI, we have tried to link the issue to another of the Bishop’s campaigns, the Catholic Campaign against Global Poverty: Trade, Aid & Debt (http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/globalpoverty/), in order to help people understand that in a globalized world, economies are interconnected.

Unfortunately as the Immigration debate shaped up, the more complex links to Trade and impacts on “the other economies” were drowned out in the rhetoric of protecting borders. Our advocates on the Hill continue to work with legislative staff to try to make that larger link, that immigration can’t be solved in a vacuum.

In direct answer to your question, there wasn’t anything in the last version of the Senate bill that would have addressed other economies. In the 109th Congress, the Senate version (S.1033) did have nonbinding language that the US government should work with Mexico to promote economic opportunities for Mexican’s in their home country. I admit that’s weak at best but it was actually a victory to get folks to recognize the larger economic forces behind immigration.

Thanks for recognizing that the systems are connected! You’d be surprised how many folks don’t get that link.

Peace –
Chris
Michael Says:
September 7th, 2007 at 7:37 am
More on the relation between ethanol production and social unrest in Mexico related to corn prices in this morning’s New York Times (http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/ethanol-and-the-tortilla-tax/index.html) to underscore Robert’s contention that we need to be very thoughtful in how we move toward alternative fuels that are sustainable in the broadest sense–environmental, social and financial.

Another Economy is Happening.

10 Responses to “Another Economy is Happening.”

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