Bishop urges poor nations to fight
economic injustice, speaking to World Council of Churches' central
committee meeting in Potsdam
Says global credit system turns people of
debtor nations into "property"
by Jerry L. Van Marter, Ecumenical News International
POTSDAM, Germany -- 30-January-2001 -- A Methodist
bishop from Argentina today urged "dependent countries" to
confront the global economic system "in which we are becoming the
property of those who hold our debt"- creditor nations.
Bishop Aldo Etchegoyen of the Evangelical Methodist
Church of Argentina spoke during a meeting of the World Council of
Churches' central committee in the east German city of Potsdam. In a
discussion of globalization and during a later press conference,
Etchegoyen stopped short of calling for debtor nations to unilaterally
stop making international debt repayments. But he insisted that
something must be done to halt "a perverse system that has gotten
completely out of control."
Francisco de Assis da Silva, a priest from the
Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, was more direct. Declaring that
debtor nations have been "forced to accept the perverse logic and
morality of International Monetary Fund policies that raise taxes, cut
social spending and freeze wages," Assis da Silva told the central
committee that "the churches must have the moral commitment to
persuade governments to stop the payment of interest "so we can
have justice and self-determination."
Argentine debt repayments to foreign governments and
international financial institutions amounted to $34 000 "every
minute," Etchegoyen said, adding that the annual repayments
represent "more than 150 times what we spend on health and
education." A suspension of the payments would free $10 billion a
year for health and education efforts in his country, he said.
Etchegoyen referred to the Jubilee 2000 campaign,
which achieved major concessions for many indebted nations, but argued
that its success depended on the "economic power ruling the world,
and that power is concerned not with life but with profit."
The central committee's discussion on global economics
took place while the World Economic Forum was wrapping up its annual
meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Dr. Rogate Mshana, the WCC's officer for
economic-justice issues, criticized the Davos gathering for
"closing the space for dialogue" by using police to break up
anti-globalization demonstrations.
"The ecumenical community is clear on the need
for a new way of living marked by participatory, accountable,
ecologically sound and people-empowering systems," he said during
the press conference. "We're not seeing that at Davos."
In closing remarks, Etchegoyen pointed out that the
first World Social Forum was being held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The
social forum brought together representatives of non-governmental
organizations and social movements. Two thousand people were expected,
but more than 10,000 showed up, the bishop said.
"We must welcome this tremendous international
mobilization," Etchegoyen told the central committee. "It is
very important for the churches to take their part in this great
mobilization against injustice."
During a plenary discussion, Bishop Mdimi Godfrey
Mhogolo of the Anglican Church of Tanzania complained that the central
committee had "missed an opportunity here" by not addressing
the issues raised at Davos. "Instead of input on their current
thinking, we are repeating stories of 10 years ago," he complained.
Mshana said the WCC was involved in direct
conversations with World Trade Organization (WTO) staff and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) policy-makers on global economic
issues. He added that the WCC had "created a team of experts to
advance these discussions."
One goal of the talks, Mshana said, was to create
"a mechanism for negotiation between creditors and debtors,"
as well as to develop "support for movements to achieve
cancellations, moratoriums and reparations" around global debt
issues.
"The weapons the church has are moral and ethical
perspectives on these issues," he said. "The world, as
currently ordered, is not sustainable." Other speakers put the
immorality of globalization in starker terms.
"The debt of my country [South Africa] was
accumulated by the regime that was trying to destroy me," said Dr
Maake Masango, a pastor of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern
Africa. "Why should I pay for the regime that was destroying
me?"
Several speakers linked global economic problems and
violence, an issue the WCC is tackling through its Decade to Overcome
Violence. Ngoyi Misenga of the Church of Christ in Congo said that
"economic collapse" in her country meant that "boys are
having to go into the army or police, girls are going into prostitution,
and young children are winding up on the street -- all places of bad
violence."
Dr Agnes Abuom, a member of the Anglican Church of
Kenya, called the market economy promoted by organizations such as the
WTO and IMF a "power of death." She said their policies have
"eliminated the space to engage the powers that be with alternate
models," resulting in growing violence by and towards the
increasingly frustrated and desperate people of her country.
All agreed that the church must continue addressing
these issues.
"How else are we going to get out from under our
difficulties?" Etchegoyen asked, adding, "We'll only find a
way out together, not unilaterally."
The Washington Post reported that
participants at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre cited United
Nations statistics indicating that the world's wealthiest classes saw
their share of world income rise from 69 percent to 86 percent between
1960 and 1994, while the world's poorest saw their share slip from 2.4
percent to 1.1 percent.
The UN has reported that 1.3 billion people live on
less than $1 a day. And according to the World Bank, Swiss citizens'
average daily income equals the annual income of an average Ethiopian.
