2014 Global Economic Justice Workshops

Climate, Conflict, and Development: Part 1

Saturday, Mar 22, 2014, 11:00 am

Resource based conflict is one negative effect of climate change already being felt across the world, particularly in the Global South. Climate change has also posed an immense challenge to people’s livelihoods. These challenges call for a paradigm shift in development approaches. Donor governments and development agencies need to see the linkages in livelihoods, climate, and conflict and provide for short term coping and longer term adaptation strategies. Two speakers, one from Kenya and the other from Sri Lanka, will explore these challenges and suggest alternatives to the current development model.

Workshop Resources:

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Speakers:

  • Mrs. Everlyne Nairesiae, Regional Program Coordinator, Giving Hope Program, Church World Service, East Africa
  • Herman Kumara, Convener,  National Fisheries Solidarity Movement in Sri Lanka.

Economic Violence in the Guise of a Trans-Pacific Partnership

Saturday, Mar 22, 2014, 11:00 am

Twenty years after the U.S. negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. is pushing forward its largest trade partnership yet that will incorporate at least twelve countries on four continents and represents about 40 per cent of the global economy. Will this partnership create more jobs for women, rural communities, and industrial workers and go further to protect the environment as the partnership promises? Or will the agreement protect corporate profit over the rights of workers, God’s Earth and people? A panel of civil society experts will share with us just what the Trans-Pacific Partnership has to offer and suggestions for action in your community.

Speakers:

  • Melinda St. Louis, International Campaigns Director with Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch
  • Christina Cobourn Herman, Associate Director of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate US Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation Office
  • Jesse Prentice-Dunn, Representative of Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program

Irresponsible Corporate Investors: How Tax Aversion and Trade Rules Harm Communities

Saturday, Mar 22, 2014, 2:45 pm

Corporations are rewriting the rules from international trade to taxes. For every $10 that a country receives in aid, it loses $15 as a result of corporate tax aversion. The reliance of corporations upon corporate tax loopholes and offshore tax havens deprives developed and developing countries alike the resources they need to bring people out of poverty. Tax shifting is estimated to cost the U.S. and Europe approximately $100 billion per year in lost tax revenue. Additionally, we find these same corporations included in the decision making for international trade agreements that impact the lives of millions of people. Is this the kind of power people of faith want to see corporations wield?

Speakers:

  • Celeste Drake, (invited), Trade and Policy Specialist at the American Federation of Labor and congress of Industrial Organizations
  • Lori Wallach (invited), Trade Lawyer, Author and Director of Global Trade Watch at Public Citizen

Responsible Lending and Borrowing

Sunday, Mar 23, 2014, 1:30 pm

For more than two decades the international community has implemented a series of measures to address unsustainable debt burdens on loan agreements and international financing. Join us as we explore how the U.S. government can implement responsible lending and borrowing principles that promote democracy and bring people out of poverty in countries around the world.

Speakers:

  • Aldo Caliari, Director of the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project at the Center of Concern
  • Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network

Seeking Solutions to the Violence of Global Hunger

Sunday, Mar 23, 2014, 1:30 pm

This workshop will focus on the need to reform our climate, foreign aid, and trade policies to support a transition to innovative approaches to food security built on traditional knowledge and enhanced by scientific innovations. Agroecology, a combination of the sciences of ecology and agronomy, promises an alternative, integrated approach that is garnering the support of local farmers and practitioners around the world. Learn and share ways to build support for agroecology locally, nationally and globally.

Speakers:

  • Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s International Program in Washington, D.C.
  • Fr. Sean McDonagh, SSC, Columban priest and author from Ireland

Contributing Sponsors & Partner Organizations