Global Economic Justice
There can be no truly comprehensive immigration reform without addressing global economic injustices. Come learn about how US-promoted global economic policies force people to leave their homes and become people on the move.
Saturday, March 20th
10:30-12:00 Track Time I
Plenary: Global Connections: Understanding the Push & Pull Factors of Migration
International trade policies and the debt crisis have pushed people to leave their countries, journey across borders, and work and reside in distant lands. Come listen to the stories of three speakers at each point of the journey - from a Central American country facing massive out-migration, the U.S./Mexico border, and the DC-metro area where many new immigrants work and live - and the policies that pushed and pulled them.
Speakers TBA
2:50-4:20 Track Time II
Economic Justice & Migration: Biblical Roots and Present-Day Realities
The Bible not only offers us countless stories of migration and movement of peoples, but also offers us the prophetic vision of a just world and right relationships between peoples. This plenary will explore those biblical roots as well as discuss present-day realities of economic injustice and migration, discussing real solutions for how we can create God’s vision here on Earth.
Speakers TBA
Who Owes Whom? Issues of Climate Justice
Countries in the Global South bear the harshest burden from climate change and have the fewest resources to combat it. Climate change is increasing the spread of infectious diseases and causing more natural disasters, as well as food and water shortages – creating millions of climate refugees. Harmful agriculture practices, including deforestation, mono-cropping and the heavy use of agro-industrial inputs promote growth in rich countries, while hurting the most impoverished. The reality is that large, industrialized nations including the United States bear most of the responsibility for the climate situation we’re in today, and therefore owe a climate debt to developing countries – much more than the value of loans that the Global South continues to pay to the North. This leaves us asking, “Who owes whom?”
Unfortunately, current policy solutions may force impoverished countries to take out more loans to fight climate change; so countries get further into debt while trying to fight the crisis. Come learn about the concrete changes that can save the planet while addressing global inequities, including emission reduction and paying our climate debt to the Global South through funding adaptation and mitigation.
Speakers TBA
Sunday, March 21st
2:50-4:20 Track Time III
From Foreclosures at Home to the Debt Crisis Abroad: How the Global Economic Crisis Affects Us Here and Around the World
In the U.S. predatory lending practices and unregulated speculation led to a global economic crisis, which pushed more than 100 million people were into extreme poverty around the world in 2009. Global leaders rightly noted that the most vulnerable around the globe, who had no hand in creating the crisis, are suffering heightened food insecurity and a growing debt crisis, setting the stage for a dangerous situation in US and the rest of the world. Come learn about the connections between experiences in our own communities and in communities in the Global South. We will look into the harmful influences of the financial institutions and the practice of food and other commodity speculation on global stability and prosperity, and the shortcomings of the global response to the crisis for poor countries.
Speakers TBA
Building the Movement in Your Community
This workshop will give us the tools we need to learn how to continue EAD’s momentum in our home communities. Learn how to strengthen the economic justice and migration movement in your faith community, school, or community group. We will discuss legislative initiatives that expand debt cancellation, promote responsible lending and borrowing, and establish more just trading relationships as well as just trading relationships, as well as ways to plug into a number of exciting events and opportunities for action around the world in the coming months.
Speakers TBA
4:30 - 6:00pm: Track Time IV
Plenary: Artistic Performance on Economic Justice and Migration
Get out of “lecture mode” and explore the deep issues of economic justice through creative expression. The performance will have us engaging in and witnessing the economic and ecological driving forces behind migration and marginalization through a combination of artistic expression – dance, theater, spoken word, video, and respondents will then encourage and facilitate participants’ response.
Speakers TBA