2012 Global Economic Justice Workshops
As the interconnected global economy continues to be in crisis the fast we seek must restore economic and social relationships across the world. it must be a fast that lifts up the voices of our impoverished brothers and sisters globally. Within these workshops, engage with the intersections of the economy and inequality – from the global financial system, to food justice, to corporate responsibility. Take on these broad issues and walk away feeling educated and empowered to help transform our world together.
Workshops Coordinators: Mary Donahue, Jubilee USA Network, and Susan Starrs Thompson, Medical Mission Sisters Alliance for Justice
Session I – Saturday, March 24, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Foreign Assistance Reform: Doing more with 1 Percent
Did you know that less than 1 percent of our federal budget goes to foreign assistance program that address poverty? This workshop will help you better understand how U.S. foreign assistance currently works and how it is funded. Discussion will focus on the prospects for reform, policy implications around aid effectiveness and congressional priorities. Join us to learn how foreign assistance can become more efficient and how policies and funding impact the fight against global hunger and poverty.
Speaker: Liz Marcey, Bread for the World.
Trade in Our Daily Lives
Trade has transitioned into an entity that affects more than simply tariffs and goods that are exchanged but trade has a profound affect on our daily lives from the food we eat to the impacts it has on low income nations. This workshop will focus on a new emerging trade deal – the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement that is currently being negotiated between nine countries: Brunei, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States, Chile, Malaysia, and Peru. The presenter will cover areas that could be affected by this new trade agreement such as the impact on our domestic laws, job loss, declines in access to medicine, and deregulation of financial institutions. Participants will be provided with action steps that they can take back to their communities of faith to turn the tide on unfair trade deals.
Speaker: Brooke Harper, Senior Field Organizer, Public Citizen, Global Trade Watch
Session II – Saturday, March 24, 2:15 – 3:45 pm
The World’s Hunger, Citizen’s Solutions
This workshop will be interactive and will include a co-presenter from a farmers’ organization in the developing world. For many years experts from USAID, The World Bank, The FAO have been talking about world hunger. The numbers of hungry have only increased. While the world summits on food security and related meetings on global hunger have been held for many years, 2011 is the first time that civil society including farmer’s organizations have been invited to have a voice at intergovernmental meetings like the Committee on World Food Security housed for 37 years at the FAO. This workshop will review the solutions provided by the world’s farmers for global food security. It will review the proposals and their reception or rejection by governments in solving hunger and related issues: climate change, gender, production, environment and trade. The current status and likely future of such solutions will be reviewed, weighed and discussed.
Facilitator: David Andrews, Food and Water Watch; (Ndiogou Fall, peasant leader, video)
Solutions to the International Debt Crisis: Winning a True Global Biblical Jubilee
The global economy has become interconnected and increasingly faces global crisis. Which fast must we seek now? We must renew our call to Jubilee, work towards equity between local and global communities, cancel unjust debt, and create mechanisms and guidelines to cultivate right relationships. One way to do this is to continue to work in the global Jubilee movement – with past successes in unjust debt cancellation for the world’s most impoverished, and winning reforms to the international financial system, the Jubilee USA network is working for solutions to the international debt crisis and a real jubilee. Learn about the global jubilee movement and current efforts to enact transformed lending practices, tax justice, and an implementation of what an international bankruptcy court could do to pave the way towards eradication of poverty. Engage with these complex issues and be ready to join the Jubilee movement for global economic justice!
Speaker: Eric LeCompte, Jubilee USA Network.
Session III – Sunday, March 25, 11:00 am— 12:30 pm
How Did Corporations Become so Powerful and What Can We do?
In every area of public policy (foreign affairs, health care, education, trade, ecology, energy, etc.) governmental decsions are heavily influenced by a handful of powerful large corporations. How did corporations become so powerful today? This workshop will explore that question and will examine alternatives to rein in their power and influence.
Facilitator: David Kane, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; Joan Stallard, Move to Amend and Coalition on Corporation Personhood — DC.
Agro-ecology Can Feed the Future
Agro-ecology applies ecological principles to agriculture systems, enhancing yields, rural incomes and farmers’ control over seeds and local knowledge, while reducing the use of fossil-fuel based inputs and protecting the environment. Learn about farmers’ experiences with agro-ecology in Africa and Asia, why it should be at the heart of US food security programs, and what we can do to make that possible.
Facilitator: Krista Zimmerman, Lutheran World Relief
Speakers:Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy; Ron DeWeerd, Food Resources Bank.