Religious Groups Advocate "People-based" Trade at WSF

 
The strong presence of church organizations, networks, educational institutions and agencies represented at the WSF brought to mind the Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt reduction. At the WSF, a recent initiative called the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance was presented as part of several initiatives at a three-hour conference on the issue of religion and trade. The program included participation by the World Council of Churches, Christian Aid of the United Kingdom and the Lutheran World Federation. Panelists from Africa and Latin America gave presentations. The mix of countries, genders and faiths represented created an excellent vision of the process of integration of many traditions throughout the world in this effort. Significantly, there were no US panelists, although a contingent of Canadians did attend.

In fall 2002, the Alliance launched a three-year campaign to advocate for people-based fair trade principles. Its approach emphasizes moral and spiritual values over economics. It does not pretend to respond to economic models with alternative economic visions; rather, the idea is the work within faith traditions that value the human dimension.

An excellent example is the "Globalizar la Vida Plena" campaign of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI). This project has a strong biblical focus. Its office for faith, economy and society will soon move from Quito to Puerto Rico, where it will be able to provide assistance to Latino communities in the United States. The project seeks to strengthen the creation, understanding and acceptance of more ethical developmental and integration standards based on a prophetic religious vision.

While this and other programs concentrate on a global and regional focus, national versions exist, as well. The "Fale" project in Brazil, for example, is a network of young people and students who pray and speak out against injustice, especially social inequality. Again, we see the application of a combination of learning and action based on spiritual values that in this case are related to evangelical traditions. This is a significant difference with the US, where the more evangelical churches are less prone to become involved in campaigns for social justice and advocacy.

The experiences shared at the WSF were extraordinarily rich and valuable for South Florida efforts to bring some clarity and balance to questions of free and fair trade and the impact of the FTAA on our communities. For more information, see: www.e-alliance.org, www.clai.org, www.fale.org.br or www.actionaid.org.br.