World Alliance of Reformed Churches News Release 11 October 2007
Global trading system - a weapon of mass destruction
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) has joined activists around the globe in calling for fair, equitable and just trade while urging churches to join the Trade Week of Action 14 to 21 October.
"We call on churches, especially those in wealthy, powerful countries, to join in the Trade Week of Action campaign," said Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth, WARC's executive secretary for the Office of Church Renewal, Justice and Partnership.
"Show your solidarity through awareness raising, lobbying and demanding life-giving alternatives which give preferential treatment to those for whom life is at stake. Let us all join in a collective effort with partners to address the immense problems of life and death faced by a majority of the world's population as a matter that is critical to our faith."
In 2005 churches around the world joined with other civil society groups in a Global Week of Action calling for trade justice. It brought together the voices of 10 million people in 80 countries and served as the first major event in the global call to make poverty history.
The Trade Week of Action is a key time to call for just trading relations and to join millions of other people who are taking action that week. Some of the actions include:
-jubilee campaigns joining in a Global Week of Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions; -a day to Stand Up Against Poverty on 15 to 16 October organized by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty; -World Food Day on 16 October; -the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October; -the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund annual meetings 19 to 21 October.
WARC says that millions of people are condemned to poverty by the current global trading system. No matter how hard they work, millions of the impoverished earn less every year. The alarming situation means that half the world's population is living on less than $2 (U.S.) a day.
Disparities between the rich and the poor are widening with one per cent of the world's population now enjoying annual income equivalent to that of the poorest 57 per cent. Every day 30,000 children die of hunger, disease and other consequences of extreme poverty.
"This genocide carried out on the world's poorest people is supported by a global trading system which upholds a cruel world economic order that allows the wealthy and powerful to accumulate even more while continuing domination over a disposable underclass.
"Trade justice is a fundamental human right and a crucial factor in addressing hunger and poverty. A major economic problem facing poor countries is the brutal control of the global trading system by wealthy countries.
"Global trade rules and policies are lopsided and unjust as they serve to fill the pockets of the rich while cheating the world's poorest people," added Sheerattan-Bisnauth.
She said that trade liberalization threatens the livelihood of farmers in developing countries, that women are particularly disadvantaged by unfair agricultural trade practices and that the European Union's decision to halt trading agreements with former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific will hurt developing countries.
More about the Trade Week of Action:
2007 Trade Week of Action - www.tradeweek.org
Jubilee campaigns: Jubilee South - www.jubileesouth.org / Jubilee USA - www.jubileeusa.org
International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN) - www.igtn.org
Via Campesina - www.viacampesina.org
Presbyterian Hunger Program - www.pcusa.org/hunger
Agribusiness Accountability Initiative - www.agribusinessaccountability.org
Black gold: wake up and smell the coffee - www.blackgoldmovie.com
bilaterals.org - www.bilaterals.org
IFIwatchnet - www.ifiwatchnet.org
***
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) brings together 75 million Reformed Christians in 214 churches in 107 countries - united in their commitment to making a difference in a troubled world. The WARC general secretary is Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana. WARC's secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Contact: John P. Asling Executive Secretary, Communications World Alliance of Reformed Churches 150 Route de Ferney P.O. Box 2100 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland tel. +41.22 791 6243 fax: +41.22 791 6505 web: www.warc.ch
More about WARC: http://www.warc.ch/newsreleases/visibility.doc
WCC ID: nJoBWU5exi1qWrutF9UPe3zxFO1kvkS1uXQ4WDHV1NjMpf3OQUc2W1yD9KlKiEs