Global Left Denounces US Policies, Urges Global Taxes
By Cliff Kincaid
CNSNews.com Correspondent
March 20, 2002
Monterrey, Mexico (CNSNews.com) - On the eve of President Bush's arrival at the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development, a global forum of several hundred non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has demanded a global tax on currency transactions as a means of financing increased foreign aid and "stabilizing the international financial system."
President Bush's call for the U.S. to spend an additional $5 billion on foreign aid over the next three budget years, described by the White House as "the largest three-year increase in history," was labeled a "modest first step" by U.S.-based NGOs at the forum.
Flanked by a banner proclaiming "For the Fair Distribution of Wealth," organizers announced that the NGO "Declaration of Monterrey" also demanded the cancellation of all Third World debt, a universal minimum wage, and "progressive taxation systems" within countries. The document is designed to influence the thinking of world leaders and future U.N. conferences.
Participants in the global forum, which was financially underwritten by the Ford Foundation, could buy posters of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Latin American revolutionary who helped Cuba's Fidel Castro rise to power; copies of the Communist Manifesto; the works of Lenin and marijuana smoking devices. A 6-foot high "Peace Pole" dedicated to world peace was installed at the start of the event and participants meditated around the pole.
At one global forum panel discussion, Professor Yash Tandon of Zimbabwe drew heavy applause by declaring, "Cuba has done very well" and should be followed as a development model by other countries.
Cuba was represented at the NGO forum by several speakers on such topics as Third World debt relief. However, Marlen Sanchez of the National Association of Economists of Cuba told CNSNews.com that the issue of Cuba's financial debt to the old Soviet Union was too "sensitive" a topic to discuss.
Sanchez, as well as Jesus Guerra of the United Nations Association of Cuba, strongly endorsed the global currency tax known as the Tobin tax to generate funds for Third World development.
Lene Schumager of Denmark, representing the World Federation of U.N. Associations, proposed that Tobin taxes or an Earth stamp or carbon tax be used to fund the NGOs themselves.
The leading American NGO participating in the forum was InterAction, the foreign aid lobby that represents groups such as Catholic Relief Services, CARE, and Save the Children. Other U.S. groups at the forum included the Women's Environment and Development Organization, founded by Bella Abzug, and the Women's International Coalition for Economic Justice, headed by Carol Barton, who gave a passionate speech denouncing welfare reform in the U.S. as "racist" and a plot by right-wingers.
The forum, which attracted about one thousand people from scores of countries, began with an inaugural address by Paul Nehru Tennassee of the World Confederation of Labor, who denounced Christopher Columbus as someone who "invaded, destroyed and pillaged" the Inca civilization in Mexico. Tennassee said the current global system was a form of slavery and that, "We, all here today, are in the tradition of resistance."
The demand for global taxes was followed at the closing ceremony by the personal appearance of Nitin Desai, the U.N. Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, who said NGOs promote ideas that are later adopted by the U.N. As examples, he cited proposals to increase overseas development assistance as a percentage of gross national product and to cancel or reduce Third World debt.
A statement from Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, was read to the crowd urging adoption of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan for a "global deal" for more foreign aid in exchange for developing countries reforming their political and economic systems.
Harris Gleckman, a member of the U.N.'s conference secretariat, told CNSNews.com that NGO representatives were being inserted into discussion roundtables at the conference itself so they could promote their ideas to official country delegations.
American NGO representatives at the conference were scheduled to include former President Jimmy Carter, Sylvia Mathews of the Bill Gates Foundation and Mary McClymont of InterAction. Foreign NGO representatives came from Iraq, Cuba and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Meeting in the "Coca-Cola Auditorium" on the site of a closed steel foundry, NGO representatives in Monterrey voted to change the name to the "Steel Auditorium" to show their disdain for multinational corporations. A priest sprinkled bottled water, as the auditorium was being "re-baptized." Local residents said the foundry was closed because it was uncompetitive and a big polluter.
Mexican Lara Frade, a key organizer of the forum who heads a group called Women's Eyes on the Multilaterals, described participants as "brothers and sisters in struggle" and declared "we are the rational consciousness of the world." However, panel discussions at the three-day event frequently failed to start on time and were characterized by power failures preventing lights and microphones from working.br
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