Om Aha Mani Foundation

Opposition to Globalisation.

An historic first meeting of the Group of 77 developing nations took place in Havana, Cuba with the leaders of 80% of world's population reaching a consensus on major issues facing the South.

They collectively condemned the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation as agents of the North's economic policy makers whom they hold responsible for creating conditions of abject poverty in the South and for dramatically increasing the gulf which exists between rich and poor.

Cuban leader, Fidel Castro said, "While before we spoke of apartheid in Africa, today we can speak of apartheid in a world where four billion people are deprived of the most elementary human rights."

The final declaration defined development as a basic human right stating:

"We will promote respect for universally recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development."

Meanwhile, representatives of civil society, 200 organisations from different backgrounds and 60 countries, meeting in Geneva for an Alternative Summit added their weight to the growing opposition to globalisation. Their final declaration, a devastating critique of its effects stated:

"The world is not a commodity and humanity is not a resource. The time has come to recognize that international trade and its leading institution, the World Trade Organization are in a state of crisis. It is time to replace this outdated, iniquitous, oppressive system by a framework for fair and durable trade for the 21st Century."

Among their recommendations is the Tobin Tax, a tax on daily currency speculation of some 2 trillion dollars. The proceeds would be spent on combating poverty.

The New Economics Foundation, in its new report, Paradise Lost, concludes:

"The world is not poor. Lack of political will is the only reason that poverty and environmental degradation are allowed to continue. "

New policy tools will increasingly be judged by how they move countries towards human development and environmental goals and not just abstract economic growth. "It s time for developed countries to move out of denial, and stop wrapping the pursuit of their self-interest in a false economic morality."

Contacts.

Paradise Lost £5 from NEF see contact above.

To support Geneva Declaration: http://www attac.org/geneve2000

Debt Cancellation: http://www.jubilee2000uk org.