Communication rights central to a new global financial system

In a response to the Brazil conference, World Association for Christian Communication has underlined that the whole panoply of communication rights – beyond freedom of expression and opinion – must play a key role in the development of a new global financial system:

The final statement from the conference (available here in draft form)  called on churches to “affirm a commitment to communication rights to advance the empowerment of communities in developing alternatives to the current financial and economic structures.” It also urged steps “to promote information and communication structures that support alternative financial and economic structures”.

WACC general secretary Karin Achtelstetter said:  "WACC welcomes and supports the commitment in the statement to develop alternatives to the current financial and economic structures by affirming the communication rights of those who are marginalized and dispossessed.”

She urged “ecumenical partners to use the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+10 review to address the unjust communication and information structures that are the central nervous system of the current international financial architecture.”

The joint press release about the conference from the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Council of Churches and the Council for World Mission is available here.

Building bricks for a new financial and economic architecture

After five days of intensive discussion in Brazil on new financial and economic architecture the conference wound up with a statement setting out a framework and criteria for a new architecture based on the principles of economic, social and climate justice, serves the real economy, accounts for social and economic tasks, and sets clears limits to greed. It includes critical theological reflection, an action plan and milestones for transformation, short and medium term actions, structural changes, strategies and actions for churches, and signs of hope. The document is undergoing final editing and will be posted here as soon as possible. It should include a commitment to communication rights and the need to work for more just information and communication structures.

Prophetic analysis and policy making

Churches have five modes of speaking prophetically, South African theologian Nico Koopman told the conference in Brazil: prophetic envisioning, prophetic criticism, prophetic storytelling, prophetic technical analysis and prophetic policy making. What this means is that in prophetic public theology it is not a matter of prophetically denouncing injustice and then moving onto the 'technical' business of analysis and policy development, but that technical analysis is also a matter of prophetic theology:

Our prophetic task entails that we engage in continuous technical analysis of the challenges that we face in the context of globalisation. In technical discourses the wording of the prophet must be painstakingly accurate. Concepts need to be defined in a clear, comprehensive and concise manner. Experts from various disciplines assist theologians in this endeavour. Clear thinking, precise use of words and compelling reasoning facilitate the engagement of theology with public life. The ethical discourse helps to make narratives public and to translate the passionate pleas of the prophet into rationally defensible public positions. And by assisting these discourses to be more vocal and public in credible and constructive ways, an impact is made on the formation of public opinion, public ethos, public Zeitgeist/thinking and eventually on public policy and public behaviour and practices.

And on prophetic policy making at local, regional and global levels:

To impact on public life and to affect the course of events churches need to participate in policy discourse. Policy discourse is conducted by people who have the responsibility to make choices and to carry out the actions that are required by those choices. Visionaries, critics, storytellers, technical analysts can all function with the external perspective of an observer, but policymakers function with the internal perspective of persons and agents who are responsible to make choices in quite complex and specific circumstances that constrain their possible actions. Policy is to be developed in particular conditions that both limit and enable the possibilities of action. The ethical should give direction to policy, but more is required for final decisions and policies: estimates and assessments of what is possible with the help of sociological, economic and other concepts; information on how to move practices and institutions with efficiency from where they currently are to where they could be and ought to be within a specific time frame. In policymaking the variety of vulnerable people need to be given priority, amongst others children, women, oppressed racial groups, poor people and exploited workers. This notion of the priority of the most vulnerable will help that the unavoidable compromises associated with policy discourse will not impact negatively on the most vulnerable. Opting for the most vulnerable serves as benchmark with regard to policymaking, and especially with regard to the adoption of unavoidable compromises that policymakers have to deal with.
To assist policymaking churches cannot be satisfied with broad visionary statements. Neither can we just offer criticism. We also cannot be satisfied with storytelling. We even need to go further than technical analysis. Based on all of the afore- mentioned we need to participate in policymaking processes. This participation does not imply that we offer blueprints for policymaking. Between detailed blueprints and broad visionary statements we formulate so-called middle axioms that are derived from our work on prophetic vision, prophetic criticism, prophetic storytelling and prophetic analysis.

The full text - A Public Theology of Global Transformation in challenging times?- can be found here

Brazil weathers financial storm by taking the opposite path to austerity

Even in the midst of a global crisis, which also has repercussions in Brazil, it has been possible for the country to address questions of poverty, Brazilian Lutheran theologian Walter Altmann told participants on Thursday.

Altmann, who is also moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches, was explaining how Brazil has tried to weather the storm of the financial crisis while also continuing programmes of poverty reduction and economic development.

Fifteen years ago, Brazil defaulted and had to go to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. Today it has more than 300 billion US dollars in its reserves and is lending to the IMF. At the same time more than 40 million people have been lifted out of
poverty over the past 10 years and another 15 million out of extreme poverty, even if much still remains to be done.

Ten years ago there were 4 Brazilian reais to the US dollars. Now there are two, and at one point the real was at 1.5 to the dollar.

When Lula was elected president 10 years ago on his fourth attempt, many commentators predicted chaos and economic collapse, when the new government launched social programmes at the heart of government policy - such as guaranteeing a minimum income for every family. But the country grew economically, and Lula built up the nation's financial reserves, often in the face of opposition from the left.

But when the crisis hit, Lula said, "just like Jospeh, now is the time we are going to spend the money and put it in basic needs", through a housing programme that constructed dwellings and provided employment.

"Unemployment has never been as low as it is today," said Altmann, noting that there had also been a shift from the informal to the formal employment sector.

"When the neoliberal recipe is you have to take austerity measures, cut education and health care ... Brazil went the opposite way," he continued. While the external flow of goods has declined, a strong internal market has maintained demand, even if something of a slow down is expected.

Earlier in the conference, Luiz Kohara of the Gaspar Garcia Centre for Human Rights noted that while Brazil ranks sixth in terms of GDP, it is a position 84 on the Human Development Index. Still, infant mortality has declined from 120.7 to 15.6 between 1970 and 2010, life expectancy has increased from 57.6 to 73.4 and the illiteracy rate has declined from 33.6% to 9.6%.

We're getting there ...

Hat tip to Marcelo Schneider for these brilliant pics of participants at the conference limbering up to construct a new financial and economic architecture:

Conference reading list

So now I'm cheating by posting links to material and articles from the International Conference on a New International Financial and Economic Architecture.

The submission from the World Association for Christian Communication (which I am representing) - "Towards a new international information and communication architecture" - can be found here  www.wcrc.ch/sites/default/files/WACC_information_architecture.pdf  together with accompanying presentatiion slides. (Photo with WACC general secretary Karin Achtelstetter by Marcelo Schneider.)

Other documents and presentations submitted to the conference can be found on the website of the World Communion of Reformed Churches: www.wcrc.ch/node/868/

And here is a selction of articles about the conference (list will be updated as more articles are published):

The World Association for Christian Communication:
Communication rights are vital to transforming the global economic structure 
“Any discussion about an alternative financial architecture must take into account the design, role and ownership as well as the powers that control information and communication structures.”

World Communion of Reformed Churches:
There are alternatives, says leading development economist at ecumenical meeting
The assumption that the current financial and economic crisis is unnecessary and that Europe must now learn from some of the emerging and developing countries were among the key points shared by British economist, Richard Jolly, at a global conference on the principles for a new economic system taking place in Brazil this week.

Globethics.net:
Time to 'walk the talk' on ethical investment 
New legally binding regulations of financial markets and investments are needed alongside the promotion of ethical finance initiatives, Globethics.net Executive Director Christoph Stückelberger has told an international conference in Brazil on developing new global economic structures.

World Council of Churches:
Leading development economists offer alternatives
The current global economic and financial scenario has been described as the “mess we are in” by Sir Richard Jolly at a global conference on a new economic and financial architecture taking place in Brazil this week. He pointed out the lack of good governance in many countries.

Conference in Brazil links people’s struggle with financial architecture 
“It is not possible to talk about a new financial architecture without linking it to the pain and struggles of the people,” said Rev. Dr Collin I. Cowan at an ecumenical conference on a new financial and economic architecture, currently underway in Brazil.

'Defending the innocence of the victims'

On Tuesday, Jung Mo Sung, a Catholic lay theologian teaching at the Methodist University of Sao Paolo and who came to Brazil from South Korea in 1966, explored faith responses to the global economic crisis. According to Sung, the author of "The Subject, Capitalism, and Religion: Horizons of Hope in Complex Societies", a typical response of churches is to use moral appeals or ethical arguments, but moral appeals don't work because people don't share the same values and such appeals assume the problem is an issue of people's subjective morality. An ethical appeal can point towards the need for a universal ethical system, but the strength of the church is not in its ethical orientation but in its spiritual and theological foundation.

Alongside moral and ethical appeals, churches also articulate a theological critique by talking of "God's economy" in distinction to the current global economy, or speak of "God's judgment" on the economy. However, these are the "wrong ideas" according to Jung No Sung. By talking of "God's economy" this makes the economy into a sacred/divine system rather than the result of human actions. However it is neo-liberalism that has turned the economy into a sacred system by making the market an unquestionable given; talking of God's judgment implies a model on which judgment is based, but this also makes the economy a matter of divine action, and one that does not answer the questions of production, distribution and dealing with scare resources. The non-deliberate effects is that this is not seen as an alternative and thus the neo-liberals (who claim there is no alternative to the present economic order) are seen as being right.

Instead, Sung's starting point is an analysis of the foundations of the market society; the meaning of history is economic progress; a spirituality of consumerism; a free-market system representing the best civilization; and the invisible hand of history representing divine providence in history. Thus, at the heart of western culture there is a fundamental theological idea that "God" controls history and that justifies sanctions against the poor (who are to blame because they are inefficient). This is symbolised in the shopping centres that are the new cathedrals of the modern age.

In developing alternatives, spirituality plays a major role - a theme that he develops further in his book "Desire, Market, Religion" - in defending the innocence of the victims sacrificed on the altars of wealth of the institutions of the international capitalist systems, and in giving of hope for plenty, when the reality is scarcity.

'Mass movements needed to reform financial system'

From the World Communion of Reformed Churches:

A revival of mass movements for social change is needed so that the voices of ordinary people will be heard in discussions about reform of the global financial system, says a Latin American leader of a landless peasant movement.

João Pedro Stédile of Brazil’s National Movement of Landless Rural Workers has told a church-sponsored conference in Brazil on reforming the global economy that populist movements are attempting to rearrange the economies of the countries of the world. Their intent, he says, is to push for changes to solve the main problems of the people - the search for food, land, jobs, housing and education.

Stédile is one of the speakers at the Global Ecumenical Conference on a New International Financial and Economic Architecture initiated by the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). The conference, organized in partnership with the World Council of Churches and the Council for World Mission, runs from September 29 to October 5 in São Paulo, Brazil.

Seventy economists, theologians, anti-poverty advocates and social scientists have gathered to do a critical analysis of the impact of the global financial system on populations and the environment and to propose a fresh vision on which to build a new economic and financial “architecture”. The aim is to create a concept for a system, based on principles of economic, social, climate and ecological justice that serves the true economy, responds to social and ecological concerns, and sets limits to greed, say conference organizers.

“The problem is the lack of a wider mass basis. Social movements are being criminalized everywhere in the world,” Stédile said in an interview in São Paulo yesterday. “Our hope is that soon we will witness a revival of the mass movements and that these movements, in turn, will put the real problems of people on the agenda.”

“Rather than limiting ourselves to converging documents and statements, we need to have a stronger impact in the current correlation of forces and that can only happen through popular mobilization,” the anti-poverty advocate adds.

Conference organizers are working to prepare a statement that defines the principles of a new model of economic exchange that shares wealth more equitably and takes account of the need to limit consumption of non-renewable resources. A panel of people with connections to financial and economic institutions will be set up following the conference to promote discussion of the principles in financial decision-making forums.

'Be Outraged: There are Alternatives'

"Be Outraged" - that was the message of Richard Jolly in his keynote address to the Brazil conference. It is also the title of a pamphlet produced by Jolly and 11 other British economists and social scientists arguing that austerity is bad economics, bad arithmetic, and ignores the lessons of history. In his address Jolly said that the crisis is unnecssary, there are alternatives; that Europe can learn from the emerging developing countires, and that there needs to be a a "recovery plus" plan: a focus  on employment actions, care and gender (including a balance of care between men and women), redistribution and growth, transforming the financial sector from being a bad master to a good servant.

Johannesburg and Zurich ...

The conference itself is taking place in a hotel and conference centre in Guarulhos, the second largest city in Sao Paulo state and, with more than 1.2 million people, a "suburb" of the city of Sao Paulo itself that is the home to the city's international airport. The conference rooms are named after destinations from the airport, and by a sheer fluke, the conference is occupying the two meeting rooms named "Zurich" and "Johannesburg". Somehow that seems strangely apt for a conference called into being in 2010 by the Uniting General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Zurich, after all, is one of the sources in Switzerland of Reformed Christianity; Johannesburg for a long time part of an unjust state which justified itself on the basis of Reformed theology.

At the same time, Johannesburg and Zurich also represent the global South and global North in the world economy today: Zurich, one of the major financial centres of Europe, Johannesburg a metropolis of the South. The partition that divided Johannesburg and Zurich (the meeting rooms of course) had been slid back to form one large meeting room. But will it be as easy as that to bring together the different interests of the South and the North, even at a conference such as this? Already in the discussions today, there were very different perspectives offered about what it means to work towards a new financial architecture. Does it mean denouncing injustice and strengthening groups at the grass roots working for justice in their own societies, or entering into dialogue with the financial and political "experts" - and what constitutes an expert, in any case? If this conference is to succeed, it must mean more than just sliding back the partition to create a superficial and temporary unity. Rather it will mean bringing together these different perspectives and insights into a lasting force for a new - and more just - financial architecture.