Transcript INTRODUCTION - Luc Guillory

INTRODUCTION
 We are grateful to Unctad to give us this opportunity to present our
vision of an alternative economic system that we think is the way
forward for a sustainable world.
 Purpose : introduce some alternatives which are complementary to
the Report of the Secretary-General and to the Civil Society
Declaration to Unctad XIII.
 Both documents are very inspiring, but we think we need to go a
step further.
 Share France-Partage international promotes the values of justice
and sharing as the pillar of the future.
INTRODUCTION
 Only a fair sharing of the world resources can bring about economic
justice which alone can lead to peace.
 It is very urgent to put and end to the world competition between
nations and to create a new Multilateral Economic and Ecological
Consensus.
 Life has a spiritual origin and men are spiritual beings.
 Economy therefore should reflect this spiritual nature and be based
on a cooperation, justice and equity.
New Multilateral Economic Consensus
 The present crisis is the consequence of the failure of the
Washington Consensus based economic order.
 The « laisser faire » of the market forces, the fierce competition
between nations and within nations has led to the present collapse.
 As stated in the original Civil Society Declaration (CSD) : We are
witnessing a « confluence of inter-related crises that is driving
humanity and ecosystems to the brink of global disaster ».
 However, we do not see a « truly transformative agenda » (CSD)
New Multilateral Economic Consensus
 The « Business as usual » attitude prevails. Conservative forces are
doing their utmost to prevent any significant changes in the world
economic order that would challenge their privileges.
 They compel governments of developed nations to stick to
neoliberal policies.
 The present crisis equals or surpasses that of 1929 on a world
scale :
 45 millions people have been pushed into dire poverty since 2008.
New Multilateral Economic Consensus
 1 billion or more suffer from malnutrition and dozens of millions
are litterally starving to death.
 Thousands of billions of Dollars and Euros have been mobilized to
bail out the financial world, « too big to fail » that otherwise could
be devoted to social welfare, education, healthcare...
 And now these financial forces are taking control over some
developed nations for the sake of their sole interest.
New Multilateral Economic Consensus
 As stated in CSD, despite immense material wealth available on the
planet, we are now facing a crisis which is manifold :
 Food crisis
 Economic crisis
 Financial and monetary crisis
 Environmental crisis
 Our model for development is obviously obsolete, dangerous,
inefficient, and driving us to the very edge of chaos.
 The 'old paradigm' is dead.
New Multilateral Economic Consensus
 Just one example of how the situation is urgent and dramatic :
 Amazon rainforest : a critical ecosystem to our global climate ; it
has been called the engine of the global weather system, the rain
machine and the lungs of the planet.
 Between 20 to 40% is already degraded significantly.
 Tipping point where the entire hydrological cycle of the Amazon
could begin to unravel : 50%. We are now close to reaching that
point. If the world ecosystem collapses, what will happen then ?
New Multilateral Economic Consensus
 We need a new « paradigm »...let's make it indeed.
 We need a NEW and holistic approach which entails :
Food security for all humans
Economic justice
Predictable and stable monetary order
Regulated and monitored financial system
Sustainable consumption of resources, energy and goods.
New Multilateral Economic Consensus
 We need an inter-related plan of global strategies agreed upon by
the 192 sovereign nations (not G7,8,20...) under the auspices of the
General Assembly of the United Nations.
 Unctad is the appropriate agency to lead the way and design such
global arrangement and implement programs.
 We call it with a general term « Global and Green Marshall Plan ».
 The Civil Society could create a coalition to cooperate more closely
with Unctad and assist them in their endeavour.
A pool of Global Commons
 There is no denial that we are undergoing a « growing climate and
ecosystem's crises » (CSD).
 Air, water, ground, forests...are polluted to such an extent that the
long term survival of humanity and the sub-human kingdoms is
threatened.
 The main causes of climate changes lie with human activities which
partly result from our frantic materialistic consumption.
 « We have already exceeded planetary boundaries – capacity of the
Earth's ecosystem tp regenerate itself » (CSD).
A pool of Global Commons
 We must therefore « meaningfully transform our unsustainable
consumption and production patterns » (CSD).
 This is really the number one conditioning element for all our
political and economic decisions from now on.
 It means 3 concomitant consequences :
The North MUST reduce its level of consumption, its capture of
natural ressources (between 60 and 80% of all resources) ;
The South should not try to 'copy' the North ;
We need a global and responsible management of the natural
ressources of the world by the 192 stakeholder nations of the
world : air, water, minerals (including gold, silver, metals, oil...)
A pool of Global Commons
 This has no chance to happen in a context of global competition
and economic war.
 It requires a negotiated definition of Global Commons.
 Natural ressources should not be considered as a 'weapon' to
perpetuate dominating positions but as world assets to be carefully
monitored globally.
 It sounds naïve, but we are destroying Mother Nature at a pace
unknown before the 20th century. We have no other choice left than
a co-operative, co-creating an co-managing economy.
A pool of Global Commons
 And we have to do it NOW. There is no 'future', there is only now.
 Cooperation only can help achieve that and create the conditions
for a fair and intelligent future. The market forces will not do it.
 So called market 'efficiency' : want a proof that a clever and well
designed cooperation is more 'efficient' in achieving sustainable
positive results than the so called market efficiency ?
 Let's take the example of the MDG's goal on clean drinking water.
A pool of Global Commons
 Objective : halving the number of people without access to clean
drinking water by 2015.
 Program of cooperation acted by UNICEF and WHO under the
supervision of the UN General Assembly : has enabled over 2 billion
people to get access to improved drinking water resources.
 At the end of 2010, 89 % of the world population (6,1 billion) used
improved drinking water resources and estimates are that 95 % will
do so by 2015. MDG target is already met, even before the
deadline.
 Staggering achievement (still 780 million people without access to
safe drinking water – 2,5 billion lack improved sanitation).
A pool of Global Commons
 We need to redirect our efforts towards increased multilateral
cooperation.
 A real empowerment of the United Nations and their organisations
is necessary. We must overcome the national interests based
approach of 'international cooperation'.
 Budget : today the total UN budget is around USD 20 billions....
very poor.
Reaching food security for all
 As stated in CSD : « Decades of neglect in small-holder agriculture
support and investment, unilateral trade liberalization in the South
and increasing financialization of the food and commodity
markets » are the major root causes to the present food crisis.
 « Small holder agriculture is the backbone of many countries'
economies » (CSD).
 Nowadays, some 1 billion people suffer from malnutrition, chronic
or permanent. Dozens of million starve to their death.
 Is there any shortage of food on planet Earth ?
Reaching food security for all
 No, there is a surplus of food in the world of about 10-12 % per
capita.
 The structural reason of hunger in the 21th century can be
summarized in one word : complacency.
 Food does not reach people who have no purchase power. The
market forces decide who will eat and live and who will die.
 The right to food is not, in act, a Human Right.
Reaching food security for all
 One of the main problem has to do with the « food and commodity
markets » and their « increasing financialization ».
 Food crisis in 2008, 2009 : peaks in prices when national security
stocks were low. Poor countries missed the money to buy crops,
rice... on the international markets. This triggered hunger revolts in
various places of the world.
 The most urgent action therefore, is to withdraw the control of food
supply in the world from the so called free markets.
 We have to put and end to hunger and to ensure the long term
food security.
Reaching food security for all
 We need a combination of coordinated plans :
 Emergency Food Relief Program : the immediate task ahead is
to create such program, that is, get the food to the people in need.
 At present, the UN and many NGOs intervene in regions where spot
food crises are accute. There should be an extended program with
appropriate budget to use the huge amounts of food which are
stored – and get sometimes rotten, so as to preserve the market
prices – in warehouses of the world.
 All Stock surpluses should be released, shipped and dispatched to
poor segments of the population. All skills are available to organize
a permanent global supply chain.
Reaching food security for all
 Such plan should go on for some years, as long as necessary,
mobilizing all resources available.
 It is the number one priority on the world economic agenda (not
the European states budget deficits that do not please the financial
markets which created them for most part of them).
 If we understand ourselves as « Human » and « Divine beings »,
there is no other priority.
Reaching food security for all
 Joint Food Security Plan :
 Nations should negotiate global food security stocks of the main
basic food such as rice, wheat, crops in general and others.
 The purpose is to have around the world a number of permanent
facilities into which nations in need may tap in case of major
climate and natural or otherwise disasters which would result in the
disruption of their national food supply chain.
 This was part of the Brandt Commission recommendations, and still
very valid today. Each net-exporter-of-food nation could contribute
to such facilities.
Reaching food security for all
 Global Plan for small-holder organic farms :
 Unctad's concern : too much emphasis on industry and services to
the detriment of investment in national agriculture.
 Severe conditionalities of Structural Adjustment Programs have left
fragile national agriculture in developing countries facing
competition by strong, organized, powerful and subsidized foreign
agro-business.
 This has devastated entire rural areas and millions of small farmers
have migrated to the slums of big cities in the South where there is
no job for them.
Reaching food security for all
 National self sufficiency should become the number one target,
wherever possible.
 It means a global agreement to combine investments, technology
transfers, cooperation between engineering methods and local and
'indigenous' knowledge, to rebuild national agricultures and develop
organic farming.
 This would have to go alongside with national politics of land
redistribution and other measures.
Reaching food security for all
 India : because of the 'green revolution', India has become a net
exporter of food. Still many people in India suffer from malnutrition.
 The world Green Revolution should therefore be monitored within a
cooperation plan by nations, whereby the United Nations would act
as a « proxy » to negotiate Commitment Agreements with recipient
countries. Accountability and transparency are key to the success of
such program.
 Funds : developed nations commited once to dedicate 0,7 % of
their GDP to Development Aid. This money – provided they would
actually meet the requirement – could partly be used to fund such
program.
Reaching food security for all
 Fixing the prices of food : today the commodity markets are the
'clearing house' for the determination of food prices.
 With the growing implication of finance, this means that a bulk of
private actors play a major rôle in determining the prices.
 The future belongs to a system of prices negotiated and determined
directly by the nations, at least for all staple food which are basic to
sustaining life.
New Global Trading and
Reserve Currency
 War on currencies is ragging. Currencies are used as weapons.
 Fierce speculation on currencies have had and can have devastating
effects on national economies and ruin decades of efforts.
 As pointed by CSD, « The shortcomings of the current international
monetary system has not been accompanied by concerted and
coordinated action for reform. While the danger inherent to a
contiuation of the status quo – based on the domestic currency of
one country as the main international trading and reserve currencyare evident, tehre is no shared vision for reform ».
New Global Trading and
Reserve Currency
 A supranational wolrd currency should replace the present unstable
system fueled with speculation, floating currencies.
 It should serve as the pivoting currency for the convertibility of all
currencies with a limited spectrum of variation.
 It would be necessary to have a mechanism for periodical
adjustments of the value of this world currency, based on some
kind of weighted index value : a basket of non monetary
commodities such as gold, silver......taken from the Global
Commons commodities.
New Global Trading and
Reserve Currency
 It could be an extension of the SDRs and be used for loans to
developing nations at low interest rates, but without
conditionalities.
 A Global Central Bank could be set up to monitor this currency,
under the supervision of the UN General Assembly.
 At regional level, several experimentations are under way. The key
point is : who creates and control the money. Such regional
arrangements could go along with the supranational currency.
New Global Trading and
Reserve Currency
 It could be an extension of the SDRs and be used for loans to
developing nations at low interest rates, but without
conditionalities.
 A Global Central Bank could be set up to monitor this currency,
under the supervision of the UN General Assembly.
 At regional level, several experimentations are under way. The key
point is : who creates and control the money. Such regional
arrangements could go along with the supranational currency.
Knocking on the tax havens
doors
 Chasing the « tax havens » is necessary to create a fair and
balanced global economy.
 Hundreds of billions of Dollars or Euros are being diverted each
year, that could otherwise be helpful to meet the basic needs of
hundreds of millions of people.
 Black list etablished by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) with
classification of Non Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCT)
with lists in year 2000, review in 2009, 2012.
 2012 February report : 17 countries ranked (with potential counter
measures to be applied)
Knocking on the tax havens
doors
 Strangely, in the first rank only Iran and North Korea appear... not
many hedge funds in these countries...
 Where are the British Islands, the Delaware state of USA, Macau...?
 The list has been established according to political considerations,
but not so much because of economic damages.
 It is necessary to extend that work and actually work to eradicate
tax havens.
Regulating the world finance
 The yearly world GDP is estimated to some Euros 45 trillions.
 The financial markets move some USD 3,450 trillions in capital – 76
times the total production of the real economy).
 That means that no country can resist to a coordinated attack
against its currency or economy.
 Unlike trade, labour, tourism or transport, finance is the only sector
not bound to comply with a comprehensive set of regulations.
 Shadow banking (hedge funds...)is left free to rove about the world,
unregulated, beyond controls.
Regulating the world finance
 In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis and the bail out of the financial
system, nothing serious has been undertaken to regulate this
sector.
 Now former big bank top executives are found at the head of
governments in developed countries, to promote a 'rational'
economic policy of austerity, which means recession, cuts in social
spending, privatization of national assets... very much like the
Structural Adjustment Progams applied to the developing nations in
the past.
 In developed countries, commercial banks control the creation of
money and governments are impeached from their sovereign
control over the creation of money and forced into debt.
Regulating the world finance
 The question is : Tobin or not Tobin ?
 It is essential to promote a strong regulation of the financial
system.
 The best mean is the creation, among many other measures, of a
compulsory taxation system on all financial transactions, with
particularly dissuasive rates on highly speculative products
(derivatives....). That will help to « limit the incentives for damaging
short-term speculation in financial markets » (CSD).
 A supranational notation agency could be instrumental, provided it
is not in the hands of private shareholders.
Green and Global Marshall Plan
 « We simply cannot afford to delay much longer the fundamental
overhaul in economic governance that is required at all levels, and
the fundamental paradigm shift in development that can save us
and future generations from global social and environmental
chaos... We must craft a new global social contract...We must begin
thinking of alternative ways of organizing social and economic
relations » (CSD).
 This is what a Green and Global Marshall Plan is all about. It is a
combination of all plans hitherto described, with the addition of
others. The world is in disarray, old economic formula no longer
work.
Green and Global Marshall Plan
 We have to work towards a more integrated and responsible world
economy that secures the basic needs of people and preserve the
resources of the planet.
 We need a Marshall Plan arrangement to redirect financial resources
to build resilient national production capacities in the developing
world, according to lines of development which are sustainable.
Green and Global Marshall Plan
 That means a comprehensive collection of the needs of each
country, a collection of the resources available, a plan to match
them, and the definition of a global fund with the determined level
of participation of each country.
 It also necessarily means a clearing house to eradicate the debts of
the LDCs and of many developing nations.
 We will need a new UN agency to supervise this Global Marshall
Plan.
Green and Global Marshall Plan
 A country by country based contractual partnership could be
established for a transparent monitoring of international endeavour
and national commitments.
 That would be the best way to devise an effective program to
promote rural life, develop local industrial capacities and improve
the conditions of life of hundreds of millions of our fellow world
citizens.
 In such a scheme, international trade would not be the be-all and
end-all, but would reflect the actual added values in the exchanges
between countries.
Conclusion : Building up peace
 The present economic war is driving us to chaos.
 Only cooperation can lead us out of the present turmoil.
 Cooperation is natural to humankind because it reflects our divine
nature.
 We are divine souls in incarnation.
 Our purpose is to evolve and express the qualities of our souls, be
as souls, behave as souls.
Conclusion : Building up peace
 The first spiritual act that humanity has to accomplish is to
understand that spiritual nature and understand that it is one, as a
unit, a big family.
 Economy therefore should reflect the equal right of all to have
access to the world resources.
 It also means a responsible management of our planetary life and
resources. It took billions of human years for all the kingdoms of
nature to reach their present stage of development. We have no
right to put all this evolution in jeopardy because of our greed,
selfishness and materialistic oriented mind.
 We have to build up an economy that will sustain life on this planet.
Conclusion : Building up peace
 Cooperation and equitable sharing of the world resources will create
economic justice, which will build up trust and that trust will result
in peace.
 The purpose of life is not to accumulate fortune and wealth and
material products, it is an ongoing process of growth of
consciousness, understanding of the purpose of life, enrichment of
social life.
 We cannot continue to deny this right to half the world population.
 We have to create the conditions of decent conditions of life to
release people from the struggle for life and give them
opportunities.
Conclusion : Building up peace
 Then only the totality of humanity may enjoy life and its gifts, then
only may people be able to express their own talents and creativity.
 The key note of the future is: unity in diversity.
 Thank you very much for your attention.
 Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
By : Luc Guillory, President of Share France – Partage international,
France.