The Lessons of Seattle for Social Development
- PDF / 44,047 Bytes
- 3 Pages / 535.756 x 697.236 pts Page_size
- 85 Downloads / 195 Views
26/4/00 2:40 pm
Page 91
Development. Copyright © 2000 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200006) 43:2; 91–93; 012999.
SID On-line Dialogue
The Lessons of Seattle for Social Development JAMES HOWARD
ABSTRACT James Howard argues that the collapse of the Seattle Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 3 December 1999 provided dramatic proof of a deep-rooted change in perspectives which surfaced in Copenhagen five years ago, at the World Summit for Social Development. Seattle showed that efforts to accelerate globalization through narrow trade and investment liberalization proposals which neglect a social dimension or a regard for the concerns of developing countries will fail. Popular dissatisfaction with the social, environmental, and democratic deficits of globalization are reaching an intensity that cannot be ignored. Activities of civil society groups, individually and in coalition, will have a growing impact on the debate. KEYWORDS globalization; investment; labour standards; trade; trade unions
Putting Copenhagen in perspective The outcome of Seattle gives a powerful boost to the arguments of all those actors which, like the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), have been opposing the wave of crude market liberalization which began in the neo-liberal offensives of the 1980s. It marks the beginning of the end of irresponsible globalization. One of the most notable features of the Copenhagen Summit was that it reasserted social priorities on the world’s political agenda after more than a decade of infatuation with financial orthodoxy and market liberalization. The Social Summit’s 10 commitments marked major progress in defining a broad, yet precise, consensus about what needs to be done to tackle the global crisis of unemployment and poverty. However, five years after the UN World Summit for Social Development, there is a sense of drift as those historic commitments continue to remain unimplemented. The absolute number of people living in poverty is still increasing
16 – Howard
26/4/00 2:40 pm
Page 92
Development 43(2): SID On-line Dialogue and social disintegration is intensifying in many countries, with greater impact on excluded persons and groups. Women, in particular, remain poorer, more marginalized and more subject to poverty than men. An end to irresponsible globalization The search for lessons from the debacle of the Seattle Conference may yet provide an opportunity to re-launch a process of development in the year 2000 which can put a human face on globalization. It must lead to a belated recognition of the value of the World Social Summit and the need for governments and major international institutions to assume the responsibilities of globalization. The conclusions of the World Social Summit in 1995 brought to prominence a number of key elements: • the importance of equity within and between countries, between social groups and between women and men, as part of the development proce
Data Loading...
