I was in Nairobi, Kenya, where on January 18 and 19, 2007, I participated at a Workshop on Extractive Industries organised by the International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE) - a Confederation of Catholic Development Agencies and one of the major organising bodies of the World Social Forum (WSF). The Workshop, part of the events of the 2007 World Social Forum, brought together about 90 people, including representatives of Development agencies from Europe and America, as well as activists on the justice and environmental issues regarding extractive industries from countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Participants were drawn from Guinea, S/Leone, Liberia, D.R.C., Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon, Chad, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Benin, Angola, South Africa, the Philippines, India, Cambodia, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru. Others came from the U.K., Germany, Belgium, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United States.
The gathering provided an opportunity for the sharing of experiences on the exploration, exploitation and management of such mineral resources as Petroleum, Natural Gas, Gold, Diamond, Iron Ore and Timber, and the impact of the enterprise on local communities, indigenous people, and the economies of the countries involved. We heard terrible stories of the massive ecological damage, human displacement, economic impoverishment, the uprooting of especially indigenous people, and the monumental corruption that often accompany the exploitation of these natural resources.
The ironical conclusion in practically every case presented from resource rich countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America is that the societies are a lot poorer today than they were before the commercial exploration and exploitation of these resources, and the exploitation of these resources and the management of the wealth accruing from there have invariably thrown these countries into socio-political crisis, whether it be Oil in Nigeria, Timber in Brazil, or Diamond in Sierra Leone. The storyline is the same.
We reflected on the conduct of Multinational Corporations, the role of such International Financial Institutions as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Financial Cooperation, the European Investment Bank, and the African Development Bank. We took a critical look at the involvement of the Northern Governments, the responsibility of Southern Governments, and the challenge before Civil Society Organisations of both the North and the South, to improve their advocacy mechanism towards getting the Institutions, Companies and Governments to respect the rights of the local peoples to free, informed, prior, consent, in the exploration and exploitation of the resources, and to adhere strictly to international standards, not only relating to accountability and fairness in the distribution and management of the wealth generated from the mining and oil explorations, but also relating to the preservation of the natural environment that is often endangered by these extractive enterprises.
The Workshop ended with a set of messages addressed to each one of the above-listed stakeholders. Multinational Corporations are called upon to subordinate their profit motive to the interests of the local people and the priorities of the host governments, adhering to international standards of accountability and transparency. In countries where their activities have caused major conflict in the population, these Companies are advised to abandon such ventures (even if for a time) so that the people may have the opportunity to pursue genuine reconciliation towards lasting peace. The International Financial Institutions which support or finance many of the extractive projects, or whose policies guide the conduct of these enterprises, are on their part urged to undertake a major paradigm shift in the principles behind their interventions in poorer countries, as such interventions, instead of solving the problem of poverty appear to have rather aggravated poverty and instigated social instability in most of the poorer nations, from Nigeria to the Philippines and from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Bolivia.
From the testimony of participants, it was difficult to find any country in the Southern hemisphere where I.M.F. and World Bank interventions have really turned their economies around in the short term and placed them on a sure footing for a prosperous future. Instead what we heard were stories of misery and pain, and graphic presentations of social dislocation and cultural disorientation, especially arising from the Structural Adjustment Programmes. Not a few angry participants held the view that these institutions are the instruments in the hands of neo-imperialists to further the economic and cultural subjugation of the poorer nations of the world in an era where colonialism has become unfashionable. Others held that it is the uncritical, indiscriminate implementation of a neo-liberal agenda in every country where they have intervened, like a one-size-fit-all jacket that is responsible for their failure. The message from the participants to these institutions therefore is: “You have failed woefully to achieve what you set out to do in these poor countries. You have messed up not only economies, but also their social and cultural cohesion. Why not admit your failure and quickly do a re-think in your ideological orientations and adjust your methods, or otherwise pack your bags and leave these countries alone!"
Among other demands, the Northern Governments are called upon to check the excesses of the multinational corporations headquartered in their countries. They are urged to see that the companies from their countries operating in the South observe such minimum standards of human rights, accountability, transparency and respect for the environment, as would be demanded of them if they were operating back at home. Where they fail to do this, they are warned that they would have to take some responsibility and bear some liability for the damage done by those companies in the poor countries. Northern Governments are also called upon to help strengthen the Governments of the South to be able to regulate and monitor the activities of these multinationals, as there are many cases where the host governments are far too weak and too disorganized to effectively regulate and monitor the activities of the companies.
The Southern Governments in their own turn are challenged to stop selling the present and future generations of their people for a mesh of porridge. They are called upon to eschew corruption in management of revenue generated from Extractive Industries, which has contributed immensely to the impoverishment of their people and the instability in their countries. They are called upon to adhere strictly to the provisions of the numerous international conventions and protocols that exist on the rights and dignity of their people, including the rights of indigenous peoples, no matter how few they may be. They are to ensure that funds generated from Extractive Industries are utilized wisely and judiciously for the betterment of present and future generations of their people. Southern Governments are also called upon to ensure that those directly affected by these industries are not only adequately compensated for their loses, but that their free, informed, prior, consent should be sought at the moment of conception of such projects, and they should be made to participate at all the other stages - from impact assessment, through implementation, to evaluation of the projects.
Civil Society groups are urged to intensify their fight against corruption and bad governance in the poorer countries. The citizens of these countries are called upon to hold their leaders accountable and constantly put their conduct through the transparency check. There are other demands made of Civil Society Groups in the North and their counterparts in the South, such as the call for greater networking, collaboration and support, and the strengthening of the capacity of Southern Civil Society groups to monitor their governments and the multinational corporations operating in the Southern countries. And to make sure that this encounter in Nairobi does not end up as just one more talk-shop, advocacy action plans were designed, on the various issues highlighted above, and many participants indicated what specific remedial action they would undertake in their countries and on the international level, and what kind of assistance they would require from other participants and partner agencies.
I was facilitator for the group that worked on Extractive Industries and the International Finance Institutions and I found the experience very enriching. In the group with me were participants from India, Brazil, Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Congo Brazzaville. As one participant after the other narrated their experiences, I was reminded of the International Conference on Oil and Gas with the theme “Nigeria: Making Oil and Gas Wealth Serve the Common Good” which the Catholic Secretariat hosted in Enugu on November 1 – 4, 2006. The painful experiences shared, the deep frustrations expressed, and the profound desire for a change in the exploitation, administration and management of Extractives were very much the same. As a result just as we saw at the Enugu Conference, there were hardly any controversies in the course of formulating the resolutions from the Workshop.
On the whole, the CIDSE organized Workshop on Extractives was a coalition of like-minded activists, social crusaders and dreamers who believe (like the pioneers of now popular World Social Forum) that an alternative world, a new world is not only possible but necessary, and that there is something each one of us can do to bring about that new world of our dream. The days that followed (January 18 – 25, 2007), nearly 100,000 people from over 3000 social movements and advocacy groups, including Catholic Justice and Peace Commissions from several countries, Caritas International, CIDSE, Friends of the Earth, UNESCO, Jubilee South, Slow Food, People Before Profit, World Wildlife Federation, Oilwatch, World Rainforest Movement, Women for Change, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, Centre for Social and Corporate Responsibility, Stakeholder Democracy Network, were reflecting together and learning from each other, harmonizing alternative forces, breaking barriers, building bridges, forming coalitions, forging and strengthening networks, and evaluating strategies for the construction of the new world that they believe is possible, since the present world order of corporate globalization and militarism is a recipe for violence, war, terrorism and death.
The justice and environmental issues surrounding the Extractive Industries was a major theme in the 2007. But as usual with the World Social Forum, there are activists and campaigners around countless other issues, including the challenge of poverty, HIV/AIDS, WTO and Fair Trade, Globalisation and its many discontents, Global Warming, Climate Change and the preservation of the Natural Environment, Water as a common human patrimony and what many see as the emerging “corporate theft” of water, the reality of Hunger, Disease and Degrading Poverty for a multitude of people and the scandal of Conspicuous Consumption by a few, the evil of Arms Trade, the maintenance of Foreign Military Bases, the continued Occupation of Iraq, the Death Penalty, Debt Cancellation, Reparation or Compensation by Northern countries for centuries of economic ruin and cultural devastation of the people of the South, etc.
The World Social Forum has become a huge carnival of social activism. It is a convergence of as many social issues as there are campaigners to promote them. Giving out handbills and leaflets, distributing books and T Shirts, carrying banners and posters, mounting billboards and mega screens, staging parades and exhibitions, hosting Workshops and Seminars, and obtaining thousands of signatures from participants, the activists are calling for the breaking of all chains and the freeing of all those held in bondage by neo-liberal capitalism. They are calling for an alternative global economy, an economy of solidarity. They are telling Big Business that the poor nations are not for sale.
The activists are saying no to the irresponsible consumption pattern of the rich nations and rich individuals in poor nations that is today destroying the global environment with poisonous gas emissions. They are calling for the criminalization of the establishment of nuclear plants by both rich and poor nations, since nuclear plants are a major pollutant of the environment, apart from being a threat to peace. They are calling for a total ban on the dumping of toxic wastes on poor nations. They are calling for an end to all forms of oppression, dictatorship and social discrimination, whether based on race, sex, religion or class.
The activists at the World Social Forum are calling for a paradigm shift in our social and international relations towards the emergence of a new world order of mutual dependence and shared resources, where there will be no “Highly Indebted Poor Countries” whose citizens live on less than a dollar a day while others are “Rich Creditor Nations” whose citizens are engaged in obscene consumption and irresponsible exploitation of the resources of Mother Nature. They are calling for a shift from the globalization of greed and violence to the globalization of human dignity, solidarity, justice and peace. But in the real world where human being cheat, extort, exploit and oppress one another, this would look like a dream indeed.
Yet as a dreamer myself, constantly seeking the realization of Christ’s civilization of love, I associate myself with these activists who have come from all religious persuasions. I believe that the most radical transformations in the world begin with a tall dream, a prophetic imagination that eventually take flesh. I remember the dream of Joseph and the dream of Isaiah in biblical times and within the last Century, the dream of Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. This is why my last Christmas reflection was titled “Prophetic Imagination.” Thus, as God lives, the One whom the Virgin Mary says “brings down the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly, one day the dream of the oppressed poor and their champions everywhere shall become reality.
