International Reforms
A number of reforms are required at the global level to remove
important sources of injustice and restrain the power of transnational
capital. These include:
1) Eliminating international debts of low income countries. The
public international debts of low income countries should be eliminated
through a two step process. Odious debts contracted without public
consent or for purposes that did not serve public purposes should
be repudiated through appropriate internationally sanctioned legal
processes to pass the costs onto the responsible individuals and
financial institutions. The remaining debts should be repaid out
of an international fund under agreements that preclude recreating
them.
2) Closing the World Bank as part of the plan to end the process
of international debt creation. It is time to recognize that creating
an institution to increase the debts of poor countries was simply
a bad idea.
3) Placing an international financial transactions tax on all
spot transactions in foreign exchange to dampen speculative currency
movements. The funds generated should be used to retire Third
World debt and fund the United Nations.
4) Closing the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and transferring responsibility for international
economic management to the United Nations, with the mandate to
maintain a balanced and equitable system of economic relationships
among nations that encourages and supports substantial environmental
and economic self-reliance. Responsibilities would include negotiating
and enforcing agreements establishing standards of conduct for
transnational corporations, coordinating international antitrust
action, and protecting the rights of all nations to choose with
whom they will trade, under what terms, and to set rules and standards
for businesses operating in their jurisdictions. Decision-making
processes should be transparent and open to public participation.
5) Monitor cross border environmental flows. Establish an international
monitoring system to report imbalances in flows of environmental
resources between countries as a step toward limiting the ability
of one country to pass the environmental burdens of its consumption
to another.
This is an admittedly full agenda. And it is surely incomplete.
There is no simple fix for a system as badly broken as the one
we presently have. This list is illustrative of the types of measures
that must be considered. There is need for a vigorous public debate
toward building a broadly based political consensus in support
of comprehensive citizen agendas for national and international
reforms adequate to the task of building just and sustainable
societies for the new millennium.
exerpted from the book
CORPORATIONS ARE GOING TO GET YOUR MAMA
edited by Kevin Danaher
Common Courage Press
Box 702
Monroe, Maine 04951
phone - 207-525-0900
fax - 207-525-3068
David
Korten pageReforming
the System
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