Economic Justice Roundtable

In one of the first documents setting up the Africa Faith and Justice Network, the founders articulated the ‘scope’ of the work of AFJN. They were intent on working on issues or problems affecting Africa that had their origins in the ‘First World.’ Amongst those issues, they state that, “Trading and other economic policies are often unfavorable toward Africa.” In the very first ‘issues list’ sent to the members to vote upon (in 1984) one of the items was “Economic Questions (World Bank, IMF, exchange rates, etc.).”

From those first very broad mentions of economic policies and questions, AFJN has over the years worked on a number of different issues of economic justice. One of the first to be addressed was that of the debt of impoverished countries. At the 1987 Annual Meeting, Peter Henriot, S.J. and Prof. Brian Hehir gave talks on the debt. It was decided to put emphasis on that issue and an AFJN Issue Paper was subsequently produced. The next year, 1988, Sr. Maura Browne (one of the first staff members and the longest serving Executive Director), continued work on the debt by preparing a booklet on the subject that received several responses from members in Africa. She also presented a workshop at the 1988 annual meeting.

The operational plan of 89-90 called for work on the debt that included gathering information from Africa (materials and information from justice and peace groups as well as from missionaries), working with US coalitions, promoting a US constituency, collaborating with like-minded groups at the UN and forming advocacy positions for AFJN. In 1989, during a visit to Africa, Maura gave talks on the debt to members and interested people. Those talks were eventually printed and distributed on the continent. After the trip, she expressed the desire to work on “economic rights” rather than ‘the debt,’ realizing that problems surfacing in Africa had their roots in more than simply the debt mechanism. During this time, Maura also chaired the Debt Team of the International Economic Issues Committee. She accompanied African Church and lay leaders (invited by AFJN) to meetings at the World Bank where she met with (“confronted”) high level officials.

The office report of 1990 notes that during a visit to Zimbabwe, missionaries reported that the Uruguay Round of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) would be harmful to Africa. A Maryknoll member as well sent materials from Kenya, asking AFJN to do some education and advocacy around the issue of GATT. Although some work had already begun on GATT in 1988, that impetus from the members got the AFJN office more involved in working on GATT and other “Trade” issues. The African connection again gave inspiration to the Washington office.

Board meetings (December 1993) continued to insist on a focus on “economic rights” amongst other things. Throughout the early nineties, the office continued to publish articles and to send mailings to the members encouraging them to lobby their members of Congress. That legislative work was expanded to include work on the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and to opposing the “Debt for Development Swaps” that many were supporting at the time.

The theme of the 1995 Annual Meeting was “Economic Justice in Africa,” showing the growing importance of the subject for members. The 1996 office report notes the collaboration with the Religious Working Group on the World Bank and 50 Years is Enough, as well as numerous meetings, events and demonstrations. An action alert on debt was again proposed to the members, while an intern was researching and attending meetings on trade. Again, there was direct lobbying of the Congress, the World Bank and the US Treasury. The operational plan for 95-96 called for promotion of fair trade policies, support for the General Agreement on Sustainable Trade (GAST) and sought an amendment to the GATT to ensure justice.

In 1997, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was proposed by the Clinton administration. AFJN immediately sent a copy of the bill to African partners, as from the beginning, AFJN was suspicious of the bill, particularly its obvious benefits for corporations at the expense of Africans. AFJN joined the Africa Trade Working Group (ATWG) to collaborate with others on these issues of trade. That same year, AFJN and 50 Years is Enough presented at various workshops and held a press conference. They convinced the Congressional Black Caucus to get their “marching orders” on economic issues from NGOs. (That would subsequently change…) In late 1998, at least two alerts opposing AGOA had been sent out and radio interviews were being conducted. AFJN had also begun to initiate action around the Multi-Lateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which it also saw as strongly corporate in focus. Going into 1999, AFJN published its own statement of policy on the Debt for Poverty Reduction Act and began a long and fruitful collaboration with the Washington Office on Africa (WOA) by putting together a KAIROS document on Trade, Aid and Debt.

The Operational Plan for 1999-2000 saw a growth in activity on economic issues. It called for support of the Jubilee Campaign (AFJN became a member of the steering committee), for work on AGOA and the MAI, and for continued advocacy for reform of the IMF/World Bank, especially concerning their debt and SAP structures. Local input (from Africa) was encouraged. This prompted the creation of the Grass Roots Initiative (GRI) whose intent was to do the ‘niche’ work for which AFJN had continually been searching and to broaden the network in Africa in order to bring in more information from the continent.

The numerous trade issues and bills popping up in the Congress in the new millennium brought together AFJN and several other faith-based groups in DC to form the Interfaith Task Force on Trade and Investment. After a period of ‘self-education,’ the Task Force put down a list of ethical principles for international investment that were distributed to Congress and that have recently been updated and reprinted. Later, in 2004, a congressional resolution would come out of the work of this group. The Resolution on Just Trade called for trade based on the ethical principles outlined by this task force.

For the next few years, the GRI was the vehicle for most of the important work on economic issues. Larry Goodwin, staff member and Executive Director, conceived the GRI and found his inspiration during a six-week trip to Africa in 2000. He discovered the African Model Law being proposed in Africa to protect smallholder farmers from the patenting of their seeds, plants, etc. A Declaration of Support for African Smallholder Farmers, countering World Trade Organization provisions, was written by AFJN and sent out for signatures. Eventually, more than 600 organizations from around the world signed the declaration. It was presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg and eventually was put into a House Resolution sponsored by AFJN Award winner, Rep. Maxine Waters. Larry worked closely with the staff of Rep. Waters to gather co-sponsors and to find a Senate office that would introduce the “Africa Resolution” into that body. Rep. Waters introduced the bill twice into the Congress over a period of four years. Although it was never brought out of committee, it did serve over a period of several years as a vehicle of education for the Congress and for AFJN members.

The GRI, in collaboration with Public Citizen also convinced Rep Jan Schakowsky to introduce a congressional resolution that called for water to be considered as a ‘human right.’ Eventually, as part of AFJN’s “Seeds & Water” initiative, the Water for the World Resolution stated that water is a public trust and a public good not a private commodity.” AFJN worked closely with AEFJN in Brussels on both the water issue and that of smallholder farmers, creating a worldwide effort and a synergy in the two organizations that has not been matched since.

Along with those major efforts mentioned above, AFJN tackled a number of other issues. Research was done and information provided on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), on land usage, on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), especially concerning the patenting of life forms and the pricing and availability of AIDS medication. Through the Africa Trade Policy Working Group, which Larry Goodwin chaired, AFJN collaborated with other organizations to monitor the Free Trade Agreement with the Southern Africa Customs Union. In that, the group met with officials in the US Office of Trade Representative and wrote a letter to Robert Zoelleck calling for negotiations on the principles of human rights, the primacy of the common good and the protection of the global ecosystem.

It could be said, that during the period of GRI, AFJN led the way on many of the important trade issues being discussed in Washington and even created a body of knowledge on a subject that no one would have noticed (the plight of small holder farmers) had AFJN not concentrated so much effort upon it. AFJN’s enthusiastic participation in the formulation of the water and just trade resolutions was essential to their introduction in Congress and the attention that they received. These rather complicated and esoteric issues, however, did not always resonate with the members and oftentimes the staff found themselves trying to convince the members to get on board to lobby their members of Congress.

The wide range of groups working on the debt were eventually successful in bringing needed understanding and focus to the issue, so that debt relief is now something around which there is a general consensus that something should be done. In fact, a good deal of the debt has been canceled. AFJN was a long and important player in that advocacy.

In the last two years, trade and debt issues have received minimal attention from AFJN as advocacy shifted to conflict resolution work, particularly in northern Uganda.