Mennonite
Central
Committee

Report on the Globalization Consultations Sponsored by MCC

Daryl Yoder Bontrager & Bob Herr
September, 2005

Globalization, defined as the increased flow of capital, goods and people across national boundaries due to factors such as lowered trade barriers and increased immigration, is changing the face of the world. Goods and food consumed in North America are increasingly produced in other countries, while North American products and crops are finding new markets internationally. How are these changes affecting communities? How should people of faith in North America respond? How should MCC as an organization respond?

With the goal of hearing directly from people and organizations affected by globalization, MCC planned a series of consultations during 2003-04. Consultations were held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras (Jan 13-15, 2003), in Katmandu, Nepal (May 6-8, 2003), on the border between Texas, USA and Mexico (Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 2003), in Nairobi, Kenya (March 22-24, 2004, and in Kansas, USA (Dec 2-4, 2004). In these meetings MCC made an effort to include different view points, from small farmers to scholars, from government officials to professionals. This report provides an overview of this process, and pulls from more extensive reporting on this web site.

The Issue

Globalization includes things we appreciate as well as things that threaten us. One participant from Africa referred to this as the "Globalization Problematique" as it refuses easy definitions. Often seen as positive are revolutionary changes in communication, travel, labor movement, and financial transaction capabilities. These have changed the world we live in. The earth today supports between five and six billion people, double what it did a generation ago. Some predict the population will double again within the coming generation. These huge changes challenge the systems people need for survival. They challenge the human, cultural traditions that give meaning and continuity to communities.

In discussion about the systems needed to sustain people, several themes were noted as in tension: one tension is the between homogenization and particularization, and another between resistance and engagement.

Homogenization represents the forces of international markets, as reflected in what is often referred to as corporate globalization. These are often beyond people's control and are experienced as domination and manipulation. Harmful examples include the marginalization of cultural local values and practices, or a flood of imports that ruin local farmers and destroy local industries. Also mentioned are things like patented seeds that drive out traditional agricultural practices, rampant consumerism, privatization of public services, and reduced public spending on health and education. These forces often bring economic dislocation that causes job losses.

Particularization can be seen as a kind of globalization from the bottom up, in which the diverse peoples of the world make their unique contributions to the human community. This kind of particularization forms a resistance to the homogenizing globalization. Faith and moral values are vital to this alternative globalization. The Africa consultation focused on this trend especially, calling their meeting "Africa as a Global Center," to note that particular economies, cultures and traditions should be, and often increasingly are, the foundation on which global encounter can be built positively.

Resistance, engagement, and alternatives were especially noted in the Honduras consultation. Engagement starts with the premise that the train of globalization has left the station, so we must get on board. Resistance asks us to take advantage of the system in order to change it. A focus on alternatives seeks a radical Christian vision, to be salt and light, to live/dream something different.

Key Learnings

In Honduras, 40 people, including MCC workers and representatives of partner agencies came together for several days of discussion. Most participants agreed that globalization can hurt the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. Some speakers called for embracing the opportunities inherent in more open markets, while advocating for changes that would make globalization's promise of prosperity available to more people. Others believe the current "free trade" system is unsustainable on both social and ecological levels. Nelson Garcia Lobo of the Honduran Mennonite Church's Social Action Committee said his country's situation reflects some of globalization's shortcomings. As Honduras has opened its markets and lifted price controls, small farmers face competition from imports. Cheap US corn, subsidized by the US government, has flooded the market, making it difficult for Honduran farmers to sell their crops for a profit. Luis Acosta from Argentina recounted how, in discussion with a poor farmer, he understood how the systems we were discussing often impact people. "At one point, I told him that I remembered how the Argentine peso used to be worth something. I asked him what he thought. Without resentment, he told me, 'I don't know, Luis. I never had anything. For us, things are always the same.'"

In Kenya the theme was "Africa as a Global Center." The consultation explored African self-assertion by viewing two development projects embracing the African values of community and collective self-help: a low-tech, high value sand dam project (SASOL) and a large micro-credit institution (K-REP). The consultation claim is that these projects have global significance and represent part of Africa's contribution as a center for a new kind of globalization. The consultation explored African resistance by hearing about the collaboration between African NGOs and governments at the WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, resulting in developing countries' refusal to accept the US and EU push for new and unfair trade rules. In Africa, homogenizing globalization today originates most from the large Asian industrial powers of Japan, China or India, which again added to the complex picture of globalization today. In light of this flux and change, Rev. Dr. H. Mvume Dandala, General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) noted how important it is for Africans to define their own terms for world engagement: "African looking back, over shoulders, for European permission, is over" (Africa: Keynote Address). According to consultation presenters, Africans must redefine globalization away from a domination homogenization to a particularized globalization in which Africa is a source and center. In this way, Africa can be empowered to share its rich heritage, culture, values, ideas and spirit to benefit the world as a whole. These two perceptions of globalization inform a two-fold strategy for pursuing a more just and humane globalization. The appropriate response to Western-dominated homogenizing globalization is resistance. The appropriate response to the possibility of a non-homogenizing globalization is to embrace and embody anew African culture and values.

In the Border Consultation, stories about responding to and overcoming systems of oppression were highlighted in the "Faces of Globalization Border Encounter." Twelve MCCUS staff and board members spent two days visiting maquilas and colonias (unincorporated settlements where factory workers and others live) and attended the annual conference of the Unidad Cristiana de Iglesias Menonitas in Brownsville. At the conference, participants heard the stories of Mennonite churches in South Texas, and shared in their reflections about the effects of globalization and other forces on the border. A highlight was a panel that included a labor rights activist and a maquila manager who had grown up in a UCIM church, Iglesia Menonita del Cordero. One participant, Milly Olvera, gave a testimony of her life as an immigrant, saying "We should have a heart as Christians to know just how far the law can go in preventing us from helping undocumented people. Help immigrants. We are undocumented people, not thieves, not drug addicts, not delinquents. There are plenty of those in all countries. We undocumented are also children of God. We are brothers and sisters and for Christians there should be no discrimination."

In Nepal the conference, "Globalization and Development in South Asia," helped MCC and its partner organizations in Bangladesh, India and Nepal examine the economic aspects of globalization in the region. Held in Katmandu, the conference drew more than 50 participants. South Asia has the world's largest concentration of poor people and a long history of international trade. Conference presenters included academics and activists from the region who held various views on the impact of globalization. Some fear that regional and global power imbalances threaten the livelihood of the poor and hurt local producers. Others argue that globalization gives small countries a wider range of options and helps poor consumers by providing inexpensive goods. Other topics included the effects of migration on the region, especially the impact of illegal trafficking in women and children for labor and prostitution.

The Newton, Kansas consultation, the last in this series of MCC globalization consultations, focused on the impact of globalization in Canada and the United States. Presenters challenged participants to integrate faith, justice and global economic issues. One theme was to stress the value of locally produced food and supporting measures to ensure that producers at home and abroad are paid fairly. The consultation, held at Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, brought together about 35 farmers, economists, theologians and food and development advocates from Canada and the United States. There were as well two representatives from the Nepal and Kenya consultations. Anglican rector Cathy Campbell, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, offered a spiritual framework for the consultation, telling participants that "God's manna food policy . . . means there is no need for hoarding or greed."

Implications for Education and Advocacy

The African consultation appears to have reached parallel conclusions to the US/Canadian consultation. Both were largely critical of the impact of the existing form of globalization, especially in the areas of agriculture and cultural values. The emphasis of the Africa consultation on "particularization" and community-based development rooted in African culture and values appears to over-lap with the U.S.-Canadian consultation's emphasis on the importance of localization and its conclusion that "policies, both domestic and international, should permit priority to local production for local consumption."

Overlap occurred with the Latin America/Caribbean consultation in the critique of the disempowerment produced by the existing form of globalization and the importance of resistance and creative alternatives.

Perhaps most profoundly, there are striking parallels among (a) the Latin American idea — presented, but largely undeveloped — of a "radical Christian vision" involving "local patterns of production and consumption, decentralized political power, sustainable patterns of energy use and living" rooted in biblical values, (b) the African vision of community-based development rooted in African religious and cultural values, and (c) the U.S.-Canadian consultation's vision of a "manna-based" food system focusing on the localization, to the extent possible, of food production, exchange and consumption.

This convergence suggests directions for MCC's education and advocacy which encourage sustainable local autonomy. Educational efforts should emphasize explaining homogenization and particularization and resistance and engagement, bringing out discussions of the positive and negatives sides of each.