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Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of October 4, 1999

Globalization calls for more regulation, says former CCODP head

Special to the WCR
Edmonton

A growing failure to regulate the capitalist economy is leading the system to regress to the 19th century, says the former head of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.

Gabrielle Lachance told an Edmonton workshop Sept. 25-26 that "the present economic system generates wealth but, left to its own devices, also creates poverty."

The capitalist system led to so much social conflict in Europe during the 19th century that governments had to regulate it to ensure it met the needs of people, Lachance said.

"Today it is felt that world capitalism is regressing to its past practices due to insufficient regulatory measures. This is why people talk in terms of neo-liberalism."

Lachance led a workshop at the General Hospital on the globalization of the economy put on by the Secular Institute of the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate.

She said negative repercussions of the current economic system stem from the fact that it "looks upon the accumulation of wealth as an end unto itself, and not as a means at the service of the community of humankind."

Globalization, she said, calls for a response of global solidarity among those suffering difficulties in their economic and social relations. "The pooling of forces and mutual assistance (are needed) in order to restore equilibrium among the forces at work."

Such solidarity can be expressed in different ways, she said:

  • Participation in mutual assistance groups in our own surroundings.
  • Participation in petitions or other initiatives in order to champion positions in favour of justice and peace.
  • Support for organizations and associations dedicated to promoting human dignity.
  • Financial contributions to help the poorest of the poor control their own lives.
"Based on respect for others and reciprocity, on communication and understanding, and based above all on the conviction that we all have the same dignity in the eyes of God, solidarity therefore becomes an indispensable force in order to surmount the reefs of globalization."

Participants in the workshop identified the effects of globalization in their own surroundings and confronted those situations with the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church. They then developed practical responses which they could implement.

At the end of the session, they set up an informal network to share the actions each of them will take.

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