Did you know...?

• Nearly half the world's population (2.8 billion people) live on less than US$2 per day.
• The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world's poorest countries.
• International trade is worth $10 million a minute. But poor countries only account for 0.4 per cent of this trade. Since 1980 their share has halved.
• The world's 50 poorest countries have less than three per cent of the vote at the International Monetary Fund, an institution whose financial decisions spell life and death for ordinary people around the globe. Just one country – the US – has sole veto power.
• The world’s most impoverished countries are forced to pay over £30 million EVERY DAY to the rich world in debt repayments
• Sub-Saharan Africa receives $10 billion in aid every year – but has to pay back at least this amount in debt repayments. Malawi spends more on servicing its debt than on health, despite nearly one in five Malawians being HIV positive.
• Despite the G8 group of industrialised nations promising to write off $100 billion of the $375 billion currently owed in debt repayments by 52 of the most indebted poor countries, by the time of the G8 Gleneagles summit in July 2005 only $46 billion had been cancelled - less than 15% of the total promised debt relief.
• In 1970, the UK government committed itself to spending 0.7% of UK gross national income on international development. In 2004, the Chancellor committed to raising aid spending to 0.47%. If growth continued at that rate the UK should finally reach its promised 0.7% target by 2013.

Why trade justice?

The Trade Justice campaign calls on world leaders to rewrite the international rules and practices that govern trade, with poverty reduction and environmental protection recognised as their highest priorities.

This means poor countries need rules that guarantee them:

• the right to help their vulnerable people and traders
• the right to sell their goods in rich countries
• assistance to regulate transnational corporations.

It is also calling for an end to the imposition of special trade terms on poor countries and an abolition of the subsidies which rich nations provide to their farmers and other producers (e.g. through the Common Agricultural Policy) which unfairly disadvantage producers in poorer nations.

Why now?

One year ago, 36 million people in more than 70 countries united to demand that the world’s leaders act to end the injustice of global poverty.

At the G8 summit at Gleneagles in Scotland in July 2005, poverty was pushed to the top of the agenda, as a quarter of a million people marched in Edinburgh in the biggest public demonstration on global poverty the UK has seen. Through the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign, they demanded decisive political action on debt cancellation, trade justice and more and better aid.

The G8 leaders responded with a series of pledges on aid, debt, trade and HIV/AIDS which did not live up to the scale of the challenge set by campaigners but which would still represent significant progress in the fight against poverty if they were implemented in full.

On debt: on 1st July 2006, the debt relief deal agreed at the Gleneagles summit - known as the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) - comes into full effect. This was the first time that world leaders recognised the need for total debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries as a matter of justice, and the first time the issue ever had a major place on a world summit agenda. About US$1 billion has already been released in the last year through debt relief, for spending on health and education. But the MDRI has been implemented "with strings attached" - economic policy conditions imposed on them by creditor nations - and only applied to 21 countries, not to the 60+ reckoned to need it. Click here to read more about the MDRI.

On aid: At Gleneagles, the G8 pledged to increase aid levels to US$50 billion per year by 2010. Unfortunately that new aid has come with heavy conditions attached. Most of the increased aid pledged in the last 12 months has been allocated to just 2 countries, Iraq and Nigeria.

On trade: Very little movement was made on the issue of fair trade at Gleneagles. Rows about subsidies paid by the USA and European Union have continued unabated, and the Doha Development Round of WTO talks looks set to collapse in failure. Meanwhile the UK's Company Law Reform Bill is currently in Parliament. This crucial opportunity to make it legally binding on UK-based companies to operate according to transparent ethical principles when dealing with developing countries could be lost unless campaigners can persuade Parliament to insist on crucial amendments to the Bill. Click here for more information.

What do the Christian churches say?

"But you must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless." (Proverbs 31:8-9, Contemporary English Version)

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?" (Isaiah 58:6-7a, Contemporary English Version)

"I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)

"Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received." (Rule of St. Benedict 53:15).

"Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs. The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity." (St. John Chrysostom)

"Its [the Church’s] desire is that the poor should rise above poverty and wretchedness, and should better their condition in life; and for this it strives." (Rerum Novarum, section 23)

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor are poor, they call me a communist." (Dom Helder Camara)

"...Sinful inequalities affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel: Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 1938)

"If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)

How can I be involved?

A number of members of the Lay Community of St. Benedict are involved with the campaign for Trade Justice. These are some of the ways in which members of the LCSB are involved in the campaign.

• Buying Fair Trade goods (now available in many supermarkets as well as from specialist Fair Trade importers such as Traidcraft and Tearcraft)
• Signing the "Vote for Trade Justice" online petition - every vote will be sent to Parliament
• Joining the "Make Poverty History" campaign
• Picking up or downloading a copy of the Rough Guide to a Better World, available free at Post Offices throughout the UK - a book packed with background and suggestions for how to make a difference in our everyday lives
• Writing to Members of Parliament to encourage their support for trade justice issues (for some hints and tips on how to do this, visit www.cafod.org.uk/makepovertyhistory). Still crucially important!

There are also a number of key events happening throughout the coming year which provide opportunities for Christians and others committed to the movement for trade justice to gather and work together for the benefit of the world's most disadvantaged people.

Where can I find out more?

www.tjm.org.uk - the website of the Trade Justice Movement

www.makepovertyhistory.org - the campaign which many churches, charities and development agencies are supporting together throughout 2005

www.cafod.org.uk - the website of the Catholic Church's development agency, a leading partner in the movement for trade justice

www.speak.org.uk - a young people's Christian movement dedicated to justice and peace issues including trade justice, human rights and the reform of the arms trade

www.christianaid.org.uk - a very informative website from one of the UK's longest established aid organisations

www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk - facts and campaigning information on the link between poverty and international debt

www.developmentgoals.org - the United Nations Millennium Development Goals

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The above information has been supplied by Christian Aid, CAFOD and the Jubilee Debt Campaign and was last updated on 30th June 2006.

Please note that although the Lay Community of St. Benedict welcomes its members' involvement in a wide range of justice & peace and social action campaigns, appearance of information about these campaigns on the LCSB web site does not necessarily imply official suport for that campaign or organisation by the Lay Community of St. Benedict. We hope that readers will take the opportunity to follow up the information provided here and make their own informed decisions about such campaigns or organisations.

The Lay Community of St. Benedict is not responsible for the content of external web sites.