Report from the WCC Capitalism 'unmasked' as 'savage, barbarous system' State-controlled economics showcased as preferred alternative By Parker T. Williamson The Layman Online Friday, February 17, 2006 PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL – "'My kingdom come!' cries capital, seated on its divine throne at the heart of the world, making itself out to be god." Thus spoke Nancy Cardoso Pereita in her "theological reflections" before the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. Cardoso is a Methodist pastor working in the ecumenical pastoral commission on land and a WCC leader in the field of "economic justice." The speaker minced no words in expressing her disdain for "twenty oligopolistic groups of transnational corporations located in the United States and Europe.Give us this day our daily bread, O Monsanto, Cargill, Swift, Anglo, ADM, Nestle, Danone, Syngenta, Bunge!" she said. Cardoso reminded her audience that the opening chapters of the book of Genesis picture the world as a garden, perfectly balanced and beautiful, a place of plenty. She said she sees in the Genesis story of Cain and Abel a paradigm for justice issues. Cain offered grain from his fields and Abel, fat portions from the first born of his flock. "Why did God prefer Abel and his offering?" Cordoso asked. Revising Cain and Abel Recognized by the WCC for "her creative hermeneutical studies," Cardoso said Cain represents agriculture and, as such, was part of an economic system of exploitation based on forced labor and tribute. That's why God rejected his offering, she suggested. Abel, on the other hand, offered God the fat portions of the first born of his flocks. This means, Cardoso said, that he was a keeper of sheep "who resisted and survived on the basis of smallholdings, nomadic sheep-rearing." "The significant fact," she said, "is that God chooses, elects, prefers the latter way of life to the former. That explains the conflict." According to Cardoso, God rejected Cain's offering because, like the results of capitalism, "it was the fruit of violence and sin." The Cain and Abel story, Cordoso lamented, "has remained dormant in our theologies." She suggested that her imaginative retelling of the story would help contemporary Christians come to terms with capitalism: "On the periphery of world Christianity there are minorities who stress the need for a theology that liberates God, and the earth, and the men and women whose humanity is being denied every day by capitalism." Good deeds vs. systemic economics Cardoso complained that many of today's churches have avoided coming to terms with capitalism "because they have created NGOs [non-governmental organizations, like World Vision] and agencies that fund works of charity, but do not ask questions about the system." "What we call globalism," she said in a press conference just prior to her speech before the WCC, "is the face of savage, barbarous capitalism. Capitalism has a passion for profits, and our work as theologians is to unmask it." Endorsing socialism During the press conference, Alan Wisdom, a reporter for the Institute for Religion and Democracy, mentioned a slogan that he observed outside the room: "Free Palestine – Support Socialism." "What specific alternatives do you suggest in place of capitalism?" he asked. "Are you suggesting socialism as an alternative?" "Call it what you want," she replied. "Free market economics is not the divine will. It is a human construction that can be overcome." She said Latin Americans have tried to develop alternative economic models in Chile, Peru, Brazil and Nicaragua, but that these had failed due to the overpowering force of capitalism. She said that, notwithstanding these failures, she was confident that alternative models would be reintroduced. Refusing to be pinned down on the word, "socialism," she quipped, "You call it socialism, but this is the people's movement, and they will give it a name." Cardoso's views were applauded by other speakers before and during the WCC's plenary program on economic justice. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, formerly a member the WCC's central and executive committees, branded capitalism as "structural violence and structural inequality." Yash Tandon , an economist from Uganda and executive director of the South Center in Geneva, told his WCC colleagues that, in Africa, he has seen first-hand the effects of capitalism upon the poor. "Poverty does not just exist," he said, "it is manufactured. Capitalism is based on competition, and it structurally negates cooperation, which is a very different value." Tandon laid many of the inequalities in the developing world at the feet of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. "Their policies are the major reason for poverty today," he said. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy chairman for the Department of External Church Relations in the Moscow Patriarchate, said unbridled capitalism is "unjust, one of the non-controllable powers that are ruling the world. None of us wants to destroy this system by force, but we need to ask how this system will change and how we can get the owners of this system to give up their power. And if silence is their reaction, then the WCC needs to consider another form of response." However, in response to Wisdom's question if the alternative he had in mind is socialism, Chaplin said, "I have come out of a socialist country. I know very well from my experience that Marxism won't work, but a return to the 19th century won't work either." Warnings from the Soviet past In a separate speech to the WCC, Chaplin distanced himself from Cardoso, Huber and Tandon, who showed a strong penchant for state-controlled economic systems. He reported that citizens of the former Soviet Union are undergoing a painful transition from "state-controlled, an absolutely centralized and heavily militarized totalitarian economy which suppressed any independent initiative" to a free market system. He said people had grown accustomed to "the Soviet social system which guaranteed for many people a predictable future." In moving to the jarring and dramatically different free market environment, where their income is tied to their labor, many are experiencing anxiety and insecurity, Chaplin said. Some who are struggling to cope with this transition are choosing corrupt practices and a survival of the fittest mentality. "Schoolchildren, when asked about their plans for the future, are naming 'prostitute' and 'gangster' among the most prestigious professions," he said. Chaplin reported that the Russian Orthodox Church has responded to these transitional issues by adopting "The Code of Moral Principles and Rules in Economy," which he said is "based on the Ten Commandments of the Bible." He did not go as far as Cordoso and the WCC's other economic justice speakers in condemning capitalism, and he showed a strong aversion for their penchant toward statist economics, which has proved disastrous for his country. In contrast to their views, he expressed hope that a capitalism that is tempered with the Russian Orthodox Church's code of ethics might prove useful among his people. Statist agenda moves forward Despite Chaplin's warnings that he says are based on the Soviet experience, this 9th General Assembly of the WCC continues to promote a state-controlled economy as one of its major themes. The WCC has scheduled numerous Mutirao (meetings) events, ecumenical conversations, plenary platform speeches, draft resolutions, and display space in the exhibit hall where one can find banners, buttons and T-shirts that showcase contempt for capitalism and promote state-controlled solutions to the problems of world poverty and inequality.

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