  WCC decries free-market economies  Resolution
seeks 'global governance' over nations, transnational corporations By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman Tuesday, December 15, 1998
'Global predators' "Globalization is devouring the earth," declared United Church of Canada Moderator William Phipps, who created an uproar in his own denomination last year when he granted an interview with The Ottawa Citizen and promptly denied the central doctrines of the Christian faith. In the interview and subsequent comments, Mr. Phipps denied the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the existence of heaven and hell, and, most directly, the deity of Christ.
"If you would like to write that down in the form of an amendment," said Marion Best, a member of the WCC's Central Committee who stood at the podium, "I'm sure our committee would accept it." Best was also a delegate from the United Church of Canada. 'Global governance' After discussing Phipps' ideas over lunch, Best's committee returned to the WCC business session with a revised globalization statement that reflected his passion for managed economies. "In view of the unaccountable power of transnational corporations and organizations who often operate around the world with impunity," said the revised statement, "we commit ourselves to working with others on creating effective institutions of global governance." The statement called for an alternative to free-market economics: "The search for alternative options to the present economic system and the realization of effective political limitations and corrections to the process of globalization and its implications are urgently needed," it said. Free-market economics denounced In an appendix to its Polity Reference Committee Report, the WCC spelled out its condemnation of the free-market system. Reminding delegates that the WCC's support for liberation movements helped win victories for black revolutionaries over white colonial powers, the WCC document said that the battlefield had now turned from a military front to an economic front. The new war will be waged between the haves and the have nots of the world: "Despite the independence of many formerly colonized peoples, power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a relatively few nations and corporations, particularly in the north … Major decisions are made by these 30 or so nations and 60 giant corporations." The WCC's statement is consistent with a theme that has been promoted throughout this gathering on African soil, namely that the economic failure of many post-colonial economies is the fault of "the north," primarily the USA. Little attention has been paid to the fact that prior to WCC-supported wars of liberation, many of these countries not only produced food for their own people, but exported their products to countries all over the world. Now economies in these countries are failing, their infrastructure is crumbling, basic monetary, utility, social and health services are underfunded and unpredictable. But rather than suggesting that many of these problems are due to governmental incompetence and corruption, the WCC has blamed free-market economic systems in "the north" for sucking the life out of two-thirds world countries. The WCC's finances Prior to its discussion of international economics, the WCC considered a report on its own financial condition. "From 1948 to 1998, the vision of the WCC has always been greater than its financial resources," said the opening sentence of its Finance Committee Report. Huge operating deficits of approximately 13 million CHF in 1994 and 12 million CHF in 1995 forced the WCC to cut its staff from 340 to 237. The organization says it hopes to live within its income in 1999. In addition to their operating budget crisis, WCC managers are reporting huge losses in their investment portfolio. In spite of the fact that most investors enjoyed a major bull market in 1997, WCC investment income dropped from 10,774,000 CHF to 5,669,000 CHF. Authors of the financial report blamed the decline on "exchange rate fluctuations and some exceptional losses on transactions." Income irony Forty-eight percent of the WCC's member churches make no contribution to the organization's budget. That has led the WCC to say that it will try to get more money out of its member churches, imposing a requirement that all members make at least a minimum payment to the organization. But the prognosis is gloomy. The WCC is highly dependent upon the very economies whose capitalistic ventures it has denounced as morally repugnant. Western Europe supplies 81.76 of the WCC's income, with most of it coming from Germany. The USA and Canada provide 15.83 percent. The rest of the world provides 2.41 percent of the WCC's income. |
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