Sometimes it becomes crystal clear why it is so important that we continue to care. No one ever said that economic justice would come about before long, but there is hope that we are beginning to move in the right direction. Two signs of this are the reawakening of global conscience around world poverty and the recent turning of the tide against Free Trade Agreements.
A number of formerly “pro free trade agreement” representatives from the Northwest have publicly announced their opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). This turn around could only have happened as the result of efforts by a coalition of labor, environmental, justice and faith activists to hold these representatives accountable. UUs have been among the most faithful of the faith groups in joining actions to defeat CAFTA. They have organized, held workshops, wrote letters to the editor, joined rallies and been out in force at public forums. Our caring has made a difference.
This issue of the e–bulletin focuses on what are we for – economic self–determination and sustainable community development, the process of which is often referred to as localization. In the struggle for economic justice, we need to say what kind of world it is we want to live in so that our actions lead to its creation. But also, by saying what it is we are for, we resist the forces that perpetuate economic injustice. This connection was brought home to me in reading a letter written by Unitarian Universalists Central American Network (UUCAN) to Representative Jim McDermott (who has not yet publicly stated his oppoisiton to CAFTA). They wrote:
“In February, we [UUCAN] were in Guatemala and met with the leaders of one community, La Quetzal, in the Mayan Biosphere. They grow corn to eat and do sustainable forestry management. They expressed grave concerns about CAFTA and the disastrous impacts it will have on their livelihood and the environment. Trade can stimulate economic development. Yet CAFTA gives multinational corporations the freedom to do business and generate profits without any regulations that would protect workers, the environment and public services or generate sustainable development.”
Around the world, people believe that our struggles for justice, peace and sustainability are one struggle. May we all continue to care.
Viki Sonntag, UUJEC Northwest Network Coordinator
Each year, the Northwest Chapter of UUJEC sponsors a workshop at the General Assembly. Last year it was on democratizing the media. This year our workshop is “Challenging Corporate Privilege: UUJEC Takes Action”. It will feature UU activists from across the country who are taking a stand against the increasing dominion of corporations. UUJEC–NW will be represented by Marcia Meyers and her hearty band of fellow travelers in Portland who have launched a multi–congregation social action group on corporate personhood. For more information on the Portland Group, please contact Marcia at marciameyers@hotmail.com. For the entire UUJEC program at General Assembly go to www.uujec.org.
Many of us learned about the threat of economic globalization from reading David Korten’s When Corporations Rule the World. He also had us think about the alternative to globalization – localization. David was highly instrumental in getting the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies off the ground as part of the solution. BALLE’s vision is a sustainable global economy as a network of local living economies. Local Living Economies build long–term economic empowerment and prosperity in communities through local business ownership, economic justice, cultural diversity, and a healthy natural environment. This year BALLE’s National Conference will be held in Vancouver, B.C. from June 2 to 5, 2005. For more info: livingeconomies.org/events
A resource that everyone who is interested in sustainable local economies should know about is The Hometown Advantage. The Hometown Advantage Bulletin is an e–newsletter reporting on efforts nationwide to stop chain store proliferation and support locally owned, independent retail businesses.
As part of their Local Living Campaign, the Economic Justice Group at UUC is participating in surveying companies to include in a directory of locally owned and sustainable businesses. Other elements of the Local Living Campaign are: the Sustainable Food and Agriculture Project, Fair Trade Gift Sales/Investment Microbank Project, Advocacy, Witness and Action. For more information, please email Corinne or Jerome. To see the online directory, visit www.finditinfremont.info/. The site includes “Ten Reasons Why Buying Local Makes a Sustainable Difference”. (Official launch is May 21st.)
The American Independent Business Association – or AMIBA – is sprouting chapters throughout the Northwest. Amiba’s vision is to start leveling the playing field for locally–owned independent business. They invite organizations, local, state, and national legislators, and government officers to endorse a legislative platform to strengthen developed by AMIBA and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Better yet -- implement it! View the Platform for Independent Business.
In UUJEC–NW’s effort to support your economic justice work, we are exploring new ways to communicate with you on a regular basis. If you have not yet checked out our web site, please visit UUJEC–NW.org. You can post event notices there by sending them to our coordinator. In the near future we hope to add a calendar feature and the ability for you to post events directly.
Two additional efforts that we believe will greatly facilitate communication are: putting our resource directory on–line and launching a collective blog. We are currently working on updating the directory with new entries and investigating the best means to put it one the web that it can be updated continuously. The collective blog will feature a moderated discussion of timely issues. Emails will announce new topics of discussion. We think this will be an exciting way to make our efforts more visible.
If you would like to contribute to these efforts, please contact Diane Slota (diane_slota at comcast dot net).
UUJEC Northwest produced two new resource packets for February’s PNWD annual meeting. The first features strategies for resisting corporate dominance and the second is on localizing our economies (also featured in this issue of the e–bulletin). Both of these are important emerging themes in the struggle for economic justice. Please contact our coordinator to order copies of these resources for your congregation.
The fruit of our efforts is found in people willing to step up and take active responsibility. We rely on you to provide the flow of information that makes the work possible and on the work to make economic justice a reality. For this, we need economic justice contacts in each congregation. They are the link between the congregation and our collective impact.
Being a contact can be easily integrated into your existing social activism. It just takes reporting on economic justice actions in your congregation to the coordinator and seeing that UUJEC resources are made available to those interested.
Please e–mail our network coordinator, Viki Sonntag, (coordinator@uujec–pnwd.org) for more information. Help our network and our work grow.
This is Issue 6 of a quarterly e–bulletin brought to you by the UUs for a Just Economic Community – Northwest Chapter (UUJEC–NW). The bulletin provides a regular compendium of news and items of interest on economic justice developments in our congregations, our communities, and the world-at-large.
UUJEC–NW e–bulletins are sent to interested folks on a quarterly basis. If you no longer wish to receive an e–bulletin, please send a return reply asking to be removed from our list.
Your email address will not be shared with other organizations. The UUJEC–NW password–protected data base is on a fire-wall secure computer.
Please feel free to send items of interest for future e–bulletins. We would especially like to feature stories from congregations and social justice committees on economic justice initiatives.
Contact Information: coordinator at uujec-nw dot org