Ofelia Ortega, Santo Domingo, October 2011
Ofelia Ortega, a teacher of theology at the ecumenical seminary in Matanzas, Cuba, who is also one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches, spent a day with colleagues at the United Church of Canada last week. Ofelia is a relentless optimist whose enthusiasm strengthens the rest of us.
Challenges abound. I know quite well what science says about climate change. In my own life, I work alongside survivors of earthquakes, hurricanes, and economic collapses. I am exposed too often to the violence that is tied to the so-called “War on Drugs” in Mexico, Central America, Colombia and the Caribbean.
In the face of such problems, it would be easy to feel despair. But I don’t, and it’s not because I am either heartless or naive. It’s that I get to meet the most wonderful people who dedicate their lives to work for justice, peace and the Earth.
Ofelia spoke with us about discernment, how to discern the signs of the times. (She was in Toronto to celebrate the 85th birthday of her friend and co-worker, Very Rev. Lois Wilson.)
“Sometimes we only see the evil things,” she said, “but we should also see the good things.” In ethics, she said, discernment is the key in deciding between bad and good. She quoted St. Paul: “Let us not grow weary of doing good” (Gal. 6:9).
So. Signs of hope a few days after Earth Day. Ofelia pointed to Paul’s story in II Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 of the small, impoverished church in Macedonia that sent help to the church in Jerusalem. (I thought of the Moravian Church on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua that sent funds to help Haitians in the wake of the earthquake two years ago.) Ofelia spoke of how Cuba helps Haiti and countless other countries by sending doctors and technicians.
Ofelia also pointed to work at the World Council of Churches to overcome violence, especially towards ending the arms trade, and she spoke of new momentum for peace in Colombia, including the new Program of Ecumenical Accompaniment in Colombia.
“Do the right thing for the most vulnerable.”
She could have pointed to other WCC work, such as its support for theological education, and the inclusion of women, youth, Indigenous people and people with disabilities in the lives of the churches.
And to its program called Poverty, Wealth and Ecology. Here, churches confront climate change not with blame but by inviting people to take steps (both modest and bold) to less reliance on carbon fuels and by calling on governments to exercise greater leadership in reducing carbon emissions and exploring ways to mitigate the damage from the climate change that is already evident.
Resource extraction issues, from gold-mining in Guatemala to oil pipelines in British Columbia and Nebraska, are hotly contested these days. I also know that Canadians, whether we like it or not, all benefit in some way from these industries, from the direct employment that they offer through investments held in our pension funds. I think that good people can differ respectfully as projects and proposals are examined. What’s essential is that we all find ways to join the great debates of our times and discern what the “signs of the times” call us to do next.
“God calls us to justice. The Holy Spirit empowers us into action,” Ofelia said. “Do the right thing for the most vulnerable.”
As summits go, the official confab in Cartagena was not a tidy affair. Presidents and prime ministers left without a consensus document—divided over Cuba’s participation in future summits, how best to combat drug trafficking and related violence, and Argentina’s expectation of regional solidarity in its dispute with the United Kingdom over the Malvinas Islands.
In the People’s Summit at Cartagena, Church people joined with social movements and brought a solid challenge to the individualistic anti-ethic of neoliberalism that has so dominated political and economic life over the past 40 years.
“We cannot continue to think and to act with the criteria of this neoliberal world that imposes its logic of death and destruction of humanity and of nature,” said an ecumenical declaration.
The People’s Summit firmly rejected U.S. and Canadian opposition to Cuba’s participation in the official summit. (Canada’s alliance with the United States on this is sadly anti-historical: Canada and Mexico were the only countries in the hemisphere that maintained relations in the wake of the 1959 Cuban Revolution.)
The People’s Summit also made an urgent call to bring social struggles together with the search for alternatives to the dominant economic model that has not been able to solve poverty, is destroying creation and today finds itself in a great global crisis. (See the Media Co-op photo essay.)
An ecumenical challenge to neoliberalism
Saying that “We need to de-neoliberalize our consciences,” the ecumenical gathering offered these challenges and proposals:
• Broaden work on conscientious objection to military service
• Continue work to close the School of the Americas and all U.S. military bases
• End the free trade agreements signed within the neoliberal logic
• Strengthen participation and network-building as an ecumenical sector within social and popular movements
• As churches and as Christians, we have the challenge to train ourselves and to know about expressions of economic and political alternatives (“socialism of the XXI century,” “living well/buen vivir,” other new paradigms, etc.) that arise in the region and that allow us to recover ancestral and ecological practices.
• As churches and ecumenical groups, we need to develop a regional program of advocacy for the defence of human rights, care for creation and social inclusion.
• Given that diverse parts of Colombian civil society (the Colombian Episcopal Conference [the country’s Catholic bishops], and Colombians for Peace), show that the two main armed movements [known as ELN and FARC] are willing to resolve the conflict thorough political means, and given the interest expressed by President Juan Manuel Santos for dialogue with both groups, our hope is increased that peace can be achieved in our country. For this reason, we commit ourselves to strengthen and widen the ecumenical movement in Colombia and in the region to work toward a negotiated solution to the armed conflict in Colombia, to obtain reparations and restitution of land to those who are displaced and who are victims, so that peace becomes the fruit of justice.
• We Christians, men and women of faith, youth, women, Indigenous, Afro-descendents who are participants in this gathering, we will work in hope so that soon we can all celebrate a single summit, where the peoples and their leaders can respond to the people’s interests, so that together we would be debating and finding alternatives to the problems that we have, without domination of some over others and without excluding any country, people or social sector that works for life with dignity and justice and that dreams of living in peace.
The People’s Summit held seven simultaneous panels debating different issues and the ecumenical sectors were active participants in all, and in two were responsible for the initial presentations to begin the discussions. One of these presentations was given by Franklin Canelos (left) of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), who spoke about the reality of the foreign debt in Latin America and the experience of the foreign debt audit carried out in Ecuador.
Another was by Abilio Peña of the Inter Church Commission for Justice and Peace of Colombia, who shared about the process for land restitution, starting from the experience of the humanitarian areas in Curvaradó in the Colombian northwest where displaced communities are struggling to remain on their lands and protect them from being turned into mega palm oil plantations to produce fuel.
Other participation by ecumenical leaders included presentations by the Rev. Chris Ferguson of the Program of Ecumenical Accompaniment in Colombia and The United Church of Canada; Jenny Neme of Justapaz on conscientious objection; Gary Cozette of the Chicago Network of Religious Leaders for Latin America, who spoke of the issue of the School of the Americas of the United States army; and Humberto Shikiya of the Ecumenical Regional Centre for Consultancy and Service (CREAS), on regional integration and models of development.
Thanks to the ALC news agency for its Cartagena files in Spanish and in English.
In the old colonial city of Cartagena, Colombia, the “People’s Summit of the Americas” begins tomorrow, April 12, in the days leading up to the official summit this weekend.
This is the sixth summit at which social movements have organized parallel events. The series of “people’s summits,” like World Social Forum events, have enabled diverse movements to come together and to propose new approaches.
In its invitation to the Cumbre de los Pueblos in Cartagena, the Hemispheric Social Alliance pointed to areas where changed is needed. Common Frontiers and the Réseau québécois sur l’intégration continentale (RQIC) represent Canadian and Québecois organizations in the H.S.A.
Here are some of the H.S.A. calls:
- Demilitarization: elimination of military bases, cancellation of joint military exercises, closure of the School of the Americas, an end to patrols by the U.S. IV Fleet, no more militarization under the pretext of the “war on drugs” that costs so many thousands of lives especially in Colombia, Mexico and Central America.
- Instead of the drug war, the H.S.A. calls for integrated and multilateral approaches that emphasize public health.
- In the context of a global financial crisis, in which governments and old and new financial institutions press for structural adjustment measures like those that cost so much in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, priority should go to the generation of dignified work for all. This should be accompanied by trade union freedom, collective negotiations, and an end to violence against rural and urban workers.
- Economic relationships need to be transformed, especially those that are based on free trade agreements and extractive industries, seeking instead relationships of cooperation and reciprocal benefit.
- Governments of the Americas must re-establish the right of Cuba to belong to multilateral systems in the hemisphere, demand that the United States end its blockade of Cuba and its hostility towards governments that do not follow its dictates.
- National development capacity, respect for human rights (including economic, social and cultural rights), the environment and conditions for life with dignity must be preserved.
Canada’s approach to the Americas
In an op-ed piece, three colleagues—Beatriz Gonzalez of Oxfam, Rachel Warden of KAIROS and Julia Sánchez of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation—called for on Canada to adopt a new approach in its Americas strategy.
“What would a reinvigorated Americas strategy look like? It would focus on four key elements. Free trade agreements would be premised on compliance with international human rights standards. Democratic governance would be actively promoted. Corporate accountability would be a top priority. Militarization would not be seen as the solution to drug and criminality problems.”
Their comment was published April 11 in Ottawa’s Embassy magazine.
Also on the eve of the summit, the Vancouver-based Canadian Drug Policy Coalition issued a news release urging a redrafting of global drug policies. The group wants drug policy emphasis to shift from criminalization to public health.
Several U.S.-based groups are also calling for new approaches to relationships in the hemisphere.
Lisa Haugaard, executive director of the Washington-based Latin American Working Group, called on summit participants to take action to protect human rights defenders.
“Some of the countries that will be represented at the Summit of the Americas this weekend in Cartagena, Colombia, are more dangerous for defenders than others. Every eight days a human rights defender was killed in Colombia in 2011. Nineteen journalists have been killed in Honduras since the June 2009 coup, and 45 people associated with peasant organizations in Bajo Aguán have been murdered in the last two years.”
The usual suspects, yes, but Haugaard also called for new behaviour by Canada:
“The Canadian government must address the reality that many of the struggles around mining operations that give rise to threats and attacks against defenders involve Canadian-based companies.”
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to use the Cartagena summit to announce that Colombia is complying with the labour rights conditions that were set for a free trade agreement between Bogota to take effect. This despite continued anti-union violence, the high rate of impunity, serious impediments to union organizing, and the dire conditions faced by workers. Writers Dan Kovalik of the United Steel Workers union and Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli and Anthony Dest of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) say:
“Working conditions and protection for trade unionists in Colombia do not reflect the U.S. government’s evaluation of the Labor Action Plan. If Obama goes ahead with his plans in Cartagena to green light the FTA, Colombian and U.S. workers will lose their last bit of leverage to stem the tide of anti-union violence and defend the rights of Colombia’s most vulnerable populations.”
They add:
“All in all, 30 unionists were killed in Colombia last year. The National Labor School (ENS) reports that four have already been killed this year, and other trade union movements have reported additional murders (e.g., Justice for Colombia has reported six). Such killings have made Colombia, where around 3,000 unionists have been killed since 1986, the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist, and if the assassination rate this year continues as it has thus far, Colombia will most certainly retain this notorious distinction.
“Meanwhile, the Colombian government has done nothing effective to prosecute those responsible for such anti-union violence, with the UN recently reporting that Colombia’s rate of impunity for such crimes remains at 95% – meaning that only 5% of the union killings have ever been successfully prosecuted.”