May 28, 1998

 

DEVELOPMENT: UNIVERSAL SOCIAL STANDARDS NOT POSSIBLE, SAYS NYERERE

Geneva, 26 May (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- While it may be possible to have Universal Social Principles, universal social standards based on those principles are not possible, according to former Tanzanian President and Chairman of the South Centre, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.  

Nyerere, speaking in his personal capacity in Berne at a North-South Conference for Sustainable Development, organized by the Swiss coalition of NGOs, said that there were some 190 separate nation states, each with different physical geography and natural resources, and each of them a unique mixture of history, religious beliefs, cultures and social structures.  

Given this cultural and resource diversity of nations, "on what basis could a universal standard be worked out and who is to decide it," Nyerere asked. The assumption behind 'universalisation' of the standards was "universalisation of western concepts and standards ... which are based on Western history and culture, on high and rapidly changing technology, and on levels of personal and communal consumption, which are not universal now and which the world's resources cannot sustain on a global basis," Nyerere said.  

A person's social income was very relevant to his standards of living (food, shelter, health, clean water, access to education and security against sickness and unemployment or old age), his social standards. And as the Copenhagen social summit recognized "social, economic and olitical issues are all inter-twined and none can be considered in isolation... and all are included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."  

Yet the demand to include social issues in international discussions was now being made, "not in the context of a holistic approach to improving human condition," but one that "hides protectionist tendencies in the development countries of the North." 

"For, it is being justified on the grounds that fair and free competition demands a 'level playing field' for participants in international trade: all countries must have the same labour costs.

This is a subtle argument for shutting off Northern markets to so-called cheap goods from the South, but is paraded as a fight for the rights of workers of the South," Nyerere said.  

This argument was attractive to trade unionists in the developed and developing countries alike, and the ICFTU has indicated it is sympathetic to the idea and would like good labour conditions to be made universal, or at least that once achieved good wages and conditions of work are not reduced by employers on grounds that globalization makes unemployment the only alternative to wage reduction.  

Until now, Nyerere said, globalization had been left to 'market forces' -- and every kind of existing international or national regulation or tax or other 'obstacle' to trade was under attack.  

"Yet, despite that, we now have this call for 'universal social standards' to become a matter of enforceable international law." 

But more important than theoretical inconsistencies is the fact that it would be impossible for poor countries to meet the cost of any internationally acceptable social standards. They could sign any number of international treaties and could (and probably would) like to ensure that their workers received real wages comparable to those in Switzerland, "but that would be dreaming." 

For, however defined, social standards are dependent on the wealth of a country and a poor nation cannot be made less poor by forcing their government to sign an international treaty which prohibits or simply ignores the reality of poverty.  

Within a country or any other economic unit, Nyerere said, problems of relative poverty or unequal social standards could be dealt with through redistributive taxation or kept to a minimum by other state measures. Economic unions seeking to establish common standards among members don't just require members to meet those standards, it also lays down other obligations on members to enable poorer members to do so, Nyerere said, citing the example of the EU and the transfer payments to less rich Members which is not regarded as a charity but a legal obligation.  

But under relentless pressure of unfetttered globalization the world was becoming one huge Free Market, as the developed countries want. But to avoid trouble from their own workers, while facilitating the process of globalization, the developed countries now have the idea of demanding universal levels of social standards based on their own capacities, and by a legally binding treaty, want to apply economic sanctions against any country failing to meet those standards.  

"Yet the idea that rich countries should be legally bound to help the poor ones to meet those standards is rejected; proposals for an international tax of any kind are dismissed as absurd, and poor countries come under intense pressure to cut back domestically redistributive taxation. Under international conditionalities, it is made increasingly difficult for them to tax their own rich in order to improve social standards of their own poor."  

The sheer impossibility of poor countries meet social standards set by the rich has now been generally accepted, and the demand to make labour standards a factor in trade policy has been modified. It has now become a proposal that all countries should implement 'core labour standards'.  

While these are already in ILO conventions or international agreements, accepted by almost all countries, nevertheless there are breaches in such standards, and usually failure of a country is due to its national poverty and the concurrent existence of gross income inequalities, both at national and international levels.  

While within democratic countries, developed or developing, needs of the poor or less rich cannot always be ignored with impunity by the government or ruling class, in the world at large there is neither international democracy or any clear centre of power to which the poor can direct protests.  

When the world prices of copper fall by 50% in a week, Zambia national income drops like a stone, and its workers protest, perhaps violently, but directing their anger at the Zambian government which has no power at all this matter.

When the value of the Indonesian rupia tumbles down for reasons totally unconnected with the fundamentals of the Indonesian economy, the anger of the people is directed at the Indonesian government, while "the faceless international financial market which triggered the process bears no blame!"  

"Very often, popular protests that lead to the resignation or overthrow of a Southern government are IMF induced," the former Tanzanian President said. "We used to call them 'IMF bread riots', people condemning their governments for inability to resist IMF demands to fulfil some universal standard set by the rich North or to cut living standards of the poor further. 

"The IMF representatives who bring such policy demands - and the accompanying threats of further sanctions against the country - take care to have returned to their headquarters base before the policies they demand are implemented. It is their government on whom the people vent their anger, and in so doing further worsen their living standards."

The rich and powerful countries, Nyerere continued, preach democracy to the poor nations and when it suits them apply sanctions against those designated as undemocratic or acting against human rights.  

"But those preachers of democracy at the national level fight actively against any kind of democracy at the international level." For this reason, international organizations or institutions where the one-country-one-vote principle prevails are denied any power, and organizations that have power are those where the one-dollar-one-vote principle applied. Hence the powerlessness of the UN General Assembly, UNCTAD, UNESCO etc, and the overwhelming power of the UN Security Council, the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO "where there is no pretence to democracy."  

"The reality is that universal social standards are not possible, and certainly would not be compatible with justice, unless they are linked to, and are conditional upon, the parallel implementation of a deliberate, coherent and internally consistent anti-poverty programme, both nationally and internationally."

"And from recent events," Nyerere added, "it is clear that Universal Social Standards will not be possible while international financial movements remain chaotic and unregulated. Indeed, universal social standards are not compatible with unfettered competition in the Global Market. If there is no effective restraint upon the rich and the strong, then their interests will prevail, regardless of the needs, let alone the interests, of the poor.  

"In this fact, lies the almost unanimous Southern hostility to the proposal that 'Trade-Related Social Standards' be brought into the orbit of the WTO rather than the ILO. For, compared to the WTO, the ILO is democratic in structure and does not seek to usurp the national sovereignty of any state.  

"Developing countries see no need for further international intervention beyond the existence, and the present powers of the ILO.

Past experience in other areas has demonstrated that if the WTO is given powers to apply sanctions on this matter, they will be used exclusively against developing countries - and even then not with consistency. They will become another stick to use against a developing country, democratic or otherwise, which tries to determine its own domestic policies in any area, and to implement them. 

"It does not take much imagination to see how such powers in the hands of the WTO could be used by the US against Cuba; it takes a great deal of imagination however to believe that such power would be used against the US on any grounds whatever." 

Appealing for solidarity of the people in the North, with the poor in the South, Nyerere said the conference of Swiss NGOs was an encouragement and support.  

"Globalization," he told the Swiss NGOs, "is a fact of modern life. Together we can change it into a force for good, good of all the peoples in the world. It can be done. Play your part."