International Solidarity on Wall Street

Global Witness, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Revenue Watch… Do these mean anything you? Probably not. Nevertheless, these organizations, along with some others, of international solidarity have succeeded the tour de force of getting passed — in favor of Wall Street reform –— measures of considerable import for developing countries. Twelve years after the Ottawa Treaty prohibited antipersonnel landmines and the Rome Statute created the International Criminal Court, the reform announced Wednesday July 21 by the president of the United States, Barack Obama, marks the culmination of years of mobilization, of building expertise and of teaching. A real victory for advocacy done by American and international civil society, resulting in three major arrangements for the political and economic development of the Global South.

The extractive enterprises listed on Wall Street will have to declare payments they make to the governments of every country in which they operate. We’re talking about 90 percent of the international oil and gas companies and 80 percent of the mining giants. After a similar move on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May, this is a new era — that of transparency — for the extractive industry. A slap in the face to the paradox of wealth, which sees the citizens of Nigeria, Burma, Angola, Guatemala or especially the Congo in coming to regret the abundance of their natural wealth, synonymous with violence, corruption, ecologic destruction and misery. This demand for transparency has, since 2002, brought in 55 countries and 600 organizations to the international coalition, Publish What You Pay. PWYP helps three-and-a-half billion inhabitants of countries rich in primary resources to better monitor and control the part of the revenue that goes to their government.

The societies that buy the minerals coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must declare at Wall Street and take specific measures, called “due diligence,” to guarantee that their activities do not aid armed groups. The goal: to quit feeding the fight for control of these minerals that, for fifteen years, has caused as many deaths daily in Eastern DRC as the attacks of September 11 caused in the United States. In practical terms, the names that sell gold from the Kivus must, just like the industries that fabricate cell phones and computers with coltan and cassiterite from the DRC, guarantee that their supplies can be traced. This decisive first step for the restoration of peace in the African Great Lakes would not have happened without the combined advocacy of international NGOs and local actors.

The reform seeks to regulate derivatives on agricultural markets. This measure will contribute to limiting speculation on agricultural products. Stabilizing agricultural prices is a long battle for NGOs. For developing countries, where the 2008 food crisis threw 200 million more people into hunger, the time has come for the capacity of the most poor to take care of themselves in cities, and for rural people to live off of their work. Since traders and other intermediaries have caused the price of wheat or rice triple in just a few weeks, it’s the Egyptian or Senegalese consumer who suffers. Since they have drastically lowered the price of coffee or of palm oil, it’s the Colombian or Indonesian producer who is ruined. With prices less unpredictable, the producers will finally be able to plan their activities and, incidentally, feed the population.

Of course, the citizen mobilization would have been impossible if it hadn’t found the ear of responsible politicians ready to personally fight these battles. American senators, both Democrats and Republicans, have taken responsibility, along with the support of Barack Obama. It is also necessary for American civil society to be as vigilant as possible so that these legislative victories translate in the terms of application. But the lesson is clear: the propositions made by civil society, when they team up with responsible politicians, can change the lives of millions!

In 2011, the president of France, host of the G8 and the G20, will be in the international spotlight. French civil society is not without its ideas: build agricultural reserves in order to curb price speculation, force multinationals to publish their accounts country by country to prove that they are not putting their profits in tax havens, tax international financial transactions… Will Nicolas Sarkozy know where to draw from?