Alliance Programme for
Health, Peace and Social Justice
10. Promoting A Just War
The effects of economic globalisation are not only creating growing social injustice in many countries but also an ever greater gulf between rich and poor nations. The multinationals have seamlessly substituted themselves for the former colonial powers. They draw most of their financial power from uninhibited exploitation of the resources and people in developing countries. The economic dependency of whole countries and continents on multinationals has replaced the military occupation of the colonial era. A prime tool to maintain the gulf between rich and poor countries is the stranglehold of national debt borne by almost all developing countries.
Social justice must become global reality
Our goal is to overcome this gulf between rich and poor, as a precondition for a just world order. For this reason we also oppose the uninhibited globalisation of company interest groups and the exploitation of developing countries. The chief emphases here are as follows:
- The principle of comprehensive public control is indispensable in restructuring the current economic system based on company group interests so as to create an internationally just economic order. This applies not only to multinationals but also, primarily, to international finance and trade organisations. Only through public control of international commerce and finance can misuse, speculative investment and unbounded self-enrichment by company groups be ended.
- In relation to existing UN sub-organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), UNCTAD, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others , we must help poor countries to gain unrestricted access to the markets of the industrialised nations. Here it is important to ensure that profits also really flow back to the countries of origin, serving the people who live there and thus facilitating effective development of the economic and social systems in these countries.
- The debt of developing countries is a prime cause for continuing poverty and destitution of millions of people. Only through complete cancellation of developing countries’ debt will they have any chance at all of funding urgently needed social priorities such as building schools and hospitals and promoting economic development. Cancelling debt should not be linked to conditions, such as the purchase of inhumane industrial products like armaments, or the distribution of toxic pharmaceutical drugs.
We are decisively opposed to the argument that debt cancellation for developing countries is too expensive or even unjustified. For centuries the industrialised nations have exploited the countries of Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. Debt cancellation is nothing other than compensation for real crimes. It is not only justified but long overdue, and a prime condition for building a socially just world.
4. We promote a development policy which helps consolidate functioning, democratic civil societies in developing countries. This step will only really be possible if national debts are reduced and the conditions are created for reinvigorating the economic and social systems in these countries. As part of this overall concept the governments of developing lands must also ensure that their countries are no longer misused as a cheap employment market for multinationals.
5. We will make social justice a reality throughout the world. By intensifying exchange programmes and partnerships with developing countries, awareness of the issues will spread, and practical measures will be developed for overcoming the gulf between rich and poor.
As a first project for worldwide social justice a partnership is developing between the people of Germany and South Africa. Health and education are key features of this partnership. The people of Germany are in the process of emancipating themselves from endemic diseases such as heart attack and cancer with the aid of healthy nutrition and micronutrients. At the same time people in South Africa and surrounding countries are freeing themselves from the immune system disease AIDS and other avoidable illnesses with the aid of targeted dietary supplements. The key to health for millions of people in both North and South lies in education and information work about the importance to health of micronutrients and the ending of a redundant dependency on the pharmaceutical industry.
Human dignity must apply everywhere!
Every politician who states that all people on earth are equal and have a right to health and a life of dignity, without saying how this can be realised and financed for all people, has no credibility. The rights to life, health, education and employment are inalienable human rights for all. Every political programme that demands adherence to these human rights throughout the world, but does not say clearly how resistance should be overcome from those who profit from the commercial exploitation of under-developed countries cannot be taken seriously.
Parties in particular that appeal to Christian and humanist values must say how far their humanism really extends. Does it just reach to the borders of a country, or to the boundaries of Europe, or does it apply to all human beings? As long as these parties do not present a consistent plan and means of funding for helping millions of people in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia to lead a life of dignity, any claim by them to Christian and humanist values is mere hand-wringing and voter deception. Young people in particular, who wish to work with enthusiasm to create a better and more just world, must not become victims of such party-political smokescreens.
When we speak in our programme of developing a socially just world, and a life of dignity for all people, this applies equally to a laid-off industrial employee in Berlin or Warsaw and to unemployed agricultural workers in destitute areas of Cape Town, Nairobi, Mexico City or Manila.
The strength of our programme is that we not only demand these far-reaching steps but can present specific, quantifiable means to realise them. The more people who support this comprehensive and far-reaching programme, the more our goals will become reality. The sooner global human suffering is alleviated, and millions of human lives are saved, the sooner a new, more just world can arise.