Green policies best for third world
In a World Development Movement (WDM) analysis of the parties' third world policies, WDM said "The Green Party is extremely progressive and hard to fault on development issues".
Their election guide is at http://www.wdm.org.uk/electionbriefing.
Geoff Forse, Green Party candidate for Leicester West and a member of WDM, said: "We welcome the World Development Movement's description of the Green Party as extremely progressive and hard to fault on development issues. Only the Greens are opposed to the forcing open of developing countries' markets for the benefit of Western-based multinationals. The other parties' stated commitments to tackling poverty will remain only words so long as they remain committed to the idea of ever-more unfettered international free trade. The third world needs not free trade but fair trade".
The Green Party's standing policy commitments on international development are below, from our Manifesto for a Sustainable Society (MfSS), agreed by Party Conference. The numbers refer to sections and paragraphs of MfSS, which can be read in full on the national Green Party website, http://www.greenparty.org.uk.
AID
- Our policy clearly states, "British aid should become 0.7 percent of G.N.P. within five years and 1.0 percent of G.N.P. within ten years. Emergency aid should be an addition to this from the Government's contingency reserve." (IP255)
TRADE
- A General Agreement on Sustainable Trade, under which fair trade rules (where producers are guaranteed a reasonable price for their products before planting, and an portion of the payment is set aside for community development) would become a requisite for international trade and local supply of goods would be preferred, should replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). A World Localisation Organisation should replace the World Trade Organisation (WTO). (IP122)
- ...To secure bilateral and multi-lateral agreements to plan trade which is ecologically sustainable and beneficial for poor people. (IP242)
- Food surplus dumping as a form of trade or Aid should be stopped by international agreements between the countries responsible, and by agricultural reform .(IP243)
- Aid and trade policies should aim to encourage food and energy self-sufficiency in all countries. (IP244).
SUBSIDIES
- British support for the Common Agricultural Policy should cease," which is more radical than either the Labour or Liberal Democrats. (IP264)
DEBT
We support private banks writing off uncollectable debts in the third world and for the OECD to eliminate the transfer of wealth from poorer countries to wealthier ones. At our most radical we propose that:
- The British Government would create the monitoring organisation to allow the development of a creative reimbursement scheme. The Government would attempt to transform the debts of all poor countries into creative reimbursement schemes, either involving cash or 'kind'. Instead of repaying debts in hard currencies, governments of countries with debts to the British Government or private banks will be required to make payments in their own currencies into local development funds, which will be administered by local people to establish local, ecologically sustainable economies and projects. Each repayment will be matched by a corresponding reduction of the foreign debt. Similar reductions would be made for reimbursement-in-kind projects, i.e. conservation and reproduction of genetic species (plant and animal), soil conservation, forest set-aside and reforestation, use of traditional farming and building techniques, educational programmes for women, etc. All rich country governments will be encouraged to join the creative reimbursement scheme. (IP238)
HEALTH AND EDUCATION
- Suitable Aid projects should include: low-technology energy schemes based on indigenous resources; fuel-efficient stoves; fuel-wood plantations; securing sustainable, ecological systems of food production and distribution for domestic needs; primary health care; women-centred projects including health, child-care, literacy and family-planning education; aid to establish a scientific research base in each country to facilitate research on local agricultural and environmental matters; assisting refugees for lengthy periods; housing for the poor; improved rural transport systems; training in agricultural and forestry skills appropriate to the area; aid to secure minimisation of food exports until domestic needs are met, recognising the limits to sustainable productivity of land; establishment of buffer stocks of food and animal feed; support for creating community banks. (IP253)
- British aid should be limited to countries and projects committed to a "basic needs" approach to development, coupled with a primary health care and family-planning programme culturally acceptable to the people concerned. Land reforms and wealth re-distribution should also be considered when assessing suitability for assistance, as should the locality and the ecological sustainability of the project. (IP257)
CORRUPTION AND GRIEVANCE
We have a whole host of policy on Transnational Corporations (TNCs), World Bank loans and the IMF, designed to root out corruption and bad decision making. This is a big subsection of our International Policy. Here is a single example:
- The British Government should: institute capital controls to ensure money made by TNCs in Britain is re-invested here. The TNCs should be forced to observe ecological restraints and labour standards, as suggested by the International Labour Organisation, worldwide. Failure to observe these conditions must mean that the TNC concerned should no longer be allowed to operate in the European Community. Transfer pricing activities by TNCs to reduce tax and export duty costs should be made illegal. (IP421 See also WR681)
ARMS TRADE
- There is a clear Green commitment to end subsidies and credits for UK arms exports, which is entirely within the power of the UK government. There is a Lib Dem commitment to press for an EU wide voluntary code of contact to be made legally binding, which is clearly less realistic than the Green proposal. The Lib Dem proposal for a cross-party parliamentary committee is also a much weaker position than the Greens.
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