Stephen Bartlett, Latin American Liaison, Agricultural Missions, National Council of Churches conducted a globalization workshop for the Des Moines Presbytery entitled, “Global Village or Global Pillage?” on Saturday, June 7, 2004 at First Presbyterian Church, Dallas Center.

The workshop was sponsored by the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Joining Hands against Hunger in Egypt and Companeros, the coordinating body for the Presbytery’s El Salvador mission.

Stephen began the morning session with a discussion of neoliberalism and the evolution of today’s economy which, combined with globalization, results in enormous economic inequalities among nations of the world. He explained the role the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund have played in creating current practices surrounding globalization.

The morning session concluded with a discussion of the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the reasons social justice movements all around the world oppose these agreements. He distributed Overture 03-33, On Opposing the Free Trade Area of the Americas in Its Current Form which the San Francisco and Giddings-Lovejoy presbyteries presented at General Assembly and which passed.

Following lunch, Stephen led the group in several role-playing scenarios which he had written. The six exercises centered on an imaginary feedlot/food processing operation in a small town which had been approached by a transnational conglomerate. The workshop participants assumed such roles as government officials in charge of regulating trade, local and federal government representatives, migrant workers, residents of the town, shareholders and others.

In concluding the workshop, Stephen urged the participants to support Overture 03-33; to support farm laborers around the world; to support the citizens of Egypt and El Salvador in economic issues which affect their livelihoods; to support ecumenical programs working on globalization issues as well as the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbyterian Hunger Program; and, finally, to become educated about other people and other cultures and to network with them in creative ways.

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  Stephen Bartlett presenting                                          Workshop Participants
 

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