JUNE 14th -15th, 2014: GLOBAL MAJORITY SPEAKS OUT

AT THE G77 MEETING IN SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA

133 NATIONS GATHER TO DISCUSS A MORE BALANCED WORLD ORDER

G77 SUMMIT DISCUSSES "NEW WORLD ORDER FOR LIVING WELL"

The G77 is a coalition of developing nations at the United Nations that formed in June 15th, 1964. Today, this group has grown to include 133 members and now represents two thirds of the world's population.

This year the coalition celebrated their 50th anniversary (on June 15, 2014) at the summit in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. 133 Member states showed up at the summit. UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon opened the event with an emphasis on the need to accelerate efforts to meet the goals of the summit (such as reducing the number of people living in poverty world wide).

The theme of this year's summit was developing a "New World Order for Living Well." Global poverty and income inequality were a major issue of discussion. The G77 made a declaration to reduce poverty and inequality, promote sustainable development, protect the sovereignty over natural resources and promote fair trade and technology transfers. The coalition even proposed a new goal to eradicate extreme poverty within its member states by 2030.

EVO MORALES DISCUSSES GLOBAL INCOME INEQUALITY - WHICH IS AT ITS HIGHEST LEVEL IN HISTORY

Evo Morales (Bolivia's President) is the current leader of the G77. He is the first native-Indian leader of one of Latin America's poorest countries. In his speech he called for "replacing financial institutions like the IMF" with other institutions, like a bank that would unite the world's developing nations, largely clustered closer to the equator.

Economic inequality was a major point in Morales's discussion, given that it is currently at its highest level in history. Today 10 countries in the world control 40% of the world's total wealth and 15 multinational corporations control 50% of the global output. Morales brought up other crucial statistics, such as the fact that 0.1% of the world’s population owns 20% of the asset base of mankind. He also put income inequality in perspective by stating that in 1920, a US business manager made 20 fold the wage of a worker, and that now the difference is 331 fold.

MORALES DISCUSSES TODAY'S ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER AND THE RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH

Morales emphasized that development includes "not only a balance between human beings, but balance and harmony with Mother Earth."

In his speech he talked about how the economic crisis and the climate crisis are related, and must be tackled together. Today's climate crisis is giving rise to a water supply crisis, along with dropping food production and rising food prices. Morales had the following to say about climate change:

"For more than 15,000 years prior to the era of capitalist industrialization, the load of green-house gases did not exceed 250 particles per million of molecules in the air."

"Since the 19th century, and in particular the 20th and 21st centuries, thanks to the actions of predatory capitalism, this count has risen to 400 particles, and as a result, global warming has become an irreversible process with its aftermath of weather disasters the primary impacts of which are felt in the poorest and most vulnerable countries of the south; specially, the island nation that are being hit by the thawing glaciers."

In his speech, Morales made the point that the current world order is unstable and unsustainable over the long term:

"Today, like 100 years ago, acting in the name of the free market and democracy, a handful of imperial powers invades countries, blocks trade, imposes prices on the rest of the world, chokes national economies, plots against progressive governments and applies espionage to the population worldwide."

"This unfair manner of concentrating wealth and this predatory way of destroying nature are also giving rise to a structural crisis that is becoming unsustainable over time."

"It is indeed a structural crisis. It impacts every component of capitalist development; in other words, it is a mutually nurtured crisis involving finances, energy, , climate, water, food, institutions and values . It is a crisis inherent to the capitalist civilization."

"The time has come for the nations of the south. In the past, we were colonized and enslaved. Our stolen labor built empires in the North...Today, another world is not only possible, but also indispensable. Today, another world is indispensable because, otherwise, no world will be possible. And that other world of equality, complementarity and organic coexistence with Mother Earth can only emerge from the thousands of languages, colors and cultures existing in brotherhood among the peoples of the south."

This G77 document puts forth a set of goals that aim at reducing poverty, income inequality, fostering sustainable development, protecting the sovereignty over natural resources and promoting fair trade and fair technology transfers. Read the declaration below.

One of the major issues discussed in the 2014 Bolivia G77 Summit was that of climate change. Climate change has had a more destructive effect on developing countries than developed countries. Yet the developed countries have done little to deal with the climate crisis. The 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference stands as a prime example of this failure.

During the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference, the United States only proposed $10 billion to deal with the climate crisis, despite its $685 billion for defense.

Lumumba Di-Aping, who was the leader the G77 in 2009 had this to say about the failed climate conference: "$10 billion is not enough to buy us coffins". "What is Obama going to tell his daughters? That their [Kenyan] relatives' lives are not worth anything? It is unfortunate that after 500 years-plus of interaction with the West we [Africans] are still considered 'disposables' ... My good friends…we've got to get together and fight the fight."

If the wealthy nations of the world will not take the steps to avert climate disaster, the world's developing majority may have to provide their own solution. The idea of a more fair world economy that exists in balance with nature was a key topic in the 2014 Bolivia G77 Summit. This theme is outlined both in the speech of President Morales along with the Santa Cruz Declaration.