Reference: JIM FERNANDO, KMP Public Information Officer
KMP Leads Philippine Delegation to World Economic Forum Counter-Conference
The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) leads the Philippine delegation on two international conference against the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on January 26-30 to be attended by 800-1,000 Chief Executives of Transnational Corporations (TNCs), economic managers and country representatives.
KMP said the WEF is a forum where greedy TNC's and representatives of dependent economies to strategize on how to further squeeze profit and exploit third world countries. Former President Fidel Ramos was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the Philippines' "senior representative" to the WEF.
The 'World Social Forum' in Porto Alegre, Brazil and 'Public Eye on Davos' in Switzerland are the two international counter-conference organized by people's movements around the globe fighting for social justice, sustainable development, human rights and against imperialist globalization. The two international conferences will be held simultaneously from January 25 - February 2.
At the Davos conference, KMP and Bayan Chairperson Rafael Mariano, will discuss 'The Impact of Trade Liberalization on the Peasantry and Agriculture of the South'. These include massive landlessness and dislocation of peasants and farmworkers due to rampant land-use conversion, agricultural import liberalization and the conversion of food crops production to high yielding export crops.
Meanwhile, at the 'World Social Forum' in Brazil, Randal Echanes, KMP Deputy Secretary General, spearheaded a workshop on the "World Bank's Market Assisted Land Reform: Obstacle to Rural Justice." The group also said the World Bank wanted agrarian reform to be a vehicle to submit rural economies to the demands of imperialist globalization or to serve the needs monopoly capital in the industrialized country.
The Philippine delegation to the WSF is composed of the KMP, Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), IBON Foundation and Salinlahi.
The peasant group also advised newly installed President Arroyo to be cautious on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (IMF-WB) conditionalities, particularly the Structural Adjustment Program and the full-scale liberalization, deregulation and privatization of the economy.
"We advise the new President to be cautious on the dictates of the IMF-WB, the policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization that only entrenched TNC control and bring about the destruction of agriculture and national economies. The displacement of workers from decent jobs, the increasing number of urban poor, dislocation of peasants, and the commodification /marginalization of women and children are living proof of the havoc and miseries these international financial institutions has wrought upon the Filipino people," the group ended. ###