Formed in 2002 by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Commission on the
Social Dimension of Globalization was charged with responding to the needs
of people as they cope with the unprecedented changes of globalization.
In February 2004, the commission released its final report, entitled “A
Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All,” which reflected
on how globalization could affect more people and focused on the importance
of employment to overcoming poverty.
In this segment of
the Presidential Lecture Series on June 25, 2004, ILO Director-General
Juan Somavia discussed the key points of the commission’s report:
reinforcing local communities and markets, emphasizing fairness, making
decent work a global goal, and rethinking global governance. Successful
globalization requires successful localization, he explained. By strengthening
the local economy, a foundation can be established from which to build
a sound globalization. Fairness is also crucial, Somavia said, because
late-comers to development have the greatest need for opportunities and
access. Ethics and the policies of globalization must be conformed in
order to overcome the present “winner-take-all” attitude. In
addition, the international community must take up employment as a high-priority
objective. International economic, trade, financial and labor policies
must be assessed for their impact on employment. Respect for workers’
rights needs to be embedded in the management practices of global enterprises
as well as in the policies of multilateral organizations. To reap the
full benefits of good national governance, he argued, good global governance
is a necessity. While the global economy moves forward, economic and social
institutions still lag behind.
There is a need to
improve the way institutions perform and talk with each other and adapt
the post-World War architecture to 21st-century values, Somavia insisted.
He then called upon the World Bank, the ILO and other international institutions
to work together to make employment a high priority, particularly in this
year — the 60th anniversaries of both the Bretton Woods Agreements
and the ILO Declaration of Philadelphia. In their declaration, made in
1944, ILO leaders proclaimed that “poverty anywhere is a threat to
prosperity everywhere.” Somavia pointed out that the Bank and ILO
have already discussed such employment-related issues as equity, migration
and child labor, but the two groups must continue to follow up on previous
talks. He maintained that the “steady flow of honest dialogue can
corrode the armor of ideology and mistrust and build common ground.”
Lack of dialogue, on the other hand, has opened the way to many dictatorships.
With his Chilean heritage and Chile’s struggle against an authoritarian
regime in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, he expressed particular
dismay about a United Nations survey in April 2004 which concluded that
the majority of Latin Americans would support a dictatorship over a democracy
if it offered relief to economic woes.
Reflecting on lessons
learned at the World Summit for Social Development in 1995, Somavia summarized
most people’s desires with the phrase, “Give me a fair chance
for a decent job.” He argued that most individuals do not contest
globalization on ideological grounds. People simply will not embrace globalization
if they do not see the benefits in their lives, their families, their
communities and — most importantly — their jobs. They only desire
the opportunities to work, to have a voice, to be respected, to earn a
pension and to pay for their children’s education. He likened globalization
to a childhood experience in 1950s New Orleans, when he witnessed a young
white boy force two elderly African-American women to a different seat
on a train. Too many people, Somavia said, perceive that globalization
is like that train: where a person stands or sits is not up to them. His
or her destiny is determined by others and that breeds a sense of powerlessness
and loss of control and drains away hope. Fundamentally, people do not
want to get off the train, though, and Somavia asserted that everyone
should have an opportunity to take part in globalization. A fair globalization
is essential to peace, security, social justice, and personal dignity.
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