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Poverty-Busters Team Up to Challenge Global Firms in 'Race to the Bottom' |
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by Oroke Garut
(No verified email address) |
18 May 2002
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Activists use the term 'race to the bottom' to describe the process of corporations chasing the lowest costs of doing business around the world at the expense of labor and social protections and environmental regulation. |
United States campaigners against poverty at home and abroad are uniting for a May 21 'Race to the Bottom', a one-kilometer road race in Washington D.C. timed to coincide with legislative action on domestic welfare programs and with international business talks.
"Groups that are concerned about domestic poverty and about globalization have understood for some time that these are two separate constituencies working in parallel but on separate issues, and that each could be strengthened by the other," said Deepak Bhargava, director of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support (http://www.nationalcampaign.org/), a race sponsor. "This [event] is a first effort to connect these two movements."
Activists use the term 'race to the bottom' to describe the process of corporations chasing the lowest costs of doing business around the world at the expense of labor and social protections and environmental regulation.
Bhargava's organization, an umbrella for local advocacy groups nationwide, is campaigning to raise the federal minimum wage and ensure affordable child care for working parents, remove time limits on people's eligibility for welfare benefits, and provide labor protections to immigrants.
Next week, the Senate is expected to begin considering changes to a 1996 welfare reform law, which limits eligibility for benefits to 60 months over an individual's productive lifespan and requires recipients to work for the aid, an arrangement commonly referred to as "workfare." The House of Representatives passed Thursday more stringent work requirements sought by President George W. Bush.
The National Campaign is sponsoring the race alongside the Mobilization for Global Justice (http://www.globalizethis.org), which has helped organize large-scale protests against the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Economic Forum (WEF) in recent years.
The WEF and U.S. Chamber of Commerce are organizing a May 21-23 annual conference. The Swiss-based WEF said it expects some 450 senior executives from more than 40 countries will attend with the aim of establishing or servicing relations with U.S. corporations and members of the Cabinet and Congress.
Race organizers say they expect as many participants at their event, which is scheduled to include a rally at the Chamber's headquarters before the actual race to World Bank headquarters in downtown Washington. Permits for the event are being negotiated with police, said Mobilization spokesperson David Levy.
The idea of applying the phrase 'race to the bottom' literally--the World Bank complex abuts the Washington neighborhood of Foggy Bottom--came from Mobilization organizer Nadine Bloch, a maker of giant protest puppets who described her specialty as "arts and action."
Bloch said the race would be followed by an awards ceremony at which winners will be named in the following categories: Most Depraved Workfare Boss, Country That Busted the Most Unions to Please Multinational Corporations, and Politician Quickest to Blame Poor Women for Society's Problems.
"Whether you're an MBA in the Rat Race or an underemployed activist with the Human Race, this 'race to the bottom' is a can't-miss event for anyone trying to get ahead or left behind," the organizers said in a flier advertising the event.
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