Lord Jordan, former General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trades Unions, spoke at an evening reception in his honour at IofC’s London headquarters, organised by Caux Initiatives for Business (CIB) on 4 March 2003. Bill Jordan, the veteran British trade union leader, gave a wholehearted endorsement of Chancellor Gordon Brown’s plan for a Marshall Aid type of package for developing countries.
Lord Jordan said that, over and above the current Iraq crisis, there was the long-term issue of the global disparities between rich and poor. Gordon Brown’s proposals for a modern Marshall Plan, said Jordan, would encompass governments, businesses and non-governmental organisations, including trade unions, in an offer of sustained funding for health and social infrastructure, in return for a commitment to anti-corruption policies. This would require businesses to adopt the highest corporate standards. "Corruption will not be diminished by exhortation to do the right thing," Jordan said. There must be benefits to business and governments in all they do. There was need to create a new international consensus on investment, and given such a consensus, the current commitment of billion of development aid could be raised by billions. This would "put muscle and achievement" into the UN’s Millennium goals.
One absolute priority for developing countries such as India was an adequate infrastructure, instead of spending billions of dollars on nuclear bombs. In India, 70 per cent of formal work was in the public sector, he said.
But there was a cost to downsizing, as had been advocated by the Washington consensus through structural adjustment programmes. "Downsizing is to pass a sentence of poverty," said Jordan, who had earlier spoken at a globalization conference in India, at the IofC centre in Panchgani near Pune.
He suggested that globalization had brought employment to millions of people in the developing world. But the reality for the West was indicated by the decline of the steel industries in the industrialised countries, which he described as "the walking dead".
He said that he personally would endeavour to get the international trade union movement to campaign for democracy instead of military dictatorships, such as in Burma. There, "forced labour underpins the economy. It is pervasive, implemented by the military." The Secretary General of the International Labour Organization had written to the heads of all governments saying, "Please do something about Burma." But there had been no response.
He emphasised the catalytic role that good leadership plays in development. He compared, for instance, the decline of Kenya under the erstwhile Moi regime with the rise of Uganda under President Museveni, where, according to the BBC, "the economy began to grow steadily and poverty levels have dropped by 20 per cent since 1992".
In the discussion which followed Jordan’s talk, Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor of the Independent on Sunday, emphasised the need for a bottom-up approach to sustainable development at the local level. This depended on three factors: land reform, including giving shanty dwellers land entitlement so that they would have collateral for loans to set up their own micro businesses; renewable energy resources so that the poor do not burn fossil fuels; and local leadership.
Dutch author Annjet Campbell told how a local leadership in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro had helped to transform some of their situations.
Roddy Edwards, Partner in the Walkerswood Foods co-operative of Jamaica, also illustrated the role of local leadership, from his company’s experience. The food company is exporting local products around the world. He went on to emphasise that such a local leadership could have a role in giving considered thought and care to political leaders at the national level, who don’t have all the answers.
Susan Coté-Freeman, Director of External Relations and Communications for the anti-corruption coalition Transparency International, said that TI was marking its 10th anniversary that year and had national chapters in over 90 countries. Ten years ago, corruption had been a taboo subject, but now the war against corruption was a public issue, she said. TI had introduced a Business Code to Combat Bribery and was conducting seminars and workshops for companies that don’t already have their own rigorous codes.
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