Economists Discuss Alternatives to Free-Market Model

SANTIAGO, Nov 10 (By Daniela Estrada, IPS) November 30, 2006 — Some 90 left-leaning Latin American economists are meeting in the Chilean capital to discuss ways to build "a society with neither exploited nor exploiters" and construct bridges between academia and social movements.

The Thursday through Saturday gathering is the first "Latin America in Movement: Building Alternatives to Neoliberalism" colloquium, organized by the Latin American Society of Political Economy and Critical Thinking (SEPLA).

SEPLA, which was created in October 2005 by 245 economists from 14 Latin American countries as well as Britain, France, Spain and the United States, now has more than 500 members.

At the opening of the three-day gathering, economist Antonio Elías, a member of the Network of Leftist Economists of Uruguay, said the Chilean-based SEPLA is "a social organization made up of academics whose aim is to design a proposal of change for Latin America," in conjunction with social movements in each country.

"We must struggle hard against neoliberalism, economic orthodoxy and all forms of imperialism. There has to be awareness that alternative policies, if they are correctly formulated, will not lead to chaos, as those who defend continuity want to make people believe," the SEPLA economists state in their manifesto.

"To the contrary, these policies are capable of reducing unemployment and poverty, while creating mechanisms that can defend our countries from parasite rentiers and unbridled speculation which periodically tip our economies into a deeper and deeper pit, requiring increasingly greater sacrifices," says the document.

The meeting of economists from 14 countries is taking place in the private University of Arts and Communication (Arcis), and includes presentations by 90 speakers on issues like public policies, health, education, the labor market, capital flows, the growing strength of social movements and food security.

"There is a great social effervescence in Latin America," Chilean economist Claudio Lara, one of the leaders of SEPLA and an organizer of the colloquium, told IPS. "It is growing to a greater or lesser extent in the different countries, in some of which the social movements are now in the government, as is the case of Bolivia. There are also progressive governments, very different from governments of the past, in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil."

Speaking at the opening ceremony were Nicolás Grau, president of the University of Chile Student Federation, and José Graziano Da Silva, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean — two of the 15 institutions that are sponsoring the event.

Grau urged the economists to seek opportunities for change in the "fissures" in the "capitalist economic model," and to take advantage of the "disorder" generated by social movements.

In the case of Chile, the student activist highlighted the "historic" protest by high school students, in May and June, which prompted the government to pursue improvements in Chile's unequal educational system.

Da Silva, a former minister of food security under the leftist government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, underscored the contribution that many of the economists taking part in the meeting have made in their respective countries, especially Brazil.

"Thanks to the debates organized by the Brazilian Society of Political Economy — a member of SEPLA — on food security, more than 100 academics and government and independent experts were brought together and created the Zero Hunger program, which was adopted by President Lula when he won the elections" in 2002, Da Silva, one of the chief architects of that plan, told IPS.

Nevertheless, the members of SEPLA recognise that their relationship with trade unions and social organisations is not strong enough yet.

"What has characterized Latin America in the last 20 to 30 years is the dichotomy, the rupture between social movements, which function on their own means, and the academic world, totally closed in on itself in the universities, which has not permitted a fluid dialogue," said Lara.

"We leftist economists agree on the fight against injustice, the search for a more egalitarian, inclusive and democratic society," Mexican economist Jesús Rivera de la Rosa, from the Autonomous Benemérita University of Puebla, told IPS.

But "the way to bring about change, how to make the transition, is something that we must continue to debate," added Rivera, who made a controversial proposal Thursday: to stop talking in terms of "development" and to discuss instead the "liberation" of Latin America.

In his view, it is not possible to achieve development in a capitalist society, and if the world continues to move in the present direction, "technological slavery" will be the result.

Rivera also said his country is experiencing a veritable civil war, the outcome of which is impossible to foresee, especially given the situation in the southern state of Oaxaca, where 350 social organizations joined the teachers' union in an uprising since May demanding the resignation of the state governor, accused of corruption.

"This Oaxaca business is just starting, and peoples' assemblies (like the one responsible for the protest in Oaxaca) have also begun to be created in other Mexican states," he said.

The economist also warned about what could happen on Nov. 20 in the Mexican capital. "For the first time ever, President Vicente Fox has suspended the march commemorating the Mexican Revolution, but the governor of the federal district (of Mexico City) is going to organize it anyway," he said.

"Besides, that day (defeated leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel) López Obrador is going to be symbolically inaugurated as the legitimate president of Mexico, an event that is expected to draw four million people. We don't know if force will be used against the gathering," said Rivera.

"U.S. Professor James D. Cockcroft says there is a ‘social tsunami' in Latin America. There is a social wave expressed in democratic, left-leaning governments, some of which are more leftwing than others. It is a movement that began in the region about 10 years ago and that is growing and growing and growing, and we don't know how far the regenerative power of that tsunami will reach," he concluded.