Last Thursday — alongside UN Ambassadors and leading economists from across the world — the Progressive International landed in New York to present the Program of Action on the Construction of a New International Economic Order: a handbook for an insurgent Global South to win its sovereign and sustainable development in the twenty-first century.
The Program of Action — to be released next Monday 23 September to coincide with the Summit of the Future — is the fruit of two years of global deliberations, featuring 300 delegates from over 60 countries that today comprise the ‘Havana Group,’ the collective author of the program.
“This process has revealed a clear and common conviction: Economic liberation will not be granted; it must be seized,” said the PI’s Michael Galant in his opening address last week. “To right the inequities of the global economic system, it is not enough to petition the North. A New International Economic Order must be won through the urgent, unilateral, but coordinated struggle of the Global South.”
“The rich world does not truly want incomes to converge between rich and poor,” said renowned economist Branko Milanovic in his address to the New York event. “As such, there is no choice other than total reconstruction of our global economic architecture.”
On 23 September, the Progressive International will publish its vision for that “total reconstruction,” divided into five main issue areas, each of which articulates both objectives and the concrete measures to reach them — from industry and commodities to technology and innovation. With its publication, we conclude the two-year phase of NIEO commemoration, and move into the phase of the program’s implementation.
But across the world, we are already seeing some of these measures come to life — starting this week, led by the Partido Libre of Honduras, a member of the Progressive International.
On 18 and 19 September in Tegucigalpa, as the Pro Tempore President of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Honduran government is hosting a regional Coffee Summit with implications for the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across Latin American and the Caribbean. The region contributes about 61% of global coffee production, generating more than 14 million direct jobs. Coffee is particularly important to the Honduran economy, with over 120,000 families dedicated to its production, and family farming forming a bedrock of peasant culture and identity.
Bringing together the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Coffee Organization, and agriculture ministers from across the region, the Coffee Summit brings to life a key measure of the Program of Action: Resource Sellers’ Clubs, coordinating the production and sale of primary goods in order to stabilize prices, improve the bargaining power of sellers, align sustainable production practices, and invest in industrial advancement, human development, and ecological restoration across the South. As a first effort to bring its Program of Action on the Construction of the NIEO to life, the Progressive International is sending a delegation to participate in the Summit and support its activities.
This is just the beginning. Over the coming weeks, months, and years, the Progressive International will report on, support and participate in the construction of a New International Economic Order. In doing so, we aim to deliver on the dream of the original NIEO, long since deferred: full and permanent economic decolonization. We hope you will join us on that journey.
Sitaram Yechury, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), died this week at the age of 72 after an acute respiratory tract infection. A major figure on the Indian left, Yechury became General Secretary in 2015. His legacy lives on in every fight for dignity and liberation.
PI member, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) strongly condemned this week the government of Kenyan President William Ruto for its repression and harassment of protestors. In particular, the DSA raised the case of Booker Ngese Omole, National Vice Chairperson of the Communist Party of Kenya, who was detained and prevented from travel this week at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi.
35 former presidents and prime ministers have written to US President Joe Biden demanding that Cuba is removed from the US’ State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Cuba was placed on the list as one of the last acts of the Trump administration. The 35, which includes former Colombian president Ernesto Samper, former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and former Bolivian president Evo Morales, are ramping up the pressure on Biden before he leaves office in January.
Art: Lester Rodríguez (1984, Honduras) is an artist, professor, and co-founder of the Experimental School of Art, based in Bogotá, Colombia. Rodríguez's work results from ongoing research on geography, regional crises, and migratory issues. For the context of Dow Jones, Rodríguez was interested in the economic crisis, the impact of political discourse on financial flows, and the repercussions on the economy. Dow Jones tracks the stock market chart from December 2019 - December 2021, a time of interconnected yet seemingly independent issues including the pandemic, oil prices, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the U.S.-China trade war that affected exploited countries disproportionately.
