Networks for a more just and sustainable planet

Some people may wonder why the Jesuits and our collaborators work through NGOs and other civil society organizations. The answer can be found in our belief that the future of our planet and of society in general depends on establishing and nurturing strong alliances that go far beyond our work through traditional, more isolated organizations.
Jorge Serrano, Director of Advocacy and Institutional Relations at Fundación Entreculturas shares his insights as to why we need stronger networks and political coalitions to more effectively fight against poverty and inequality. 
History may well be seen as a succession of excesses of power whose liberation always demanded a tough battle of ideas.
We should wonder now who owns an excess of power today. There is no doubt that banks and financial institutions hold an excess of power that is very difficult to compete with. Today, power is not in papal bulls, or the crown, or guild privileges, or the means of production. Today, power lies in money more than ever before.
And if money is power, economic inequality is a dictatorship. So if we really want a democracy, we must fight against economic inequality or reduce the power of money or perhaps both at the same time.
How is it possible that the idea of inequality that is obviously against the natural idea of brotherhood won the battle of ideas?
During the last three centuries, inequality has been justified as follows: “The rich, by their natural selfishness and rapacity, only following their vain and insatiable desires, employ thousands of people, dividing with the poor (through their salaries) the fruit of work. Thus the rich are led by an invisible hand to advance the interests of society“. These words of Adam Smith (1759), the father of liberal economics, though perhaps judging the rich too harshly; perfectly describe how the system works: immoral greed is the economic engine that finally benefits society as a whole. All the state has to do is prevent that greed does not lead to agreements between employers to reduce wages and raise prices, which would go against the general interests of society. The problem is that using greed as an economic engine has its risks. It is as dangerous as trying to use a dragon as a means of transport.
[pullquote align=”left or right”]NGOs are organizations that work to create fairer structures. They are, therefore, political organizations. [/pullquote] Certainly it was the ambition to possess and consume that helped the industrial revolution to take place with its constant technological improvements, resulting in amazing increases in the productivity of our work. The fruits are undeniable. If we measure extreme poverty with current standards we can say that we have moved from a situation in 1700 in which the whole world’s population lived in extreme poverty to a situation today in which “only” one sixth of humanity lives in extreme poverty. Another example of the undeniable progress of the industrial revolution has been the dramatic increase in life expectancy for a large portion of the world population going from 35 years in 1700 to almost 80 years now (in some countries like Sierra Leone life expectancy remains at the same levels as in 1700).
Leaving aside the obvious immorality and injustice inherent to any greedy attitude, we must  acknowledge the audacity of Adam Smith and admit that during these three centuries the system has not only generated exorbitant material benefits for the rich but has also led to significant benefits for society as a whole.
But is it possible to indefinitely sustain this growth? Mathematics denies it. A tiny economic growth of 1% a year would lead to a world´s average income per capita as big as 1.000.000.000 euro per year which would require a few hundred planets. Therefore it is obvious that economic growth cannot be sustained forever and that at some point growth will stagnate.
At this time, the content of the new development agenda that should replace the Millennium Development Goals is being discussed among the governments of all countries around the world. How can we influence this new global agenda to fight effectively against poverty and inequality?
It can be argued that the political power of citizens is not yet globalized as only our votes can influence at national and local level, but this is not quite accurate. The political power of citizens is not only their vote. Citizens exercise their political power through many other ways. A key way is through civil society organizations. We have the advantage of having a civil society that is increasingly global and coordinated through a huge tangle of local, national, regional and global networks.
NGOs are not systems to send money to excluded and impoverished people. NGOs are much more than that. NGOs are organizations that work to create fairer structures. They are, therefore, political organizations. And as political organizations, they should be equipped with a variety of opportunities for political participation for their citizens. This is the way forward. A huge coalition of environmental, social and human rights civil society organizations that channel the political participation of citizens all around the world to push for a logic of distribution in a world that has stopped growing. Because in a world where the size of the cake has stopped growing due to environmental limits, fighting inequality is the same as fighting poverty.
The full version of this post can be found here.
Jorge Serrano is the Director of Advocacy and Institutional Relations at Fundación Entreculturas in Madrid, Spain. 
Photo from Flickr under Creative Commons license