The global economy, driven by the dynamic of accumulation, creates enormous poverty as well as enormous wealth.  As documented in the book Global Dreams, Imperial Corporations And The New World Order, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening as wages are forced down, social programs slashed, and unemployment increased in a brutal pattern of competitive impoverishment.

There is hope in spite of the unrestrained accumulation of transnational corporations, however, because human beings will always fight for justice – as the people of South Africa remind us.

Unfortunately, few politicians in Canada have the vision to speak words of hope to the millions of Canadians who are being hurt by the unemployment and poverty created by the transnational global economy.

Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, President of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in Mexico, is one person who can speak from the heart to the suffering people of the world.  In an article in Global Visions – Beyond The New World Order – edited by J. Brecher, J.B. Childs, and J. Cutler (Black Rose Books, 1993), he wrote:

“Considering our existing world, to create an order of justice and equality might seem an impossible task.  Some, blinded by the interests that move the great powers today, believe that the present order cannot be changed.

“They do not want to see that in the heart of every nation there are men and women who fight against any form of oppression, marginality, and exploitation, and that defying injustice has always brought great changes and progress for humanity.

“Therein lies our optimism that changes are possible.  People are struggling for them, and without doubt they will be attained.  In every nation some lights remain.  They may seem weak, but history has taught us that these flames are the ones that light up consciences and warm the will to continue.  When they become more intense, they move peoples and nations.”