Displacement is a Global Crisis

Street Sheet Jul02

Sometimes big moments sneak up with little fanfare, as happened recently one night in April. Local and international organizers- met for Tierra y Libertad: Homelessness and Displacement Here and Abroad, a night of presentation and discussion co-sponsored by the Coalition on Homelessness and the Center for Political Education.

The groundbreaking approach used that evening was to analyze homelessness in the United States as one feature of global social and economic conditions creating desperate poverty and displacement worldwide. James Tracy and Yuko Ogawa spoke on struggles against homelessness in the United States and Japan, Monica Enriquez and Youmna Chlala spoke on issues of mass displacement in Columbia and Palestine, and Renee Saucedo spoke on the struggles of Latino immigrant workers in the U.S.

In recent years, awareness of the effects of the U.S. international economic policy. Scholars and activists have criticized the process of economic subordination . of Third World nations through international lending institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Countries heavily debt burdened have their foreign and domestic policies dictated

have criticized the process of economic subordination of Third World nations through international lending institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Countries heavily debt burdened have their foreign and domestic policies dictated to them by these institutions in a process known as structural adjustment. Although structural adjustment programs have been stopped in name they continue in practice. These programs force nations into a program of cutting social spending, privatizing public institutions, and maintaining a positive climate for international trade. These practices have paved the way for an unprecedented shift of wealth and resources from poor to rich nations. Tierra y Libertad allowed us to focus on poverty within this international framework.

In the U.S., there has been a similar unprecedented polarization of wealth. Beginning in the eighties the gap between rich and poor widened at extreme pace. At the same time, the last several decades have seen massive cuts to social programs, welfare reform, and billions of dollars of cuts to housing. The result is the widespread poverty and homelessness we currently see. Poverty and homelessness here can and should be seen as a process of local structural adjustment and connected to poverty worldwide.

Similarly, Japan is a first world nation with a growing third world within. Homelessness in Japan looks much like it did at the beginning of the massive crisis here in the early eighties. In many cities wages have fallen behind the cost of living and government programs are failing to make up the difference. It is currently estimated that 30,000 people are homeless in Japan. The majority are men as women with children still qualify for state assistance. As in the US, Japan is seeing increasing cuts to social programs. A trend that if it continues will put more families on the streets as has happened here.

In Columbia the issues of poverty, landlessness, and displacement occur within the brutal context of a third world economy. Currently, there are two mil lion people displaced internally, from rural areas to cities. In the countryside, rural towns are displaced by fumigation as part of the war on drugs and military and paramilitary forces supplied by U.S. funding. The U.S.-sponsored war on drugs is part of a program called Plan Columbia that is intended to maintain a domestic structure of Columbia favorable for international trade

Similarly in Palestine, displacement is related to colonialism. There are more Palestinians displaced internationally than there are residing in Palestine. Current more than a million and half people are living out side of Palestine, mostly in Lebanon, and waiting to return. The U.S. support for Israel is inextricably tied to competition over access the oil reserves of the Middle East. Violence in Palestine has erupted as there has been a re-ordering of US alliances in the Middle East, putting pressure on Israel.

In Latin America international displacement is a crisis. As global economic conditions have created a massive disparity of wealth between rich and poor nations, many poor people are forced to attempt to migrate to the U.S. Currently, in the U.S. millions of people from Latin America trying to survive and send funds back to their hometown. Whole towns in Mexico and other places have lost nearly all of their young men to migration under economic duress. A major percentage of the gross national product of countries like El Salvador and Guatemala is income sent from migrant workers abroad. Not only does this process destroy regional cultures but migrants are subjected to degrading conditions, human rights violations, and life without legal status.

It would be wrong to assume that one model could explain poverty worldwide, or to overlook the specific historic and cultural contexts of homeless ness and displacement in various geographic locations. However, it is extremely useful to study these conditions together. It leads to the conclusion that desperate poverty in America is linked to poverty worldwide, and that now more than ever, international solidarity should be a part of local struggles for social and economic justice. Tierra y Libertad made a step in the direction of solidarity expect more installments in the future.