(1995)
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All the pomp that was missing in New York was present in Beijing for the fourth World Women's Congress in September 1995, preceded by a week-long NGO Forum. The event was expected to produce a Platform for Action to guide national and international policy on women's issues into the 21st century. The event was the culmination of a "180-Day Local-to-Global-to-Local Women's Empowerment Campaign” organized by the NGO WEDO (Women for Environment and Development Organization). WEDO's parent organization, Women U.S.A. Fund, Inc, is headed by Bella Abzug, Congresswomen Patsy Mink and Maxine Waters, and Gloria Steinem. Funding for the NGO comes from the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and the Turner Foundation. The campaign featured the coordinated release of press kits to the media, boycotts, "take over the legislature for a day” rallies, forums, lunchtime workshops with fellow workers, and a "myriad of actions” all over the world. The purpose of the campaign was to focus public attention on the Beijing Conference, and more particularly, on WEDO's conference agenda. WEDO called for the tracking of all national and international economic and development programs by social and gender impact studies; restrictions on economic growth in industrialized countries; the transfer of common property (water, forests, grazing lands and fishing waters) to international control; prohibiting ownership of such common property to national or international corporations; national and international strategies to alleviate women's poverty; remuneration for women's unpaid work (housekeeping, child rearing, etc.); taxes shifted from income to consumption; universal guaranteed income and payment for childcare and other socially productive activities; and a universal 50/50 program that would require all business and government entities to have a 50/50 men/women work force.96 The conference produced more hype, hoopla, and hyperbole than anything else. First there was a flap about having a World Conference on Women’s issues in a nation which so severely oppressed women. Then there was a flap about the facilities. Then there was a flap about the extreme security measures. Then there was Hillary Clinton, who put in a personal appearance. Of significance is the reappearance of the “Tobin Tax” as a recommended way to fund the extravagant programs demanded by the delegates. There reappeared new calls to elevate the status and authority of NGO’s in decision-making and in program administration. And there was a new idea advanced - the FDR (not Franklin D. Roosevelt). The FDR means "Family Dependency Ratio.” The idea calls for extensive monitoring of the activities, consumption, and production of every member of every family to determine whether a family is a net "consumer” or "producer.” This idea grew out of WEDO's demand to "value and remunerate” women for their unpaid work.97 Throughout the Conference, debate on the serious issues as well as the frivolous issues proceeded with virtually no challenge to the appropriateness of UN jurisdiction over a range of issues that should be at least national, if not extremely personal. Taxation, employment policies, and land use policies were all offered up to the UN. Delegates and the NGO lobbyists passed the stage of questioning the appropriateness of global governance; it is now a question of how much and how soon. There is no longer any discussion of freedom, property rights, or national sovereignty. The discussion centers around how best to get the wealth from developed countries into the UN for redistribution to the undeveloped countries. The documents coming from each of the successive World Conferences continue to reflect the assumption that government - the United Nations Government - should be sovereign, and that nation states are secondary, and individuals are cannon-fodder. |