For the first time, I, a Chilean, will try to speak in Italian, in public.
On this first of May, let me propose that we honour the labour struggles of the past as well as those who in recent times have risked their lives and stood up to powerful forces unwilling to listen to the organized voice of workers.
I think of Lech Walesa of Poland, of Manuel Bustos of Chile and of Steve Biko together with the whole labour movement of South Africa. In our day, I think of Muchtar Pakpahan of Indonesia, fortunately a free man today, and a host of other courageous women and men.
Your Holiness,
Those of us gathered here today represent different dimensions of the world of work. Yet, beyond our various perspectives, we share a common responsibility to expand the frontiers of decent work for all in today's troubling global economy. We have to redress the enormous sense of insecurity that invades the home of so many families worldwide. It is a global struggle for human dignity.
I come to you from the International Labour Organization with a secular appeal to all people of faith: we need action now, right away, urgently. To begin with, for each of us to live our values, to integrate principles of justice, fairness, equality and compassion into our daily lives, from the intimacy of our homes to our interaction with the world. To consciously use our
moral compass to take decisions, to influence decisions. To make our voices heard. To promote solidarity without frontiers.
What should be done?
Holy Father, you have said it very clearly. "Perhaps the time has come for new and deeper reflections on the nature of the economy and its purposes."
Following your wise guidance, I believe we should re-examine the rules and policies that govern our global economy.
We should develop the political will to recast those rules so that globalization benefits the many, not just the few. So we can expand to more people the advantages of open markets and open societies. So that the promise of the information society reaches the excluded and does not create new inequalities. So that globalization acquires a widespread social legitimacy that it lacks today.
That is why I call on us to exercise our personal and collective responsibility to make markets work for all. To make decent work a way out of poverty, and into personal dignity on the path to realizing life's richness.
I call on us all to unleash the creative potential for entrepreneurship. To invent new enterprises, new cooperatives, new initiatives that respond to unmet human needs. To maximize not just profit but social impact. To measure returns on investment beyond the bottom line. To care for people and nature at the same time.
I call for a global coalition for decent work.
As Jubilee 2000 has shown, we can successfully promote debt eradication for poor countries.
With the same kind of advocacy, we can promote core labour standards as a social "floor" to the global economy. Promote the right of all workers to organize and negotiate. Make equality between women and men a reality. With your help in ratifying and implementing the new ILO convention, we can end the worst forms of child labour. Together, we must put a stop to forced labour.
With your support for microcredit, small enterprises, and macroeconomic policies geared to full employment, we can give every person more opportunities to work. We can promote both freedom of enterprise and freedom of association for the benefit of all.
With your love, hope and support, we can create societies of inclusion. A global community where everyone can participate in the banquet of life.
Are these only dreams? Or can we all work together to achieve these ends? I believe we can. It is not easy, but it is possible. However strong our differences may seem to us, we must never lose hope that we can share common hopes. The hope for decent work around the world, of our families and the families of our children, can become a reality. The resources and the knowledge are available, but the will and policies are not. The social doctrine of the Church has helped many to find the right pathways.
We know that time and time again, the strength of the human spirit has shown that situations which seemed unchangeable, in fact, were not: the demise of slavery, colonialism, the Berlin Wall, apartheid, entrenched dictatorships, the creation of trade unions, the vote for women and other civilizational progress were made possible by the strength of ordinary people working together.
We can repeat those successes if we muster the moral conviction to sustain our commitment to practical action. Today, it means giving the global economy the ethical backbone it lacks.
Holy Father,
Those of us gathered here today are a sample of the "global family", as you called the whole of humanity in your last message for the celebration of the World Day of Peace. We are here to receive your guidance, your inspiration and your indefatigable energy.