Development Dossier
International Movement ATD Fourth World
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International Movement ATD Fourth WorldPoverty as a matter of responsibilities and rights. The final Declaration of this Summit affirms: "We are gathered here to commit ourselves .… to enhancing social development... so that all men and women especially those living in poverty, may exercise the riots, utilize the resources and share the responsibilities which enable them to contribute to the well‑being of.….humankind." A crucial passage indeed, in that it affirms that poverty represents a situation in which people, families, entire populations are deprived of the means to exercise the rights and to assume the responsibilities enabling them ‑ and I quote the Declaration again --‑ "to maximize their capacities, resources and opportunities." The gist of this paragraph is that poverty is to be defined in the terms voted by the Economic and Social Council in France in 1987, when it stated that poverty, at worst, leads to exclusion, since it deprives individuals ans peoples of the means "to take on their responsibilities and to take possession of their lights on their own strength, in a foreseeable future. Poverty is a matter of being denied the right to command the means enabling a person to take on responsibilities. Poverty as a negation of the right to freely contribute to humanity's Riches. From this same passage, we can logically infer that the key question raised by this Summit is how to restore in particular to the very poor the right to participate in the creation of material and immaterial assets. essential for the well‑being of humanity. Poverty, which is the opposite of partnership, requires the demand on social development to grant priority to the poorest. As the final Declaration indicates from the very start, our attempts to restore this right to participation are faced with situations of extreme inequality. From this state of things we can logically infer that social development. in order to serve social justice and equal opportunities. must invest the best means primarily with individuals and peoples who otherwise will have no chance of even getting up to the starting line, from where we hope to set out toward an international community based on a spirit of partnership as advocated by the final Declaration. Unemployment, poverty and exclusion, as we now all agree. are the very opposite of partnership, and therefore of democracy. .And democracy requires that priority be granted without delay to the poorest populations around the world. Partnership as a matter of sharing knowledge and culture. But what is the essential condition of a partnership that would put an end to the exclusion of the very poor? Father Joseph Wresinski, founder of the International ATD Fourth World Movement, a priest born into extreme poverty himself, made it clear to us even back in the 1960's. In order to become full partners, the very poor must of course have equal opportunities to work. But this cannot mean that we may resort merely to offering them menial odd jobs, leading in no way to a professional career, poorly paid and involving at best low‑quality training through miserly funded programs. To become equal partners, presently excluded workers must have access to culture. Access to the means to bring out their own knowledge, to enrich it through access to other forms of knowledge, to take part in the cultural riches of surrounding society, and to become creators, along with their fellow citizens, of a culture for times to come. Father Joseph made it clear to us that without sharing cultural creativity, there was no use in speaking about sharing economic creativity. In a market economy which may well be unable. in a forseeable future, to offer to all people the means of taking part in economic production, we shall seek in vain a just redistribution of work, unless we seek at the same time a just redistribution of all other human activities, and especially of cultural creativity. Equal opportunities will exist only to the extent to which we promote them in the entire realm of human endeavour to ensure the progress of our peoples. Reconsidering all human activity. This is what lead Father Joseph Wresinski to suggest that the international community "reconsider human activity." And his first proposal in this respect was to abolish the periods of unemployment of the most disadvantaged among workers, by transforming them into sabbaticals times geared to human and cultural progress, times of widely‑scoped training, including political and religious participation, as well as artistic creation." Father Joseph's combat is three‑fold: ‑ a combat for the right of all people to have access to the labor market, and to be useful there for consistent periods, under conditions worthy of the human person;
during the periods in which they may not be active in the labor market; ‑ and a combat finally for a just redistribution, throughout each person's active years, of time spent within and time spent outside the labor market of a market economy. The International ATD Fourth World Movement is confident that the Heads of State, with this perspective in mind, will decide to suit governmental action to their words, so that people in deepest poverty may indeed "exercise the rights ...and share the responsibilities which enable them...to contribute to the well‑being of...humankind." Is it not in choosing to fulfill the essential condition of full partnership of the poorest throughout the world, that the Summit in Copenhagen will actually contribute to ensuring justice, democracy and peace to the generations to come?
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