DAVOS ELITES TALK ABOUT REBUILDING TRUST. THE PEOPLE TALK OF SYSTEM
CHANGE.  
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Jenny Ricks
January 18, 2024
Inequality.org
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_ We will win economic justice when people power becomes stronger
than those driving and benefiting from the status quo. _

Fight Inequality Alliance Peoples Assembly in Burkina Faso. The
Alliance is organizing “Better Than Davos” Peoples’ Assemblies
across the world this week.,

 

With war threatening to escalate in the Middle East, as well as crises
in Ecuador and many other parts of the world, most people are not even
aware that the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is
rolling around again this week. In the context of sharpening
inequalities, and perilous global politics, what relevance does this
gathering have outside the elite bubble?

The Forum’s annual _Global Risks Report_ itself posits
misinformation, societal polarization, extreme weather conditions,
conflict, and rising cost of living among the key risks to the global
economy this year. What the WEF has failed to define is that for many,
the coming year does not bring the threat of multiple crises. Those
crises are already here, and are being lived daily on the streets and
in the homes of people on the frontlines of inequality around the
world. But we did not seriously expect a self-selecting gathering of
the elite to be in touch with that lived reality.

In many ways, the multilateralism that the WEF wishes to (but can only
in a de facto way) be a part of has never looked more in peril. The UN
system is impotent as members fail to enforce the international rule
of law on Israel and its allies in the United States. This blatant
revealing of how the international system currently works for the rich
and powerful is seen and understood by many, including a
disenfranchised younger generation.

The specter of protests across the world on the streets in support of
a ceasefire in Gaza and Palestinian liberation is the power of people
on display. It is not hard to imagine that the same people power that
will free Palestine will free the world from neoliberalism.

Every January during Davos, our allies at Oxfam release jaw-dropping
statistics about inequality. They always do a great job of
crystallizing for us the depth of the mess we’re in and provide a
wedge into what sits beneath — the wider, systemic, and
intersectional problem. But statistics can only hold up a mirror. They
do not change the picture we see staring back at us.

For people living on the frontlines of inequality across the world,
change is in short supply. We’ve won the debates on how bad
inequality is and the fact that it requires deep change. Leaders in
the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund, many
national governments, and even the Pope say they agree things need to
change. But in practice, we are far from agreement with the rich and
powerful about what change needs to happen and who should be driving
that change.

Davos elites talk about rebuilding trust. The people talk of system
change.

[A group of people holding placards.]
“Better than Davos” action in Nepal. Credit: Fight Inequality
Alliance.

So where is the change going to come from? Inequality is, at heart, an
issue of power. We in the Fight Inequality Alliance know that change
comes when people power becomes stronger than those driving and
benefitting from the status quo. People are already gathering in
different formations and expressing their strong displeasure about the
current state of affairs, which is built to oppress the majority in
favor of a few.

People around the world are already active campaigning for the policy
prescriptions that would do the most to ensure societies that work for
all. The agenda of taxing the richest people and multinationals more,
adequately funding public services, cancelling the debt, and providing
decent work for all have been the backbone of struggles for a just and
equitable world for many years. Charting a path to an economy which
puts people and planet ahead of greed and profit is the course to take
to answer the dangerous times we are in.

But given the intense concentration of power and wealth in so few
hands across the globe, the dangerous sweep of rightwing extremism,
sexism, austerity, misogyny, and discrimination, accompanied by a
crackdown on democratic rights and freedoms, these struggles needed to
join up and build collective power on a larger scale. With over 50
national elections set for this year across a hugely diverse range of
countries from India to South Africa, the UK to the United States,
representing over half of humanity’s population, this year will be a
test for democracy. What kind of societies are we able to fight for?

The reality on the streets as the World Economic Forum meets in the
Davos mountains is totally disconnected. People cannot, and will not
ask Davos to solve their problems. How can trust be rebuilt in a
system that is designed to exploit and extract from the majority of
humanity? Any talk of rebuilding trust must surely sound as hollow to
those at the sharp end of oppression, injustice, and inequality.

But protestors know that all is not lost. We believe in ourselves, and
that change will come. Glimmers of hope appear when people organize
themselves and demand progressive change — and governments are
forced to respond. We have seen moves towards wealth taxes in Mexico
and Zimbabwe, to name recent examples. In Latin America and the
Caribbean, a groundbreaking summit between governments led to a new
direction for more progressive taxation and for the region to raise a
united voice on the international tax reform process. The expectation
and the demand for fairer and more just societies drives us forward.
We can never give that up.

Listen to those on the streets this week. Their stories and demands
are our greatest hope.

_JENNY RICKS_
[[link removed]]_ IS THE
GLOBAL CONVENOR OF THE FIGHT INEQUALITY ALLIANCE, WHICH IS ORGANIZING
“BETTER THAN DAVOS” PEOPLES’ ASSEMBLIES ACROSS THE WORLD THIS
WEEK. FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION ONLINE USING THE HASHTAG
#BETTERTHANDAVOS._

* World Economic Forum; The Fight Inequality Alliance;
Neoliberalism;
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