Global Economy Still Oppresses the Poor

Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor July 11, 2003.

Demonstrating the kind of bold acumen that has become his trademark, President Bush on Tuesday declared himself against slavery, some 140 years after it was proclaimed illegal in the United States, the last Western nation to employ that barbaric institution (“Bush decries ‘sin’ of slavery,” July 9).

Regrettably, Mr. Bush did not denounce the global economic system, which the United States leads in its maintenance of widespread poverty, disease, corruption and indebtedness for billions of the world’s poorest men, women and children.

I hope it won’t take another 140 years for a U.S. president to renounce the short-sighted, inhumane and destructive policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

Dave Goldsmith
Woodstock
The writer is Baltimore County Green Party coordinator.