FEATURE Economic growth vs foreign debt PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay — The GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) Ministerial Conference, at which 74 of the 92 member countries were represented, ended last month with the approval of a Uruguay round of multilateral talks and a controversial Final Declaration. Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Enrique Iglesias, who chaired the Conference, said there had been neither winners nor losers. He hoped, he said, that the Uruguay round of talks would help lay the foundations for a future world based on knowledge and mutual understanding and he urged participants in future talks to act in the ‘‘Punta del Este spirit.” The Final Declaration dealt with the much-discussed topics of services and agriculture, on which there was much discord, plus the problem of the foreign debt and its relationship with interna- tional trade, to which Third World rep- resentatives had repeatedly drawn atten- tion. Throughout the Conference, the United States used pressures and threats in its attempts to have the commer- cialization of services included in the UN General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, with two definite aims in mind: one economic and the other political. Economically speaking, this would place the United states in a privileged position, given its superiority over the other capitalist powers, let alone the underdeveloped world. As Cuban De- puty Minister of Foreign Trade Alberto Betancourt pointed out, the inclusion of services in GATT “‘would guarantee the high technology monopoly of the United States and a small group of developed countries.”” For example, in 1985 the United States Showed an income of $110-billion — one-fifth of the $585-billion overall total — from the worldwide export of ser- vices, including informatics and elec- tronic data processing; telecommu- nications; financial services (banks); insurance; tourism; land, sea and air transportation; hotels; television; mo- tion pictures; construction and engineer- ing; advice and administration; educa- tion; franchises; and so forth. Recently, the Brazilian government saw the need to block free U.S. sales of computer equipment on the Brazilian market. Washington’s attempts to introduce services into GATT are designed to institutionalize and increase its superior- ity in the worldwide supply of services and, at the same time, cut down on the fabulously chronic U.S. trade deficit. As to the political aims, it should be pointed out that, if the Reagan admin- istration does not see eye to eye with the Punta del Este Final Declaration, Wash- ington will step up its strategic campaign to gradually desintegrate the United Na- tions system. Washington’s threatening statements were strongly refuted in the Conference. The Group of Ten, composed of India, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe, was sharply critical of the United States for its repeated at- tempts to introduce nontraditional topics in GATT and for its protectionist practices. The discussion on subsidies for ag- ricultural exports set a divide between the Third World and the industrialized countries, but at the same time it divided the industrialized countries, given that there are both European Economic Community and United States subsidies and: each accuses the other of ‘‘unfair competition.” Enrique Iglesias said recently that the United States and the EEC dedicate $55-billion to subsidize agricultural exports. This practice limits the under- developed countries’ export capacity, further deteriorates the prices of their basic products and throws the Third World into greater debt. In his inaugural speech, Uruguayan President Julio Maria Sanguinetti granted special importance to the agri- The Tribune continues its readers’ debate on the crisis in education with this submis- sion by Douglas Bors of Toronto. Bors has worked in the field of technology and educa- tion for the past three years. Whenever educational policy is de- bated there is a tendency to leap right into discussions concerning what should or should not be done in the classroom. Such is the case with the recent debate in the Tribune concerning ‘“‘child-centred”’ teaching. This con- cern with concrete classroom practices is understandable, but frequently pre- mature. When debating educational policies, two points must be kept in mind if the debate is to be productive. First, schools in advanced capitalist countries have always been heralded as sites of opportunity and personal growth, as well as a mechanism for re- ducing social inequalities. This liberal description, which is traceable to both Adam Smith and John Dewey, has tended to frame the debate within the assumption that schools ae institutions operating independent of the society as a whole. Schools are thus discussed in terms of their effects on society and the Schools cannot be isolated around. Research has shown, however, that schools, in practice, function as sites of social reproduction. That is, schools have operated in ways to reproduce gender, ethnic, and espe- cially class differences and inequalities. The research of Jean Anyon and many others have illustrated how the content, work practices and attitudes found inclassrooms have varied in rela- tion to school and classroom composi- tion and have reflected the social rela- tions found in society as a whole. For example, working-class children tend to be given tasks requiring rote memory of isolated facts, while chil- dren from professional backgrounds do more problem-solving work. These and other differences appear to have been largely independent of policies con- cerning curriculum and classroom management techniques. Second, attempts to improve the general education of the “‘public’’ and alleviate problems of illiteracy have a long history. There are, at any given time, countless literacy programs being implemented in Canada and throughout the world. Much educational research, both on a national and international scale, has been devoted to this problem. From the liberal perspective, there has always been the hope of discovering the magic teaching technique. A quick glance, however, at those programs which were successful, e.g., Cuba, Brazil (before the U.S. en- gineered coup), and present-day Nicaragua, reveals that they took place at a time and place when large scale progressive changes were taking place in society as a whole and when workers and other oppressed and exploited groups were becoming more empo- wered. These successful programs were intimately connected, in both form and content, to those progressive changes. Both of the above points indicate that what goes on in the classroom cannot be discussed in isolation and that analyses and struggles around educa- tional policy, including concrete class- room practices, must be understood and formulated in relation to progres- sive issues and struggles found in soci- ety as a whole. Failure to recognize this will at best result in partial (one-sided) understandings and strategies and tac- tics which will likely be ineffective or even counter-productive. cultural question, which he described as__ “the main pillar of economic, social and political stabilization” for many develop- ing countries. He said, “Efficient agricultural] pro- | ducers the world over are not competing — on an equal footing with other producers _ but rather against the huge financial] re. sources of the industrialized countries. which can add to that competition with resources our weak economies can neye equal.”’ According to data furnished by the Latin American Economic System ($B LA), 38 per cent of the Agricultural ex port products and 24 per cent of the industrial products of the developing countries come up against the large’ ‘capitalist countries’ protectionist tariffs. Some press agencies described th various proposals made to find ways an means of tackling the most polemical a on the agenda, that of the foreign ebt among them, as a “*Lati . offensive.” n Americatl Argentina’s and Peru’s yep. resentatives urged heads of delesagaam | to establish the mechanisms to link the _ problems of trade and the foreign debt ae The motion, seconded by Brazil. 4 Mexico and other countries, included ; eradicating protectionism as a requisi for servicing the debt; establishing egor-_ dination to prevent International Mone & ary Fund recessive measures from affe ing the exports of debtor countries: linking debt payment to trade earpj The Uruguayan government linked the. payment of the foreign debt to the an ne nomic growth of developing countries. and warned that, if the creditor countries. refused to accept this stand taken by Third World countries, no debt ments would be made. a Federico Slinger, president of Bank of Uruguay, said, ‘‘There’s : doubt that the criteria and the treat at are different in the case ofa debtor Ha unable to pay and one who is able ae the case of our countries is the ford J i are betes to pay unless we have a trade, unhindered by existj i" tionist tariffs.” ¢ sing Protec: Delving into the same topj . Pérez del Castillo, director of ho partment of Economic Affairs of the | Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, saig thate! j the developed countries are steppi | their demands for payment in the foul : debt, while at the same time limit; RY : debtor countries’ economic recaaeae e | through foreign trade. — Grane | Latin American bishops speak out : CHIMBOTE, Peru — Latin American bishops who took part in the International Congress on Theol- ogy held here pointed to the foreign debt as the cause of the extreme poy- erty that afflicts their peoples. They urged the area’s governments to use their economic resources to meet their peoples’ needs. : Bishop Ivo Lorschneider, president of the Episcopal Conference of Brazil criticized the existing world economic and financial system and governments that lead their countries into debt for reasons alien to the people’s interests. The structures of economic dom- ination, he said, are responsible for the poverty that exists in Latin America. Marcos McGrath, bishop of Pana- ma, spoke of how unequal North- South relations are a contributing fac- tor to Third World poverty.