The Commonwealth People’s Festival is an event that usually coincides with the “official” summit of leaders of the 54 Commonwealth countries, called the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which takes place biennially. This festival started during the 1997 CHOGM held in Edinburgh where a “Commonwealth Centre” was organised. The purpose of the Centre was to provide people and their organisations, including NGOs, those working in the fields of arts and culture, and professional associations, the opportunity to celebrate and show their work to the people of the host city and the CHOGM delegates. Since this festival attracts the attention of the millions of people who comprise the Commonwealth, it has earned itself the title, “Heart of the Commonwealth”.

Despite the postponement of the CHOGM in 2001, the Brisbane Commonwealth People’s Festival still went ahead as planned from October 2nd to the 8th with the theme, “Connecting Communities”. The theme was designed to celebrate the Commonwealth’s rich diversity, to stimulate discussion about the tremendous divides that exist within it, and especially how to decrease and ultimately end the divides. The Festival provided an opportunity for people of the Commonwealth to help forge vital connections across these divisions that threaten the security and sustainability of all. Such divisions include those between rich and poor, developed and less developed, employed and unemployed, educated and illiterate, young people and wider society, rural and urban populations, and the healthy and the sick. The Festival was also an opportunity for participants to contribute to the achievement of good governance – a declared objective of Commonwealth nations.

The Commonwealth People’s Festival held discussion forums on a variety of pressing issues including: poverty, conflict, people's rights, good governance, cultural diversity, education, deteriorating social and economic infrastructure, HIV/AIDS, the environment, homelessness, peace and human security. There was also an exhibition in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre show-casing some of the work that is being done by various participant organisations.
ICSW organised two major discussion forums related to the Forum’s theme, one discussing resource mobilisation for poverty eradication under the topic of “Financing for Development” and the other on strengthening regional co-operation as a means to address social problems. These forums brought together participants from a variety of Commonwealth countries including Australia, UK, India, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. The forums also generated recommendations on the specific roles that civil society organisations should play in promoting resource mobilisation and regional co-operation. Other Commonwealth organisations held meetings and workshops, which were intended to contribute towards the Commonwealth’s initiatives on democracy, good governance, and the economic and social development of its peoples.

A key outcome of the Festival was the Commonwealth People's Communiqué, which addressed a broad range of concerns. A major point was to urge Commonwealth countries to recognise poverty as a significant problem amongst the people of the Commonwealth and an abuse of human rights, and that Commonwealth countries should focus on the elimination of poverty. In addition, the Communiqué urged the Commonwealth to take action so that poor and indebted countries are relieved of their debt burdens. In this way, countries will be able to use the limited resources that they have to address their development problems.

Several other significant items were addressed in the Communiqué. There was a call for Commonwealth Governments to continue advocating for a multi-sectoral approach to combating HIV/AIDS, as close to 60% of people living with HIV/AIDS and 50% of all AIDS deaths are in the Commonwealth. Since women comprise only 7% of parliamentarians in Commonwealth countries, greater attention to increasing women's participation in politics and other forums of decision-making is required. Other areas in need of action include addressing the rights of indigenous peoples, reducing the digital divide in the Commonwealth by increasing people’s access to information and communication technology, and respecting the rights of people with disabilities. Of pressing concern is the need to increase access of school-aged children to schooling as more than 75 million children currently do not attend schools. More than two-thirds of these children are girls.

The Communiqué also urged Heads of Government to recognise human security as a basic need and to integrate the concept of human security into all development efforts. A last but significant point was the need to recognise civil society as an essential component of democracy, and to provide forums that allow for useful civil society participation at the national level and within the institutional workings of the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth People’s Festival was a chance for people, associations and organisations to show their support for the values, principles and ideals of the modern Commonwealth and play their part in developing and strengthening them.

David Kalete is the Project , Co-ordinator of the ICSW Kampala Global Office.
For more information about the Commonwealth, please view the following web-sites: Commonwealth People’s Festival, The Commonwealth People's Communiqué, Commonwealth Foundation, Commonwealth Secretariat

Taxing currency transactions (CTTs) have been discussed at various multilateral fora including the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) and the recent G-20 meetings held in Ottawa. The most concrete outcome to date, however, has been from the WSSD process at which an inter-governmental study on this subject was mandated. The Halifax Initiative, a Canadian coalition of non-governmental organizations and a key advocate of CTTs, held a conference in October 2001, “Taxing Currency Transactions – From Feasibility to Implementation” to spur actions which will lead to the adoption and implementation of CTTs.

The conference also aimed to broaden the dialogue beyond the narrow range of banking, institutional, and political actors and interests currently represented in discussions to reshape the “global financial architecture” in the wake of the Asian, Russian, Brazilian, and subsequent financial crises. To this end, the conference brought together activists, citizens, academics, government officials and Parliamentarians. Over 60 people representing 18 countries attended the conference.

Furthermore, the conference took place during a moment of political opportunity as the issue of global financial stability and increased public mobilisation, particularly in Europe, sparked ministerial interest in France, Germany and at the Presidency of the European Union. As the topic of CTTs continues to move from the fringes to the mainstream of political discussion, the need for informed debate among the movement’s leadership was increasingly essential to ensure its on-going ability to set the terms of the global public debate.

Participants spent the first day of the conference sharing knowledge in five key areas:

1. Technical Feasibility;
2. Tax Rate Efficiency;
3. Political Feasibility;
4. Implementation – Legal and Administrative Arrangements; and
5. Revenue Partition and Redistribution.

In the first panel, Dr. Rodney Schmidt from Canada presented research that shows that CTT’s are feasible if applied to the settlement of the transaction rather then to the trade itself. Dr. Dean Baker from the USA argued for the need to also regulate the derivatives market to ensure that currency speculators do not devise new instruments to evade the tax.

During the second panel on the tax rate, there was an interesting debate between Dr. Spahn from Germany who argued for a higher rate of tax only during financial crises, and Bruno Jetin from ATTAC France who argued for a consistently higher rate to reduce currency speculation and the likelihood of financial crisis from occurring. It was concluded that these different opinions are reflective of whether one sees the role of the tax as primarily to have a dampening effect on currency speculation or to raise maximum amounts of revenue.

The panel on political feasibility explored several issues, including the application of a CTT on the euro. Dr. Huffschmid from Germany argued that the application of a European CTT is feasible and desirable. Jacques Chai Chomthongdi from Thailand highlighted the need for more research, public education, alliance building and campaigning to ensure that CTTs are put on the political agenda in developing countries.

Many interesting ideas were discussed in the fourth panel on legal and administrative frameworks for CTTs, with some presenters pointing to the possible use of existing models such as multilateral environmental treaties including their financial mechanisms and international trust funds. The War on Want, UK, proposed the establishment of a Global Development Commission made up of independent but elected advisors, with a governing body and a compliance body.
There was consensus in the fifth panel that the revenue generated must be targeted towards social development, the development and maintenance of global public goods, and fighting poverty and environmental degradation.

The second day of the conference focused on the development of shared and complementary strategies to advance the CTT debate globally. Discussion on Day Two recognized that the on-going success of the CTT populist movement remains contingent upon the continued and expanding engagement of citizens, academics, institutions and political officials.

The success of the citizens' movement to date in support of CTTs is the result of collective efforts to debate, discuss and resolve questions internally and to advocate strategically, across cultures and around the world. The movement has been able to address critics who assert that Tobin-type taxes are not technically feasible, but new challenges have emerged including questions around implementation and revenue partition. As the political discussion continues to evolve rapidly, the need for the CTT movement to further develop both intellectually and strategically is critical to address outstanding issues including avoidance through derivatives instruments, CTT effect on volatility, CTT appropriate rate levels, and addressing implementation questions.

Pam Foster works with the Halifax Initiative based in Ottawa.
For further information about the Halifax Initiative, please see their web-site at: www.halifaxinitiative.org

A set of conference papers is available from: info@halifaxinitiative.org