Bread Not Bombs: A Political Agenda for Social Justice

178 Pages·1999·6.45 MB·English

by  Douglas Roche

Bread Not Bombs
A Political Agenda for Social Justia
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Douglas Roche
A Political Agenda for
Social Justice
The University of Alberta Press
Published by
The University of Alberta Press
Ring House 2
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1
Copyright © The University of Alberta Press 1999
Bread Not Bombs is a publication for the book trade from
The University of Alberta Press.
ISBN 0-88864-357-8
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Roche, Douglas, 1929-
Bread not bombs
ISBN 0-88864-357-8
1. Social justice. 2. Peace. I. Title
HM671.R62 1999 303.372 C99-911095-0
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any forms or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
oo Printed on acid-free paper.
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing Ltd., Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The University of Alberta Press gratefully acknowledges the support received for
its publishing program from The Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, we
also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing
activities.
Canada
For my grandson
Nicholas Nolan Roche Hurley
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Contents
Introduction A Fateful Phone Call ix
I Human Insecurity: Double Standards
1 The Poor Get Poorer 3
2 The Cold War Is Not Over 19
3 Where Bread and Bombs Intersect 33
II Human Security: An Agenda for the 21st Century
4 Towards a Culture of Peace 49
5 The Right to Human Development 63
6 Pushing Equitable Global Standards 75
7 Justice Both Legal and Social 87
III Social Justice: A Daily Struggle
8 Canada: The U.N. and/or NATO? 101
9 Media, Politics and the Corruption of Values 117
10 A New Medium, A New Message 127
Epilogue A Long and Arduous Task 137
Notes 141
Appendix A — Informative Websites 145
Acknowledgements 153
Index 155
About the Author
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Introduction
A Fateful Phone Call
On the Friday before Labour Day 1998, I was working on my
computer at home, preparing for a speaking tour across Canada
on the nuclear weapons issue. The phone rang, interrupting my
concentration. An official of the Prime Minister's Office wanted
to know the answer to a question: if the Prime Minister decided
to appoint me a Senator, would I accept?
I found myself incredulous that the Prime Minister of
Canada would invite me to become a Senator. I was content in
my life as an educator and activist, and happy that, after 18 years
in public life as a Member of Parliament and an Ambassador, I
had recovered my freedom to speak, write, and teach my view of
the human security agenda, unencumbered by party discipline
and government policy. I thought I had seen the last of
Parliament Hill and the Ottawa establishment.
Fifty years ago, when I left university, I became a jour-
nalist. My work took me through all the regions of the world, and
I discovered the "global village." I wrote the life stories of a
farmer in India, an Ibo teacher in Nigeria, a Communist labour
leader in Venezuela. I found out that most of the world is nonwhite,
non-Western and non-Christian, but that people everywhere,
regardless of their background, wanted the same things: food,
water, housing, work, and a chance to bring up their children in
decency and hope.
In mid-life, in 1972, seeking a wider forum for my ideas
about social justice, I ran and was elected to the House of
Commons. In fact, I was elected four times and, caught in a
cacophony of voices, tried to specialize in the areas of disarma-
ment and development. I started going to the United Nations
ix