GATT-FLY
Organization profile published 1976

Publisher:  Gatt-Fly, Toronto
Year Published:  1976   First Published:  1976
Resource Type:  Organization
Cx Number:  CX91

A project to assist Canadian Churches in their mission for world justice by advocating alternative economic policies.

Abstract:  GATT-fly is a project sponsored by the Canadian Churches (Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, United and the Canadian Council of Churches - and Baptists) to assist the churches in their prophetic mission for world justice by advocating alternative economic policies. It is an ongoing effort aimed at re-orienting Canadian policy towards the achievement of a just economic order. The name GATT-fly is a take-off on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an international trade treaty instituted by the industrialized countries to reduce trade barriers and enlarge world markets. GATT-fly judges these treaties as having little regard for two-thirds of the world's poor and suggests a focus on trade and economic issues that places aid as secondary to the need for structural changes in the world economic system.
GATT-fly believes an alternative must be found:
- to the growing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few multinationals;
- to export oriented agriculture serving the luxury consumption of the rich, mal-distribution of wealth, means of production, speculation and profiteering.
- to the notion that development can be achieved by aid, investment and loans, which in reality lead to greater dependence.
- to the trend towards higher export prices of industrial goods and commodities produced by the developed countries and lower prices for primary commodities and manufactures produced by Third World Countries.

GATT-fly is committed to participation in this struggle on the side of the oppressed through:
RESEARCH - identifying specific issues of trade and economic policies
-monitoring closely Canadian and foreign positions
-compiling data on Third World interests
-developing tools of analysis

POLITICAL ACTION - to make the voice of the Third World audible among the choruses from Canadian and international business concerns on specific issues -enabling Canadian citizens to express their solidarity with the struggles of Third World peoples.

EDUCATION - of volunteers through the process of action and reflection -of the Church constituency by providing information about political and economic affairs for educational programs in co-operation with the Churches and inter-church agencies
-of Canadian people in co-operation with other groups to assist them in understanding the human implications of our governmental and corporate decisions.

Subject Headings

• International Trade