If you care about global issues and want to give your social life a boost, you’ll meet like-minded souls at several upcoming events organised by Comhlámh, the Development Workers in Global Solidarity group.
Established in 1975 as an association for people who’ve worked in overseas development, Comhlámh has since grown into a large multi-faceted organisation open to anyone with an interest in empowering communities, promoting social justice, eradicating poverty and alleviating suffering in the developing world, and fostering respect and equality for all in Ireland.
Besides publishing books, magazines and pamphlets, Comhlámh organises a plethora of activities, public meetings, campaigns, courses and workshops on global justice issues like trade, aid, racism and development education. Its head office on Dublin’s Camden Street is abuzz day and night with highly motivated, inspiring people.
As part of its work, Comhlámh provides an information service for those investigating careers in development, as well as ‘reverse culture shock’ counselling for Irish development workers returning home, many of whom need help offloading their overseas experiences so that they can re-adjust to life in materialistic Ireland and find a way to continue their work for global justice back here. Often, these are voluntary workers who’ve done anything from short-term emergency relief work – like pulling people out of rubble in areas stricken by earthquakes – to longer-term development, such as empowering local leaders to help transform shanty towns into thriving communities.
According to Conall Ó Caoimh, Comhlámh’s policy and campaigns officer: “It’s to celebrate 30 years of this kind of work that we’ve put together Solas 2005, a weekend conference which we’re running in conjunction with Action From Ireland (Afri) and the Development Studies Centre in Kimmage, Dublin.
“Solas 2005 is a celebration, not just an academic event,” says Ó Caoimh. “As well as workshops and Irish and international speakers – like the Nobel Peace Prize nominated Denis Halliday and Yao Graham of Third World Network Africa – there’ll be lots of cultural stuff, like music, poetry and drama.
“Another very sociable series of events that we have coming up are the First Wednesday Debates, held free of charge on the first Wednesday of every month in Bewleys’ Café Theatre on Dublin’s Grafton Street. People will be coming together to discuss issues like ‘Bono, Geldof and Live 8: Help or Hindrance?’ and ‘GM Foods: an End to Famine?’, but the idea is that they’ll stay on afterwards for the craic and the chat.”
Ó Caoimh adds: “Since many people involved with Comhlámh have experienced development work overseas, they have an awareness of other parts of the world and how Ireland connects with them. We help to bring that awareness back into Irish society – the phrase we use is ‘bringing the experience to bear’. So we give people training and organise awareness-raising campaigns to try to have an influence on Irish public policy, so that Ireland – and through it the EU – can relate more fairly with developing countries.
“Every few years something international happens that comes to awareness in Irish society which people want to respond to. Comhlámh is a place where interested people come together to do that internationalist thing without having to set up a whole new organisation. For example, the Irish anti-apartheid movement had a number of original routes, but one of them was a Comhlámh South African group, consisting of people who had come back from working in South Africa. When others joined, they merged into the Irish Anti-Apartheid Group, which then became a separate organisation. In the same way, the Comhlámh Fair Trade Group joined with others to form the independent organisation, Fair Trademark Ireland.”
Ó Caoimh describes a more recent example of Comhlámh’s ‘incubator’ function.
“When immigration became a politcal issue in Ireland in 1997,” he says, “a large group of people who understood how unjust the situation was here came together at Comhlámh to be in solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers. They established a network across the country of 190 local groups set up to support refugees in various towns where they were being dispersed. The network’s job is to provide services of information and support. After a number of years working under the auspices of Comhlámh, this group is now strong enough to be floated out next year as a separate organisation called Integrating Ireland.”
When asked what motivates people to work for global justice, Ó Caoimh says, “At a charity level, there are people suffering at the other end of the world, and many of us are uncomfortable with that and want to give something. That’s one reason for acting. At another level, the poverty that they’re suffering isn’t purely coincidental – something is causing it, and there’s injustice behind that, so there’s a moral imperative to do something. But at a higher level, there’s actually an informed self-interest: the knowledge that if we don’t address the problems of the developing world, they actually come back to haunt us.
“For example, the whole world is worrying about bird flu at present. Even if we manage it in our own countries, if we don’t help Africa with bird flu, African swallows will migrate here next summer and bring it back to us. And in economic terms, if you have a strong and prosperous Africa, they’re going to be buying Irish computers and Irish pharmaceutical products, so they’ll actually be contributing to our wealth.
“Many of us feel that it’s important for our own integrity as people to speak up against injustice where we see it. In 100 years time, when African historians are writing the history about their debt, it will be on the record that, in the run up to the year 2000, some 850,000 Irish people signed the Jubilee Petition for debt cancellation. That was a really strong voice in Irish society saying ‘cancel the debt’. And after a few years, Irish government policy did follow that voice, and now the Irish government has a policy of 100 per cent debt cancellation for the poorest countries.”
As an example of Comhlámh’s creative flair, Ó Caoimh concludes by describing a recent event to raise awareness on unfair international trade rules.
“We held a lotto lunch for TDs,” he says, “where they were allotted a ticket ascribing them the role of, say, a farmer in West Africa who couldn’t get his goods to market, or a highly subsidised French farmer. The 'French farmer' TD got a big beef dinner while the African TD got a bowl of rice. It was a great way of raising politicians’ awareness on this issue and, through media coverage, the awareness of the wider public.”