July 1999 a  l e t t e r   f r o m  t h e  e d i t o r

Making Globalization Work for All by John Sweeney President, AFL-CIO Fifteen ways to strengthen your congregation's justice ministry with workers by Kim Bobo Founder and Executive Director, NICWJ CTA Regional Contacts Upcoming Dates and Events around the Country Join CTA! CTA Home Page

For several years after the U.S. Bishops' pastorals on peace (1983) and economic justice (1986), CTA helped propagate their message of Catholic social teaching via our national touring theatre troupe performing our original musical dramas, Peace*Works and Between the Times. Cardinal Bernardin gave CTA a Vatican World Communica- tions Day award for its efforts. A major theme was the globalization of the economy, and its consequences for real people. More recently, the stunning speed of global economic change in the 90s has magnified the perils as well as the possibilities of globalization. The 1999 CTA Conference, "Jubilee: Global Justice and Reconciliation," will grapple with these problems. In these pages AFL-CIO president, John Sweeney, argues that the global market will benefit all people only if "its excesses are curbed, and its brutalities outlawed, by fair and just rules." He calls Catholics to a new partnership with the international labor movement, resisting the sweatshops of "the Nike Economy" and promoting fair labor standards worldwide. Also featured, from the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice are 15 concrete ways your parish can strengthen its justice ministry with workers. Bill Thompson, Editor