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Obama calls for 'course correction' to share spoils of globalisation Obama calls for 'course correction' to share spoils of globalisation
(about 7 hours later)
Barack Obama has warned that a backlash against globalisation is boosting populist movements both at home and abroad and called for a “course correction” so the benefits of an increasingly interconnected world are shared more equally. Barack Obama has given a rousing defence of the virtues of democracy, and warned that a backlash against globalisation is boosting populist movements around the world, in what was billed as his last public address abroad.
In what is likely to be his last major speech on his final visit to Europe as US leader, Obama, shaken by the unexpected victory of Donald Trump in last week’s US presidential election, said in Athens that globalisation could not be rolled back. Speaking near the Acropolis, the outgoing US president said that “in this small, great world,” democracy might still be imperfect yet for all its flaws, he insisted, it fostered hope over fear.
“We cannot sever the connections that have enabled so much progress,” he said. But, he warned, it was leading to increasing inequality around the world, and fast-moving technological innovation – as well as causing enormous disruption to many workers’ lives – was making it easier for people to see it. “Even if progress follows a winding path – sometimes forward, sometimes back – democracy is still the most effective form of government ever devised by man,” Obama said.
“The flame first lit here in Athens never died. It was ultimately nurtured by a great enlightenment. It was fanned by America’s founders, who declared that ‘We, the People’ shall rule; that all men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights,” he said.
Democracy set men free and allowed them to bend the arc of their lives towards justice, he said.
Obama said that globalisation could not be rolled back.
“We cannot sever the connections that have enabled so much progress,” he told the audience, at the newly built Stavros Niarchos cultural centre.
But, he warned, it was leading to increasing inequality around the world, and fast-moving technological innovation – as well as causing enormous disruption to many workers’ lives – was making it easier for people to see it.
“The current path of globalisation demands a course correction,” Obama said. “In the years and decades ahead, our countries have to make sure that the benefits of an integrated global economy are more broadly shared by more people, and that the negative impacts are squarely addressed.”“The current path of globalisation demands a course correction,” Obama said. “In the years and decades ahead, our countries have to make sure that the benefits of an integrated global economy are more broadly shared by more people, and that the negative impacts are squarely addressed.”
The president added: “When we see people, global elites, wealthy corporations seemingly living by a different set of rules, avoiding taxes, manipulating loopholes … this feeds a profound sense of injustice.”The president added: “When we see people, global elites, wealthy corporations seemingly living by a different set of rules, avoiding taxes, manipulating loopholes … this feeds a profound sense of injustice.”
The “impulse to pull back from a globalised world is understandable”, he said; leaders around the world must do more to reduce inequality, fight corruption, ensure governments are effective, and restore citizens’ trust in institutions: “We have to make clear that governments are there to serve the people.” In times of old people had no idea how others lives. Now that was no longer the case, people had begun asking questions about their own identity. “And it can create a volatile politics.”
Americans and Europeans were feeling increasingly disconnected from governments and institutions, he said, praising the European Union as “one of the great achievements of human history”. But he warned – following the UK’s Brexit vote and as the continent faces a surge by anti-EU parties in elections next year – that disconnection bred suspicion. “In the Information Age, the unprecedented exchange of information can always accentuate differences, or seem to threaten cherished ways of life.”
Citizens of all countries share the desire to control their own lives and communities, Obama said. But he stressed: “People have to know that they’re being heard.” A strong, unified Europe was good for America and the world: “We know what happens when Europeans start dividing themselves up … the 20th century was a bloodbath.” That Obama should choose Athens as a backdrop – barely two months before he hands the keys of the White House to Donald Trump – was in itself filled with symbolism.
Mentioning the president-elect briefly by name, Obama said he and Trump, a billionaire property developer and reality TV star whose fierce, often divisive rhetoric helped produce one of the ugliest election campaigns in living memory, “could not be more different”. It wasn’t just that democracy was first conceived in “these rocky hills,” he said. Or that he had long yearned to tour the Parthenon, which he did earlier in the day. Or even that he wished to show gratitude to all that Greece had given to humanity through the ages. The debt-stricken country has also been on the frontline of Europe’s twin economic and refugee crises and in the latter had shown “extraordinary compassion”.
But at the end of a two-day visit to Greece, he reassured his audience that US democracy was bigger than any one person and as long as people maintained their basic faith in democracy, “our future will be OK”. Free and fair elections were essential, he said, because citizens needed to choose their own leaders “even if your candidate doesn’t always win”. “The world, I don’t think, fully appreciates the … tremendous sacrifices that you, the Greek people, have made. I’ve been aware of it, and I’ve been proud of all that my administration has done to try and support Greece in these efforts,” he said to thunderous applause from an audience that included politicians, businessmen, human rights activists and refugees.
Alluding to Trump’s campaign suggestion that the US might not defend Nato allies that did not pay their fair share of the transatlantic alliance’s cost, Obama said he believed Washington’s commitment to the organisation would continue. For prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ leftist-led government, Obama’s 30-hour visit and repeated expression of support for its efforts to secure debt relief was an unexpected gift.
Greece, a Nato member, should remember that the alliance had been consistently supported by both Republican and Democratic administrations, he said, winning further applause from his Athens audience by saying their country’s acceptance of refugees had “inspired the world” – but that Greece “cannot be expected to bear the burden alone”. “It’s been incredible,” Nikos Pappas, a leading minister and Tsipras’ closest aide, told the Guardian. “He hasn’t been credited enough for the role he played saving Greece,” he said of Athens’ epic battle to remain in the eurozone. “He and Jack Lew [the treasury secretary] were on the phone all the time at the height of the crisis.”
For Obama, the farewell tour is as much about safeguarding his legacy as allaying the fears of European leaders after Trump’s surprise election.
And for many, in Greece at least, there is trepidation about what the post-Obama era might bring.
But on Wednesday, the leader of the free world was determined to end his Athenian visit on an optimistic note, applauding those who – like the founders of democracy – had chosen hope over fear.
“I will say that after eights years of being President of the United States, having travelled around the globe, it is absolutely true that every country travels its own path, every country has its own traditions,” he continued. “But what I also believe, after eight years, is that the basic longing to live with dignity, the fundamental desire to have control of our lives and our future, and to want to be a part of determining the course of our communities and our nations – these yearnings are universal. They burn in every human heart.”
Obama’s speech, before an onward trip to Germany where he will meet the chancellor, Angela Merkel, as well as Theresa May and the French and Italian leaders François Hollande and Matteo Renzi, followed a morning tour of the Acropolis and its museum. It was the first official visit by a sitting US president since Bill Clinton.Obama’s speech, before an onward trip to Germany where he will meet the chancellor, Angela Merkel, as well as Theresa May and the French and Italian leaders François Hollande and Matteo Renzi, followed a morning tour of the Acropolis and its museum. It was the first official visit by a sitting US president since Bill Clinton.