1 THE TITLE
The title of this thesis in the original English is: MOZAMBIQUE, THE NEO-LIBERAL CAPITALISM AND MORALITY, IMPLICATIONS FOR A THEOLOGY OF JUSTICE IN CONTEXT. In it there are some important terms:
1.1 Mozambique and context underline the true dimension of our study. Our discourse refers to a concrete economy, the economy of Mozambique, at present, with all the diverse factors that determine it: economic and non-economic, national and international. We do not limit ourselves to some kind of theory of economy in general terms. The field of our study is well defined.
These terms also offer us the theological point of view of our research. It is question here of a Social Moral Theology of the Church in Mozambique, which reflects its socio-economic and political environment, and the consciousness and responsibility that it is an active Church in its historical context. We have reflected from inside, rather than from outside, of the Church in Mozambique.

1.2 Neo. Applied to liberal capitalism, this word implies a capitalism that goes beyond the national frontiers and considerations. The economy of our days is fundamentally capitalistic and irreversibly planetary. Consequently, its morality implies an international dimension and responsibility.

1.3 Justice reflects the moral leitmotiv of the whole of our discourse. It is from the standpoint of justice that we speak of the primacy of the human subject in development, of the common good and of the ways of promoting it.

1.3 Morality and Theology imply the fact that the values proposed in our thesis presuppose the attitude and the essential contents of the Christian faith. However, these are not limited strictly to the Christian world, since the economy touches the life of all peoples, cultures and religions.

2 OBJECTIVE

Our objective is to demonstrate that the centrality of the human subject is fundamental to the integral development that can be applied in Mozambique. However, the market economy that is centered on profit, the neo-liberal mentality that inspires it, and the economic neo-liberal national economy do not take into serious consideration this reality.


3 The Motivations
3.1 An effort to give a moral sense19 to a people that is trying, morally and spiritually, to emerge from thirty years of war, even if actually it still suffers the consequences of this conflict; to a country that, after many years of planned economy based on the socialist model, is now experiencing the disillusions of the global neo-liberal capitalism; to a Church that, notwithstanding its five centuries of history, began growing only after World War II, losing practically all its personnel and its infrastructures with the arrival of national independence (1975); to a Church that suffered from a continuous propaganda against religion in general and against her faith in particular, a Church that is now trying to reorganize her internal life and her pastoral activities in a world and in a society that are rapidly changing.

3.2 There is a lack of a consistent theological-moral study in situ on economic questions, and this in a moment when the economy is at the basis of most of the national and international discourses. Mozambique is a country that hasn’t yet been studied from the economic-moral point of view. The Local Church is trying to find her inspiring way along these particular lines.

4 The Sources
4.1 Bibliography
Three criteria have determined our bibliographical choices: Social Moral Theology, especially the social doctrine of the Church; the international economic order; and the socio-economic and political situation in Mozambique. Our primary sources were: Centesimus Annus, for the theologiocal aspect; “Effects of Globalization and Liberalization on Poverty: Concepts and Issues” of the United Nations Conference on Commerce and Development (UNCTAD), for the section on international economic order; and the official politics of development in Mozambique, O Programa do Governo: 2000-2004, for the sector on the national socio-economic and political situation.

5 Methodology
We have followed an analytical, synthetic and descriptive-historical method. This is indeed a complex methodology, but this kind of approach is important in any moral study of a concrete economy, as is our case.

6 Development of this research

The first chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the present international economic order: the way it works; its basic politics; the centrality of profit; and the ambivalent efforts, especially those made at the national level, in order to render things more human. In front of this global situation, we present the common good from an international point of view and we underline the importance of the interdependence in the globalized world of today.

The second chapter shows the economic situation of Mozambique. The country is ever becoming poorer because it is forced to spend every year more than it makes.

In the third chapter, a comparison is made between the data of the first two chapters. Once again, we present the theme of globalizing macroeconomic policies in the light of justice and of the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity and responsibility.

Notwithstanding all difficulties, the government of Mozambique is the first responsible entity for the good of its citizens.

RESULTS

1 KEY PROBLEM
The internationalization of the macroeconomic policies and, consequently, of the markets, of investments, of commerce and of information 0 (meaning globalization), is not a spontaneous development that is gradually inserted in the normal evolution of the national and international legislative processes that benefit the whole of humanity. In the name of the freedom of the global market, the natural economic growth is manipulated by rigid politics that are based on foreign debt, and whose purpose it is to foster the getting rich of a small percentage of inhabitants of the planet who are already super-rich21. And this happens at the expense of all the other members of humanity, and without a sharing in the inventive and innovative genius of science and technology. Justice, and common good, are not even considered.

1.1 The macroeconomic and globalizing policies and their consequences
1.1.1 Essential elements
[a] Macroeconomic Stabilization:
a) The devaluation of national currencies and the uniformatization of the exchange rates.
b) The rising of interest rates.
c) De-regulation, which consists in: (1) Liberalization, which consists in the elimination or non-application of the laws that control the cost of work; (2) change in the relations ad intra and ad extra of the national market in order to create an ample and free space for the operation of the principle of supply and demand;
(3) elimination of subsidies and of price controls.
d) A periodic revision of the oil prices in order to rapidly push the economy towards the objectives of the reforms22.

N.B.: The immediate objectives of these strategies are: (1) the control of inflation; (2) opening up the country to the forces and the discipline of the global market, which are praticed especially by the multinationals; (3) encouragement of economic growth; (4) developing employment; (5) guaranteeing the payment

of interests on the debt.
With the loss of control of the strategic points of the economy on the market forces, the governments of developing countries try to guarantee their survival through: (1) modernization of the tax systems; (2) the retreat of the social state; (3) reduction of its services and investments23. Motive for this: the containment of the deficit of the budget.

[b] Structural adjustment
Structural adjustment aims at the re-strengthening of the elements of the macroeconomic stabilization and at the total opening up of the economic structure of the country on the basis of the exigency of the forces of the global market. Its main points are: (1) the deregulation of the banking system and of the financial market, and (2) privatization of the land and of other infrastructures controlled by the state24.

N.B.: In order to insure the total implementation of these policies, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank demand three main measures: (1) a revision of the legal system of the country, especially in its economic, fiscal and monetary dimensions, in order to favor a complete implementation of the essential elements of the macroeconomic stabilization and of the structural adjustment25 of the country that asks for loans; (2) the practice of these points during a few years previous to the approval of the loans, and (3) the creation of a technical personnel, living in loco, of the two organizations that will accompany the reorganization of the main ministries and of the economy in general. Thus, the governments elected democratically in the developing countries become instruments of the exportation of capital towards the rich countries, which are members of the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OCSE)26 that control the organizations of Bretton Woods.

1.1.2 Dimensions that overburden the poverty in the developing countries:
[a] The devaluation of national currencies reduces the value of the local products and favors foreign investors and exporting firms because they deal in strong foreign currency. This policy cuts down the local buying power forcing into poverty the majority of citizens who have no foreign money.

[b] The increase of interest rates limits the bank credit to the richest most efficient people who have the possibility of soon paying their debts because of the profits they make. Poor people are abandoned

[c] The liberalization of work according to the principle of supply and demand forces the workers into the fluctuations of the market. Even if emplyment rises, poverty continues to rise because work is not well remunerated. Modern technology limits labor to the minimum necessary, as it favors specialized labor.

[d] The elimination of subsidies, of the controls on prices and of customs, and the modernization of the tax system eliminate the state as the reference point for the poor. The government becomes a factor of the principle of supply and demand.

[e] The periodic rise of prices and of energy resources raises the prices of transportation and isolates the rural areas from urban centers. Agricultural products cannot be easily brought from rural areas to the cities in great quantitites and sold there at accessible prices. This way, cities will buy products that were imported from the global market.

N.B.: The internationalization of the economy inevitably leads to the internationalization of prices, even in the case of local products. Prices are calculated on the basis of the stronger currency which can be exchanged internationally, meaning, the American dollar. Thus, the word dollarisation was coined, which is even used in international documents. Poverty in the developing countries is thus worsened by this dollarisation phenomenon.
The above-mentioned factors act together, and things are even further complicated by other economic and non-economic factors, both local and international. The economy is always absorbed into many factors that condition it.

1.2 Moral evaluation
The primary objective of these policies is profit obtained through a fast growth and under the control of a few and efficient rich hands27, but without an equal and just distribution (of goods). The economic relations of entire nations are restructured acconding to global policies in order to favor foreign profits as much as possible, and in a short time. Profit is substituted for the dignity and the centrality of the human person.
Justice was defined by Prof. de la Torre as “The general, total and regulating dynamics that organizes the whole area of the moral living of man”28. The lack of it in national and international economic relations is something very serious. In the global macroeconomic policies there does not exist a solid basis for contributive justice. The tax contributions of the citizens of developing countries, and the fruit of their agricultural products, which constitute an important part of the exports of those countries, are used to pay the interest on the country’s debt; are taken out of the country by foreign investors and/or quasi-nationals after being transformed into foreign currency; are used to pay for the import of energy products, and so add to the riches of a few, rather than of the majority of the people. These contributions do not produce an accumulation of capital that is sufficient for the national needs. These governments do not have enough funds to engage themselves in social programs, especially in key areas such as education and health. As poverty blooms, so does illiteracy, epidemics and child mortality. Neither does commutative justice have a chance. The primary products of developing countries and their non- specialized work force cannot compete in the world market. This is why non- specialized immigrants cannot easily find stable work, even if they are able to emigrate to the first world, and apply to the factories that are looking for workers. Social justice too becomes weakened. The middle class disappears. Society becomes composed of an ever-deteriorating majority of poor people and a rich minority that becomes ever richer and ever smaller in numbers and that lives, psychologically and morally, in the First World, although it remains physically in the Third World. The only “justice” that remains is the retributive one, meaning: when the rich feel threatened, they manipulate the coercive role of the state in order to defend themselves. But it is clear that, even if all the “illegal” actions of the poor cannot be justified, it would not be fair to talk about justice in these cases. In extreme situations, private property becomes common property. The principles that generate justice, such as solidarity, subsidiarity, responsibility do not appear anywhere in globalizing policies. The bottom line is: at all levels, profit takes the place of the common good29.
A multiform and consistent moral deficiency in socio-economic politics produces, at the planetary level, repercussions that go beyond the national frontiers. In the case of Structural Adjustment Programs the consequences are: ecological degradation, massive illegal migration, impossibility of maintaining democracy, organized criminality and terrorism. These deficiencies demand that greater attention be paid to the global and national common good. We live in an interdependent world.

2 MOZAMBIQUE ON THE LOSING TRACK
2.1 Causes
2.1.1 The international economic order takes its inspiration from the neoliberal macroeconomic policies rather than from the justice from which Mozambique could benefit. The interests of the multinationals of the strong countries make up the factors that determine the march of the global market.

2.1.2 The Mozambican society has not become diversified and specialized so as to be able to compete economically in a national and international scale.

2.1.3 Mozambique does not confront the world as a compact unit. Outside economic

pressures worsen the internal problem of regionalism.

2.1.4 Corruption30 is ever growing and more complex.

2.1.5 The Church, which served as a reference point in the social field, especially in the areas of education and of health matters, was weakened by Marxist Leninism. Non-governmental organizations were conditioned by the politics of the governments of their countries of origin, rather than by the needs of Mozambique: they didn’t show that they were capable of inserting themselves in the local culture, as the Church used to do, and still does, in her mission of human promotion.

OUR MORAL PROPOSAL

The most important thing today is not to revert back to a national economy, but rather to work for a globalization that will be directed nationally and internationally according to criteria of justice. The Tobin Tax may be taken as a key example in this area. It is thus that globalization will become something that first considers the primacy of the human. The problem does not consist as much in the globality of the economy, but in assuming the moral and socio-economic responsibilities of international interdependence.

CONCLUSION

The rapid changes happening in today’s world, practically in all sectors, demand a continuous adjustment to common good at all levels. The good of the country of Mozambique and of other developing countries, and indeed of the whole of humanity, constitutes a constant political and moral challenge which everybody must assume in a responsible way for the good of all. Accepting the dignity and the centrality of the human person is a must for the integrity and the bolstering of the dvelopment of Mozambique.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Popes
JOHN PAUL II, Centesimus Annus, Encyclical Letter of the Hundredth Anniversay of Rerum Novarum, Rome, St. Peter’s, May 1, 1991, Vatican City, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1991, (AAS 83 [1991], pg 793-867).

JOHN PAUL II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Encyclical Letter on Social Concerns, Rome, St. Peter’s, December 30, 1987, Homebush, Australia, St. Paul Publications, (AAS 80 [1988], pg 574-586).

Theology-Philosophy

HEILBRONER, R.L., The Nature and Logic of Capitalism, New York, London, W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.

De la TORRE, La Giustizia, Roma, Academia Alfonsiana, Istituto Superiore di Teologia Morale della Pontificia Università Lateranense, 1989.

International

UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT, DIVISION OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND INVESTMENT, Foreign Direct Investment in Africa, United Nations, New York and Geneva, 1995.

WOODWARD, D., “Effects of Globalization and Liberation on Poverty: Concepts and Issues”, in UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT, Globalization and Liberation: Effects on Poverty, Inter-Agency Thematic Contribution to the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty, New York and Geneva, pg 25-128.

Economics

TOUSSAINT, E., Your Money or Your Life! The Tyrant of Global Finance, London, Sterling-Virginia, Dar-es-Salaam, Pluto Press, Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 1999, (Original: La Bourse ou la Vie: La Finance contre les Peuples, Translation of Krishnan, Raghu).