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www.paecon.net An International Marshall Plan to tackle injustice and poverty It is necessary that those who masterminded the attacks on Tuesday 11th September should be brought to justice; but parallel with the steps needed to achieve this should be international efforts to remove the injustice and poverty that provide the conditions that create such despair in persons that they are moved to take such awful actions in the first place. In the early post war years, the USA rightly received praise for implementing the Marshall Plan to help Europe recover from its wartime devastation.  This was an example of the best of American virtues.  What is needed now is an International Marshall Plan to tackle injustice and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, the poorer parts of Asia and Latin America.  The funds should come from the USA, Europe, Japan, and the wealthier economies on the Pacific Rim.  The administration of their use could be monitored by the World Bank and the IMF.  The aid should be immediate, and then a sustained flow of funds over several years.  Quid pro quos would be necessary, for example, Israel should again allow Palestinians into Israel to work and should allow the development of social and industrial infrastructure in the Palestinian areas themselves. The altruism implied by these suggestions would not be without benefit to the altruists.  The expansionary forces unleashed by the measures would be a welcome offset to the contractionary forces (probably soon to be reinforced by reactions to last week's horror) at present sending the advanced economies into recession, or in the case of Japan, worsening its recession of the last 10 years.  If such a cumulatively virtuous process could be started, it would not only bring economic benefits to the poorest citizens of the world, but it would also serve to lay a base on which democratic institutions could be erected. People of good will are desperately needed to float ideas, to offset the understandable reaction to the happenings of Tuesday 11th September that war-like actions are the only possible reaction. Geoff Harcourt