Why Resist the G8/G20?

June 2010
People’s Convergence
 
The so called ‘leaders’ and bankers of the twenty richest countries are meeting in Huntsville and Toronto on 25-27 June 2010. They are meeting to make decisions that will exploit even more people and the environment. They want to ensure that the systems that increase colonization, wars and displacement are maintained. In direct resistance, we are coming together to create a just world that puts people before corporate and elite profit.

The G8 is an annual meeting of heads of state of France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italyand Canada. When the legitimacy of the G8 became too weak, they invented the G20 to bring together the heads of state, finance ministers and central bank governors of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA and the EU Presidency along with IMF and the World Bank.

On their agenda this June is trying to fix capitalism, a system that cannot be fixed, by slashing public spending, creating unsustainable trading solutions to ecological catastrophe, ensuring the continued exploitation of people of color and the South, and imposing war on Southern countries. These people have selected themselves to be the lords of global economic, political, and climate policy. The decisions that these people - mostly men - make impact the lives of every person in the world and must be opposed. Here are some reasons why:

Colonization of Indigenous Peoples: Hundreds of years of colonization led by the European and North American G20 countries have uprooted communities, attacked and appropriated indigenous knowledge and created unprecedented suffering. Canada, the United Statesand New Zealand refuse to sign the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The rest of the G20 hasn’t implemented it in any significant way. Indigenous communities in Ontario like Six Nations, Tyendinaga, Barriere Lake, K.I., and others face impoverishment and police repression. The G8 and G20 Summits are taking place on indigenous lands where there are ongoing struggles for sovereignty that the G20 attempts to undercut.

Environmental Disasters and Climate Change: G20 countries have given over 200 billion dollars in subsidies to oil and coal manufacturers. All but two G20 countries have failed to meet carbon reduction targets. In December 2009, many of the G20 countries subverted the UN Climate Change talks ensuring that little happens to stop climate change which has displaced over 20 million people and put all animal and plant life at risk. Canada, where the G20 meets, houses 60% of the world’s mining companies that use 10% of the world’s energy resources. Mining that strips away forests, causes warming of the earth's surface, water evaporation and desertification. The Alberta Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is causing the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet and has severely affected local Indigenous peoples. The G20 states are meeting without even the limited UN checks and balances to ensure that corporate destruction of our environment continues.

Poverty, Homelessness and Capitalism: The rich in the G20 countries get richer on the backs of everyone else. The G8 promotes free trade while imposing laws that harm the poorest producers. The G8 has given less than 1/3rd of the money it promised as ‘aid’. This is money stolen by colonial wars, occupation and debt programs, and needs to be repaid. The G20 took on the responsibility of ending the economic crisis but has refused to hold the banks and the capitalist system accountable that caused the crash in the first place. The G8 is costing Canada tens of millions of dollars, the G20 may cost much more. At a time when 700,000 people live on Social Assistance in Ontariowith only $570/month, this is an outrage. 10,000 people are homeless and underhoused in Toronto. 326 apartment units and 45 single-family homes of public housing have been cut and there is a 70,000 person wait list for social housing. The poor are disproportionately indigenous people, women, non-status people, migrants and children that have no voice in the G20 process.

Torture, Militarization and War: The G8 profits from misery and death. They control 85% of the global arms trade. Between 1997-2001 over two thirds of the world's arms deals came from USA, Russia, France, Britain and Germany. Though they produce the arms, the wars are fought elsewhere. Of the 150 wars fought between 1945 and the mid 1990s, more than 9 out of 10 were in the developing world making millions homeless. G8/G20 is responsible for over 75% of executions, tortures and illegal detentions in the world today and many of them have enthusiastically supported wars in Palestine, in Tamil Eelam, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Haiti, in the Congo and in other places. On the G20 agenda is further attacks on Iranand continued support for unjust wars. Harper prorogued the Canadian parliament rather than accept Canadian government complicity in torture of prisoners in Afghanistan. Now the Canadian government is going to militarize Toronto for the G20 summit by bringing in over 9,000 troops and thousands of meters of fencing to disrupt the lives of people in the city.

Precarious jobs and cuts to public services: Banks and large corporations in the G8/G20 countries caused the economic crisis by creating imaginary markets that collapsed, resulting in millions of people losing their livelihoods and falling further into poverty. The G20 has used the IMF and the economic crisis to force underdeveloped countries to slash basic support systems. The trillions of dollars that the public has paid to bail out banks have meant massive cuts to public services in almost every country. Good jobs in Canada, like in other places, have disappeared. Over 40% of people in Canada toil in temporary or precarious jobs. Migrant workers, especially those without any status are the worst affected living in daily fear, sometimes killed working in dangerous conditions. The G20 is unwilling to hold banks accountable or allow community control over resources.

The Community Mobilization Network aims to build relationships and alliances between anti-capitalist, Indigenous, anti-poverty, labour, migrant justice, environmental justice, anti-war, and anti-colonial activists and organizations who are creating the worlds we want - each with our own unique history, present needs, and sustainable demands.

We are organizing to support mobilizations for

• self-determination for Indigenous peoples
• climate justice
• income equity and community control over resources
• migrant justice and an end to war and occupation
• gender justice, queer and disAbility rights

JOIN THE MOVEMENT!
 
Host an educational event or film screening, hold a community meeting on your concerns or visions, make art work and music, organize street theatre, create a poster, join an existing organization, plan actions for the themed days, take to the streets and create real change.
 
To get ideas or outreach materials and to receive regular announcements about upcoming events, please email us.community.mobilize@resist.ca
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/
(includes upcoming events, schedule and much more)