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Title:
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Protest the G8
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START DATE:
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6/8/2007
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START TIME:
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12:00 PM
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Duration:
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1 Hours
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Location:
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cleveland area
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Location Details:
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Public Square
Downtown Cleveland
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Event Topic:
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protest
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Event Type:
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yearly
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Contact Name:
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IRTF
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Contact Email:
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Contact Phone:
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216-961-0003
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DESCRIPTION:
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33rd G8 SUMMIT
June 6 – June 8, 2997 in Heiligendamm, Germany
WHAT IS THE G-8?
The Group of Eight (G8) is an international forum for the governments that make up 65% of the world economy: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States*.
THE G8 STANDS FOR:
* Text Box: The construction of nuclear power
* The advancement of genetic engineering
* The patent laws of seeds, medicines, etc.
* Wars and arms trade (90% of world market)
* Hedge funds und currency speculations
* The policies of WTO, IMF and World Bank
* The debt trap of developing countries
* Privatization and und dismantling the welfare state
THE G8 IS ILLEGITIMATE...
* …because there are 8 countries making policies that affect the whole world – it behaves like a world government.
* …because there is no democratic control of supposedly informal conversations.*
* …because the G8 can control and blockade any other global organizations.
(*The G8 is not democratic. It has the character of a club – it’s exclusive and hierarchic. There isn’t a problem if the most powerful states come together to talk BUT they go beyond that and come to concrete decisions that affect REST OF THE WORLD. The G8 has institutionalized this kind of informal decision-making. In a democratic (world) society the G8 would at least have citizens’ oversight and participation.)
TOPICS OF THIS YEAR’S G8 SUMMIT:
1. AFRICA ACTION PLAN
The mainstream mass media often give the impression that the G8 would seriously care about combating poverty in Africa or debt relief for poor countries, mostly in the Global South. That the heads of governments started including these topics in their annual summits goes partly back to anti-globalization movements and their protests. But taking a close look at the real negotiations that are made offstage, the humanitarian concerns that are announced with ostentation seem to be pure hypocrisy.
Actually the G8 summit serves as the maintenance of a world economy order that has caused hunger, misery and oppression of the poor of the global south. Text Box:
The G8 directs the most important international organizations (World Bank, WTO, IMF) that rule the world economy. The game in the global casino is easy: the house always wins. And the multinational corporations and the global players form the power base. There are often conflicting interests within the G8, but they unify around exploiting the rest of the world.
This year’s agenda includes the dismantling of trade barriers, elimination of tariffs, privatization, deregulation and access to raw materials of the poor countries—in short, everything for the strong ones to benefit at the expense of the weak.
The consequence is obvious: The gap between the rich and poor is constantly growing. According to a report of the United Nations the income of the 500 richest people of the world equals the income of the 416 million poorest people, and the richest 20% of the world population consumes approximately 86% of the global resources.
2. GLOBAL WARMING
The expulsion of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from factories, cars and power plants traps heat in the atmosphere. The result is global warming: the melting of glaciers causes the sea levels to rise, land surface is lost and the danger of floods grows.
All these problems have been known for decades, as have the ways to fight them: the use of renewable energies, more buses and trains instead of cars and airplanes, the reduction of oil and coal consumption, etc.
The countries of the G8 that are responsible for 57% of the global greenhouse gas emissions either do the total opposite or just a fraction of what is necessary. The G8 prioritize the interests of the big energy corporations (like the oil industry) over saving of the planet, as shown by the example of the U.S. refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
3. More LAWS PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Online Mp3-sharing, private copies of music and computer games, downloading of movies—those with little money who want to participate in this newly-emerging electronic culture are being criminalized. There are corporations that make billions of dollars selling stuff that can be easily simulated, such as music, films, and books, but also seeds and medications. These are things whose market price is usually 10 to 100 times higher than the cost of production. That exploitation only works because the laws protecting intellectual property rights (copyright and patent protection) privatize knowledge and cultural assets. As a consequence, access to knowledge and culture depends on your wallet.
For millions of people of the Global South these laws have substantial impacts on their livelihoods: the competition for peasants and farmers with multinational agricultural businesses is going to be even more unfair because of patented seeds.
And with the global patent claims of the pharmaceutical industry, millions of people will face unaffordable prices of medications. As a result, it will be even harder to treat diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria.
*G8 membership
Together, the eight countries represent about 65 percent of the world economy. The group's activities include year-round conferences and policy research, culminating with an annual summit meeting attended by the heads of government of the member states. The European Commission is also represented at the meetings.
Each year, member states of the G8 take turns assuming the presidency of the group. The holder of the presidency sets the group's annual agenda and hosts the summit for that year. The presidency for 2007 belongs to Germany, which will host the 33rd G8 summit in Heiligendamm from June 6 to June 8.
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