HRN-Music 
Profile: G8
Leaders of G8 countries aim to:
Boost cooperation over trade and finance
Strengthen the global economy
Promote peace and democracy
Prevent and resolve conflicts
But when they come together, there are many rifts and gaps in-between them. Also they will not represent the full range of tensions and conflicts in the world and thereby will not be able to address global issues in terms of how others see the positioning of the Western world in such a wider context. (see here contribution by Louis Baeck to http://www.planetagora.org with Jean Tardif as editor and mediator of this debate).
A questionable trio: Blair, Bush and Chirac
Profile
The G8 is a special kind of summit based on exclusion rather than inclusion. It carries forward the myth that the 8 most powerful industrial nations can determine by themselves in the interest of all how world wide issues shall be resolved. The summit serves to strengthen their self assumption about having still the power in the world although it excludes such giants as China or India. Aiming to bring about such solutions that serve at one and the same time the interests of the world’s leading industrialised nations, they face many unnamed contradictions with economic development more and more in need of facing the external costs it causes e.g. climate change.
Members are United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. The US is regarded as the dominant member due to its economic and political power.
Historical background
When Europe experienced its first car free Sunday’s to respond to the oil crisis and global economic recession of the early 1970s, the US initiated the so-called Library Group - an informal gathering of senior financial officials from Europe, Japan and the US. The intention was to resolve a crisis revealing an alarming dependency of the industrial and therefore most powerful nations from oil reserves outside their own control. The OPEC consortium came into such a position of power that it has frightened the West in the realization to where such one sided dependency can lead to.
In 1975 due to France’s insistence, the meeting started to draw in heads of government. Since then the first G7, now G8 summits meet annually. The latest entries were into this exclusive club were Canada (1976) and Russia (1998).
The BBC writes:
“Initially set up as a forum for economic and trade matters, politics crept onto the G7 agenda in the late 1970s. Issues under consideration at recent summits have included helping the developing world, global security, Middle East peace and Iraq reconstruction.
G8 members can agree on policies and can set objectives, but compliance with these is entirely voluntary. The G8 has clout in other world bodies by virtue of the economic and political muscle of its members.
The workings of the G8 are a far cry from the "fireside chats" of the Library Group in the 1970s. Holed up behind fortress-like security, the delegates are accompanied by an army of officials. Elaborate preparations are made for their meetings, statements and photo-calls.
Nevertheless, G8 leaders strive to keep at least some of their encounters free from bureaucracy and ceremony. On the second day of their summit the leaders gather for an informal retreat, where they can talk without being encumbered by officials or the media.
The European Union is represented at the G8 by the president of the European Commission and by the leader of the country that holds the EU presidency. The EU does not take part in G8 political discussions.
The presidency of the G8 rotates between the group's member nations on an annual basis.
G8 PRESIDENCY
2001: Italy (Genoa summit)
2002: Canada (Kananaskis summit)
2003: France (Evian summit)
2004: US (Sea Island summit)
2005: UK (Gleneagles summit)
2006: Russia
The country holding the presidency in a given year is also responsible for hosting the annual summit, and for handling the security arrangements.
Basic disagreements sometimes emerge within the G8: Global warming was a sticking point at the 2001 Genoa summit, where US President George W Bush underlined his rejection of the Kyoto treaty on emissions. Rifts among G8 members have also been evident over the US-led war in Iraq.
In recent years the G8 has launched drives to counter disease, including HIV-Aids, and has announced development programmes and debt-relief schemes. But aid is often dependent on the respect for democracy and good governance in the recipient countries. Critics say that spending on such initiatives is inadequate.”
Source of information:
BBC News UK: Last Updated: Friday, 27 May, 2005, 09:39 GMT 10:39 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/3777557.stm
Last summit 2004
President Bush hosted the 2004 G8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia on June 8-10.
Highlights of Sea Island Summit outcomes include:
ß noting the need for structural reform in G8 economies along the lines achieved in Canada over the past 10 years;
ß welcoming recommendations by the Commission on Private Sector and Development and adopting an ambitious action plan;
ß approving the Plan of Support for the Broader Middle East and North Africa, which reflects Canadian priorities in the region such as microfinance and education, including the G8 commitment to help 20 million more people become literate by 2015;
ß supporting the need for a donor's conference on Haiti, as proposed by the Prime Minister after describing the desperate humanitarian and security situation in that country; and
ß approving the Secure and Facilitated Travel Initiative (SAFTI), which builds on the Transport Security commitments reached at the Kananaskis Summit and which is inspired by the Canada-US. Smart Border agreement.
(source: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=526 )
Blair’s double agenda for the G8 2005 summit:
Prime Minister Blair announced: the UK Summit will focus on the challenges of Africa and climate change The 2005 G8 Summit will take place at Gleneagles, Perthshire, Scotland from July 6-8, 2005.
“…Africa is a wonderful, diverse continent with an extraordinary, energetic and resilient people. But it is also plagued with problems so serious that no continent could tackle them on its own…
…Climate change is a global problem that needs addressing now for the sake of future generations. The science is well established and the dangers clear…”
UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair
Source: http://www.g8.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1078995902703
US President Bush has declared a special agenda with main focus on Africa in his wish to combat malaria disease since it causes especially high child mortality rate; he pledges to increase in aid which has tripled, so his claim, in the first term of his Presidency and now he wishes to double this aid.
For Canada the official website for the Canadian government declares:
“At the G8 Summit, the Prime Minister and the other G8 leaders will discuss climate change and Africa. Mr. Martin will focus on the urgent need to address climate change and on building momentum toward a successful United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Montreal later this fall. With regard to Africa, the Prime Minister will stress the importance of the long-term G8-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) partnership based on mutual accountability. Other issues to be addressed include the global economy, non-proliferation and counterterrorism. Leaders are also expected to discuss regional issues, and Mr. Martin hopes to advance support for efforts involving Darfur region in Sudan, Afghanistan, Haiti and the Middle East Peace Process.”
Protest and criticism
Scenes in Genoa 2001
According to the BBC:
“Critics of the G8 have accused the body of representing the interests of an elite group of industrialised nations, to the detriment of the needs of the wider world.
Key countries with fast-growing economies and large populations, including China and India, are not represented. There are no African or Latin American members.
The G8's positive stance on globalisation has provoked a vigorous response from opponents, and riots have sometimes overshadowed summit agendas, most notably in Italy in 2001.
The violence has encouraged a tightening of the security cordon that separates protesters and politicians, reinforcing the G8's closed-door image.”
BBC News UK: Last Updated: Friday, 27 May, 2005, 09:39 GMT 10:39 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/3777557.stm
L8
At this years summit of the G8 there is being created a model of counter violence by organizing world wide concerts under the slogan Life 8. This use of modern media stars to draw public awareness to the plights of the poor in especially Africa is met with increasing skepticism as it mixes well with politicians like Blair seeking the presence of media stars to enhance his own media profile. As part of a modern communication strategy, the time sense for relief work is also distorted: what takes years of steady development if poverty and diseases are to be overcome, is dealt with in spectacular media shows as if to ease the guilty conscience of the richer world. Again certain contradictions are not dealt with or confronted e.g. arms sale to the Third World.
Poverty become History – another action program
By wishing to declare poverty as something of the past, there is no anticipation for a future with more poverty due to unresolved issues like continuous war based on self assumptions by the West to be able to enforce regime change if there is no full compliance and cooperation from the side of the political leaders like Saddam Hussein. The clear offer by the G8 nations is enriching political leaders if they comply with the rules and programs as wished for by the industrial nations. It is a tactical offer and amounts to safeguarding vested interests in the West while making poverty now into a moral issue that can be resolved technically and organizationally. Nothing is said about the problem of corruption once relief aid becomes at best a supermarket where big relief organizations wade in to capitalize on flow of money released due to many people donating it out of compassion and therefore without any control over where the money actually goes.
G8 Alternatives Supporters
STOP BUSH'S REIGN OF TERROR
JOIN THE GLENEAGLES PROTEST
WED 6 JULY
ASSEMBLE GLENEAGLES TRAIN STATION @ 12 NOON
Supporters include STUC...AMICUS...FBU...STOP the WAR COALITION...MUSLIM ASSOCIATION OF BRITAIN...SCOTTISH COALITION FOR JUSTICE NOT WAR
Transport TEL 07891 746184
E-mail g8_alternatives@yahoo.com
Supporters of G8 Alternatives include:
Aberdeen Trades Union Council, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Centre for Human Ecology, Concept North East, Dundee AUT, Dundee Trades Union Council, East Lanarkshire EIS, Edinburgh CND, Edinburgh Stop the War Coalition, EIS-FELA, Ethical Company Organisation, Freequal(conscious clubbers), Friends of the Earth Scotland, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees,
Source: http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk/admin/test/g8Mambo/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Review of G8 in Gleneagles, Scotland July 2005-07-01
Once the events are over, an evaluation should be made of the G8 summit which is trying to by-pass the question of Iraq already in its preliminary preparation with the foreign ministers
Given the four main principles of the G8 nations, following can be said already in advance of the summit:
1) Boosting cooperation over trade and finance is proving more difficult than assumed at the start of Bush’s first presidency in 2000 but with the return to the Cold War Warriors similar conditions were invoked by linking economic development to security and military operations especially after September 11th. By now trade deficit of the US, challenges by China and India, weak economic growth in France and Germany, Japan somehow unclear how much its economy has recovered, means that the old assumption no longer holds of the industrial nations of the world being able to combine high standard of living with technological innovation compared to Third World countries remaining poor and mere providers of cheap labour. With a major focus on Africa at this year’s G8 meeting, the controversy aid versus free trade will force all the redefine what are protective measures to safeguard own industrial industries compared with measures needed to open up markets to other products from the Third World. The lifting of the trade barriers in textile goods has meant a flood of cheap Chinese products over flooding the home market so that the United States, for example, resorted immediately to emergency measures while seeking from China voluntary restraints.
2) Strengthen the global economy can be an ambiguous term since it may bypass any local economy and even force national governments to abandon their traditional policies aiming to safeguard national interests. For example, Schroeder would praise a company that does not relocate to other countries where there is cheaper labour but such national economic considerations are incompatible with global market conditions. If speaking about the global economy then there are questions about access to resources, production and trade flows with transport (energy) figuring greatly in what this economy can achieve over any period of time. Important is to realize what extra value such an economy creates and whether or not this is taxable (see ATTAC’s proposal for a Tobias tax). One key issue here are off shore companies and flows of money being laundered in various forms so as to re-enter other types of cash flows and economies governed by real purchasing powers and not mere speculative businesses making money off money.
3) To promote peace and democracy in a period of ‘war against terrorism’ calling for a permanent war as the new Rumsfeld doctrine is impossible. It has made the promotion of peace and democracy into a most contradictory form of assertion by the United States with the support of nations like Great Britain. The increased reliance upon military force follows such macabre models like General Pinochet’s putsch in Chile 1973 and has increased the world’s instability due to arbitrary military interventions, the latest being in Afghanistan and Iraq.
4) Prevent and resolve conflicts have also been undermined by nation states who do not wish to use the United Nations as mediator lest this would question the national privilege to do as one likes to. The biggest debate point between Bush and Kerry in the US Presidential election was whether or not the US should undergo an international test prior to make such grave decision as going to war. Bush was eager to strike home that patriotic point: the US will never relinquish its national sovereignty to the United Nations.
It would be important on how the G8 face the necessary reform of the United Nations and go beyond their own national sovereign egoisms to lead the way in respecting international law and by respecting the need for the United Nations show recognition of the real meaning of peace keeping efforts in the world.
more Comments...
Last updated: 31. December 2005