[Dissent-bristol-info] Re: G8 - intro factsheet

[MH]

Here's the text for a bsic intro factsheet to the G8.
Any comments, changes, edits etc welcome - to me by
Fri 22 October so I can get some printed up for the
meet on 26 October. Cheers.
mh


The G8 – introductory factsheet

Who is in the G7/8?
1975 – US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan
1976 – Canada  (plus the EU has attended since 1977).
1998 – Russia (observer since 1991)

G8 stands for ‘Group of eight major industrial
democracies’, although not necessarily the 8 richest
countries in the world, nor the most democratic! It
started life as the G6, in France in 1975, as the
world was gripped by an oil crisis (déjà vu anyone?)
amid fears of worldwide recession & depression. The UK
had just received a major loan from the IMF
(International Monetary Fund) to ease its financial
crisis. The aim was to deal with the major economic &
political issues of the day, to ensure a growing
global economy, and increasing global profits – or
macroeconomic management to those in the know. In
essence, the management of capitalism, or more bluntly
– global governance.

The G8 has no HQ, offices, constitution, rulebook, nor
legal standing. It is in fact an ad hoc club for the
world’s ruling elite, attempting to dictate the course
of world events and enforcing its will upon the
world’s economy. With the collapse of the Soviet Bloc,
Russia was allowed in from the cold as an observer
from 1991, and full club member in 1998. Russia will
take its turn to host the G8 in 2006. Confusingly the
G8 has a 9th member, the EU (a 25 country bloc) in
recognition of its economic power, although it cannot
have ‘host’ status.

The G20
The G20 is an appendage of the G8, and includes the
next 11 most economically powerful and/or
strategically important nations, for obvious reasons.
China, India, Argentina, Brazil & Saudi Arabia are in
this group. It is a ‘forum’ of finance ministers &
central bank governors from the 20 members, that seeks
to achieve stable & sustainable world growth that
benefits all. China and India are the likely next
additions to the G8, purely because of their economic
power and growth.

How does the G8 work?
The G8 has the one annual showpiece summit located
somewhere in the host nation – Gleneagles in 2005. The
host to a degree dictates the agenda. Blair is
focusing on Africa (hence his Commission to Africa),
climate change, and sustainability. The Middle East
may well crop up too. Russia’s recent offer to ratify
the Kyoto agreement is merely a ploy to gain entry to
the WTO. They along with the US and China produce so
many harmful emissions that Kyoto is worthless, so
expect a row between them and the Europeans.

But all year round ministers & advisers from the G8
meet, with reps from other countries it wants to
influence, in attempts to smooth and calm political
and economic crisis, and keep the global economy
flowing & growing. Essentially it impresses on
everyone that it is in everyone’s best interests, to
do what the G8 says. Simple as that, probably best
summed up as the ‘carrot and stick approach’.

The G8 operates, like an unseen hand, through the IMF,
and WB (World Bank, or International Bank for
Reconstruction & Development). These two were formed
as part of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944 to sort
out the economic & political messes caused by the
second world war, and of the worldwide depression in
the 1930’s. Presently, the G8 controls about 45% of
votes on their boards, as opposed to say the 3% of
votes going to the worlds 41 most indebted nations.
The third major institution at the bidding of the G8
is the WTO (World Trade Organisation), formed in 1995,
to govern international trade relations. All these
institutions are lobbied intensively by the major
corporations, who also employ some of the politicians
(ie Dick Cheney at Haliburtons).

So whilst the G8 does the politicking & outline policy
forming, the IMF, WB & WTO are its enforcers, and also
its cash collectors. Their ‘carrot’ is aid, debt
relief, investment, expertise, military & logistical
support; their ‘stick’ is loans, debt collection,
trade agreements (and barriers & tariffs), economic
restructuring, political & military intervention,
famine & disease.

The G8 & Globalisation
Globalisation is fundamentally the rule of the market
economy via the removal of barriers to free trade and
the closer integration of national economies, which is
what the G8 and its enforcers want. It accelerated
from the late 1970’s onwards, pushed by so-called
neo-liberalisation, and encouraged by its political
acolytes Thatcher & Reagan. And it worked, the top 20%
have got incredibly richer, the top 10% even more so.
The rich/poor divide in the west, and the global
north/south divide, has been accentuated.

Globalisation lies behind most of what happens in the
world today. France, Germany & Russia may have
appeared opposed to the war in Iraq, but they agree
with the principle of opening up Iraq and other Arab
states to market forces via globalisation. They just
weren’t keen on the process, and the sight of the US
marching roughshod over their views to gain greater
control of the area than them.

The G8 & globalisation in practical terms means
opening up every sector of a nation’s economy to the
market economy; privatisation of the public sector,
welfare state, transport networks, utilities (gas,
water, leccy); the casualisation of labour (jobs);
manipulation of peoples savings & pensions funds
through speculation; the movement of finance &
investment to wherever labour is cheaper & profits
greater; the exploitation of the developing worlds
resources & labour markets; aggressive foreign
intervention and where necessary invasion; and of
course the war on terror.

Info/resources 
G8 info centre - www.g7.utoronto.ca/
G20 site – www.g20.org/
Jubilee Research - www.jubilee2000uk.org/
World Development Movement - www.wdm.org.uk/
Anti-G8 2005 – www.dissent.org.uk
Schnews – www.schnews.org.uk
Enrager - www.enrager.net/features/g8/
Indymedia - http://indymedia.org.uk/ &
http://bristol.indymedia.org/



	
	
		
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