G8 Summit

HIC

In 2007, June 2 and 3 the summit of G8, a meeting of the eight richest and most powerful states in the world, will take place in Heiligendamm near the City of Rostock on the Baltic coast of Germany. The politics of the G8 have triggered criticism and worldwide protest for a long time. During the 2007 summit in Germany this will be visible in its various forms. Acentral manifestation of the anti-global movement will take place in Rostock on Saturday, June 2. Three camps will be set up to accommodate people for any activity in context to the summit of G8. A whole programme of “protest” will go on for the week between June 3 to June 7.
See more:
www.attac.de/g8

One important event will be the Alternative Summit to be held in Rostock from June 5 – 7.
http://www.g8-alternative-summit.org

Anyone who is searching for alternatives to globalisation in its current form is invited. We did an application for two workshops at the Alternative summit, and we are looking forward to prepare them. The first workshop is entitled “Experiences with struggles for housing and land rights – against privatisation and real estate speculation”, the second will be on “Freedom/ security of investment and the habitat. Financial globalisation, larges scale investment and housing/ land rights”. We are calling you toparticipate and to give contributions.

Even though the heads of state and governments of the G8 represent only 13% of the world’s population, they will nevertheless deal with questions concerning the world economy, development, environment, war and peace, as well as other issues which concern all of humankind. As usual however, priority will be given to satisfying national and economical interests of the G7 states which are often narrow-minded and short-term.

This will not change in 2007. Revealingly, the German government has declared “investment security” to be the leitmotiv of the summit. The current form of globalisation has produced and continues to produce many losers and very few winners from “investment security”.

One of those losers is social justice. Poverty and social polarisation are increasing worldwide. While the number of people fighting starvation has risen over the last ten years, the tiny minority of millionaires and the super-rich were able to double their wealth from 16 trillion to 33 trillion dollars. Another group that benefits from this type of globalisation are the so-called ‘global players’ such as institutional investors and multinational corporations. Simultaneously, poverty and social insecurity are on the rise even in most developed countries.

Another loser is the environment. The current economic model and the corresponding way of life is leading to a catastrophic climate change, destroying bio-diversity, and plundering the planet”s natural resources. The very basis for human life on this planet is being destroyed. And the politics of the G8, focussed on unlimited growth and unregulated market dynamics, severely intensify global environmental problems. But even G8 starts to be a little bit puzzled from the results of unregulated markets, and will discuss at Heiligendamm, weather they agree at least on some regulation for the global finance industry, for hedge funds specifically, and on state surveillance for currency funds and investment funds in general. It will be our duty to push and to punch G8.

Best wishes

Knut
for Habitat Net

Sebastian
for INURA Rhine-Ruhr