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Public Meeting: Cre8 in Lancaster

acorn | 15.03.2005 01:57 | G8 2005 | Social Struggles | Sheffield

100 people in a public meeting organised by a voluntary association of citizens in Lancaster's Town Hall about the G8 meeting in Scotland in July. People shared ideas in working groups about how to get practically involved in opposing the summit after a presentation about the G8 and global democracy.

A voluntary association of concerned Lancaster citizens had organised a public meeting in the local Town Hall. Around a hundred people watched a presentation in the Banqueting Room about the G8 and global democracy, asked questions and made comments. The presentation showed that there is a disproportionate distribution of health and wealth and that the few who are rich have control over the many who are poor. The same old story, but as usual some contemporary analysis was included. Worthy of note were figures about Gordon Brown's idea of how to make povery history with his friends Sir Bob Geldorf and Nelson Mandela. It was somehow possible to look at the same numbers as Brown wants to solve the problems of the world with and see that, in fact, the poor countries were going to get less aid!? Governments often make promises, but less often keep them and they do sometimes lie to people, so even this could be true, - who knows?

After the presentation and a break people split into working groups around six practical projects to get on with it: (i) cre8 summat - local social and environmental community work and art projects; (ii) Indymedia - how to get involved in independent reporting around the summit; (iii) Cycle caravan - hosting and organising a critical mass for the www.g8bikeride.org.uk ; (iv) Go to scotland - organising transport and "camping"; (v) Climate change - day of action July 8; (vi) Wimmin and queer mobilisation - networking and outreach; (vii) Fundraising - local gigs.

There is a website in the making to keep track of the developments - it can be found here:
 http://testbed.lancasteraction.co.uk/CMS/content/section/7/30/

Meanwhile, the presentation and the flyers, posters etc. can all be downloaded here (for free use):
 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ug/pedersen/cre8/

Some mailinglists will be set up and further meetings are being organised!

An idea about a Lancaster Social Forum was mentioned - a possible model can be found here:
 http://www.sheffieldsocialforum.org/

The public meeting was very successful and most people left in a good mood, motivated to do things.

See also  http://www.virtual-lancaster.net/


acorn
- Homepage: http://testbed.lancasteraction.co.uk/CMS/content/section/7/30/

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

cre8 summat not g8 summit - subgroup

15.03.2005 16:09

An inspiring sub-group discussion on setting up a cre8 summat action group was held during the public meeting.

People already had a number of imaginative ideas for positive social and environmental projects to take place locally during the weeks surrounding the G8 summit. Talk was of a community art project in Morecambe, a more-fun-for-young-people project in the small village of Galgate and other localities, and a building bridges between cultures project, amongst other things.

And this is just the beginning!

free


Other bits of presentation @ Lancaster meeting

17.03.2005 06:18

The ‘Make Poverty History’ coalition is raising three demands at this years G8 summit protests – end unjust trade rules; drop the debt; and increase aid. This bit here will examine Blair and Browns aid plans.


Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are presenting themselves as the saviours of Africa. Listening to them, one would be lead to believe that they are leading the world in the campaign to make poverty history. So what is the reality?


AID

The rulers of the world’s rich nations, including the UK have a history of broken promises on aid for developing countries. They have never reached their 1970 promise at the UN to spend 0.7 % GDP on aid. Instead aid was cut – in the UK first by Thatcher and then even more by Blair after new Labour’s 1997 election to an all time low of 0.24%.

Now with much fanfare, Gordon Brown is proposing that the Gleneagles G8 Summit support his scheme. This involves a doubling of Aid for Africa over the next ten years - an injection of around $209 billion dollars. Africa certainly deserves at least this sum, as reparations for all the years of robbery and exploitation by the rich powers.

But Brown is not offering any new money. Instead it will be borrowed on the international bond markets with future aid budgets pledged as collateral. This is called the IFF – International Financing Facility.

Thus these billions of dollars will have to be paid back, with extra interest, after 10 years. Aid budgets will then therefore be diverted back into the coffers of the world’s richest institutions. With the interest, this will probably cost around $316 billion. Thus Browns plans could actually lead to a $108 billion reduction in aid to poor countries over the lifetime of the IFF. Any benefits will come at a huge cost. For more about this, see:
 http://www.wdm.org.uk

So what are the alternatives? Where else could the G8 powers get this money?

One answer will be obvious to many: US spending on its illegal war in Iraq alone will go past $200 billion dollar mark by the end of this year, while Bush’s total military spending is currently bloated to around $500 billion every year. (Britain is currently spending about £7 billion alone on the Iraq adventure).

Even if we ignore these grotesque figures, Gordon Brown’s proposal is not even the best on the table at this summer’s G8.

After years of protest by Europe’s global justice and environmental movements, the French and German governments are proposing taxation of global currency speculation and aviation fuel. Not only could these taxes easily raise the billions needed for aid, they could also help address the dangers our world faces. Yet Blair, Brown and Bush are opposing these ideas.

Over $1.3 trillion is traded every day on the global currency markets, 80% of which is currency speculation - taking advantage of exchange rates to make huge profits. This devastates poor economies and strengthens the power of the rich elites over us all. A mere 0.25 percent tax on this would generate over $300 billion per year. Aviation fuel is currently untaxed, and represents the fastest growing cause of greenhouse gasses.

Here is what some of the UK’s development and environmental charities are saying about Blair and Brown's priorities at the G8 summit:

World Development Movement: “Gordon Brown should support Jacques Chirac's call for a currency speculation tax. Done properly this would bring in billions every year for the Millennium Development Goals, and make developing economies' less vulnerable to attack by currency speculators. The Chancellor is vastly overselling his own International Finance Facility initiative and pushing his pet project at the expense of these other more radical and genuinely fund raising proposals.”

Friends of the Earth: “The Chancellor should support Gerhard Schroeders' proposals for an aviation tax. The Government has said that the twin priorities for this year's G8 are climate change and Africa. An aviation tax would raise billions which could be spent on sustainable development, such as renewable energy technologies in developing countries. The tax could slow the growth of the massively polluting aviation industry, helping to tackle climate change which will hit poorest countries hardest."








Barry Kade


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