---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 12:51:31 +0000
From: Sara Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: People's Summit 98 (TOES) - Statement
PEOPLE'S SUMMIT CORE DOCUMENT
Introduction
On the cusp of a new millennium, a new world economy is being shaped by
forces of competition, corporations, technological change and
globalisation. At the same time, grass-roots movements for ethics,
democracy, justice and ecological sustainability have never been more
vocal.
The issue for the twenty first century is simple. Whether our lives are
dominated by corporate and financial power rules or whether people power
again asserts itself. It is our choice.
The People's Summit is:
· a challenge to world leaders to create a just and sustainable
economy
· a call for a more democratic way to take decisions that affect people
globally
· a demonstration of people power
· a celebration of practical, new alternatives
· an agenda for policy change
· an act of pride.
The People's Summit is part of the most powerful movement of the next
century for social change - people power.
"The People's Summit is THE place for regenerating the real economy, rooted
in the earth and community, and questioning the fictitious economy which
destroys work, the environment and makes the majority of
humanity dispensable."
Vandana Shiva, Founder & Director of the Foundation for Science, Technology
and Natural Resource Policy
Background
The G8 Summit is the annual political and economic summit of the most
powerful countries in the world. These countries are Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, the USA and, most recently, Russia. For over a
decade The Other Economic Summit (TOES) has been held alongside this
Summit, as a high profile public and media event to show-case alternatives
for a just and sustainable economy.
More than any other forum, the G8 symbolises the power and sway of the
richest countries over the world economy, it's people and nature. TOES was
established in 1984 by the founders of the New Economics Foundation as a
protest against that power and as a projection of alternatives.
Since that initial, path-breaking event over a decade ago, TOES has been
organised annually by grass-roots and other organisations to run
simultaneously and physically in close proximity to the G8 Summit, wherever
it has been held (in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the
USA.). Through consistent pressure over time, TOES has sought to establish
the intellectual and practical legitimacy of approaches to economics and
business that effectively challenge those aspects of globalisation that
undermine social justice and environmental sustainability.
In 1998, this will take place in the UK for the first time for seven years;
in Birmingham from 15th-17th May. Under the title of the People's Summit,
TOES98 will be a major international event that brings together progressive
elements of all parts of civil society. There are a significant signs that
the People's Summit could be a breakthrough event. A number of mainstream
businesses are willing to join. The British Foreign Office has invited and
is considering proposals on how to link the official G8 Summit and TOES.
The event has the potential to be a great leap forward for the broad social
and environmental movement.
The G8 "is the nearest the world comes to having an apex body concerned
with the global economy .... But it is neither representative of the
world's population as a whole nor very effective ....The development issues
that concern most of humanity have low priority on it's agenda. Looking
decades ahead, it will become more and more anachronistic that non-OECD
economies that account for a large and growing slice of the world economy
are not represented in
the main body with an overview of international economic issues."
The Commission on Global Governance
The Organisers
The People's Summit will be a co-operative initiative, facilitated by the
New Economics Foundation (NEF). NEF, set up out of the first TOES in 1984,
is one of the most energetic and creative agencies for social change in
Britain. NEF is a non-profit organisation that actively promotes practical
alternatives to the current approach to business and economics.
A wide range of agencies will be active in making the People's Summit a
success and a number of these are taking the lead at the People's Summit on
various issues and events including Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid and
the Jubilee 2000 Coalition.
Achievements to Date
Since it's inception in 1984 TOES has become a beacon of, and focus for,
resistance to the dominant economic paradigm. Through consistent pressure
over the last 13 years TOES has had a significant impact both on the annual
G8 Summits and worldwide in other policy and public fora. TOES now
represents the face of a movement that the G8 must take seriously.
TOES has changed the agenda of the G8 Summit.
The topics that have been central to TOES have made their way consistently
up the G8 agenda. Much of this is due to the activity, campaigning, media
work and lobbying in relation to TOES that has taken place in the run-up to
and around the G8 Summit. The next step is for TOES to hold the G8 to
account for action and not just discussion in relation to issues championed
by TOES such as debt relief, eco-taxes, UN reform and environmental
sustainability.
TOES has changed where the G8 Summits have met.
G8 Summits have moved from capital cities in direct response to the
visibility and power of shadow summits mounted by TOES.
TOES has changed the media perception of the G8 Summit.
The views of TOES have been welcomed by journalists critical of the
inability of the G8 Summit to live up to action points previously made and
of the extent to which the G8 Summit has been a shallow press opportunity
for political leaders to improve their image at home.
The TOES shadow summits have at times stolen the limelight from the
official G8 event.
TOES now has a high profile among the five thousand or so journalists that
attend the G8 Summit. TOES is therefore a unique opportunity to impact the
world's media and raise the profile of campaigns for social justice and
environmental sustainability.
The message of TOES is unchallenged.
The G8 do not have the moral or democratic right to determine the political
and economic future of the world's people.
TOES has two objectives:
1. to build social movements for change in the UK and internationally,
and
2. to change the policy of the G8.
TOES will build movements for social and environmental change by:
· raising awareness of the core issues and by attracting 100,000 people t˙
o
take part in activities and events around the G8 Summit, in Birmingham,
across the UK and by electronic connection, around the world.
· raising the pride of this movement by presenting a relevant, high quali˙
ty
and forward-looking agenda through the series of TOES events and
initiatives.
· offering leadership to this movement at a key political time one year
into a new government in the UK by presenting evidence of the new
approaches and new alliances that can make change.
TOES will change the policy of the G8 by
· asserting public and media pressure on the G8 around the need for chang˙
e
· and by winning the public case on the logic for and benefits of change.
The G8 Summit is a powerful advocate of economic globalisation. Its
philosophy of laissez-faire has placed the interests of the most powerful
commercial actors above the demands of people for social and environmental
improvement. It has helped to dismantle or disable legitimate global
institutions. Yet prospects for sustainable development and social justice
at a local and national level require a transformation in global
governance.
"Given a choice between the two summits, anyone in their right mind would
go to TOES."
The Guardian
The TOES policy challenge to the G8 Summit is for it to:
· frame `public policy' that fosters rather than erodes responsible
citizenship;
· tackle the deep issues of global equity (overconsumption and
underconsumption) that arise from the focus on a consumer economy
rather than a global society;
· tackle their own countries' disproportionate global social and
ecological footprint;
· give way to a more democratic process of global economic governance.
Examples of this policy agenda are:
international economic governance
· insistence by the G8 of ethical standards among transnational
companies, starting with the issue of child labour
· the regulation of financial markets, starting with an agreement to
President Jacques Chirac's proposal at the G8 Summit in 1995 of the
introduction of a Tobin Tax
· the cancellation of the unpayable debts of the world's poorest
countries by the year 2000
· development assistance to ensure that every child in Africa can go to
school
international political governance
· to cut funding for the World Bank unless its record on
accountability and effectiveness improves
· to return the IMF to its original function of short-term stabilisation
rather than its current role of policy enforcement.
· to champion reform of the United Nations, as set out by the Commission
for UN Reform.
· to replace the G8 within five years with a UN Economic Security Council
or similar representative body.
international environmental governance
· to lead reductions of carbon emissions above and beyond the targets lai˙
d
down in Kyoto, in reflection of the burden of responsibility held
by the G8 in relation to climate change
· for sustainable consumption to become an annual agenda topic with
measurable steps to be taken each year
· for the G8 to report to the UN on the steps taken by G8 countries
towards environmental sustainability
