---------- 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