Every year since 1975

the heads of the same states

(with the more recent addition of Russia)

meet to discuss ways to further

their control over the rest of the world

It's become even more apparent

at this year’s lockdown-style get-together

The G8 Summit should be viewed as

a sort of party under Apartheid

– the tiny number of “haves” sit in luxury

behind a €12million fence and a police-enforced

“protester free zone” 5 km outside the barbed-wire

The great masses wishing for change

or to at least have some sort of inclusion

in the decision-making process,

sleep in tents and are bullied

by armed men in Darth Vader costumes

No More G8 Summits!

A prominent United Nations representative this week joined ranks with thousands of activists gathered in Germany to protest the economic and political dominance enjoyed by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries.

This year should be the "last" G8 Summit, said Jean Ziegler, the world body's special rapporteur on the right to food, at the launch of the "Alternative Summit" called by rights groups to counter the annual G8 meeting, which is currently in session in the resort town of Heiligendamm.

Ziegler reportedly said he could not see why the annual meeting of the G8 leaders, which has run since 1975 and is costing German taxpayers about $135 million this year, should continue.

Arguing that "another world is possible," he observed that globalization as pursued by the G8 leadership had lost its way and that there was a need for a new "revolution" from below.

"2.7 billion of the world's population is living below the extreme poverty line. That is nearly 40 percent," he said in a speech. "Capitalism may have conquered the world but it has left behind a rash of diseases that are purely man-made."

The UN representative insisted the G8 countries eliminate farming subsidies, a demand that the world's poorer nations have been raising for years, though they have failed to get a positive response from their wealthier counterparts.

G8 Reveals our Apartheid Style Democracy

By the time you read this, another G8 summit meeting will be over. And, to quote the ever-quotable Shakespeare, it will once again have been a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Every year since 1975 the heads of the same states (with the more recent addition of Russia) meet to discuss ways to further their control over the rest of the world, including their own citizens, a fact which has become even more apparent at this year’s lockdown-style get-together.

And every year since 2001, when an Italian protester was murdered by police, it is a sort of annual scrimmage between citizens and organisations which aim to change the status quo.

Whether for the good of the environment, the poor, the war-torn or diseased, and the not -so-thin blue line of heavily armoured police who are apparently protecting democracy from itself.

In short, the G8 is and remains a meeting free from any sort of consultation with either the heads of those states who will be greatly affected by the decisions made (read African and developing nations), or the citizens the G8 leaders claim to represent.

It can also be viewed as a sort of party under Apartheid– the tiny number of “haves” sit in luxury behind a €12million fence and a police-enforced “protester free zone” 5 km outside the barbed-wire.

The great masses wishing for change or to at least have some sort of inclusion in the decision-making process, sleep in tents and are bullied by armed men in Darth Vader costumes.

80,000 demonstrate against the G8 summit

For people watching TV news, the coverage of the anti-G8 protests has been dominated by reports of violent clashes between police and some protesters.

It is no surprise that the media chooses to report on this rather than on the huge numbers of peaceful protesters, their message of opposition to the G8 and their wish to see an end to war and poverty.

The crowd was a multigenerational collection of people with very diverse views, but united in the idea that this world could be a very different place.

There were representatives of the massive German anti-nuclear movement, there were those calling for the G8 nations to end their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or to do something about global warming.

There were quite a few Turkish communists, there were Danish union members, Dutch squatters, and many, many others with no particular political affiliation or ideology.

Just people who know that things are not as they should be, this world is not quite the world we want, and these G8 leaders need to be held to account for the world they have, in so many ways, created for us.

They are essentially asking the question that is as old as what we dare call “civilization.”

Whose world is this?

Is it for the corporate elite and their pseudo-democratic governments to rule in the interest of profit, or is the world’s wealth for us all to share more equally? Is our world a place where we can allow any nation’s army to bomb cities in another nation?

And when all this death and destruction is all about oil and control, what then?

What is the appropriate response when our air is being poisoned by coal-burning power plants, our food and soil poisoned by pesticides, our water poisoned by nuclear waste, and we’re all dying of cancer?

Is this how things should be? If not, how can we change the situation?

Already the G8 meeting organizers have cut their meetings down from three days to 1-1/2 days.

They presumably have their reasons why they’re doing this, but everyone knows the real reason – fear of us, fear of humiliation, fear that the world will see them naked, humbled by a few thousand citizens determined to let them know that their elitist, corporate version of “democracy” is not ours.

The lion's share of the violence in today's world is committed at the hands of those very G8 leaders. Over 655,000 civilian deaths in Iraq, 70 wars in the last two decades or so, and over $1,000 million spent on arms in 2005 alone by governments around the globe, mainly by the governments in the G8.

The Morning Star bemoaned the violence “marring” the demonstration,
failing to see the cause of this violence in the very existence of G8.

In its write up of events this supposedly left-wing paper whined on about how some officers had to be treated for “eye irritation from tear gas” whilst
others suffered the terrible affliction of “smoke inhalation”.

In fact, although socialists have major tactical disagreements with them,
the actions of the young men and women of the Black Bloc displayed great
courage and commitment in the struggle for global justice, and we must
defend them against police violence and media slander.

If the political message does not get through the filter of the mainstream media, then at least the violence of the system is there for all to see.

Bush 'Bugged' at G8 Summit

An upset stomach forced Bush to skip some meetings at an international summit on Friday. Some bed rest let him rejoin the gathering and continue to Poland for talks on a new missile defense system.

"He's not 100 percent, but he felt well enough to return to the talks," White House counselor Dan Bartlett told reporters.

The aide said Bush likely fell ill with "some sort of bug, probably more viral in nature" and that it appeared unrelated to anything he ate at the summit of eight industrialized democracies being held at this seaside resort.

The president already was dressed when he began feeling ill in the morning, Bartlett said.

He stayed in bed for several hours, missing one session with African leaders and most of another with leaders from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, all developing nations not G-8 members.