In preparation for the June 2002 meeting of the G8 nations, to be held in Kananaskis Park, Alberta, Prime Minister Chretien called for public input into the contents of the G8 meeting, hoping people might bring a “uniquely Canadian perspective on global affairs.”
I don’t know what “uniquely Canadian perspective” Chretien is referring to, but elements that sorely need to be brought to bear on global affairs are the strengthening of democracy, the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, all at the global level, and the enforceable commitment to human rights and protection of the environment in all global economic, military and political relations and activities.
This won’t happen in the G8.
“Public debate and engagement with civil society is useful as a means of strengthening the legitimacy of the G8 process.” [John Manley, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister, addressing G8 Foreign Minister’s Meeting, Rome, July 18, 2001]
With John Manley’s comment in mind, I participated in a hearing of the House of Commons Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade focusing on Canada’s role in the G8. I argued that Canada should withdraw from the G8.
The G8 is an elite gathering of rich and powerful nations of the planet. Canada should pull out not simply because the G8 “represents an elite group of countries” (as the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade refers to it), that violates basic notions of fairness, openness and equity, but more importantly because of the underlying assumptions and policies that guide Canada’s participation in the G8.
In preparation for these public hearings, the Political & Social Affairs Division of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade prepared an “Outline of Key Issues and Questions for Public Discussion” focusing on four global issues: promoting a better global economy for all; building a new partnership for Africa’s development; fighting terrorism; the G8’s future role in meeting global governance challenges.
Prime Minister Chretien claims that Canada wants to establish and construct a “new partnership” with Africa. But nowhere in the document does one find an explanation of the ‘old’ partnership. Given that much of Africa is characterized by endemic and high levels of impoverishment, war and repression, do G8 members understand that they have been and are part of Africa’s problem? Are the devastating legacies of the slave trade and colonialism to be part of the “old partnership”?
And just as colonialism was formally ending in the 1960s, do the G8 understand that 40 years of western support for some of the most brutal military regimes in history, in the name of “fighting communism”, and 20 years of G8-imposed IMF structural adjustments programs are part of the old partnership that so devastated Africa?
In Kananaskis, the G8 will decry “poverty” and discuss the woes of Africa in an historical vacuum. Without an honest assessment of how Africa got into its current state, there is little hope that the policies recommended will provide an alternative to the military, political and economic-development policies and strategies of the past that have opened Africa up to more G8 investment and resource extraction and seen impoverishment increase!
A second theme is how to promote a better global economy for all. The answer to this question depends on one’s understanding of why there is endemic impoverishment across the globe. In the Canadian government documents, one finds no discussion of the root causes of poverty; one is left thinking that impoverishment is mere misfortune, natural, or somehow god-given.
In the measure that G8 nations do not understand that our financial and commercial “development” policies are part of the problem, then the G8’s economic recipe will be to continue to promote increased use of natural resources and increased production and consumption of goods, resulting in more environmental destruction; all of this while re-enforcing a wealth-and-poverty distribution system whereby in the global village millionaires and billionaires live beside an impoverished 60-70% of the planet’s population, including close to 3 billion people who survive and die on $2 / day.
The third theme of this year’s G8 conference is the war on terrorism. How can the G8 end terrorism if we can’t admit that we are part of the problem, and that we must change some of our own policies and actions as well? The document claims that “since 1978 the G7/ G8 has been a central international forum for the fight against terrorism.” Beyond irony, this is willful blindness. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s, the United States – along with other G7 countries -- provided weapons, training, economic and political support to military regimes and movements across Latin America and Africa that used State and paramilitary terrorism as a tool of repression against their own people. The document makes no reference to how G8 nations have ‘aided and abetted’ terrorism, let alone directly participated in it.
And finally, the G8 will debate the issue of global governance, and the “democracy gap” at the global level, yet no where does the document open discussion about how the G8 nations undermine the possibility of democracy and the rule of law at the global level. Without pretending that the United Nations – the largest existing global political institution – does not have serious problems, the G8 nations won’t even discuss how they refuse to democratize the “Security Council”, the foremost decision-making body of the UN that is undemocratically dominated by the United States, France, Britain and Russia [leaders of the G7/G8 club]. One can make similar critiques about the lack of democracy and accountability within the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organizations, etc. The G8 nations do not want global democracy, and – in many instances -- actively undermine it.
Pick your global issue, the G8 nations will address many of them. Yet, there is no political will from the G8 nations, and our economic and political leaders, to have an open and honest debate about how the G8 nations, historically and today, contribute directly and indirectly to some of the root causes of impoverishment, repression and terrorism and impunity at the global level.
If Canadians take seriously to heart democracy, fairness and equality, then they have a right to demand honesty from their government. While Canada hosts this G8 summit, to the exclusion of those “less developed” countries whose interests Primer Minister Chretien claims to have in mind, Canadians need to take stock of Canada’s participation, along with all G8 countries, in the devastating results of on-going elitest domination of the global political, military and economic order. To the extent that these issues remain unaddressed, the G8 should be seen as illegitimate and Canada should call for its disbandment.
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Grahame Russell works with Rights Action that raises funds for and supports community development and human rights projects in Mexico, Central America and Peru. For more information: www.rightsaction.org.
info@rightsaction.org. 416-654-2074 (Toronto)
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