G8 arms exports fuelling poverty and human rights abuses (new report)

by Rudiger Thu Jun 23, 2005 18:20

Artiicle from Irish Times 23-06-05



We must block the G8 summit
William Hederman


So, the wealthy nations' club has written off the debts of the poor countries. Blair and Brown, with a little prodding from Bob and Bono, have brought out the hidden generosity of the Group of Eight (G8) countries. Why then are so many of us still planning to go to Scotland to protest at the G8 summit on July 6th?

For a start, the offer of debt cancellation to 18 of the world's poorest countries is conditional on those countries restructuring their economies in a way that "eliminates impediments to private investment". These "conditionalities" will cause greater poverty, malnutrition, disease, illiteracy and a widening gap between rich and poor.

Let's take the example of Bolivia. Jubilee South, a network of Southern Hemisphere debt campaigns, said last week the debt cancellation for Bolivia would have "minimal impact in comparison with the ongoing multi-million dollar losses and social-political impact provoked by the policies of water, gas and other natural resource privatisations that were imposed as pre-conditions for debt 'relief'."

The granting of loans and the allocation of aid by the World Bank and IMF (whose policies are formulated by the G8 governments) are invariably conditional on the recipient country "restructuring" its economy to provide the G8 countries' corporations with unrestricted access to its markets, resources and services.

Bolivia possesses South America's second-largest gas reserves, but remains the poorest country on the continent. Its gas reserves were privatised in the mid-1990s, so the revenue accrues to multinational oil companies rather than funding basic services.

Groups such as Jubilee argue that in terms of exploited resources, exploited labour and ecological damage, the rich countries owe the poor countries, more than vice versa. To impose conditions to the debt cancellation constitutes a colonial arrogance reminiscent of the British Empire at its height.

It's analogous to a burglar agreeing to give you back the possessions he stole on the condition that you restructure your home to allow him easier access in future.The rich countries knew their "debtors" could never pay the money (and that it was an unfair debt anyway), so announcing a cancellation of the debt was merely an enormous PR coup, with Bono and Bob Geldof playing the part of the glamour models.

Bodies such as the G8, World Bank and IMF only change when not to change would threaten their existence. Gestures such as the debt cancellation and Gordon Brown's support for the Live 8 concert obscure the fact that the G8's policies are largely to blame for increasing poverty and potentially catastrophic climate change.

Even if the unconditional cancellation of all debts was announced, many of us would still see good reason to protest at - and even blockade - the G8 summit. For these protests are about more than debt relief. They are about resisting neoliberalism, an ideology more globally pervasive than communism or fascism ever were; one which dictates that the market must take precedence over human needs and the environment. Corporate-driven neoliberalism has its claws firmly embedded in the Irish economy, too. If the controversial Shell pipeline in north Mayo ever becomes operational, 100 per cent of the gas flowing through it from Ireland's Corrib gas field will belong to Shell, which can sell it to Bord Gáis at market prices. Not to mention our Government's determination to hand over our public services to private companies.

The G8 is not the solution to poverty and climate change; the G8 is the problem.Bono and Bob Geldof do not go far enough. Asking the G8 leaders to throw the poor their crumbs is not enough. We must obstruct the G8 summit, seek to shut it down, as an act of solidarity with the thousands of Bolivians who blockaded cities this month in an attempt to recover their gas, and with numerous other direct-action campaigns across the developing world. These protests are also about democracy. The G8 constitutes the very antithesis of participatory democracy: eight rich country leaders making decisions for the world's six billion people.

Some doubt the efficacy of street protest, but had someone written in these pages 20 years ago that within a few years Communism in Eastern Europe would fall, largely as a result of mass street protests, few would have believed it.

There is cause for optimism. G8 and other summits have been attracting an ever-bigger response from the world's social movements. Awareness has increased; more people know what neoliberalism is, how damaging it is to the world's poor and to the environment and, crucially, that there are alternatives.

The poor of the world need more than charity and more than debt relief. They need justice. The G8 is an imperialists' club that creates massive injustice in pursuit of corporate profit. The first step in making poverty history is to make the G8 history.

*
William Hederman is a journalist at Village magazine. He will be protesting in Scotland as part of the Dissent! protest network

by Michael Hennigan - Finfacts Sun Jun 26, 2005 17:06

William Hederman writes: Bolivia possesses South America's second-largest gas reserves, but remains the poorest country on the continent. Its gas reserves were privatised in the mid-1990s, so the revenue accrues to multinational oil companies rather than funding basic services.

According to the Economist magazine, the investment of more than $2.5 billion in Bolivia's oil and gas industry since its privatisation in 1997, has resulted in the discovery of the huge oil reserves.

In an imprefect world, there will always be 'facts' available that support a particular mindset.

In the past quarter century, there has been a significant reduction in world poverty, in particular in Asia. Why not acknowledge that while making a case for further improvements?

Like the Neo-cons' attitude to the UN, Hederman appears to only see the negative. The IMF and World Bank work for the even badder multinationals, including maybe the makers of his own mobile phone!