What is the G8, why it is pants, and what can we do about it?
This is a format for workshops that we have been doing during the TRAPESE roadshow.
We have done this with groups of different shapes and sizes, with five scruffy punks or 30 respectable punks. It is seems to work in different situations, since the main input comes from the people attending.
The Time it takes tends to be flexible too.
Setting
Arrange the chairs in a happy hippy circle. Make sure that the techie side is in order if required, computers work and the projector is connected etc. If you have time, have a pint or a glass of red wine, or whatever that makes you smile cos smiling is the most important thing.
" Hello, nice that you re all here part"
Introduce yourself, the situation and why are you doing this workshop. Ask everybody else to introduce themselves, their names and why they came to the workshop / what do they want to get out of it. It is a good moment to pry for some local gossip, I.e. for everyone to briefly introduce groups or projects they might be involved it
Common Ground game
Most of the people are actually happy to play games, even if they try to appear the contrary. It is important to get on your feet in a two-hour session, plus a bit of touching and giggling together for starters sets the right mood for brainstorming. If you do games during a workshop, don t be apologetic for their silliness: your enthusiasm will set the tone, you have to be the first silly one.
Start by asking for someone to do a good tony blair imitation and read out the following quote (Guardian, September 2004) Ask what does the group know about the G8. Write down all the suggestions on a massive piece of paper or a board.
When doing a group brainstorm, it is good to have a few key points you want to push through. If they don' t come up, add them in the end yourself. Keypoints in this session would be at least
G8 is made up of US, UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan, France and sort of Russia (started attending the meetings in 1997, but still can t attend the meetings of the finance ministers cos Russia owns so much money to the rest of the lot) ¤ the heads of state meet once a year, but the process is on all throughout the year.
At least the foreign and the finance ministers meet (2004 finance ministers meeting was held in Washington in October, conveniently coinciding with the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank). Each country has a G8 representative called sherpa (after a tibetan yak herder and guide - how silly is that, who keeps the process going.
G8 doesn't t actually make any decisions, but the wheeling's and dealings, or their guidelines are implemented in other international institutions, especially the WTO, IMF and the Worl Bank, but also UN Security Council, OECD etc. They have their finger in every bloody pie...
To understand how the G8 works and why it works that way, a small history lesson is in order. Take a massive sheet of paper and draw a timeline from the 2nd world war till today. Ask people to take a marker and start putting relevant dates on the timeline. G8 dates or other political happenings, to map out how the world looked like in the 70's. Keypoints: 1944 the blueprint for global economic governance is drawn up in Bretton Woods:
International Monetary Fund, World Bank and General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs 1961 G10 - a convergence of the finance ministers and governors of national central banks of the US and 9 European nations, called by the US to ensure the unity of strategies and voting power especially in the IMF. This plan does t really work 1973 end of the gold standard I.e. Nixon dropped the Bretton Woods system that had pegged the dollar to a certain amount of gold in order to stabilize the world economy.
This is the beginning of the current global casino economy where over 16 000 000 000 000 000 dollars is made every day by currency speculation only... 1973 OPEC triples the oil prices and the world plunges into economic recession and energy crisis seventies in general: the developing world has a much stronger voice than today, non-aligned movement, New International Economic System etc. 1975 US calls for the first G6 heads of state summit in Rambouillet (Italy, US, UK, France, Germany, Japan) 1976 Canada joins 1997 Russia joins 1998 Birmingham summit, the first really big protests 2005 Gleaneagles !!! etc etc
And why is G8 so pants...game
Ask for 10 volunteers, or force them. Everybody sits on one chair.
Each person represent 10 % of the worlds population.
12 % live in the g8 countries, choose a person to represent that fortunate lot.
Now, 48 % of the sum total of global GDP I.e. wealth generated per year, resides in the G8 countries, so the g8 person can get comfortable on 5 chairs and the remaining 9, the majority world has to squeeze in on 5 chairs.
Climate change: g8 countries are responsible for 62 % of CO2 emissions, so one chair more...
Real economic power: out of the top 100 multinational corporations, 95 have their headquarters in the g8 countries,so the g8 person is supercomfy on 9 chairs and the rest have to squeeze in on one.
How does that feel? To get more comfortable, who would they push out from the chair?
So if anything, the G8 are unrepresentative. Do another group brainstorm about why they suck: unaccountable, secretive, target of corporate lobbying etc etc
What s on the agenda in Gleneagles?
Blair has announced that climate change and debt, especially in Africa, are the main issues to be discussed in the Gleneagles summit. How good and considerate of them, who could blame anyone dealing with such worthy topics? It is important to remember that these are the mediasexy topics they will give out statements about, but in reality there will be many other issues on the table too, depending what their corporate masters are worried about... We think it s useful to provoke some discussion about these topics during the workshop. Both of the issues lend themselves fantastically to all sort of spin efforts, to promote nuclear energy etc. We need to be able to undermine their discourse and have better suggestions.
Climate Change -showing the cheeky acoplypse video -highlighting the fact that this video shows that climate change is not just about climate change- it is a microscope on the global economy and covers all sorts of other issues.
-The where do you stand game On yer feet... Designate one wall of the room as the yes wall and the other one as the no wall and ask people to take position in the room depending on their opinion of the following questions. They are designed to provoke discussion and debate in the group about issues around climate change. We have been using the following.
-Do you think man made climate change is happening
-Do you think international processes like kyoto can help solve the problem
- Do you think that cows fart are THE major contributor to climate change
-Do you think its desirable that the developing south develops to achieve the current western standard of living
-Do you think renewable's can fill current energy needs Say to each group that they can make points to try and convert the others ( be warned this can result in people physically dragging their friends over to the other side)
The general points we make during this game are that We are in the middle of an enormous crisis -of oil -of climate -and that there has been a breakdown of global consensus ( highlighted by the Euro/dollar oil war argument see Colin Nuan article) We have three options Kyoto ( or international processes) -Kyoto is a market based solution to a market based problem
-It is totally inadequate
-It has been co-opted by corporations and governments who are using it as an opportunity to turn carbon into a billion dollar commodity
-It is an extension of the neo liberal economic order -there is little to no indication (or likelihood) that such mechanisms would in any way lead to a reduction in carbon emissions.
-Blair is using the G8 chairman ship to push through a corporate agenda Nuclear
- leading environmentalists are now saying that it can be a solution to climate change -it's not because etc.....its fucked up
-It anyway and perhaps more importantly raises the issue that control of the worlds resources remain in the hands of a few companies and this will always threaten democracies and mean that profit will always be secured above all else.
Leaving only the 3rd option Massive mental shifts and radical social change -it is the only option that does not lead to imminent death and destruction
-without finding systems for decentralized , autonomous control of production of energy, food etc we will perpetuate an economic system that has resulted in the situation we are in now
- governments and world leaders can not actively effect the necessary change and direct democracy is an essential and only possibility we have to change society - to empower people to take control, responsibility and sense of ownership and their environments and lives.
Debt. Do the same game with different statements, for example
- Is the debt crisis a consequence of corrupt regimes in the global south? - Should rich countries give more aid?
- Should debts be cancelled?
- Should the benefits of the possible debt relief be monitored by the IMF? Let the discussion flow, and make sure at least the following points become clear
: - for every £1 the developing countries receive in aid, almost £13 come back in debt repayments
- G8 devised a debt relief programmer for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries and "forgave" 100 million worth of debts during the Cologne Summit 1996.
However, this was an empty gesture that has done nothing to improve those countries economies, on the contrary, since the relief was accompanied by heavy structural adjustment program, I.e. privatization, by the IMF Show the Washes Whiter video Depending on the groups level of knowledge about the debt crisis, do a very brief presentation of it.
And the main point is that even though they d forgive all the debts, though the global south would surely have much more money to deal with their own problems, it still wouldn't t change the makeup of the way the world economy works. Africa, for examples, looses billions every year just paying tariffs to the highly protected European and American markets.
Not even mentioning the fact that almost all the wealth extracted form natural resources like oil, minerals, timber, stays with big multinational companies...
What should we do about it? Why protest?
The last 14 years have seen capitalism challenged at enormously different levels -the mass mobilisations have both created resistance and forced leaders to hide in their retreats
It's nice to get people to mark events on timelines where the G8 and other financial institutional have been resisted
- We have created a political space that has gained momentum and support form a wide cross section of people
-We are in the midst of a global social movement of movements ements that is unprecedented
-we are in a position to affect change Brainstorm -Find out what people have done
- when they have resisted
-Break into small groups to discuss what they would like to do to highlight and resist the G8 meeting. each group should come up with one idea they would like to implement. Finish of with Whilst the mass mobilisations have been really important and defining it is the every day resistance we carry out in our lives........we can build the alternatives............
- there is also a slide show on this Cd which is nice to show