2008-02-28
Resisting Free Trade, Militarism and Fighting for Real Solutions to Climate Change
The G8 Summit will be held this year from July 7-9 in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan. This will be a culmination of a series of ministerial preparation meeting beginning in March. The G8 Action Network, a network of various Japanese organizations and movements, is calling on all social movements, peasant organizations, women, migrants, urban and rural poor, fisherfolks and civil society from all over the world who are resisting free trade in its many forms, war and militarism, the privatization of essential services and natural resources, illegitimate debt and the domination of global finance, and fighting for and building real people based solutions to global warming, to come and join us in the week of action against the G8 here in Japan.
WHY MOBILIZE AGAINST THE G8?
The G8 nations account for just fourteen percent of the world’s population and yet decisions made at these summits dictate the course of the rest of the world. And now more than ever, the evidence is stark that decisions that these nations have made have brought nothing but worsening poverty, increasing insecurity, deepening indebtedness, militarization and wars and now they are pushing for market based solutions to climate change which threaten to endanger the future of the planet. The host of the summit, the Government of Japan, says that it will make this summit a summit on the climate. This is rank hypocrisy. The reality is that the government, under pressure from Japanese industry, is backing away from mandatory limits to greenhouse gas emissions.
We can no longer let this continue. The time is now for all of us around the world to come together and join forces to make our voices heard and stop the G8 from doing any further damage to the world.
JOIN US IN THE INTERNATIONAL PREPARATORY MEETING
We will also begin preparations to challenge the G8 Summit beginning March.
We invite all of you to come to Japan and join in our international preparatory meeting from March 7-11, 2008.
This is our schedule:
March 7, 16:00: Press conference at Parliamentarian building
March 8-9: International Coordination Meeting & G8 Seminar
March 9: evening, Move to Hokkaido by plane
March 10-11: Activities in Hokkaido
If your organization is planning to attend the meeting, please email
nag00562@nifty.ne.jp to register your participation. You can also contact this email for more information on the meeting.
WE NEED YOUR SOLIDARITY
As with all struggles, we can only be successful with the solidarity, support and involvement of movements and activists around the world in resisting this G8 Summit. We invite all of you who are with us in the struggle against trade liberalization, corporate globalization, war and militarism and false solutions to climate change and demanding for cancellation of all developing country debt to sign on to this call. We urge all of you to join us in Japan and to strengthen our struggle and together, build another world.
SIGNED:
G8 Action Network, Japan
ATTAC Japan
Consumers Union of Japan
Forum for Peace, Human Rights and Environment
Globalization Watch Hiroshima
Iwate Network for Protecting Article 9
Japan Asia Africa Latin America Solidarity Committee (AALA)
Japan Family Farmers Movement（NOUMINREN）
JAPAN PEACE COMMITTEE
National Coalition of Workers, Farmers and Consumers for Safe Food and Health, Japan (SHOKKENREN)
No! G8 Action
No to WTO/FTA Coalition
No-Vox Japan
Peoples' Plan Study Group (PPSG)
SPACE ALLIES
The New Communist Association for the Future
IN SOLIDARITY:
(list of organizations outside Japan who sign on)
Alliance of Progressive Labor, Philippines
Anti-Debt Coalition Indonesia (KAU)
Fisherfolk Movement-Philippines (Kilusang Mangingisda)
Focus on the Global South
Global Network Asia
Globalization Monitor, Hong Kong
Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU)
Indonesian Peasants Union (SPI)
Institute for Global Justice, Indonesia
Jubilee South - Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS-APMDD)
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
Migrant Forum in Asia
Stop the New Round! Coalition, Philippines
Transnational Institute (TNI)
WALHI-Friends of the Earth Indonesia
Womyn’s Agenda for Change, Cambodia
Ecuador ACJ-YMCA
REBRIP - Brazilian Network for the Integration of Peoples
CADTM (Committee for the abolition of the thirld world debt)
People's Alliance for Debt Cancellation (GARPU), Indonesia
Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust, Bangladesh
Equity & Justice Working Group, Bangladesh
INDIAN SOCIAL ACTION FORUM - INSAF, India
International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID)
RNDD-Niger
FTA Watch Thailand
Iraqi Institution for Development
Confederation of Labor and Allied Social Services (CLASS), Philippines
Ecologistas en Accion, Spain
Jubilee South Africa
BMP - Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers)
GEFONT Nepal
People's Solidarity for Social Progress (PSSP), Korea
International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID)
INDIAN SOCIAL ACTION FORUM - INSAF, India
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF PEOLPLES' MOVEMENTS (NAPM), India
Economic Justice and Development Organization (EJAD), Pakistan
The Alternative Information Center (Jerusalem-Bet Sahur))
Labour, Health and Huiman Rights Evelopment Centre, Nigeria
Plateforme haitienne de Plaidoyer pour un Developpement Alternatif (PAPDA), Haiti
Assembly of People of the Caribbean (APC), Haiti
ATTAC Argentina
Attac Switzerland
Convergencia de los Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Americas (COMPA)
GRAPR/NAD, RD Congo
International Gender and Trade Network - Asia
To endorse this call to action, please email nag00562@nifty.ne.jp