2008-07-05 

FROM G8 TO ATLANTICA: RESISTANCE IS GLOBAL!

SHUT DOWN THE G8 SUMMIT! INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST THE G8! JULY 4th, 11:00 AM, HALIFAX, CANADA

March on the Japanese Consulate 5475 Spring Garden Road Halifax, NS

Gathering point: 10:30 AM Victoria Park

March to Japanese Consulate: 11:00 AM Peaceful event. Child friendly. Bring banners, placards, costumes, noise-makers!

From July 5th to 9th, at Lake Toya in northern Japan, leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States will meet behind closed doors and protected by the police and military, to discuss soaring food and oil prices, climate change and African development. The major powers of the G8 summit ignore justice, human rights and social security. Instead, they push for neoliberal policies which prioritize economic efficiency. These countries also strengthen military rule in the world under the guise of anti-terrorism. On July 4th and 5th, protests will be happening around the world to say NO to the world's most powerful countries deciding on policies of global apartheid. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate in actions with people who tackle issues of poverty, labor, discrimination, war, violence, gender inequality, social exclusion, environmental destruction, abuse of human rights, food safety and agriculture.

RESIST ATLANTICA!

Atlantica is the abbreviated name for the Atlantic Northeast Economic Region (AINER), a cross-border trade concept spanning the Maritime provinces, Newfoundland, southern Quebec, and the New England states. It's main proponent and originator is a right-wing think-tank group called the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), whose board of directors represents many big-business interests in the Atlantic region. The proponents of Atlantica wish to develop a conduit to channel Asian goods to the United States through the Atlantic Provinces, resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions, higher fatal-crash rates per mile, as well as the likely expansion of superhighways through communities, wilderness, and farmland. Atlantica negates the lives and dignity of local people and places powerful corporations in control of land and resources for the sake of profit. It is a regional attempt to maintain top-down control just as the G8 does globally through capitalism and colonialism.

SOLIDARITY WITH THE AINU PEOPLE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!

There are about 200,000 Ainu living throughout Japan though most are concentrated in the northern island of Hokkaido. Much of Ainu society and culture has suffered progressive destruction as a result of assimilation policies enforced by successive Japanese governments, and many Ainu have experienced prejudice and are forced to live in poverty. Despite the passage of the United Nations Rights Declaration of the world's 370 million indigenous people last year, the country has yet to honor its promises and implement the declaration. The Ainu have other plans to roll out in Hokkaido at the July 1-4 Indigenous Peoples Summit, ahead of the G8 event. "If the government recognizes the Ainu as indigenous people everything would change," said Saki Mina, an Ainu leader, at a press conference last week.

IT IS THE BASIC RIGHT OF ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO HAVE BEEN OPPRESSED AND DISCRIMINATED AGAINST TO OPPOSE THE G8 SUMMIT AND THE POWER THAT IT UNFAIRLY EXERTS ON THEIR LIVES!

No G8 Action - Halifax Contact info noG8Halifax@gmail.com