A G20 Meeting for Naught
Police. Resources wasted to facilitate the sham of a meeting
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$The G20 summit meeting in London from April 1st onward was loudly announced and publicized. Those 20 industrialized and emergent countries (G20) are meeting to find solutions to the crisis. But long before the end of the summit, it is clear that they will not rise to the challenge.
The G20 was not created in order to provide genuine solutions; it was hastily summoned a first time in November 2008 to salvage the powers that be and try and to plug the breaches in capitalism. It is therefore impossible for this body to opt for measures that are sufficiently radical to save the day.
Public opinion will be told to look in the two directions that are expected to focus aggravation: tax havens and the CEOs’ incomes.
Tax havens have to be abolished, that goes without saying. To achieve this it should be easy enough to make it illegal for companies and residents to have any assets in, or relationships with partners located in, tax havens. The EU countries that function like tax havens (Austria, Belgium, the UK, Luxembourg…) as well as Switzerland must do away with bank secrecy and put an end to their outrageous practices. Yet such is not at all the orientation chosen by the G20: a couple of emblematic cases will be cracked down on, minimal measures will be required from those countries, and a black list of non-cooperative territories eventually made public will have been carefully vetted (the City, Luxembourg or Austria have already been promised they will not be on it).
On the other hand CEOs’ incomes, including golden parachutes and other bonuses, are indeed outrageous. In time of growth the employers claimed that those who brought in such benefits to their companies had to be rewarded to prevent them from moving to another. Now that we live in a time of crisis and those companies have to admit to increasing losses, the same executives still claim similar rewards. The G20 will try to regulate their incomes for a limited duration. The logic of the system is not questioned.
Apart from tax havens and CEOs’ superbonuses, which will not be hit by any specific penalties anyway, the G20 countries will further bail out their banks. Though globally discredited and de-legitimized, the IMF will be put back at the hub of the political and economic game thanks to a new provision of funds which will have been made available by 2010.
The G20 strategy is to put a fresh coat of paint on a world which is collapsing. Only a strong popular mobilization will make it possible to lay solid foundations to build another world in which finance is at the service of people, and not the other way round. The 28 and 30 March demos were big ones: 40,000 people in London, thousands and thousands in Vienna, Berlin, Stuttgart, Madrid, Brasilia, Rome, etc. with the common motto “Let the rich pay the crisis!” The week of global action called for by the social movements from all over the world at the WSF at Belém last January thus had a gigantic echo. Those who had announced the end of the movement for another globalization were wrong. It has proved that it is able to bring large crowds together, and this is only the beginning. The success of the mobilizations in France on 29 January and 19 March (three million demonstrators were in the streets) is evidence that the workers, the unemployed and young people all want other solutions to the crisis than those which consist in bailing out bankers and imposing restrictions on the lower classes.
As a counterpoint to the G20 summit, the president of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto, has called a general meeting of Heads of States and Governments in June and asked the economist Joseph Stiglitz to chair a commission that will draft proposals to meet the global crisis. The suggested solutions are inadequate because too timid, but they will at least be discussed at the the UN general Assembly.
A new debt crisis is looming in the South, it is a consequence of the real estate private debt bubble bursting in the North. The recession that now affects the real economy of all countries in the North has led to prices of raw material plummeting, which considerably has reduced the strong currency revenues with which governments of countries of the South repay their external public debts. Moreover the current credit crunch has induced a rise in borrowing rates for countries of the South. The combination of these two factors has already resulted in suspensions in debt repayment by those governments that are most exposed to the crisis (starting with Ecuador). Others will follow suit within one or two years.
The situation is absurd: countries of the South are net creditors to the North, starting with the US whose external debt is over US$ 6,000 billion (twice the total external debt of all the countries of the South). Central banks in countries of the South buy US Treasury bonds instead of setting up a democratic bank of the South to finance human development projects. They should leave the World Bank and the IMF, which are tools of domination, and develop South-South relations of solidarity such as those which exist between countries that are members of ALBA (Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Dominica). They ought to audit the debts they are asked to repay and put an end to the payment of illegitimate debts.
The G20 will see to it that the core of neoliberal logic is left untouched. Its principles are asserted again and again, even though they have blatantly failed: the G20 maintains its attachment to a global economy based on an open market. Its support to the god of free market is non-negotiable. Everything else is hocus-pocus.
Eric Toussaint, PhD in political sciences, is president of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt – Belgium www.cadtm.org ), author of A diagnosis of emerging global crisis and alternatives, Mumbai, India, Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, 2009, 139p.; The World Bank: A Critical Primer, London, UK, Pluto Press, 2008
Damien Millet, a mathematician, is spokeperson for CADTM France (Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt,).
Joint authors of 60 Questions 60 Answers on the Debt, the IMF and the World Bank, English version to be published in 2009.
Labels: CADTM, Damien Millet, Eric Toussaint, G20, Police, Protest
Are the Police Protesting Too Much?
A man lost his life yesterday. PUT PEOPLE FIRST!!!! Those of you in London, do keep lending your voice and keep safe.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
The trouble-makers are out in force again. Dressed in black, their faces partly obscured, some of them appear to be interested only in violent confrontation. It's almost as if they are deliberately raising the temperature, pushing and pushing until a fight kicks off. But this isn't some disorganised rabble: these people were bussed in and are plainly acting in concert. There's another dead giveaway. They are all wearing the same slogan: Police.
The police have been talking up violence at the G20 protests for weeks. They briefed journalists and companies in the City of London about the evil designs of the climate campaigners intending to demonstrate there, but refused to let the campaigners attend the briefings and put their own side of the story. They also rebuffed the campaigners when they sought to explain to the police what they wanted to do.
The way officers tooled themselves up in riot gear and waded into a peaceful crowd this afternoon makes it look almost as if they were trying to ensure that their predictions came true. Their bosses appear to have failed either to read or to heed the report by the parliamentary committee on human rights last week, about the misuse of police powers against protesters. "Whilst we recognise police officers should not be placed at risk of serious injury," the report said, "the deployment of riot police can unnecessarily raise the temperature at protests."
But there has always been a conflict of interest inherent in policing. The police are supposed to prevent crime and keep the streets safe. But if they are too successful, they do themselves out of a job. They have a powerful interest in exaggerating threats and, perhaps, an interest in ensuring that sometimes these threats materialise. This could explain what I've seen at one protest after another, where peaceful demonstrations turn into ugly rucks only when the police attack. The wildly disproportionate and unnecessary violence I've sometimes seen the police deploy could scarcely be better designed to provoke a reaction.
If this is so, they lose nothing. They might get the occasional rap over the knuckles from MPs or the police complaints commission. It doesn't seem to bother them. By planting the idea in the public mind that the streets could erupt into catastrophic violence at any time, were it not for the thick blue line thrown around even the mildest protest, they establish the need for a heavy police presence. While the public lives in fear, no government dares to cut the policing budget.
Labels: 2009, Brutatliy, Death, G20, Police, protesters
A Peaceful Demostration for APEC 2007
Scuffles between police and protesters broke out after a smaller than predicted number of demonstrators staged a short and peaceful march in central Sydney against the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum.
A massive police presence contained the largely good-natured crowd that had included families and children.
Police fears of widespread violence did not eventuate, but there was some trouble.
A police spokesman said five marchers had been arrested and two officers were injured when some trouble flared. One officer was hospitalised with unspecified head injuries. No further details were available.
About two hours after the march ended in Hyde Park, police detained another three men.
Two of the men, who were named on an APEC blacklist, were dragged away by officers, placed in a police bus but later freed.
Paddy Gibson - who had helped organise today's march - said he was in cafe in the park when he saw police grab and take away one man.
"When I started complaining and they said 'take him away as well'," he told smh.com.au.
Witnesses saw Mr Gibson grappled to the ground and then escorted from the scene. Both men were released 20 minutes later.
This afternoon lines of police were deployed on Elizabeth Street near the Sheraton on the Park Hotel, where some APEC delegates are staying. About 200 protesters remained in the park.
Organisers estimated that 10,000 people took part in this morning's march. Earlier in the week, police had ominiously predicted 20,000 might show up and warned of the danger of rioting.
Protest organisers pointed to the general good behaviour of the crowd and accused authorities of overreacting and deliberately exaggerating security concerns.
They said police had tried to browbeat demonstrators by putting hundreds of officers on the streets at huge expense to taxpayers.
"It's been an absolutely fantastic rally you should all be congratulated," Alex Bainbridge of the Stop Bush Coalition told the crowd.
As APEC leaders - including US President George Bush and Prime Minister John Howard - met at the Sydney Opera House for their summit, riot squads with shields and were deployed in some parts CBD.
The protesters gathered at Town Hall and moved slowly towards Hyde Park following a police-approved route.
Lines of police funnelled the crowd down Park Street towards the park as helicopters hovered above.
Seven buses, converted into oversized police paddy wagons, were parked in a line that blocked George Street outside the Queen Victoria Building. The recently acquired NSW Police water cannon was stationed nearby.
There was little trouble among protesters as their march took on an almost festive air.
One woman was seen being led away by officers near the QVB.
In another incident, five policemen grappled one male protester to the ground on Park Street. The man was led away by other officers as surrounding demonstrators chanted: "shame, shame".
One witness later alleged that the man had been throwing objects at some marchers in an bid to provoke trouble.
Police also led away a man who was naked except for a strategically placed sock. Across his bare chest was written: "Hey (Police Commisioner Andrew) Scipione, where's my concealed weapon?"
Many of the protesters carried placards reading: "End the occupation of Iraq", "Save the planet", "Drop Bush, not bombs" and "Put the water cannon to good use. Give Morris Iemma an enema".
Others chanted: "We are peaceful, Bush is not".
Before the rally, NSW Police Minister David Campbell said people would be free to use their democratic right to protest but officers also had a responsibility to ensure the safety of international visitors and the public.
Mr Campbell told ABC Radio organisers of the Stop Bush Coalition demonstration faced a challenge to keep the protest peaceful and not allow other groups to cause trouble.
"Of course the concern is there are other people from other organisations such as Mutiny, another group called AC/DC and a group called Resistance, who said they would come to Sydney intent on violence," Mr Campbell.
"There is concern that they might just join that demonstration and then try break out of it in some way."
The commander of the Public Order and Riot Squad , Chief Superintendent Stephen Cullen, said he feared anarchist groups would infiltrate the protest and whip it into a violent mob.
But Mr Bainbridge said police predictions of violence had been "propaganda".
"They're trying to use the talk about violence to disguise the real issues we're raising at the protest rally," he said.
Technorati Tags: APEC, Peaceful, Protest, Police and Bums.
Labels: APEC, Bums, Peaceful, Police, Protest
APEC: Undercover Policemen and Restriction Pamphlets
APEC, the 8 day long meetings have Sydneysiders issued with restriction pamphlets in their home ground. The NSW police indicate that they "will do everything in their power to ensure that the public are safe from violent protests during APEC". Will there be an agent provocateur? To this, they do not say.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
NSW Police have hit back at concerns that undercover officers might be planted among APEC protesters to provoke violence.The concerns have been raised by the NSW Greens after Canadian Police admitted planting undercover officers at a protest against a North American leaders' summit in Quebec last week.
Demonstrators claim the undercover officers were trying to provoke violence while Quebec police officials said their officers were mingling with protesters to identify those who might become violent, The Toronto Star reported.
The NSW Greens today called on the NSW Premier to guarantee that there would be no undercover police nor other security agents attempting to provoke violence during APEC demonstrations.
"In light of the admission by Canadian police that the men photographed with bandanas and rocks were undercover police officers, I call on the Premier give a public assurance to the people of NSW that similar tactics will not be employed by NSW Police or other security agencies during the APEC meeting," Greens member Sylvia Hale said.
"I have been concerned about the provocative nature of many of the recent statements by the Premier and the Police Minister and I want an assurance that the police will not be trying to manufacture an excuse for giving their new APEC powers and weapons a workout."
Ms Hale admitted she had no evidence any Australian police or security force would plant "agent provocateurs" in the crowds at APEC demonstrations.
"I don't have any direct proof. I'm definitely not saying that I have any evidence that this will happen."
NSW Police and the State Government have denied that police would provoke violence during the demonstrations.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said: "NSW Police Force does not use its officers to provoke violence in any situation."
Deputy Premier John Watkins said any protester who broke the law would be dealt with in terms of special APEC laws.
"NSW Police will do everything in their power to ensure that the public are safe from violent protests during APEC," he said.
"NSW Police have been working hard with protesters in the lead-up to APEC to minimise the disruption to Sydneysiders."
The main APEC protest is planned for Saturday, September 8, when thousands are expected to gather at Town Hall for a march.
The Quebec provincial police were forced to admit last week that they had planted undercover officers amid protesters after a damning video surfaced on
YouTube, The Toronto Star reported.
The video shows three masked men being confronted by a protest organiser.
The organiser makes it clear the men are not welcomed and tells the crowd they are police officers.
Confronted by the crowd and the organiser, the men - one of whom is holding a rock in his hand - push towards the police line where they are shoved to the ground and handcuffed.
A photo that emerged last week shows the soles of the men's boots adorned by the same yellow triangles that a police officer kneeling next to him has on his boots, the paper reported.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Sydneysiders to receive APEC restrictions pamphletRelated Story: More APEC restrictions announced for Sydney Residents in 16 postcodes around the Sydney CBD should this week receive a brochure explaining changes about traffic and transport during the APEC summit.
The four-page pamphlet includes maps, access to public venues and contact details.
The Federal Government spokeswoman for APEC, Anne Fulwood, says residents in Bondi will also be letter-dropped.
"The most important parts of that would include road closures and access to their residences and so on," she said.
"That's probably the most important thing during those days when areas might be closed off, for example, on the Sunday in Bondi when Icebergs is hosting Mrs Howard's leaders' spouses luncheon - there are certain restrictions then."
Technorati Tags: APEC, Sydney, Restriction, Police, Protest and AgentProvocateur.
Labels: AgentProvocateur, APEC, Police, Protest, Restrictions, Sydney
Cops on Red Alert for Asean Meetings
The police in Metro Manila will be placed on red alert in time for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meetings at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
Chief Supt. Eric Javier, Metro Manila police deputy for operations, said the red alert is meant more to secure visiting delegates than averting a terror attack.
Radio dzBB reported Monday that Javier also received assurances from militant groups that they will not disrupt the Asean meetings from July 29 to Aug. 2.
While it was not immediately clear when the red-alert status will take effect, checkpoints have been observed in many areas of Metro Manila since last weekend.
At least 27 countries will be represented at the 40th Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM), the Post-Ministerial Conferences (PMCs), and the 14th ASEAN Regular Forum (ARF) in Manila.
Foreign Affairs Department Assistant Secretary for ASEAN Affairs Luis Cruz said ASEAN foreign ministers will discuss the status of ASEAN's community building efforts and assess the progress security community, economic community, and socio-cultural community.
Cruz said the 40th AMM will also adopt measures to implement the landmark decisions of the 12th ASEAN, the 2nd East Asia Summit and other related summits held in Cebu last January.
He also noted that for the first time, Sri Lanka will be represented in the 14th ARF, bringing the total number of ARF participating countries to 27.
The Philippines, as current chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee, is expected to lead in the discussions of the measures to follow up on the directives of the ASEAN leaders firmed up at the Cebu Summit.
The AMM is an annual meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers held in July. Hosting is on a rotational basis by ASEAN member countries in alphabetical order.
The 10 ASEAN members are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
On the other hand, the PMCs are annual meetings between ASEAN foreign ministers and their counterparts from 10 dialogue partners: China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, Russia, Canada, the United States, and the European Union.
Cruz said the PMCs in Manila, scheduled on Aug. 1, will have the ASEAN foreign ministers meet with their counterparts from Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, Russia and the US.
The meetings with the foreign ministers of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea took place at the sidelines of the Cebu Summit.
The 14th ARF is the only forum in the Asia-Pacific whose aim is to discuss regional and international security issues.
Scheduled on Aug. 2, the ARF will bring together foreign ministers of ASEAN, their counterparts from the 10 dialogue partners and from other countries in the region that include Bangladesh, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.
The theme of the upcoming Manila meetings, Cruz said, is still "One Caring and Sharing Community."
Technorati Tags: AseanMeetings, ARF, Police and Philippine.
Labels: ARF, Asean Meetings Philippine, Police
More Police Brutality and Renewed Ban
1. A convoy of 35 bicyclists was brutally attacked by riot cops near Rostock today. About 6 police vans followed them. When they left Rostock on the B 105 (the street to Camp Reddelich) the police cars switched on their lights.
The bikers stopped to let drive by the cars. But the cops began to beat them from their driving vans, tried to catch them and threw them from their bikes. They pepper sprayed them from less than one meter into their faces.
2. French Activists denied first aid. A car driven by french activists was involved in an accident on the highway at Rostock-West. The car of the french driver was hit by the car of a woman fallen asleep while driving.
Riot cops deployed from the demo in Rostock - arrived and began to threaten the injured french activists. They called them "dirty G 8 opponenents" and did not give them any first help or medical treatment.
They were brought to hospitals by some vans of the red cross. In one hospital the doctor did not give medical treatment. He said it is because "there´s no social insurance security card". He also stated the injuries were from the riots in Rostock - and not from an accident. A woman was begging him for at least some pain-stopping medicine but the doctor refused.
Finally they got first aid in the Camp Reddelich where they arrived by taxi.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Renewed ban on Heiligendamm march: protesters angry
Berlin (dpa) – A renewed German ban on protests within seven kilometres of next week’s G8 (Group of Eight) summit at Heiligendamm brought anger Friday from protesters who had hoped to converge on the venue.
“This is a rebuff to the peaceful protests at the G8 and a black day for freedom of assembly,” said lawyer Carsten Gericke, who had represented demonstrators in a lawsuit against the ban.
An administrative tribunal had upheld Thursday evening a ban on unauthorized marches up to a fence of welded steel mesh erected at a two-kilometre radius around the luxury Kempinski beach hotel.
During their convergence march on June 7, the marchers must stay about seven kilometres away on German federal highway 105, judges in the city of Greifswald ruled.
A tribunal spokesman, Eckhard Corsmeyer, said Friday the ruling reflected the venue geography: marching would block the country lanes down to the beach and obstruct fire and police trucks and ambulances if disaster hit.
Gericke said he was studying if there were grounds to appeal urgently to Germany’s federal constitutional court.
Leftists and groups critical of globalization have already been upset by police scrutiny of their movement, heavy policing at pre-G8 marches and this week by Berlin’s refusal to let 20 leftists attend the June 6-8 summit as reporters.
A Federal Press Office spokesman said 4,700 applications for media accreditation were received and 20 denied after vetting by federal police. He did not say why they were seen as security risks.
German journalists’ unions protested, saying the rejections created the impression that critical reporting was unwelcome.
Technorati Tags: G8, Rostock, Reddelich, Heiligendamm, Police and Brutality.
Labels: Brutality, G8, Heiligendamm, Police, Reddelich, Rostock
Police Brutality Ahead of Talks
The German police took to the offensive, even before the meetings begin.
Police gearing up. Is this necessary?
3 Policemen taking down a protestor
Policeman 2512 stomping on protestor
Blasting the water canon at 2 persons holding a banner
Sneaky bastard attack
We come in peace and will not be intimidated.
Meanwhile, having Africa on the agenda has been a headache for the German government. Their concern is that the only story on the G8 and Africa will be about broken promises and how delivery of the 2005 pledges is disastrously off track. In the past few weeks, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been looking for a good news story - an announcement of an increase in German aid of around €2bn (£1.35bn) is likely - to mask the fact that the G8's agreement in Gleneagles is in danger of falling apart. It has gone to the wire, with still no agreement on how to word the commitment to the 2005 deal. More "sherpa" meetings of officials will be held today and tomorrow ahead of the summit opening on Wednesday.
Technorati Tags: G8, Germany, Police, Violence and Protest.
Labels: G8, Germany, Police, Protest, Violence
