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 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:
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March 7, 16:00: Press conference at Parliamentarian building
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March 8-9: International Coordination Meeting & G8 Seminar
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March 9: evening, Move to Hokkaido by plane
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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
No! G8 Action
No to WTO/FTA Coalition
No-Vox International Solidarity Movement
Peoples' Plan Study Group (PPSG)
(and 20 other organizations)
IN SOLIDARITY:
(List of organizations outside Japan who sign on)
Anti-Debt Coalition Indonesia (KAU)
Focus on the Global South
Indonesian Peasants Union (SPI)
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)
List is still open to those who want to sign on. Please contact Mary Lou Malig <marylou@focusweb.org> of Focus on the Global South to confirm your endorsement.
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