Yes We Can, Yes We Must, and Yes We Will

Today, the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies are meeting in London. While the G-20 constitutes a significant expansion from the unrepresentative G-8 cartel, we must recognize that the majority of countries in the world, where the poor reside in large numbers are excluded. We must also acknowledge that the G-20 runs the risk of undermining the United Nations and that the UN has a process regarding the global financial crisis.

There is a clear differential of power within the G-20. Barack Obama, the president of the United States, though the new kid on the G-20 bloc must be reminded that many of us around the world supported his candidacy in a variety of different ways. We danced in the streets from Kenya to Indonesia when he was elected. Because when he said "Yes We Can" we did not understand this to mean only for the American people or only for the most powerful. However, we need to send a message to Obama and the G-20 that when we have a perfect storm: a convergence of a financial crisis, a climate crisis, a passive genocide inspired by the poverty crisis, gender inequality crisis -- we must go much further and say: YES WE CAN, YES WE MUST AND YES WE WILL.

The most powerful have had the ability to transform the wretched existence of hundreds of millions of the world's people but they did not. Instead they chose to celebrate jobless growth that deepened inequality and contributed to a climate catastrophe that exacerbated poverty for those that have been least responsible for creating it.

As we and fellow activists have been saying since International Women's Day, the connection between the financial, fuel, food and climate change crises and the feminization of poverty are blatant. We painfully know that women working in manufacturing industries are most likely to be laid off in both rich and poor nations. We know the world's most marginalized are suffering more acutely than the rest of us and so we must ensure that women and girls, the poor, those living with disabilities, indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups, do not slip into greater anguish.

The most powerful should not and cannot seek "solutions" which are the very ones that got us into the mess in the first place. Hu Jintao, the Chinese leader should remind himself and his colleagues at the G-20 that the Chinese character for "crisis" and "opportunity" is the same. They need to recognize that a "good" crisis is a terrible thing to squander.

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP - www.whiteband.org) has made it clear what the G-20 communiqué needs to promise:

1. End global poverty and inequality
2. Create decent work and public services for all
3. Build a Green Economy
4. Ensure democratic governance of the global economy
5. Accelerate the recent promises on trade, debt cancellation and for better and more aid
6. Ensure the poor do not pay for the folly of the richest
7. Address the food and energy crises simultaneously

The G-20 must ensure that states stick to previous aid commitments by creating a viable and appropriate rescue package, without ridiculous conditions, for the poor and ensure that this package includes provisions that deal with the aforementioned areas.

Sylvia Borren, one of the co-chairs of GCAP, has correctly lambasted the close to ten trillion dollars in bailouts and stimulus packages as an upside down pyramid. It's the people at the top who've benefitted from most of the resources while people at the bottom have got a pittance. This is unacceptable.

Many citizens around the world do not have faith in the G-20 to deliver much based on their performance to date. They have been betrayed far too many times by the G-8 with their empty promises that get forgotten even before the figurative ink dries on their verbose, environmentally unfriendly sets of commitments.

Most ordinary people are not holding their breath in anticipation that this G-20 will solve the mess we are in since they have long lost faith in the most powerful to deliver justice. If they fail to deliver with courage and conviction the demands that citizens have been pushing for then they will push more and more citizens onto the streets. Last Saturday at the PutPeopleFirst rally in London for Jobs, Justice and Climate I witnessed the seeds of this civil discontent. Time and patience is running out for the oppressed, poor and marginalized people. Should the G-20 leaders choose to ignore this growing frustration, desperation and anger, they will do so at their own peril.

Kumi Naidoo is the Co-Chair of Global call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP)

 

Comments

[Noble Bandit]

Hi Hero

Tangled up zombie dance Penniless Prince
Passionate rave-up fell down in a trance
Friends in America how this feeling flows
Dangerously close interruption overload
Still an optimist haunted by daydreams
Mass hysteria seeing strange things
Cling to roof tops with regal splendor
Such short notice seasoned observer
It’s early as he scans the horizon
New world order in your garden
Destiny unknown exhausted faces
Stand up for higher minimum wages
Booby-trapped. In need of rescue
Delve more deeply into the issue
Cities social problems, it’s not the end
Good morning. Ten minutes to seven
Out of work and out of luck
Lopsided battle filled with blood lust
Resplendent in red, exposed and ramshackle
Promises alone I know no answer
Spread across town pushing and shoving
Now up, now down, the oddest thing
Top-heavy and with a head wind
Our hate, our curse rotting within
Mass of shards a final farewell
In the back of my mind a warning bell
A make or break event, I hear
This is the day the world came together

[michael-hp]

Kumi's right that we need to make our voices heard by political leaders. One way to do that is through civil society organisations acting as witnesses to, and participants in, decision-making. However, today Benedict Southworth, Chair of the World Development Movement, had his accreditation to attend the G20 conference revoked at the last minute following instruction from Number 10.
I for one will be asking "Why?" and if the answer isn't satisfactory it will make me even more determined to peacefully protest and vote against current leaders.
I invite you to do the same.

[Social Construct]

Yes! And I might add that, at least here in the U.S., media coverage of the groups demonstrating their frustration at how the wealthy of the world repeatedly pay lip service to the marginalized groups' plights without making the real change we can believe in is that of ill-informed, malcontent hooligans. I have watched CNN's coverage of the protests with growing disgust at just how driven American journalism is to paint almost any form of dissent, in the form of assembly to redress grievance regarding current world economic issues, with a very broad brush of corporate-owned bias. They serve their masters well.

[lightningbolt]

Which is why we all need to stop watching the mainstream media. Seriously. Don't watch CNN anymore, you'll get way better news and more variety on the internet.

[Social Construct]

That I already do, but thanks for the suggestion.