The Halagonians, as the people of Halifax, Nova Scotia, call themselves, are the nicest, friendliest people. If a pedestrian gives the slightest indication that he or she wants to cross the street, even in the middle of the block, the cars all stop. If you look lost, friendly people ask if you need help finding something.
This generally considerate orientation had interesting repercussions for the G-7 summit. It was a friendly, considerate summit. Security was surely adequate, but there was none of that hostile, fortress mentality that ended in numerous peaceful protesters, including members of the German parliament, being beaten with billy clubs at the Munich summit in 1992 (Der Spiegel, July 13, 1992: 27-29). Although you couldn't get within a block of the actual site of the G-7Summit in Halifax, the summit leaders kept showing up at different places in the city, and the police barricades weren't so far back that local people couldn't get a good look at them, wave, and be waved back at. Unlike the Toronto Summit in 1988 or the Houston Summit in 1990, where you couldn't get anywhere near the G-7 leaders and there was nothing for the general pubic to enjoy, this one was festive and fun.
Not that differences were swept under the carpet. Not at all. The people of Halifax used the occasion of the G-7 summit to educate themselves about economic issues, just as people have done on the occasion of G-7 summits since at least 1982. Three local educational institutions - Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's University, and Community College - 50 local NGOs, and hundreds of volunteers sponsored a local educational effort called the People's Summit, or P-7. Paulette Sadoway of the Canadian Labour Council and Rocky Jones of Dalhousie Legal Aid were the P-7 co-chairs, and Colleen Ashworth served as coordinator. Juan Tellez organized a major day-long workshop at Saint Mary's University called "Human Security and Development for All: Building a Better World." Cash sponsorship came from the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation, Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, Canadian Labour Congress, Co-op Atlantic, Council of Canadians, CUSO-Maritimes, International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Interpares, Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, OXFAM-Canada, Sierra Club, Sydney and District General Workers Union, and the United Church of Canada. If Prime Minister Chrétien could call the scaled down G-7 summit the "Chevrolet Summit," the P-7 summit, with a budget of $25,000, could justifiably call itself the "bicycle summit."
The money went a long way. Many of the 50 sponsoring organizations published briefing papers on the economic aspects of their area of interest (see the list of NGO background documents elsewhere in this homepage). Classes offered at the universities required attendance at various sections of the People's Summit. The young lady responsible for the main information desk at the G-7 media center was enrolled in one, as were many of the other people earning extra money at the official summit.
So the G-7 Summit really was embedded in Halifax, and permeated by the friendly, considerate Halagonians. This had a powerful impact on the atmosphere of the official summit, as President Clinton noticed. One would like to think that if the G-7 spent enough time in Halifax, their actions might take on a more humane character.
It took a lot of work and a lot of meetings over a considerable period of time for the people of Halifax to come to a consensus on how they were going to deal with the G-7 Summit. But the end result was delightfully civilized.
One the first people's initiatives was to insist that the G-7 summit be "green" (see the story by Fred Gale in this homepage). Members of the Civic Environment Committee, chaired by Martin Janowitz of the Clean Nova Scotia Foundation, began meeting in November, 1994, to develop concrete proposals, and they had considerable effect. According to the G-7 Media Handbook, "The Summit's Civic Environment Committee, with input from individuals, organizations, businesses and government departments, have outlined three key Summit objectives which will ensure that this Summit creates a positive environmental legacy. These objectives are: all Summit organizations and events will have minimal environmental impact; the Summit will contribute to advancing local environmental and sustainable development strategies; and the Summit will help to direct future international events towards minimal environmental impact and maximum sustainability.
"To meet these goals, the Halifax Summit Office has put in place specific programs, including zero waste guidelines to minimize waste production and utilize recycling, composting, and environmentally responsible packaging. Initiatives have also been undertaken for green purchasing and procurement guidelines, maximum use of energy-efficient transportation, as well as a "Mug-It" program using reusable or compostable cups for beverages."
The Summit was greener than usual. The free coffee, tea and muffins in the G-7 media center were all served in recyclable paper containers, except for the McCains promotions, which consisted of sticky buns in plastic wrappers and those little boxes of juice that can't be recycled. Otherwise, plastic and styrofoam were noticeably scarce, even at concession stands.
But what was really interesting was the way the information tables in the summit media center were managed. From the beginning, these tables were filled not only with official communiqués and information, but also briefings and press releases and book advertisements from just about every NGO you can imagine. The latter were given equal treatment, perhaps because the Halagonians keeping the tables in order were themselves members of the same NGOs. The "green" policies kicked in when the volume of literature got out of hand. Things that had been there for awhile were stacked neatly in cardboard boxes under the table so the person who put it there could take it out and put it back on the table, or take it home.
It's a good thing the NGOs took on so much of the responsibility for educating the public, because the prospect of writing a cogent analysis of economic issues seemed to strike fear into the hearts of some members of the press. I overheard one senior-looking reporter confiding to another that he was glad the situation in Bosnia had eclipsed the G-7 story, because he couldn't imagine explaining to his readers why the G-7 were reviewing the international financial institutions. This guy was obviously too lazy to take a look at the many briefing papers the "50 Years is Enough" campaign had made available.
The NGOs had done their homework. See NGO background documents . Greenpeace documents, for exampe, explained in clear and concise language "that World Bank energy lending continues to exacerbate global climate change."
The final Communiqué of the G-7 Summit was mostly business-as-usual, but the environment, poverty, and employment creation make up a surprisingly large part of the document. The section titled "Safeguarding the Environment" and part of the section on "Promoting Sustainable Development" are reproduced elsewhere in this homepage. We should make sure the G-7 keep their word.
As for curing poverty, there is the usual reliance on economic growth and technological advance rather than redistribution of what we already have, and on open markets and trade liberalization to alleviate unemployment and grow the world economy. While virtually all economists acknowledge that there are winners and losers even when there is economic growth in the aggregate, the communiqué made no mention of the victims of free trade, growth and development, much less of any compensation or safeguards to protect them. That was left to the NGOs and the People's Summit.
Although the G-7 were concerned about the ill effects of currency market fluctuations, they rejected a Tobin tax to curb currency market speculation on grounds that "such a tax could impede international financial flows" (letter from Canadian Prime Minister Chrétien to economics professor John Hotson (who died in 1996), dated May 30, 1995). A tiny group of people in the financial capitals of the world are making a lot of money speculating in foreign currency, and money talks when it comes to G-7 policy.
The People's Summit, on the other hand, was speaking for the vast majority of the World's people. Robert White, President of the Canadian Labor Congress (CLC), reported in his plenary speech that "The United Nations Development Program recently calculated that the richest 20% of the world's population - mainly the populations of the industrial countries and of the newly industrializing countries in Asia - receive 83% of the world's income, up from 70% in 1960. Meanwhile, the poorest 60% of the world's population received less than 6% of the world's income. This includes the one fifth of the population of the globe who live in absolute poverty, with incomes of less than $1 per day."
Nevertheless, White said, "It is a major mistake to see worsening economic and social conditions in the North as mainly the result of expanding North-South trade, as some do. It is high interest rates and an obsession with zero inflation and fighting deficits which has resulted in soaring unemployment for workers in the North, not a surge in imports from the countries of the South. In fact, the ILO reminds us that the real problem is not trade between the North and the South, but rather the stagnation and marginalization of much of the South in the new global economy.
"Heavily indebted countries have been forced to maximize exports and to minimize imports so as to gain foreign exchange with which to repay foreign debt. Living standards have been slashed to repay the debt, which has continued to increase, and this has forced most of the poorest countries in the world backwards. And the promised benefits of dismantling controls on trade and investment have often devastated fragile economies."
What is needed is not the mean-spirited, us-versus-them attitude of U.S. labor during the NAFTA debate, but solidarity. "We want to reach out the hand of solidarity to the Third World, not the hand of structural adjustment. We must recognize the interdependence of the world. What happens in East Timor or Paraguay has a direct impact on workers here. Pushing for pay equity in Ontario and the struggle for decent wages in the rest of the world are not disconnected. Third World labor keeps reminding us that it is in their interest that we keep our standards high, and don't regress." The North provides a model for business and government in the Third World. Keeping our standards high at home keeps the pressure on to raise standards in the rest of the world.
Canadian Steelworkers support long-term development projects to foster solidarity and exchange between themselves and both community and labor organizations in the Third World. The Steelworkers try to understand the living experience of their Third World partners, and work to educate themselves about underdevelopment and its alternatives. A total of 150 Steelworkers have participated in the international solidarity course, "Thinking North/South," and 41 members have traveled on behalf of the Fund to meet with partner organizations. For more information, contact the Canadian Steelworkers Humanity Fund, 234 Eglinton Ave., E, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, M4P 1K7; tel: 416-487-1571; fax: 416-487-1473.
Vandana Shiva (use the PCDForum link in the "Related Websites" section of this homepage to access articles by Vandana Shiva) of India spoke on "Free Trade vs. People's Economies." G-7 policies have long ignored people in developing countries. Now they are beginning to neglect the majority of people within their own borders, too. "The protection of capital at the cost of people is breeding racism, genocide, violence against women on a scale never seen before, and is in fact at the root of all the crises we are seeing around the world - leading to total social breakdown, total social insecurity. Because every solution to every crisis generated by the freedom of capital is more freedom of capital. We are sitting in a part of the world where that has been obvious: the fisheries collapse has been caused by capital intensive fisheries. The solution has been to punish the small fishing communities and reward the people who have more capital." Among other things, she called for a Tobin tax on speculative international capital flows.
Environmentalist David Suzuki, Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and host of the CBC's "The Nature of Things" and "A Planet for the Taking," gave an extraordinary plenary speech, "Setting the Real Bottom Line." Suzuki reminded the audience that, "Over half of all living Nobel prize winners signed a Warning to Humanity in 1992 (reprinted in ISEE Newsletter, Vol. 3, no. 4 (Dec. 1992): 5) and 58 World Academies of Science released a document in 1994 suggesting that humankind is proceeding down an unprecedented and catastrophic path which will destroy the support systems upon which life depends. Population growth, overconsumption, inappropriate technological applications and economic expansion are changing the biophysical features of the Earth. Politicians and business people who ignore the warnings of scientists are pursuing a suicidal agenda. What is driving the destruction is neoclassical economics, which glorifies human creativity and productive capacity while externalizing nature." Suzuki told of an interview he did with then Senator Al Gore. When asked what it would take for countries to adopt sane environmental policies, Al Gore answered that the only thing that works with Congress is pressure from the voters, so you have to mobilize and educate voters to demand from lawmakers the kind of legislation they that will protect the Earth and all of its inhabitants.
Just before David Suzuki's talk, Tony Charles presented the "Sustainable Communities Awards" on behalf of the Nova Scotia Environment and Development Coalition (see article elsewhere in this homepage).
The other plenary speakers were Maude Barlow, founding co-chair of the Action Canada Network, a cross-sectoral coalition of over 50 groups working for progressive social change and author of Parcel of Rogues: How Free Trade is Failing Canada; and Ed Broadbent, President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.
There were international contributions from The Other Economic Summit (TOES-UK and TOES-USA). David Boyle (TOES-UK) and Jakob von Uexkull (founder of the Right Livelihood Awards, a sort of alternative Nobel Prize), set up an alternative media center near the site of the G-7 summit. They offered press briefings featuring former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal, EarthAction Director Nick Dunlop, TOES co-founder James Robertson, and environmentalist and author Vandana Shiva. Ramphal said the G-7 should be replaced by a UN Economic Security Council. "The trouble is, the world can no longer afford a situation in which the G-7 has little capacity to do good, but retains infinite capacity to prevent good being done by anybody else. Leadership must come from civil society in all its manifestations."
There were many international speakers at People's Summit Thabi Shange is the coordinator of the Philisisizwe Association for Development (PAD) in South Africa, which works with thousands of women in self-help organizations. Sibongile Jack, also from South Africa, works with Puppets Against Aids. Charles Agubre, from Accra, Ghana, works with the Third World Network. Antonio Otzoy is secretary of Mayan Hermandad, a section of the Presbyterian Church of Guatemala. From Cuba, there were Clara Alonso of the Federation of Cuban Women and Paulino Mesa Cardenas and Barbara Sarria Aparicio of the National Communications Union of Cuba. Martha Valle and Zayda Rayo came from Nicaragua to meet with Nova Scotian fishers and farmers. Dora Essaka-Deido from Cameroon and Patrick Budhoo of Guyana also spoke. There were presentations and performances by members of the Seneca, Innu, Mayan, and Mi'Kmaq First Nations.
In addition to workshops and speakers, the 8-day People's Summit included art exhibits, performances of various kinds, local musicians and theater groups, skits, films, and videos. A "P-7 Marketplace: Products and Services for People and the Planet" was sponsored by CUSO Atlantic.
The next G-7 Summit will be in Lyon, France, at the end of June, 1996, and the one in 1997 will be in the United States.