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DENVER -- (article contained this paragraph on the Peoples' Summit)

An alternative " People's Summit" on downtown's Auraria Campus of three local colleges will highlight topics off the summit's agenda: human rights, women's issues, peace and immigration.

"The economic agenda being discussed is about our lives," said Njoki Njehu, member of a group called 50 Years is Enough: US Network for Global Economic Justice.

"Decisions must not be left to people who do not really share the interests of the majority of working people," Njehu told a local daily.

The " People's Summit," begun in Britain in 1984, has been held annually alongside the meeting of leaders representing the world's richest industrialized democracies, this year called the "Summit of the Eight."

Highlights of the alternative meetings and demonstrations include a rally Saturday in central Denver to protest sweatshops and a "march for justice" later that day.

Organizers also plan other demonstrations and marches as well as educational workshops.

(The article continues on about the Iranian demonstration.)

The June 19-21 trial at the Central Presbyterian Church here is focussing on the environmental and human rights impact on indigenous territories of the operations of mega-corporations based in the richest countries.

The hearing has been convened to coincide with the June 20-21 "Summit of Eight" - a meeting here of the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States. The Summit of Eight is an expanded version of the annual meetings of the "Group of Seven" major industrialized countries. Russia is taking part in the hopes it will become a full-fledged member of the club.

No commercial map or school atlas shows the nations of origin of the judges who will weigh evidence at the hearing. Most of these nations, which represent indigenous groups with histories that predate written records, are struggling to survive, as their lands, peoples, and cultures are threatened by multinational companies based in the eight industrialized nations.

"The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples, and the 27 principles proclaimed at the Earth Summit five years ago, are the primary baselines by which each country will be evaluated," says Alan O'Hashi of Global Response, a Colorado-based body that is organizing the tribunal.

Public interest activists from the eight industrialized nations have been invited to testify about the records of European oil companies, including Shell and Total; Russian gas companies, including Gaz-Prom; and Freeport McMoRan and Peabody, mining companies from the United States and Britain respectively.

Also on trial will be logging companies, including McMillan Bloedell and Interfor of Canada and Mitsubishi and Daishowa of Japan; Italian dam-building companies, including Impresit and Cogefar; and Dresdner, a German bank.

Global Response - an international network of people who work together to inundate key decision-makers with letters of protest over such issues as environmental and human rights abuses -- is not the only group that is questioning the eight world leaders here.

Also turning out in force is the British-based group, "The Other Economic Summit" (TOES) as well as "Fifty Years is Enough," a group that was created to challenge the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

TOES, which has convened alternative meetings to counter the "Group of Seven" for the past 13 years, claims to "build on a tradition of theory and practice that economics, constrained by respect for the natural world and human dignity, is possible."

TOES organizer Larry Martin has told reporters that their summit will include everyone from "clinical academics" to "visceral professional activists."

Shell will be taken to task for its oil and gas exploration in Ogoni territory in Nigeria and Machiguenga territory in Peru; Unocal, for a gas pipeline on Karen lands in Burma; and Gaz Prom, for its plans to conduct explorations on the Khanty-Mansi lands in Siberia.

Activists are expected to pan Freeport for its operations on Amungme and Komoro lands in western Neo Guinea at the world's largest gold mine. And they will weigh Peabody's record on Dineh and Hopi lands in Arizona, where the company is strip-mining coal in the desert.

McMillan Bloedell and Interfor will be charged with over-exploitation of the temperate rainforests of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Nuxalk peoples of British Columbia in Canada. And Mitsubishi and Daishowa will be criticized for polluting the lands of the Lubicon Cree in the Canadian province of Alberta, where the two Japanese companies are logging and drilling for gas respectively.

The Italian dam-builders and Dresdner will be tried for the construction of hydro-electric projects in Latin America and Africa that have flooded the lands of the Mapuche and other indigenous peoples.

Gearing up to grab attention from the 5,000 journalists that are expected to visit the city this weekend, the TOES summit has appointed a director of guerrilla activity for the event.

"Civil disobedience is a distinct possibility," says Leslie Moody, of the Denver-based Jobs With Justice, which recently shut down a downtown street in a call for pay raises for janitors.

On the day this article is published, I will be leaving for Denver, Colorado. No, I haven't been invited to the economic summit of the G-7 (is it G-8, now that Russia has been admitted?). I'm going to a conference called The Other Economic Summit (TOES).

TOES conferences have been held every year since 1988, always in the city where the G-7 is meeting. (In 1993 it was held in Tokyo.) The first intention of these conferences is to challenge the idea that the leaders of the seven (or eight) richest and most powerful countries have the right to dictate economic policy to the world. The second is to challenge the idea that they have the ability to do so.

The theme of this year's conference is "A World that Works." The Implication is that, at present, the world is not working. Of course, this is true. Under the domination of the G-7 we are steadily moving toward cultural destruction, mass starvation and ecocatastrophe. (If you don't know this yet, please learn to read the newspaper more carefully.)

At the alternative conference there will be a different breed of people, people who see things differently, talk differently, look differently, laugh differently and dream differently from the G-7 leaders and the sycophants who surround them. Many will be from the poor countries, or from the poorer classes of the rich countries, or people of color, or indigenous people or people resisting oppression. Many in all these categories will be women.

(Here's an experiment: When you look at the TV and newspaper pictures of the G-7, count how many people there are in any of the above categories, that is, people who are not rich white men.)

When I say these people dream differently, I mean they are dreaming of a world different from the G-7 world, a world held together by something sturdier than sales, soldiers and cynicism.

As the conference title indicates, this year's meeting is not aimed at appealing to the G-7 leaders to do things differently (they won't anyway) but will consist of reports from people who are already doing things differently, people carrying out projects different from those demanded by the G-7 leaders: projects that work, can work or must work.

The two panels that I have organized are on the theme of alternatives to war. The first will include Charles Overby, founder of the Article Nine Society, which seeks to promote the principles of Japan's Peace Constitution around the world. The second will be on antibase movements and will feature reports from representatives of the anti-U.S.-base movements of Okinawa, South Korea, Panama and the Philippines (remember that the Philippine antibase movement "worked" and the U.S. bases were actually kicked out of the country).

I write about these things here because you will never read about them in the mainstream press.

As host of this year's Group of 7 (G-7) Summit on June 21-23, President Clinton will set the meeting's agenda. Clinton has proposed discussing export credit agencies, United Nations funding and reform, environmental technology, and childrens' health. As the principal purveyors, along with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, of free trade policies and the neoliberal economic model, the time of the G-7 delegates would be better spent examining the grassroots consequences of those policies.

The growth and increasing power of global corporations, unregulated flow of capital across borders and the difficulty of fostering development under the "trickle down" economic model have contributed to increasing poverty and economic polarization throughout Africa, Latin America and much of Asia. The G-7's economic policies are not working unless you happen to be a shareholder in a multinational corporation that is profiting from falling wages in poor countries.

Clinton and his G-7 friends should take a careful look at what they have sown, not from the vantage of the seven most powerful economic units on the planet, but from the point of view of workers, farmers and small business people and manufacturers in countries from Mexico to South Africa to the Philippines.

If they fail to do so, numerous citizens' organizations, including the 50 Years is Enough Network, will be in Denver to put these issues into the limelight.

(The Interhemispheric Resource Center is a nonprofit research and analysis policy institute with offices located in Albuquerque and Silver City. The IRC is a member of the 50 Years is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice, a coalition working to bring profound transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund)

ALTITUDE sickness felling the global leaders at the Summit of the 8 in the "mile high city" of Denver this week is said to be a "nightmare" for its organisers. They advise low alcohol consumption as a precaution.

The Japanese arrived early to adjust to Colorado's lower oxygen content, Summit spokeswoman said. Summit of the 8 is the new title for what used to be called the G-7 summit of the world's richest economic powers. This year Russia is being incorporated fully into the club although its faltering economy does not really warrant it.

President Boris Yeltsin will attend all the meetings except one with his colleagues from the US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada. The EU will be represented by the Dutch presidency and the EU Commission,

The US, as host nation, is gloating at presummit briefings how its economic situation has been reversed compared to previous G-7 meetings when the US used be lectured on the size of its deficit. "Today the stellar performance of the US economy will be the principal focus of economic attention," boasted Dan Tarullo, assistant to President Clinton for international economics.

The US is also hailing the modest achievements of the Russian economy under Mr Yeltsin, credit for which is also being attributed to Mr Clinton by the White House handlers.

As Mr Tarullo puts it: "With those two accomplishments in hand, we're prepared to move on to the next three tasks of strengthening our economies for the global economy of the 21st century, consolidating the new global agenda responses to international crime, international terrorism, infectious diseases and other such global problems, and integrating more nations into the community of free market democracies."

This ambitious agenda will keep the eight leaders busy as they also wine and dine in picturesque venues in the former "cow town". They will be helped by foreign ministers, finance ministers and armies of officials. A rumour that the world leaders would ride around on horses like their EU counterparts in Amsterdam did on bicycles could not be confirmed.

About 4,000, journalists will be doing their bit to tell the world what the summiteers are up to. Denver is determined to make everybody's sojourn unforgettable and the media are being promised duffel bags with such goodies as bottled water and tea bags.

But to more serious business. Africa is going to be a main item following President Clinton's launch this week of a US initiative for that continent. Key elements, are increased access to US markets through tariff reductions, debt relief for poorest nations and increased private investment up to $650 million.

China will also figure in the discussions. The Hong Kong hand over is only weeks away and the summit wants to send a strong message that the terms of the Basic Agreement must be respected. The human rights situation inside China, most favoured nation status and future: membership of the World Trade Organisation will also be discussed.

As if all that's not enough, there will be two other summits going on in Denver. One is called, "The Other Economic Summit" or the "People's Summit" and will bring together about 50 grassroots organisations to "highlight problems with economic policies that solely benefit profits over people".

The other is a Women's Summit which will focus on women's rights in the US and abroad. It will feature a "hunger banquet" to show up the feasting going on in the fancy venues such as the Fort Restaurant, noted for its buffalo, elk and beef dishes.

DENVER - (abstract)

If anything, Denverites had a better chance of seeing the various summit hangers-on - demonstrators, reporters and the like - than actual participants.

A " Peoples' Summit '97" offered a left-leaning counterpoint to the official goings-on with more than 100 events scattered about town, including a Justice for Janitors rally. Adherents of Lyndon LaRouche hoisted placards denouncing the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, at which the International Monetary Fund was established.

Although speakers moved on and off the steps of the State Capitol as if on a conveyor belt, audiences were thin and reporters were rare.

At the so-called Peoples' Summit, Leslie Moody, a labor organizer, gave a workshop called "How to Organize a Demonstration." Speaking to an audience of six, Ms. Moody instructed her listeners on the prime goal of any protest: "It's all to get press."

Students of Demonstration 101 could have gleaned tips from an Iranian exile group that bused in hundreds of supporters from around North America.

"No trade, no ties, no arms to the mullahs!" chanted the Iranians, supporters of a Paris-based opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

The demonstration included Representative Gary Ackerman, Democrat of New York, who attacked Iran's theocratic Government, saying, " You cannot he a state of God and do the devil's work."

Maryam Rajavi, the councils president, addressed the rally via satellite hookup from a guerrilla base on the Iran-Iraq border.

Seeing their leader speaking from a huge television screen in downtown Denver, the exiles responded enthusiastically, beating drums, clanging cymbals and chanting in Persian and English, "Maryam, our shining sun, we will take her to Teheran!"

The Freebie Test

Pacing the windowless, subterranean White House filing center, some veteran reporters grumbled about the low level of freebies.

The nylon ditty bag given to each accredited reporter came stuffed with a road map of Colorado, a CD on Denver, a pen on a gold string, a collapsible plastic water bottle and a box of tea bags.

While professing not to care about such things, a newspaper reporter recalled the luxurious gifts given at past summit meetings. In Venice the Italians handed out silk neckties and scarves. In Lyon the French presented specially bottled win. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Canadians gave out sail bags. In Tokyo the Japanese gave tape recorders.

Organizers proudly report that, thanks to corporate and individual donations, the three-day affair will cost the Federal Government only about $11 million, compared with the $40 million that France reportedly spent for last year's meeting.

While leaders from the Summit of Eight nations (the Group of Seven plus Russia) were meeting last week in Denver, a meeting of another sort was taking place down the street. Several hundred activists gathered for the People's Summit, a loosely organized forum for activists who share the conviction that G-7 policies are at the root of many everyday problems. Among the participants were Physicians for Social Responsibility, the African Women's Economic Political Network, Presbyterians for Restoring Creation, and Citizens for Peace in Space.

They gathered to discuss local problems and solutions. An Ithaca, N.Y., group talked about a system of trading goods and services, using locally printed money. A speaker from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people of Nigeria described how they are trying to halt oil exploration, which they say destroys Ogoni land. Speakers from Mexico discussed the negative consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement and land reform.

The People's Summiteers are under no illusion that their work will have much immediate effect. "We are not waiting for the S-8 powers to change," said ecological economist Winifred Armstrong. "We are creating alternatives, making connections and building from there."

GRAPHIC: Picture, Participants at the People's Summit in Denver (Chris Anderson--Aurora for USN&WR)

As I wrote in my last column, I spent June 20-22 in Denver at The Other Economic Summit (TOES). TOES is held every year alongside the Economic Summit of the G-7 (now G-8) to protest the idea that this small group of rich males is the appropriate body to plan the world's economy.

One of the most powerful speakers at this year's TOES was Dr. Vandana Shiva, a physicist who abandoned her career with India's nuclear power industry to become and environmental researcher, writer and activist. She spoke on the notion of "intellectual property rights."

Recently the rich countries have been pressuring the Third World to accept the principle of intellectual property rights. Actually it isn't the countries that are putting on the pressure, but a coalition of transnational corporations (TNCs). What they want is the right to patent anything they say they have invented. In the age of biotechnology, this means the right to patent life forms so they can sell them as commodities under their brand names. (One of Dr. Shiva's books shows on the cover a butterfly with a bar code on its wing.)

For example, the TNCs want to be able to patent seeds they have produced through biotechnology. Traditionally farmers have used the seeds produced in their own fields (e.g., rice seeds). This means a farmer who bought the patented seed could supply herself with it the following year. The TNCs hope that with their new patents they can sue such farmers for "patent infringement."

Dr. Shiva points out that biotechnology does not create new genes, but only relocates them. "It is as if I brought an extra chair into this room, and then said: 'Now I own the room,'" she said.

Aside from biotechnology, the TNCs also sometimes take the knowledge that indigenous people have had for centuries, simply translate it into the language of modern science, and then say they have "invented" it.

An example Dr. Shiva used is the neem tree, native to India. For 2000 years the people -- mostly the women -- have prepared medicines and pesticides from neem oil. More recently small businesses have used it to manufacture products for sale. These were not patented because the techniques were considered common knowledge. For years Western scientists considered these techniques to be "unscientific," that is, not "real knowledge."

But since 1985 more than a dozen U.S. patents have been taken out for neem-based products. By making slight variations in the manufacturing technique, the corporations can claim to have "invented" neem-based medicine. Armedwith their U.S. patents, they hope to force people in India to stop making neem-based medicine using their traditional methods, by suing them for "patent infringement." To obtain neem, they will have to by it from the foreign TNCs. Dr. Shiva calls this "biopiracy." (To learn more, read Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy, Boston: South End Press, 1997.)