The following is the text of the flyer prepared by the G-20 Welcoming Committee at the Street Party against the G-20 last Monday, October 23.

WHY WE'RE RESISTING THE G-20?

This week, on October 24 and 25, the Group of 20 (G-20) will be meeting at the Sheraton Center Hotel in downtown Montreal. The G-20, which formed just last year, is made up of the bank governors and finance ministers of the G-7 countries (which includes the U$A, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan), as well as their counterparts from other so-called emerging markets and strategic nations (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the European Union, China, Korea, Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Africa and Australia). Crucially, the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are full members. Paul Martin, Canada’s Finance Minister, is the current G-20 Chairman.

The men who will be attending the G-20 (and they are all practically men) are some of the most prominent proponents of capitalist-style globalization in the world. They are the elites who determine the direction of economic and social policy for the world. The stated mandate of the G-20 itself is to “promote discussion and ... study and review police issues among industrialized countries with a view to promoting international financial stability”

"International financial stability" is a deliberately misleading buzzword used by bankers, politicians and bureaucrats. In practice, it means the imposition on the world of a very particular set of policies which is meant to benefit capitalists and corporations at the expense of human beings and the environment (all while using public relations efforts, marketing and the corporate media to hide the real effects of capitalist globalization). The G-20, along with the IMF, World Bank (not to mention the states that actually implement their policies) re-enforces the dominance of cash and cops over our lives. It represents an ideology that is best described as “neo-colonialism”. Below are just a few of the specific reasons why we’re resisting the G-20 today:

PAUL MARTIN: As Minister of Finance, Paul Martin is the chief politician responsible for the destructive policies of the Chretien government. His 1995 budget literally slashed billions of dollars from education, health care, welfare and other social programs as part of Canada’s own Structural Adjustment Program (see below). While a disaster for Canada, as Chair of the G-20, Martin is trying to portray himself as a hope to the people of the Third World, making very public comments about potential debt relief to poor countries. What Martin never mentions is that there is about $1 billion worth of debt owed to Canadian banks by countries in the South which he could write off at any time. He never does, because that would mean depriving profits to Canada’s already profitable big banks. That doesn’t stop him from pretending to care about the poor though, and taking advantage of photo-ops with celebrities and naive NGOs.

LAWRENCE SUMMERS: In a previous job, as the chief economist of the World Bank, Lawrence Summers actually wrote a memo to his fellow technocrats at the World Bank urging the migration of toxic waste to poor "under-polluted" countries in the South, particularly Africa. To quote from the leaked “toxic memo” as it has come to be known: "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable, and we should face up to that." Summers is now the Treasury Secretary of the United States (Paul Martin’s counterpart) and an important delegate at the G-20 this week. His leaked memo is a glimpse into the shortsighted and exploitive vision that motivates the G-20.

TREVOR MANUEL, YASHWANT SINHA, XIANG HUAICHENG, JOSE GURRIA (the ministers of finance for South Africa, India, China and Mexico): The G-20 is being packaged as a progressive undertaking since it includes the finance ministers and bank governors of certain Third World nations (which are tellingly called "emerging markets"). It’s important not to forget that these men represent the elite interests of their countries, and subscribe to the vision and ideology of their counterparts in the West. It is the finance ministers and bank governors in countries like Mexico, Brazil, India and Indonesia who implement the destructive "reforms" demanded by Western corporations as well as the IMF and World Bank. The G-20 is a means by which the implementation of these policies can be done more directly and effectively, while giving the impression of listening to the voices of the South.

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS (SAPs): These are policies imposed on countries by the IMF. SAPs, which are justified in the name of market efficiency, invariably mean cuts to social programs and subsidies, privatization of all sectors of the economy (including education and health care), and the elimination of any policies that are meant to provide some measure of protection to workers, indigenous people, the poor and the environment. Some countries that have undergone the IMF shock treatment recently include Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia. In some cases, the SAPs are undertaken voluntary. For example, Paul Martin’s budget of 1995 was basically Canada’s own SAP, urged and promoted by the IMF (which recently revealed documents prove). The disastrous effects of SAPs has led many people to more honestly call them "Sophisticated Arrangements for Poverty".

DEBT: The IMF and World Bank, which are the main forces behind the G-20, work in tandem. While the IMF imposes SAPs, the World Bank dubiously lends large amounts of money for various "development" projects. These loans are questionable for many reasons: they more often than not are put in the hands of corrupt politicians or military dictators; they are used to fund unsustainable and environmentally destructive mega-projects; and they are used to supportive a notion of "development" which expressly benefits the interests of large corporations to the detriment of local communities. Many Southern nations spend much more than one-half of their budgets paying back their interests on loans to Western banks. When they can’t pay, the World Bank moves over and lets the IMF impose their destructive Structural Adjustment Programs. And so the cycle continues, continuing misery for the majority of the world, while ensuring profit for a few big capitalists.

RESISTANCE AND REVOLT: The policies of the World Bank and IMF — and now the G-20 — have been met by widespread resistance and revolt throughout the world. Just recently, the World Bank’s demands for water privatization in Bolivia provoked a popular and sustained revolt called “The Water War”. IMF structural adjustment programs in Indonesia were met by riots. Another program in Argentina resulted in ongoing strikes numbering people in the hundreds of thousands. In Ecuador, the IMF-inspired "dollarization" of the economy was the flashpoint in a local indigenous-led uprising. The list is long ... Nigeria, Mozambique, South Africa, India, Thailand and on and on. In the West, the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington was met by large-scale protests last April. The IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Prague just a few weeks was also confronted by mass protests. Meanwhile, here in Canada and Quebec, Paul Martin’s cuts, which have been mimicked by provincial premiers like Mike Harris and Lucien Bouchard, have also been opposed. The 1995 cuts by Martin and Lloyd Axworthy were militantly protested in Montreal. Demonstrations have followed throughout the country, such as the Commando Bouffe direct action in Montreal in 1997, and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty’s (OCAP) siege on Queen’s Park in Toronto just last June. The spirit of resistance and revolt continues to build ...

SOLIDARITY AND ALTERNATIVES: In many ways, the protests against the G-20 in Montreal this week are in solidarity with the international resistance against the IMF and World Bank, and the larger agenda of capitalist globalization. The first step to providing real and radical alternatives is by making a clear break with those individuals and institutions who promote a worldview that is inherently exploitative and destructive. Their vision sees everything — human beings, air, land, water, culture — as simply commodities which have a price and property value, and exist to be exploited. By taking to the streets and “welcoming” the G-20 in a our own special way, we are taking the steps towards building our own alternative future based on radically different values: genuine democracy, mutual aid, solidarity and autogestion. The G-20 is also a building action as local activists get ready to confront the upcoming Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec City next April in opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and capitalist-style globalization. See you in the streets.

This flyer was produced by members of the G-20 Welcoming Committee of Montreal. Info: 514-848-7585 or stop...@tao.ca