Next meeting of the G8 in Evian, France: Security operations and mobilisations

While the after-effects of the war led by the United States and the United Kingdom against Iraq are still to be felt, social movements and organizations in Europe are preparing important demonstrations to protest against the G8 meeting that will take place in Evian, France, from 1st to 3rd June.

It is difficult to predict, but it is thought that between 200,000 and 300,000 people will participate in mobilisations aimed at denouncing the illegitimacy of the G8, which comprises the seven richest countries of the world (United States, Italy, France, United Kingdom,
Japan, Canada and Germany), plus Russia.

The venue selected for the G8 meeting, Evian, is a small town located on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, close to the Swiss cities of Geneva and Lausanne. The Heads of States and Governments of the G8 and their suite of ministers, advisors, etc., will stay in the luxury hotels of these and other cities, surrounded and protected by
impressive police, army and air forces.

On 8 April, the governments of France and Switzerland signed a co-operation agreement prior to the G8 Summit. Authorities of both countries are planning to enforce heavy security measures, which will extend to the whole area of the Lake of Geneva. On the Swiss side, 5,700 soldiers and 4,650 police will be mobilised, at a cost in excess of 30 million US dollars. French authorities have prohibited
demonstrations in Evian and are adopting exaggerated and unusual control measures to prevent any "alien" person from approaching the town on the days of the G8 Summit. These measures include an obligation - for the inhabitants of Evian - to go to the town hall for a permit that will allow them to move around the town for the duration of the Summit.

Since protests will be impossible in Evian, mobilisations will take place in Geneva, Lausanne or Annemase (France). The social organizations and movements of the transborder regions of Switzerland and France are planning to organise -on 1st June, opening day of the G8 Summit - a joint demonstration that will leave simultaneously from Geneva and Annemase to converge towards the borders of both countries.

Three alternative camps are being organised to house, feed and inform demonstrators who will arrive from Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and other European countries. Prior to this, workshops and meetings will be held on issues ranging from the crisis in Argentina to the situation in the Middle East, financial instability and the
arms industry, including the "information war".

The Evian Summit is taking place in a period marked by division in the ranks of the G8 with regard to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. As is well known, France, Germany and Russia were against the Bush war and have been refused any slice of the cake. George W. Bush's participation in this Summit G8 is heating up spirits among the European anti-war movement which considers the Evian Summit as an
opportunity to continue mobilisations. On this issue, it is worth indicating that a meeting was to be held between Bush and Pascal Couchepin, President of Switzerland, on 1st June at Geneva airport. But it had to be cancelled as a result of protests by the anti-G8 movement and even by Geneva authorities.

The G8 emerged in 1975, at the initiative of the Head of the French Government, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who invited the six most important capitalist industrialised countries of the world to an "informal world summit on the global economy". In fact, the G8 was founded to confront Third World countries, which at that time, were demanding a new international economic order and better prices for raw
materials, including oil. Initially, this group comprised West Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan. Later, at the request of the United States, Canada joined. Several years after the fall of the Soviet regime, the Russian Federation was called upon to join as well, although it is excluded from ministerial forums held on the eve of Summit.

The G8 is presented as an informal club with no power of binding decision, no regulations, no head office nor secretariat, which does not enter into competition with either the United Nations, or the World Trade Organization (WTO), nor with any international body. Nevertheless, since 1980, this club of the powerful fixes policies of neoliberal globalisation, in the interests of transnational companies and investors, encourages the extension of world trade, privatisation and cuts in public spending. In order to impose its policies, the G8 relies on international financial institutions, like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where it wields great power, and on
the World Trade Organisation, which, despite its overt facade as a democratic body, follows their
"recommendations" to the letter.

A Manifesto of the Geneva Social Forum - one of the demonstrations' convener - indicates: "In effect, the G8 tries to play the role of government of the world, although it has received no such mandate from countries of the world. Hence, it is an illegitimate body, which nevertheless imposes its preferences and directs the march of the planet. The G8 implements neoliberal policies that increase the concentration of wealth, violate labour law, generate instability in employment and living conditions for the vast majority of the population, and encourage cultural exclusion and destruction of the environment".

And the Manifesto adds: "While countries of the G8 refuse to really fight against financial fraud, money laundering and convenience flags, in the name of the fight against terrorism, the G8 legitimise wars, militarism and repression. The G8 claims to want to fight against poverty in the world, but the programme of debt reduction for poor
countries turned out to be totally insufficient and subjected to unacceptable conditions; IMF plans continue to lead countries such as Argentina to bankruptcy; trade liberalisation, approved by the WTO, is increasingly more unfavourable for countries of the South; and financial contributions for the fight against AIDS, malaria and other
pandemics are far from fulfilling their promises in the face of expressed needs. Finally, G8 member countries have taken no serious measures to protect the environment".

The G8 has met 28 times since 1975. There have been mobilisations against the G8 for some 15 years. In 1989 (Paris), in 1996 (Lyon), 1998 (Birmingham) and 1999 (Cologne), tens of thousands of demonstrators demanded cancellation of the debt of countries of the South.

In July 2001, over 250,000 people were mobilised in Genoa (Italy), despite heavy police repression that caused the death of the student Carlo Guilliani.

Protests against this club of the wealthy have gained new ground in the last years with the emergence of a social and citizen's movement world-wide, which has adopted the slogan "another world is possible". Actions against the G-8 in Evian, which have been defined as "festive and peaceful", promise to be a further contribution to this slogan.

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)