No G20 – The crisis is capitalism

no g20

After the G8 sum­mit in the French town of De­au­vil­le back in May 2011, the go­vern­men­tal and fi­nan­ci­al lea­ders of the 20 most power­ful in­dus­tria­li­zed and emer­ging coun­tri­es now want to meet in Can­nes. To­ge­ther with re­pre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the In­ter­na­tio­nal Mo­ne­ta­ry Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) the lea­ders of the “Group of 20“ (G20) will sit at one table to co­or­di­na­te glo­bal “cri­sis re­s­pon­se“ in the form of wel­fa­re cuts, aus­te­ri­ty and im­pe­ria­list in­ter­ven­ti­ons.

 

The cri­sis is ca­pi­ta­lism


The cri­sis is far from over. Greece, Ire­land and Por­tu­gal seem to be as good as bankrupt and are de­pen­dent on being “re­s­cu­ed“ by the IMF, the ECB and the EU. But es­pe­ci­al­ly in Greece it is be­co­ming ap­pa­rent what this de­pen­dance means for the peop­le. The coun­try’s sell­out is in full swing. As part of the pri­va­tiza­t­i­on po­li­cy for­mer state sec­tors are being sold out to for­eign in­ves­tors, Ger­man ones being among them. Fought for so­ci­al stan­dards are being wi­th­drawn, re­ti­re­ment age is being in­crea­sed, wages are fal­ling. The re­di­stri­bu­ti­on of we­alth from bot­tom to top that can be wit­nes­sed in Greece in an ex­tre­me form is on the agen­da all over the world.

 

Es­pe­ci­al­ly in Ger­ma­ny the de­gra­da­ti­on of the wel­fa­re state con­ti­nues – be­ne­fits are being re­du­ced, the labor mar­ket is being “fle­xi­bi­li­zed“, which for many peop­le means not­hing more than un­em­ploy­ment and so­ci­al de­cli­ne. The basic needs of peop­le are being sa­cri­ficed to con­ti­nue en­for­cing the pro­fit in­te­rests of the fi­nan­ci­al and eco­no­mic sec­tor. This so­cia­liza­t­i­on of los­ses is being ac­com­pa­nied by a pri­va­tiza­t­i­on of pro­fits. That means less money for edu­ca­ti­on, so­ci­al se­cu­ri­ty and health care while bil­li­ons of pu­blic funds are being spent on so-​cal­led re­s­cue packa­ges. The FRG not only con­sis­tent­ly en­forces this po­li­cy in their own coun­try, for ex­amp­le through Agen­da 2010, but in this mat­ter takes a lea­ding role in Eu­ro­pe.

 

The G20 are ob­vious­ly not in­te­rested in im­pro­ving the li­ving con­di­ti­ons of the wage de­pen­dent peop­le. Much ra­ther the fi­nan­ci­al cri­sis ser­ves as le­gi­ti­ma­ti­on for so­ci­al de­gra­da­ti­on and the cut­ting of be­ne­fits with the goal of op­ti­mi­zing the ob­jec­tive con­di­ti­ons of ca­pi­ta­list ex­ploi­ta­ti­on. The needs of the peop­le play no role in ca­pi­ta­lism. And the things that mean unsta­ble em­ploy­ment or jobless­ness and with that so­ci­al ex­clu­si­on for us, mean fa­mi­ne, di­sea­se and death in the Tri­cont and in parts of the emer­ging na­ti­ons.

 

War on War


The agen­da of the G20 no lon­ger just con­tains eco­no­mic is­su­es. A com­mon “se­cu­ri­ty po­li­cy” is a topic of in­te­rest as well. Due to the tri­umph of neo­li­be­ral glo­ba­liza­t­i­on that has been pro­gres­sing since the ’80s and has been ac­ce­le­ra­ted by the eli­mi­na­ti­on of sys­te­ma­tic com­pe­ti­ti­on, cases of mi­li­ta­ry in­ter­ven­ti­on being used to en­fo­re geo­stra­te­gic and eco­no­mic in­te­rests are in­crea­sing. On the one hand, this shows that with the aid of in­sti­tu­ti­ons like the IMF and World Bank, glo­bal eco­no­mies are being re­struc­tu­red in ac­cor­dance to Wes­tern in­te­rests. And ex­amp­le of this can be seen in the way the FRG and Fran­ce are dic­ta­ting Greece’s bud­get re­or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on, or in the as­ser­ti­on of free trade zones in many parts of the Tri­cont.

 

On the other hand, di­rect mi­li­ta­ry in­ter­ve­ti­ons and the in­stal­la­ti­on of pup­pet re­gimes are gai­ning im­port­an­ce. In Iraq, Af­gha­nis­tan and Libya it is be­co­ming ap­pa­rent that these mis­si­ons are not about the pro­tec­tion of human rights and de­mocra­cy, but about se­cu­ring re­sour­ces and de­ve­lo­ping new mar­kets with the de­s­i­ra­ble side ef­fect of boos­ting the de­fen­se in­dus­try, with cor­re­spon­ding cons­quen­ces for the local po­pu­la­ti­on.

 

In­ter­na­tio­nal so­li­da­ri­ty has to be­co­me prac­tical


Ever since the G8 mee­tings have star­ted ha­ving trou­b­le le­gi­ti­mi­zing their exis­tence, part­ly due to the sum­mit pro­tests of the an­ti-​glo­ba­liza­t­i­on mo­ve­ment, they are be­gin­ning to be su­perse­ded by the G20. It is a po­pu­lar claim that the ques­ti­on of le­gi­ti­ma­cy is now no lon­ger an issue, since G20 al­le­gedly re­pres­ents 2/3 of the world po­pu­la­ti­on. In es­sence, howe­ver, it is the go­vern­ments of rich ca­pi­ta­list coun­tri­es who hold a place at the table and act in the in­te­rest of the ru­ling class, not in the in­te­rest of 2/3 of the world’s po­pu­la­ti­on.

 

The glo­bal im­ple­men­ta­ti­on of neo­li­be­ral ca­pi­ta­lism makes ac­tu­al in­ter­na­tio­nal so­li­da­ri­ty more im­portant than ever be­fo­re. The ru­ling class is doing ever­y­thing it can to smo­ther this so­li­da­ri­ty. By way of con­stant agi­ta­ti­on against the “lazy Greeks” who are to blame for “their cri­sis”, at­ten­ti­on is being di­ver­ted from the com­mon in­te­rests of wage ear­ners here as well as in Greece. For the re­co­gni­ti­on of these si­mi­la­ri­ties can be a wea­pon that is in­dis­pensa­ble for the de­fen­se of so­ci­al achie­ve­ments and the suc­cess­ful fight for a re­vo­lu­tio­na­ry per­spec­tive bey­ond hun­ger, ex­ploi­ta­ti­on and war. Our so­li­da­ri­ty must be toward the class strugg­les around the world that are figh­ting against im­pe­ria­list in­flu­ence.

 

Against G20 on the streets of Frei­burg


This year, un­li­ke i.e. du­ring the G8 sum­mit of 2007 in Hei­li­gen­damm, or the NATO sum­mit of 2009 in Stras­bourg and Kehl, no large, cen­tral sum­mit pro­tests are being held in Fran­ce. In­s­tead, we are hee­ding the call of the an­ti-​glo­ba­liza­t­i­on mo­ve­ment for de­cen­tra­li­zed cam­paigns – on the 5th No­vem­ber 2011, we will loud­ly pro­test pre­vai­ling con­di­ti­ons on the streets of Frei­burg . Take part in the de­mons­tra­ti­on and take ac­tion against for a world wi­thout ex­ploi­ta­ti­on and war.

 

Demonstration, 05-11-2011, Saturday, 2:00 pm

Freiburg, Platz der Alten Synagoge

 

www.no-g20.tk