The 1995 People's Summit (P7) "From the Ground Up!"
NOT INVITED TO THE G-7? . . . THEN COME TO THE P7!
The People's Summit is a series of events from June 11 to
18, 1995 being organized in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to show
that there are alternatives to the G-7 Economic Summit. Events are
being organized by various communities, nonprofit organizations
and other concerned citizens. The events will be diverse,
positive, challenging, fun!... and
OPEN TO EVERYONE.
Confirmed Events
* P7 Marketplace Products & Services for People & the
Planet.
* The Other Economic Summit (TOES)
* Neighbourhood Noise Audio Event
* Burma Dinner Theatre
* Community Economics Leaders Summit
* Multinational Development Banks and the effects on the
Environment - NGO Workshop
* Maritime Money - Public Workshop
* International Action Network meeting - 50 Years is
Enough Campaign
* Community Economics Leaders Summit
* Globalization of the World Economy & Human Rights
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If you have access to the World Wide Web, you can get more
information from the P7 home page
<http://cfn.cs.dal.ca/Current/P7/>
Text-only browsers (for faster loading) include:
General Information About the People's Summit Upcoming
Events and Meetings How Can I/We Get Involved?
Organization of The People's Summit Organizations
supporting the P7
If you don't have Web access and you are still interested, keep
reading. The following is an abstract of the WWW P7 home page.
For more information on the P7 Summit, contact:
THE PEOPLE'S SUMMIT (P7)
c/o OXFAM
2099 GOTTINGEN STREET
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA B3K 3B2
CANADA
tel: 902-425-7677 fax: 902-425-7778
or
THE PEOPLE'S SUMMIT
c/o International Education Centre St. Mary's University Halifax,
Nova Scotia B3H 3H5 Canada tel: 902-420-5525 fax: 902-420-5288
email: Juan Tellez <JTELLEZ@shark.stmarys.ca>
for accommodations in Halifax, contact:
Greta Regan, e-mail: grd4013@ac.dal.ca
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The People's Summit:
A creative, flexible summit welcoming the participation of all
with 7 core events.
Speaker Series Public Workshops Music and Theatre Festival
Educational Displays Alternative Marketplace/Organic Food
Fair Academic Forum Media Centre
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Choices for Humanity
Do we want a G-7 Society?
Gaps between the rich and poor Greed Growth without
environmental limits Global control by a few Gender
inequality GNP as the only measure of success Guns
Exportation
or do we want a P7 Society?
Poverty elimination and employment Progress for all
Protection of the environment Power to the people
Promotion of equality and fairness Preservation of
cultural diversity Peace
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General Information (Table of Contents)
Objectives of the People's Summit Themes of the People's
Summit Choices for Humanity What are the 7 P's? How the
World Economy got into Such a Mess
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The People's Summit Objectives:
* To raise public and media awareness of the impact of the
G-7 Summit policies on people, communities and the
environment, and to present our analysis to the G-7
decision makers.
* To offer public education and media outreach on economic,
social and political alternatives to the G-7 agenda -
locally and globally.
* To demonstrate these alternatives in action and directly
support those who provide fair, equitable and
environmentally sustainable products and services.
* To be a catalyst for sharing and starting alternatives
here in the Atlantic region.
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The People's Summit: From the Ground Up!
How do we move beyond economic policies that exploit
resources and labour for profit?
The G7 agenda will focus on debt, the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), structural adjustments, etc.
where profit is the primary motivation. The attitude that we can,
and must, have infinite growth on a finite planet comes with a
huge price tag.
The People's Summit offers creative alternatives by
exploring the following themes:
Link Local and Global Concerns Sustainability People's
Power and our Collective Responsibility An Inclusive
Feminist Perspective Understanding the Past and Changing
the Rules
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Confirmed Events
More detailed information about each of these events will
be added as it becomes available.
* P7 Marketplace Products & Services for People & the
Planet.
* The Other Economic Summit (TOES)
* Neighbourhood Noise Audio Event
* Burma Dinner Theatre
* Community Economics Leaders Summit
* Multinational Development Banks and the effects on the
Environment - NGO Workshop
* Maritime Money - Public Workshop
* International Action Network meeting - 50 Years is Enough
Campaign
* Community Economics Leaders Summit
* Globalization of the World Economy & Human Rights
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THE OTHER ECONOMIC SUMMIT (TOES/USA)
PROGRAM PROSPECTUS FOR THE PEOPLE'S SUMMIT - JUNE 15-17.
Thursday, June 15, 1995 Morning and Afternoon I. Corporate
Economic Power and Community Sustainability: The Search for New
Patterns of Economic Democracy.
The objective of this session is to increase awareness of
the extent to which corporations have come to dominate our lives
and communities and to strategize together on ways of establishing
democratic control over corporate power while promoting community
sustainability initiatives. As examples of such initiatives, we
will discuss the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy;
Communities Concerned about Corporations; The Social Audit
Movement (in the UK and elsehwere); National Jobs for All
Coalition; General Agreement on the New Economy; Strategy for
America; and other endeavors of a related character. Organizer:
Ward Morehouse, ITDG/NA, Suite 3C, 777, UN Plaza, New York, NY
10017; tel 212-972-9877; Fax. 212-972-9878; email:
cipany@igc.apc.org.
Thursday, June 15, 1995 Afternoon II. Redefining Sovereignty:
Sustainable Economics in the Global Context.
This session will discuss how the globalization of the
world economy affects the function, scope and accountability of
local, regional, national and international political and economic
institutions. We will pay particular attention to the impact of
such organizations and agreements as The World Bank, the IMF, GATT
and NAFTA. The speakers will examine these issues in relation to
the current situation in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union (Professor Paul Huber, Department of Economics, Dalhousie
University); the perspective of indigenous peoples
(Gkisedtanamoogk, Wampanoag and John Mohawk, Seneca - invited
speakers); and the effect of the changes in the relations of the
United States with its trading partners on the U.S. domestic
economy (speaker to be announced). Organizer: Carly Rogers, 505
West 122nd St., New York, NY 10027, tel: 212-662-3410.
Friday, June 16, 1995 Morning III. Economic, Political, Social and
Ecological Implications of Information Technologies. Robert
Pollard, International Synergy Institute, 109 West 28th Street,
New York, NY 10001, tel: 212-564-3329, email:
rpollard@igc.apc.org
Friday, June 16, 1995 Afternoon IV. Producing and Using
Electricity.
A look at advantages and disadvantages of some different
methods of producing electricity, and appropriate and
inappropriate uses. Our point of view embraces the idea that
decisions should be make by the stakeholders. This is a point of
view that all governments, including the G-7, insofar as they are
responsive to their people and the portion of the earth that
sustains them, should wholeheartedly embrace.
We want to look at some megahydro projects; e.g., Glen
Canyon Dam, Niagara Falls, Hydro-Quebec, Churchill Falls, Ontario
Hydro, TVA, Narmada, Aswan. Also, we will look at sustainable,
locally controlled, alternative energy systems, e.g., the
Ouje-Bougoumou community in Quebec, Sun Run Farm in Ontario, and
SMUD and Real Goods in California. Organizers: Betty Quick and
Bob Wallace, 14 Ledge Road, Old Greenwich, CT 06870; tel:
203-637-1345; email: bwallace@igc.org.
Saturday, June 17, 1995 Morning V. Coalition for Cooperative and
community Economics summit
The purpose of the summit is to enable community economics
groups to share their most innovative ideas and to strategize for
a more effective coalition. Representatives from community
development financial institutions, local resource industries,
model cooperative community economic enterprises, etc., are being
invited. Other groups attending the People's 7 Summit are invited
to participate in developing the politics of such a coalition.
Organizers: Bill Ellis, TRANET, P.O. Box 567, Rangeley, Maine
04970; tel: 207-864-2252; tranet@igc.apc.org; Brian Hill,
Institute for Cultural Ecology, Petaluma, CA 94953;
bhill@igc.apc.org; fax: 707-766-8207; and Trent Schroyer, School
of Theoretical & Applied Science, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ
07430; tel & fax: 914-986-4418.
Satuday, June 17, 1995 Afternoon VI. What is Real Wealth?
Reformulating the Assumptions of Welfare Economics.
A narrow emphasis on GNP, on "growing the economy," on the
accumulation of material and monetary wealth, has proven
counterproductive. Despite tremendous economic growth at the
national level and high levels of material acquisition at the
individual level, the general level of satisfaction in the
industrial countries is not high. The continued use of GNP by
decision-makers as the proxy for well-being contributes to a
number of serious problems, among them increasing poverty and
inequality at both national and global levels, ethnic violence and
other forms of social unrest, resource depletion, loss of
biodiversity, environmental degradation, the disintegration of
families and communities, and the cyclical insecurity and
unpleasantness associated with economic recessions. Arriving at
better ways of defining, understanding and measuring wealth and
welfare is a necessary precursor to solving these problems. While
GNP measures only material wealth and services, most people have a
more sophisticated idea of what constitutes real wealth, e.g.,
personal safety, clean air and water, aesthetically pleasing
surroundings, secure and gratifying work, satisfying interpersonal
relationships, and a healthy social and community life, not to
mention the more abstract components of welfare: a stimulating
life of the intellect and the opportunity to enjoy and participate
in the arts and humanities. A "welfare theory" worthy of the name
should get beyond GNP and at least attempt to internalize these
"goods" and "bads." Gandhian and Buddhist economists have made a
good beginning. Organizers: Romesh Diwan, Economics, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY 12181-3590; tel: 518-272-8873; fax:
518-276-4871, email: diwanr@rpi.edu) and Susan Hunt, Economics,
The American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 10016; tel: 215-235-1370; fax: 215-573-2068;
email: hunt@ee.upenn.edu.
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Human Security and Development for All: Building a Better World
People's Summit Conference Wednesday June 14, 1995, from 8:30 to
16:00 at the Study Union Building, 3rd Floor, Saint Mary's
University
The objective of the Conference is to analyze Human
Security and development prospects for the next century,
especially aspects related to the G-7 Summit agenda. Participants
at the conference will collectively produce a communique
suggesting alternative paths to the G-7, for a more equitable and
environmentally sound approach.
The conference will evolve in five steps: a) a keynote
speaker will present a brief critical analysis of the "Human
Development Report, UNDP 1994" and introduce issues that will
direct the conference towards the communique; b) Concurrent
workshops are scheduled with a team of Resource People who will
highlight some aspects from the keynote speaker's speech and
present relevant issues regarding the topic for the workshop; c) A
first plenary will follow the workshops, to encourage discussion
of the main issues in each of the workshops. d) During the second
set of concurrent workshops, participants will write a short text
to summarize the main issues discussed in both the previous
workshops and the plenary. This will be a working paper toward the
basis of the communique. e) During the final plenary, participants
will discuss core arguments for the communique. Late in the
afternoon, the communique will be delivered at the press
conference arranged prior to the event.
Suggested topics for the IEC's P-7 Conference
1. Taking the Initiative: Building towards a global human
development fund.
Participants at this workshop will work towards the
creation of a global human development fund, a fund dedicated to
poverty reduction, productive employment, and social integration
for all. The advantages and difficulties of this initiative will
be discussed along with the Tobin Tax and other recent
initiatives. The final document will outline suggestions to the
G-7 as to why and how could this be done.
2. Shouldering the burden? Putting the debt back where it
belongs.
Participants at this workshop will discuss the impact of
external debt payments on people's access to jobs, health and
education. This workshop will focus on discussion centered around
a need for a new North-South dialogue on global economic issues to
secure that the people will not have to bear the burden of the
external debt. Discussion for a new North-South dialogue will
focus on health, education and therefore greater security.
3. Re-establishing our human-nature relations????
This workshop will discuss measures that could stop the
massive decline of bio- and ethno-diversity, particularly in
developing countries. discussion will focus on commitments needed
to restore the bio- and ethno-diversity, and how we can recommend
how the G-7 can contribute to this global concern so that people
in developing countries have greater security in relation to their
environment.
4. The Rise of Economies and the fall of Civilizations; examining
the impact of Structural Adjustment Programs on communities.
Participants in this workshop will examine the impact of
Structural Adjustment Programs and the decline of the social
safety net. Specific issues such as child labor, trade
liberalization, informal economies and social participation will
be examined. Discussion will stress the urgent need for an
economic framework that could improve and secure people's living
conditions.
5. Making Human Security Women's Security!
Participants at this workshop will discuss women's
conditions in developing countries particularly in reference to
their social security and development. Discussion will include
recommendations to the G-7 in order to ensure that women around
the world and especially in the South have the right to a more
secure life.
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P7 Marketplace Products & Services for People & the Planet.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES FOR PEOPLE & THE PLANET
As you know, the Group of Seven (G7) Summit is being held in
Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 15 - 17. At most G7 Summits in the
past, there has been an alternative, 'shadow' summit. Halifax will
be no different. For the past several months, dozens of community
groups in the Maritimes have been busy planning the P7 -- a
People's Summit.
At the P7, there will be speakers, workshops, theatre, displays,
food fairs, music, a media centre and much more. One of the
activities will be the P7 Marketplace organized by CUSO Atlantic,
providing a forum for businesses and community organizations
working towards sustainable economic alternatives.
--- 'P7' MARKETPLACE ---
The Marketplace is designed to meet one of the P7 objectives: "To
directly support those who provide fair, equitable and
environmentally-sustainable products and services." (When we say
'fair', we mean fair to people -- men AND women! -- fair to the
environment, and fair to communities.)
THE MARKETPLACE WILL LAST 3 DAYS, JUNE 15-17 FROM 9:00 am - 5:00
pm
A selection committee will screen products and services based on
the following criteria. Products/services should:
a) have social as well as commercial goals
b) promote justice and equity as the basis for economic
relationships
c) be committed to fair and safe employment practices
d) be community-based as much as possible
e) be produced in balance with the environment and
sustainably use natural resources
f) complement a self-reliant local economy (in the case of
international products)
One additional requirement will be that all venders accept
Maritime Hours, a local alternative currency. (Venders would,
however, be able to set their own policy, e.g., 10 % maximum in
Maritime Hours). This supports the principle of putting some
wealth back into the local community. For more information
Maritime Hours and the many businesses and services that are
available.
Maritime Hours
The Maritime Hour that is a local community-based
currency. Maritime Hours actually represent money that otherwise
would not exist, and that have value only if they are spent and
spent locally. Equivalent to ten Canadian dollars, the Maritime
Hour is a powerful means of exchange designed to empower our local
economy. Basically a barter trading note, the Maritime Hour has
far more reach than direct barter because it is used within a
large local network of people offering and requesting products and
services. The spendability of Hours, in real terms, increases as
the size of the barter network expands. As a greater number of
people and businesses trade in Hours, the more valuable they
become to the community overall.
Local currency provides a means of exchange based on a belief and
trust in ourselves and in our community. We can realize our
abundant wealth. Local Money Stays Local.
Local currency can shift people's buying habits toward local
spending. Each time an Hour changes hands it adds that much more
value to the local economy. It keeps our wealth recycling within
our community. In Ithaca, New York, there is an Hour-style
currency which has added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the
Ithaca economy in the two years since its inception.
THIS IS YOUR INVITATION TO BE INVOLVED.
You can do this is in two ways:
1. You could have a booth at the P7 Marketplace -- you would be
responsible for setting up and staffing your booth. All proceeds
you earn would be your own.
2. If you cannot attend, you can send a limited number of products
to CUSO Atlantic, and we will sell them for you in general
'shopping areas' at the Marketplace CUSO Atlantic would receive 5%
of total sales in addition to the marketplace fee.
Other things you should know:
There is a $25 marketplace fee for both vendor booths and those
asking CUSO to sell products for them. (We need to charge the fees
to pay for promotion, license charges, venue, and staff support.)
CUSO cannot pay for shipping of your products.
Businesses or community based organizations who offer a totally
sustainable product or service will be awarded "The Sustainability
Seal".
TO GET INVOLVED IN THE P7 MARKETPLACE, please fill out the form
and submit it to CUSO Atlantic by May 20th, although the sooner
you let us know, the better. Please note that space will be
limited.
Thanks for your time. We hope to see you at the People's Summit.
CUSO ATLANTIC (ATTN: Sean Kelly) 1657 Barrington Street, #508
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 1Y7
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The Other Economic Summit (TOES)
Six public workshops will be sponsored by The Other
Economic Summit (TOES). As more information becomes available
about each workshop, this section will be updated.
Corporate Economic Power & Community Sustainability
Redefining Real Wealth Cooperative and Community Economics
Redefining Sovereignty: Sustainable Economics in the
Global Context Hydro-Quebec: Views from the USA
Economic Implications of Information Technologies
More About T.O.E.S.
T.O.E.S. stands for The Other Economic Summit. It emerged
for the first time in London, meeting parallel to the G7 summit in
1984 - with a diverse group of alternative economists, greens,
community activists making the point that there were other ways of
going about things, and challenging the G7 leader's right to speak
for the world.
Since then TOES has become an umbrella term, travelling
around the world meeting - in some form or other, even if its just
as a press office - parallel to the G7 summit.
So there was a TOES in Tokyo in 1985 which was really
exported from the UK, and got themselves involved in the dispute
about whether there should be a new airport.
The only year missed so far was Italy in 1986. Since then,
TOES in the UK became the New Economics Foundation, and there have
been alliances of organisations pulling together a series of
events for each summit, at which TOES has had a presence.
Last year in Naples, the whole range of events rose up a
notch in importance because the communist mayor of Naples insisted
on having a parallel reception for the alternative summit as he
had done for the G7 leaders - a number of mural artists were also
arrested for their caricatures of Bill Clinton!
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BACKGROUND TO G-7 SUMMITS, THE BRETTON WOODS INSTITUTIONS (WORLD
BANK,
IMF, AND THE GATT), AND THE RESISTENCE TO THEM
The Bretton Woods Conference
In July 1944, as World War Two was drawing to a close, the
world's leading politicians mostly from Northern countries -
gathered to set forth notions of how to reorganize the world
economy. For the first time in human history almost universal
institutions - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World
Bank and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) - were
established to solve global economic problems. The common view at
the Conference was that the depression of the 1930s and the rise
of fascism could be traced to the collapse of international trade
and isolationist economic policies. The Conference rejected
proposals by the eminent British economist John Maynard Keynes
that would have established a world reserve currency administered
by a central bank and created a more stable and fair world economy
by automatically recycling trade surpluses to finance trade
deficits. Keynes' notion did not fit the interests of a US eager
to take on the role of the world's economic powerhouse. Instead
the Conference opted for a system based on the free movement of
capital and goods with the US dollar as the international
currency. The Fund and the Bank were limited to managing problems
related to deficits and to currency and capital shortages.
Rebuilding Europe
One of the first tasks assigned to these new institutions
was to provid e the capital to help put the war-ravaged European
economies back on their feet. Not only did they lack the resources
for such a massive undertaking but European finance ministries
balked at the harsh 'conditionalities' that accompanied support
from the IMF as too great an infringement of their sovereign right
to shape their domestic economies. So the much looser Marshall
Plan was set up to provide US finance to rebuild Europe largely
through grants rather than loans. Southern countries now emerging
into independence did not fare so well - from the very beginning
any loan was accompanied by pressure to keep their economies
completely 'open' to foreign goods and capital. In the late 1 950s
the World Bank was pressured into setting up the International
Development Association (IDA) this would provide 'soft loans' and
so head off attempts by the new countries of the Third World to
set up an independent funding agency under UN auspices.
New International Economic Order
By the early 1960s the South had started demanding a
better deal. Rallying in such organizations as the
Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77, they created the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) where they
argued for fairer terms of trade and more liberal terms for
financing development. The North responded with pious declarations
of its good intentions - but also with a hard-nosed insistence
that the proper forum for any economic changes continued to be the
Bretton Woods institutions where they held the balance of power.
By the late 1960s, however, the Bretton Woods dream of a
stable monetary system of fixed exchange rates with the US dollar
as the only international currency was collapsing under the strain
of US trade and budgetary deficits. A guarded optimism took hold
in the South fuelled by moderately high growth rates and a boom in
the price of Third World produced primary commodities,
particularly oil. This came to a head in 1974 with the declaration
of principles for a New International Economic Order. The response
to these sweeping demands for change was a few tinkering,
inconsequential reforms.
The Debt Crisis
The windfall surpluses accruing to the oil producing
countries of OPEC during the1970's - $310 billion for the period
of 1972-1977 alone - created a massive recycling problem. Much of
this money went into Northern commercial banks who turned around
and loaned it to non-oil producing Third World governments
desperate to pay escalating fuel bills and fund their development
goals. The debt of the non-oil producing Third World increased
five fold between 1973 and 1982, reaching a staggering $612
billion, and the high interest rates of the mid-1980s further
exacerbated the problem. Much of this loan money was squandered on
ill-considered projects or simply siphoned off by Third World
elites into personal accounts in the same Northern banks that had
made the original loans. Cash-strapped countries like Peru and
Mexico were unable even to pay the interest due on their debts.
Northern politicians and bankers began to get nervous that the
sheer volume of unpayable loans would undermine the world
financial system. They turned to the World Bank and the IMF, who
were to restructure Third World economies so they could meet their
debt obligations.
Rollback
The Bank and the Fund have made full use of the new
leverage over Third World economies that accrued them during the
debt crisis. The right wing economic views made popular - the
Reagan- and Thatcherites came the reigning economic orthodoxy at
the Bank and the IMF. They launched a policy to 'structurally
adjust' the Third World by deflating economies and demanding a
withdrawal of government not only from public enterprise but also
from compassionate support of the basic health and welfare of the
most vulnerable. Exports to earn foreign exchange were privileged
over almost all production of food and other foods for domestic
use. This structuring was highly successful from the point of view
of the private banks who got $178 billion out of the South between
1984 and 1990 alone. The Third World debt continued to grow,
reaching $1,300 billion by 1992. Much of this debt has shifted
particularly in the case of Africa - from private banks to the IMF
and the World Bank themselves.
The stark fact that the Fund and the Bank now operate with
reverse capital flows - in other words they take more money out of
the Third World than they put back in - is sobering for those who
believed these institutions were there to help. Peoples of the
Third World are resisting structural adjustment either through
street riots or less confrontational politics. Protest too is
coming from the four million people uprooted or to be uprooted by
World Bank mega-projects, particularly the building of large dams.
Rejection of all things Western is on the rise. Fundamentalism and
the politics of ethnic exclusion (from Somalia to India) are
turning political costs into military ones. And the Bretton Woods
institutions themselves are coming under direct pressure from
community activists and environmentalists calling for either their
reform or outright abolition. After 50 years the decisions reached
at Bretton Woods need some fundamental rethinking. Many of these
themes will be explored at the People's Summit from June 11 to 18,
1995 in Halifax.