will be staged in London, UK for world viewing on next Thursday, 2009 April 2.
The major characters will include the political leaders and finance ministers of the G20 nations, public protesters, great recession and the world’s unemployed/poor (in absentia).
Will the summit’s leaders only focus on issues that concern the world’s plutocrats or will the suzerains give attention to the needs of those adversely impacted by the current mini-depression and the past thirty years of inequality?
According to the BBC, unions wish to have the following addressed at the G20 Summit:
The Brussels-based body [International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)], which represents 170 million workers in 312 affiliated national organisations from 157 countries, wants to see:
• a co-ordinated international recovery and sustainable growth plan to create jobs and ensure public investment
• nationalisation of insolvent banks and new financial regulations
• action to combat the risk of wage deflation and reverse decades of increasing inequality
• increased action on climate change
• new international legal framework to regulate the global economy, and reform of the IMF, World Bank, OECD, WTO
A sampling of other issues, raised by non-governmental actors,is provided below:
ActionAid: "The G20 leaders meeting in London have a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a new, fairer system that puts people first. One place to start is by reforming tax havens.
Save the Children: "The G20 summit must do more than bail out the banking system; it needs to be as concerned with protecting the poorest from the harmful consequences of an economic and financial crisis that was not of their making.
Stop the War Coalition: "This is our first chance to demand a change from Bush's war policies.
"Our message will be 'Yes We Can'... end the siege of Gaza and free Palestine, get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, make jobs not bombs, abolish nukes and stop arming Israel."
Yesterday, in my post "Had enough yet" I raised the issue of a private meeting between the Obama Administration and financial industry executives (a Politico story by Josh Gerstein) – perhaps that meeting is also connected to the G20 Summit. Organizations such as labor, consumer interest groups, and other business were not included in the meeting.