The G-20 is a group of finance ministers, heads of central banks, and governmental leaders. They come together at least once a year to discuss Global Economic Issues. This September they will be meeting here in Pittsburgh to discuss so-called green economies and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF is the Market manager of the world. The G-20 has plans to "reform the IMF" .
The announcement that the G-20 would be meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, this coming September surprised everyone -- radicals, locally and across the country; media commentators; even the White House Press Corps. Immediately, a flurry of conversations popped up, over
The economic disaster of the recent days needs no introduction: mass unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, and non-existent credit markets plague the developed world, while in the global south, the rising cost of food and fuel have led to hunger riots and increased poverty and destitution. According to the United Nations, the number of people currently living on the brink of starvation is nearly 1 billion, the large majority of the hungry being women and children. At the same time, wars for imperialism, immigration restrictions, environmental destruction, tuition hikes, and prison populations are exploding.
And how have global leaders responded to the demands of the people, to deadly riots for rice in the developing world and university and factory occupations in the global north? By spending billions of dollars buying up bad loans and bailing out transnational banks, corporations. Thus far, nearly $8 trillion of the people’s money has been spent supporting the global elite. Without transparency and without a voice, the global working class has been robbed to support the faulty investments of a privileged few.
Now, Obama has called another meeting of the twenty richest countries in the world in Pittsburgh, a working-class city that is intensely affected by the economic meltdown to discuss how best to continue failed policies such as neoliberalism, privatization, deregulation, and billion dollar bailouts. As their number one priority, this elite "Group of Twenty" leaders and finance ministers will be increasing the power and scope of the International Monetary Fund by trillions of dollars, an unaccountable institution that has imposed loan conditions, abject poverty, and environmental devastation on billions of people in the developing world to benefit corporate profits. It is time the G20 learned that capitalism isn’t in crisis, but capitalism IS the crisis. It is time that the G20 disband forever in shame.
What Is Our Response?
We oppose closed-door decision-making by the capitalist elite and their repression of dissent. We stand in solidarity with the global south, people of color, labor unions, workers without unions, women, queer folk, and other ultra-exploited groups that have been systematically shut out of the neoliberal New World Order so that the developed world can profit off their destitution. As students and youth, we demand free, accessible, and emancipating education as a human right, an end to the industrialization of our education. Most of all, we demand a voice and autonomy to make our own self-determined economic decisions on how best to provide for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world.
We are calling upon all peoples to join us the week of September 24-25th to take to the streets of Pittsburgh to disrupt the summit and the institutions of capital that profit from its domination, including the education industrial complex that trains us to except the status quo. We will plant seeds of a better world inside the rotted shell of capitalism with diverse tactics and respect for the creative forms of resistance chosen by our friends. While we support the actions of all organizations planning to resist the G20 summit, including labor unions, the G20 Resistance Project, Bail Out the People, Three Rivers Climate Convergence, and Thomas Merton Center, we are organizing ourselves towards a powerful week-long student and youth resistance.
If you are unable to come to Pittsburgh to join us, plan local actions, disrupt schools and financial institutions, and educate your local communities on exploitive G20 policies. Also, one of the most effective ways to resist imperialism is through culture; make music, make art, and make trouble! The failed policies of the technocratic elite cannot continue to go unchallenged. This is our world, and we have the right to build it around human need instead of profit margins and corporate greed.