Jun 20 2012
G 20 Countries Discuss Austerity While Activists Propose Real Solutions at a People’s Summit
Leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies gathered in Los Cabos, Mexico this week for the G20 to discuss the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone after recent elections in Greece failed to ease concern about the Euro’s future. The pro-austerity New Democracy party’s victory in the Greek parliamentary elections on Monday had been expected to calm fears about the future of the European Union ensuring continued financial assistance from other EU nations. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel defended austerity as a necessary term for her nation’s financing of the Greek bail-out and received criticism from other leaders, including President Obama, who are urging Europe’s largest economy to do more.
Leaders from the BRIC nations; Brazil, Russia, India, and China are also making waves announcing tens of billions of dollars in contributions to the International Monetary Fund in exchange for an expanded presence on the organization’s governing board. The additional contributions are part of a $456 billion increase in the IMF’s crisis intervention fund.
Activists and protesters were absent from Los Cabos, which was reportedly open only to documented residents of the city. Nearby La Paz instead played host to those demonstrating against what they see as a exclusive meeting between international elites divorced from the realities of regular people. Protesters from a wide range of social justice groups lambasted the conference for its Eurocentric focus and a seeming ignorance of rising food prices and poverty rates within the borders of G20 member states themselves.
Activist Lacy MacAuley had this to say about the G2: “They make decisions behind closed doors that impact all of us, decisions that serve the corporate elite of the world, and leave the rest of us out. We need to build our own solutions to the crises of the world and move beyond big institutions like the G20.”
GUEST: Lacy MacAuley is an Occupy D.C. activist who has been at the People’s Summit in La Paz, Mexico all week
Visit www.coaliciong20.org for more information.
Comments Off on G 20 Countries Discuss Austerity While Activists Propose Real Solutions at a People’s Summit
