The G8 (Group of 8) is made up of the heads of government of 8 of the world’s most powerful countries (well, really 7 of the most powerful ones - the US, Japan, the UK, France, Italy, Canada and Germany – plus Russia). Despite being un-elected and totally unaccountable it is one of the (if not THE) most powerful organisations in the world. The G8 claims to be a force for good but in reality they have a neo-liberal agenda and serve only the interests of big business. They dominate the new world order putting profit before people.

By virtue of its combined economic, military, diplomatic power and influence, the nations of the G8 have tremendous influence over multilateral institutions of global governance, such as the UN Security Council, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The G8 is perhaps best thought of as “the G7 plus one.” The G7 is a forum for the lead­ers of seven of the richest and most powerful countries in the world: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Since 1975, when they first met in Rambouillet, France, the G7 has met annually to discuss global economic and political issues. When Russia began its transition to a market economy in 1994, the G7 countries invited Russia as a partner to the summits, although Russia is not allowed to participate in all of the G7 discussions on economics and finance. The G7 plus Russia meetings became officially known as G8 Summits in 1997 at the Denver Summit of the Eight. The President of the European Commission also attends G8 Summits as an observer, and recently, heads of the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and the UN have also been attendance.

The G8 meets annually to discuss how best to push forward its vision of a better world, which in reality means ruthless perusal of the neo-liberal agenda, opening up new markets for Trans National Corporations (TNCs) and privatizing the world. To put it in their own words from their 1998 meeting in Birmingham “We reaffirm our strong commitment to continued trade and investment liberalisation within the multilateral framework of the WTO... We call on all countries to open their markets further and resist protectionism... We encourage multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to support developing countries’ efforts to create a favorable trade and investment climate”.

Often this renewal of vows to neo-liberal globalization is buried by commitments to such things as debt relief, or more recently new funds for basic education and the fight against infectious diseases. If debt relief is any indicator, the G8 either make a lot of promises they are not prepared to keep, or they use the promises as carrots tied to the usual sticks of liberalization and privatization. The 2005 chair of the G8, Tony Blair, made many noises about debt relief for Africa, but this is unlikely to come to fruition, especially as George Bush has stated that this does not tie in with the US budgetary agenda.

‘Technically’ the G7 and G8 fora are “talk shops” that have no implementational or operational capacity. However, nothing consequential happens in the formally constituted international organizations that do have operational capabilities – the World Bank, the IMF and even the WTO - without prior consent of the G7 and usually the active endorsement of the G7/G8 fora. It is through these international institutions that the decisions made at the G8 become operational.

For more on the background of the G8 click here (PDF).
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Where to begin? Basically, the G8 is the architect and engine of neo-liberal globalization, and the inequalities throughout the world that go hand in hand with that agenda. They push that agenda with a vengance and a 'by any means necessary' approach, like crazed capitalist fundementalists.

Surely our elected leaders are not like that? If only it were that simple! The G8 hold the keys to the world ecconomy and have the power to open doors to markets throughout the globe. Needless to say big business are not going to sit back and let mere politicians have control of what is done with those keys. Providing a stable framework for global economic growth is the main priority for the G8. With corporate control over the democratic process reaching unparalleled levels in all the G8 countries, what this 'stability' increasingly means in policy terms for the G8, is making life easier for transnational corporations.

This means that the G8 have an impact on virtually every aspect of our life, from who runs our schools, through the contol of polution, to ownership of the worlds natural resources and everything in between. A few of the major issues are listed below:

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Members of the G8 are currently embarking on a global war against terror. Which is ironic, because they are responsible for most of it! For many years they have been interfering in international politics, secretly funding coups in countries they do not like, while supporting friendly dictators.

Recent events demonstrate incredible hypocrisy. Both Bin Laden and Hussein were one-time friends of the West, Bin Laden was trained by the CIA to fight the Russians in Afghanistan and members of the G8 supplied Hussein with weapons during the Iran-Iraq war.

The chickens came home to roost on September 11th 2001, when Bin Laden co-ordinated the attacks in Washington and New York. Bin Laden, who secretly had been a liability since the collapse of the Soviet Union, now had to be publicly hunted down. This meant a high profile campaign in Afghanistan that was never really in danger of catching the Al Quaida main man and resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. On the positive side (for the US) it meant they could install a puppet government in Afghanistan, which would be more amenable to the US extraction of fossil fuels from the region. The fact that the puppet government of the ‘Northern Alliance’ had a human rights record worse than the ousted Taliban regime, which had provided refuge for Bin Laden, was irrelevant. One rarely mentioned side effect of the change of regime is that opium production in Afghanistan, which the Taliban had managed to suppress, has now spiralled out of control.

Then of course, there is Iraq. It is becoming increasingly difficult to work out what the official reason for going to war was. It was targeted as part of T.W.A.T. despite the fact that Iraq had no connection with September 11th and there was no love lost between Hussein and Bin laden. Bin Laden is actually from a very powerful Saudi family and all the hijackers involved in September 11th were Saudis. But America likes the Saudis (at the moment). Weapons of mass destruction were often cited as a reason for going to war, despite the fact that there were none (and they knew that to be the case). Breach of UN resolutions was used as an excuse; Iraq was in breach of 11 resolutions at time of going to war. Israel is in breach of 36 UN resolutions, but you will not hear threats of going to war there! Regime change to put an end to the human rights abuses committed by Hussein was often quoted. Granted there was appalling state oppression going on but there are many counties with worse records out there. Colombia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Israel, to name but four, have appalling human rights records, but of course they are our ‘friends’. Dare we suggest that the real reason for the war was oil?

Fellow G8 member Russia has even jumped on the bandwagon and is using T.W.A.T. as an excuse for its appalling activities in Chechneya.

But it is not just in far-flung corners of the world that T.W.A.T. is having an effect. Here in the UK we have draconian anti-terror legislation, terrorism is being used as an excuse to clamp down on assylum seekers (despite the fact that G8 policies and T.W.A.T. is the reason many of them have become assylum seekers) and we look set to have ID cards imposed on us before too long. The US has its ‘Patriot Act’ and is using T.W.A.T. as an excuse for the appalling detention and torture of people in Guantanamo Bay without charge let alone trial.

The simple fact is war causes poverty, destitution and oppression; poverty, destitution and oppression cause war. The War Against Terror, ironically is probably the best recruiting sergeant the terrorists of the world have ever had.

Of course, while all this is going on, our freedom to challenge the system and our civil liberties are being attacked, and the corporate sponsors of the G8 in the oil and arms industries must think it is Christmas and their birthday all rolled into one.

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Every single day, 30,000 children are dying as a result of extreme poverty; every 15 seconds, a child dies from lack of safe drinking water; Half the people living in sub-Saharan Africa are living on less than a dollar a day, which is half the level of subsidy given to European cows; the top 20% of the world consume 86% of the world GDP. The list of facts could go on and on, the simple fact is that inequality between the richest and the poorest in the world is now greater than ever.

This years G8 has tackling poverty and development in Africa high on its agenda, but what will it really do? UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has been talking of cancelling the debt of the poorest countries, some of which are currently paying out more in interest payments than they are on health and education. The US has already stated that they are not interested. A spokesperson for the ‘Globalisation Institute’ recently stated on ‘Newsnight’ that ‘the third world does not need more aid, it needs more trade’, which just about sums things up. The likelihood is that it is going to be business as usual, forcing countries to open up their markets to international trade and privatisation of public services.

Even though the interest rates on loans to the developing world are low, countries often find that they cannot afford to make the interest payments on loans and find themselves growing deeper and deeper into debt. The IMF and the World Bank are now in a position where they are taking more money out if the Third World through interest payments than they are putting back. Between 1990 and 1997 the imbalance was such that the money coming back to the developed countries was $77 billion more than the money going to the developing countries. Most of this was down to interest payments.

To get help from the world’s financial institutions (all of which are controlled by the G8), countries have to agree to import 5% of the food they consume, even if they are self-sufficient. On top of this the west subsidises the growth of crops in its own countries then dumps the crops in the third world at prices the indigenous farmers could never match. This puts the farmers out of business, creating even more poverty. The European dairy giant Arla exports £43 million worth of dairy produce to the Dominican Republic every year, for which it receives £11 million in EU export subsidies. That means their product is 25% cheaper than local produce. Dare we suggest there is a connection with the fact that over the last 20 years 10,000 Dominican dairy farmers have lost their job? In the 1990’s Haiti was forced into ‘liberalizing’ its rice market by the IMF, as a result it was flooded with cheap US imports. A decade ago Haiti was self sufficient, it now spends half its export earnings on imported US rice.

Poor countries are encouraged to move away from producing a diverse range of foods and concentrate on a small number of crops to export, this has an obvious impact on the self sufficiency of a country when crops are produced for export rather than to feed the population. This can also lead to the world markets being flooded with one particular crop and a resultant collapse in the market rate for that crop with devastating results.

At the same time, there are now Some Trans national Corporations (TNCs) that over the last few decades have, through mergers, grown into companies that have more power than many countries. In fact of the top 100 economies in the world, 51 are corporations. They are responsible for 70% of world trade and 80% of foreign investment. The Ford motor company has a greater annual turn over than South Africa. With this much power TNCs can have a major influence on the way the world is run. TNCs have used their influence persuade the G8 and WTO to break down trade barriers to open up new markets to them, at the expense of the poor of the world. While the G8 continues to operate, little is likely to change.

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