General G8 Analysis
Canada’s Unique Perspective on the G-8 (May 15, 2002 / Rights Action) Excerpt: "If Canadians take seriously to heart democracy, fairness and equality, then they have a right to demand honesty from their government. While Canada hosts this G8 summit, to the exclusion of those “less developed” countries whose interests Primer Minister Chretien claims to have in mind, Canadians need to take stock of Canada’s very real participation, along with all G8 countries, in the devastating results of on-going elitest domination of the global political, military and economic order. To the extent that these simple truths are unacknowledged and then challenged, the G8 should be seen as illegitimate and Canada should call for its disbandment." G8/G7 and Global Governance (2001) - by Tom Barry and Martha Honey (from Foreign Policy in Focus). Very cogent criticism of the G8, written just prior to the 2001 Genoa summit, which also includes an excellent historical overview of the G6/7/8. G8/G7 and Global Governance (2000) - by Tom Barry and Martha Honey (from Foreign Policy in Focus). An earlier version of the document above, written shortly after the 2000 Okinawa summit (the historical section is identical). The Documentation of the G7/G8 System - by Peter Hajnal. This makes dull reading, so here are a few salient points for those who would prefer not to slog through it:
From Traditional to Institutional Hegemony - by Alison Bailin (in .pdf format).
This 30-page academic rant argues for "the necessity of the [G7] to act as a group hegemon to stabilize the liberal economic order". The rights, aspirations, and needs of the people on this planet are conveniently ignored, while lip service is paid to the principle of democracy in the claim that "the existence of institutionalized hegemony" (i.e. in the form of the G7) depends on " restricting membership to capitalist democracies." We might wonder why an institution which is itself fundamentally undemocratic should need to restrict its membership to 'democracies'. Bailin offers the pat, realpolitik reply: because "democracies rarely engage one another in war" (forget about finding any romantic notions of 'respecting the voice of the people' in this treatise).
There are moments of candour here. Bailin writes that "Recognition [of the G7 as an institutionalized hegemon] is accomplished through well-publicized great power summits." In other words, summits are primarily PR designed to legitimize the G7 in the eyes of the public. And the author has no problem with global decision-making powers being concentrated in the hands of the secretive G7. She writes that "the more even the distribution of global power, the larger the k-group", but "a large k-group is doomed to fail."
But what is her measure of success or failure? As with most of the other G7/G8 'scholarship' that is emerging from the University of Toronto's G8 Information Centre, it is the ability to impose a "liberal economic order" on the planet. This is the overriding agenda here, as stated very explicitly.
G -7 Summit 1997 - by Andrew Parkin. This is another article from Foreign Policy in Focus written during the lead-up to the 1997 Denver Summit. The article includes a good historical sketch, a sampling of commitments undertaken and not followed through by the G7, and some robust criticism of fundamentals. Here's an excerpt:
A deeper problem is the questionable legitimacy of the G-7 as a global policy entity. The group is democratic in the sense that all of its members are democracies whose leaders have been elected to office. Yet while the G-7’s combined population represents only 12% of the world’s total, its explicit efforts to manage global economic and political affairs clearly affect the whole planet. The other nations of the world have neither mandated the G-7 to conduct this management on their behalf, nor have they any means of formally contributing to the G-7’s deliberations. G-7 leaders and officials meet behind closed doors, and there is no elected congress or council of nations to whom they must answer.
Let the People Rule the World - By George Monbiot. The focus here is the non-democratic nature of the G7/8, and some of the implications of implementing real democratic global governance.
The G8 Play God in Genoa - by Salih Booker (July 20, 2001). Written just as the Genoa summit got underway, this article offers a look at what the G8 represents from an African perspective. Some important statistics are provided, and it should be mentioned that the African demands listed here went largely unheeded.
Plot to undermine global pollution controls revealed - This article, from New Scientist (Jan. 2, 2002), is about the scheming of the "Brussels Group", a sort of proto-G7. This group, which predated the G6 (which coalesced out of the 'Library Group' in 1975), was comprised of Britain, the US, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Recently declassified documents show that the group "conspired to limit the effectiveness of the UN's first conference on the environment, held in Stockholm in 1972."
Global Trade, Global Justice Interview of Martin Khor, director of the Third World Network, by Erin George at the 2002 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in which Khor addresses the G8 (among other things). Excerpt: "We have an international system that is more democratic — it’s what we call the United Nations (UN). It used to have more power and authority. But the G8 made a strategic decision to reduce the power of the UN precisely because it is more democratic, and transferred these powers to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO). These are institutions controlled by the G8 countries."
Markets, Politics and Globalization: Can the Global Economy be Civilized? - by Gerald Karl Helleiner. 10th Raul Prebisch Lecture. Delivered at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, December 11, 2000. The focus is on globalization in general, although the G7/8 is specifically addressed in many instances. Helleiner attacks the neoliberal ideology as a fundamentally flawed basis for equitable global governance. He dismisses the G7/8 as fundamentally illegitimate, although he does see the possibility of the G20 being reformed into something potentially constructive (it would have to dissociate itself from the G7/8, among other things.
The constitution of global capitalism - by Peter Gill (2001). This is another very general analysis of the existing global governance ensemble and the essential characteristics of the (unwritten) 'neoliberal constitution' which are its foundation. Writes Gill: "New constitutionalism is economistic and involves a concept of the Rule of Law that is in practice narrowly based on the primacy of holders of large private property." This paper has few explicit references to the G7/8, but it is nevertheless of high relevance.
Developmental Ideas in the Group of Seven and the International Monetary Fund: A Change in Consensus? - by Sebastièn Dallaire. This is about the most critical perspective you can hope to get from the University of Toronto's G7/8 Research Centre (John Kirton's base of operations to promote G8 legitimacy under the guise of 'objective' scholarship). In this paper, Dallaire argues that the G7 and its satellites, the Bretton Woods institutions, have changed the tone of their discourse to accomodate criticisms coming from those with social and environmental concerns, but have not changed their underlying economic mission. "The G7 Summits may have put more emphasis on poverty alleviation and social problems, but a strong belief in the goodness of economic liberalisation is noticeable in every final communiqué over the last decade." But towards the conclusion, Dallaire writes: "the increased insistence on the importance of social issues within the discourse and policies of the G7 and the IMF is a sign that modification of their respective vision of international development is possible." Of course, as mentioned before, if Dallaire were actually to dare to challenge G7/8 legitimacy, his paper would never have appeared in the U of T archives....
G8 and Debt/Aid
Note: take a look at this Graphic Representation of Declining G7 Foreign Aid to get perspective on relative aid figures. Also check the News - Africa section for news items related to debt/aid (only a couple of items have been crossposted below).
G8: Failing the world's children - Oxfam International Briefing Paper, July, 2001. Excerpt from executive summary:
The debt burden of the poorest countries helps keep children out of school. School fees make education an unaffordable luxury for the world's poor. But the G8 has failed to tackle the education crisis. Debt relief is not deep enough, and aid levels are falling. The world's richest nations should launch a global initiative to abolish school fees and get all the world's children into school.
Where's the money? G8 promises, G8 failures - Oxfam International Briefing Paper, July, 2001. Excerpt from executive summary:
The richest countries of the world promised to help developing countries halve poverty, reduce child mortality by two thirds, and ensure every child gets a free and good quality primary education. All by 2015. There remains a huge gap between promises and action. Inadequate commitments to meet a global crisis in health; inaction in education, and a debt relief programme that leaves most countries still paying more on debt than on the health of their citizens.
Oxfam International Public Position on the Genoa G8 Summit - summary of what came out of the G8's previous summit in Genoa (only discusses issues which are of relevance to Oxfam)
Submission to the International People’s Tribunal on the Debt - by the Social Justice Committee; presented at Porto Alegre, Brazil 2-3 Feb. 2002. This paper criticizes the G8's Cologne enhanced HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Country) debt relief programme, also known as "HIPC II". Trocaire Campaign to end debt - a short summary of how the debt cancellation issue stands The "Enhanced HIPC Initiative" - a handy summary of the stages in the HIPC II debt relief programme. The document is located on the site of the Italian Embassy in Lusaka, so don't expect much in the way of critique. Where Are We Now with Debt Cancellation?(February 2002 / Jubilee USA) update and fact sheet on debt relief HIPC - Flogging a dead process (July 2001 / Jubilee 2000) - a very comprehensive analysis and rejection of the enhanced HIPC (HIPC II) initiative Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) - the CCIC works primarily to lobby for increased Canadian Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), otherwise known as foreign aid. A lot of useful information is available through this site, but bear in mind that the main funding for this NGO comes from Canadian International Develpment Agency (CIDA), which would explain the emphasis on ODA over debt cancellation. Canadian ODA Commitments - a CCIC-produced analysis of Canada's foreign aid commitments as contained in the December 2001 budget. Now More than Ever, Aid is a Catalyst for Change (March 11, 2002 / World Bank) - This study shows that contrary to periodic howling from right wing critics who claim that aid money is wasted, the use of development assistance has in fact been greatly beneficial and increasingly effective over the last 50 years. It also suggests that an additional $40 to $60 billion a year in aid will be needed to reach the Millenium Developmnet Goals — a doubling of current aid flows. Jubilee South Rejects Köln Debt Initiative as a Cruel Hoax (June 22, 1999 / Jubilee South) Jubilee 2000 Movement - Research- more debt-related resources from Jubilee 2000.
Civil Society and Global Trade in Southern and Eastern Africa - (Jan. 2001) by Karen Gregow for Forum Syd, the Swedish NGO Centre for Development Cooperation. There is no mention here of the G8, but this is such a clear and informative overview of Southern and Eastern Africa that it is really worth reading. The issues are put into sharp economic perspective.
G8 and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
Also check the News - Africa section for news items related to NEPAD (a few items have been crossposted in the news archives - generally they aren't, however).
Aziz Fall speaking on NEPAD, recolonising Africa, & the G8 (June 4, 2002 / CLAC Radio) Audio interview with Aziz Fall, who is involved with the Group for Research and Initiatives for African Liberation (GRILA). With Mideast uncertainty, US turns to Africa for oil (May 23, 2002 / Christian Science Monitor) "Today, the African Oil Policy Initiative Group, a lobby group with members from the oil industry and various arms of government, will present a white paper in Washington. The document urges Congress and the Bush administration to encourage greater extraction of oil across Africa, and to declare the Gulf of Guinea 'an area of vital interest' to the US." See: U.S. Officials Cite Importance of African Oil to U.S. Economy (Feb. 1, 2002 / US Dept. of State) for background on this. In fact, the thirst for African oil has long been a driving but well-concealed force behind NEPAD (recall the nomination of Enron director Frank Savage to Thabo Mbeki's board of foreign financial advisors just a few month prior to the unveiling of the MAP initiative which was the precursor to NEPAD...). Alternative Information & Development Centre A collection of NEPAD critiques... an essential site to visit for those doing NEPAD reasearch. Note the George Soros quote in the 'Independent Analysis' secition: "Nepad is worth the paper that it is written on. It is very much designed to meet the standards of the Washington Consensus. And therefore it's a very skewed document which I think could be improved on." (12 April 2002 - SA Broadcasting Corporation interview) NEPAD and FDIS: Symmetries and Contradictions - by Yash Tandon Inter-Church Coalition on Africa - NEPAD archive - Excellent collection of NEPAD-related articles NEPAD annotated critique from South Africa - Excerpts (April 24, 2002) Le G8 et l'Afrique - (Alternatives) an archive of NEPAD articles and links, mostly in French, but all of high quality Thabo Mbeki's New Partnership for Africa's Development Breaking or Shining the Chains of Global Apartheid? (March 2002) by Patrick Bond. This paper analyzes NEPAD from a South African perspective, focussing primarily on Mbeki's motivations, illusions, and treachery in framing the plan. Interview with Patrick Bond (real audio) (March 1, 2002 / Democracy NOW!) - A 40 minute radio show - the first 26 minutes of which are devoted to an interview with Patrick Bond, in which he discusses the implicit neoliberal underpinnings of NEPAD, and goes on to discuss the World Bank Bond boycott and the sad legacy of Cecil Rhodes. Patrick Bond is a researcher with the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Johannesburg. He is also an associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management. Should African social movements be part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)? - Notes from a speech given by Trevor Ngwane to the African Social Forum's African Seminar at the World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2 February 2002. An essential critique. April 15, 2002: Remarks by CCA President Stephen Hayes at New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) World Forum: Conference on the Financing of NEPAD in Dakar, Senegal (April 15, 2002 / Corporate Council on Africa) Includes some useful clues in tracking the evolution of the NEPAD (although if you inspect some of the documents below, it becomes clear that the US government and the CCA had more to do with framing the essentials of NEPAD than did Mbeki, Obasanjo, and Bouteflika as is implied here) What is Pretoria Planning for Africa? (Dec. 6, 2001 / Pambazuka) - a trenchant analysis of NEPAD by Patrick Bond SOUTH AFRICA: Mbeki's neoliberal blueprint for Africa (Nov. 21, 2001 / Green Left Weekly) - by Patrick Bond. Similar to the above Pambazuka editorial, with a few variations here and there. Global Governance, NEPAD, and the G- 1/8 (March, 2002) article based on a presentation given before the Canadian Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade The G8 and African Renewal : A Symposium at the University of Alberta - March 22 and 23, 2002. NEPAD was the focus of the symposium. African Scholars' Forum - A focus on the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) (Heinrich Boll Foundation) Many reports presented during this forum held in April 2002 are now posted up at the site (see menu at right hand side). A Partnership for Development and Peace (March 6, 2002 / World Bank) Here is James Wolfensohn promoting NEPAD with the slick, professional duplicity that we can generally count on from a President of the World Bank. The poverty alleviation rhetoric is laid on thick, and then, using a bit of sleight of hand, it is suggested that whatever positive results have accrued in the past have been largely due to private sector investment. This is in spite of the fact that the very same statistics used by Wolfensohn come from another World Bank report (Now More than Ever, Aid is a Catalyst for Change) which attributes the improvements primarily to foreign aid, and not to market liberalization. What does NEPAD stand for? (Feb. 11, 2002 / Voice of the Turtle) - by Raj Patel. An important critique of NEPAD which dismisses the initiative as a 'compradorist' sellout. The article concludes with this call for solidarity: "In Africa itself, activists, teachers, trades unionists and women's groups are mobilising against NEPAD. This mobilisation needs solidarity. It deserves international support, not because it can't be defeated without it - NEPAD cannot be allowed to happen - but because everywhere are facing exactly the same problem, of elites asset stripping countries, undemocratic government, increasing inequality and declining social services." "Nepad Not Just About Money says G8 official - (Feb. 16, 2002 / South African Press Association) - Robert Fowler, Canada's G8 representative, downplays African expectations for aid and debt relief, emphasizing instead that NEPAD is about "putting in place the conditions that will allow investment."
Nothing but the truth: Dream of a new world order (Feb. 2, 2002 / City Press) - a curt rejection of NEPAD by Mohau Pheko. http://www.nepad.org - Official NEPAD site http://www.uneca.org/nepad/nepad.pdf - The Official NEPAD working document issued in October 2001 (in pdf format) "Human Rights, the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development - "First African Dialogue", convened by the Africa Team, Activities and Programmes Branch of the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 5 to 7 November 2001. The report includes some revealing interventions; note, for example, sections 13 to 16 in part 2 of the document. A Brief Introduction to the NEPAD (Winter 2001-2002 / Alberta Council for Global Cooperation) - the article starts on page two of this pdf format newsletter, and it gives a general overview of NEPAD with little in the way of critique. Partnership Africa Canada - a coalition of Canadian and African NGOs. One of the stated objectives of this coalition is to mount a civil society conference focussing on Africa to coincide with Kananaskis in June 2002, although no news of any concrete plans have been forthcoming. The resources section of this site contains some interesting analysis of the New African Initiative (the precursor of NEPAD), particularly these Three Conference Papers given at the Civil Society Planning Conference in Ottawa in October 2001, and "An Analysis of the New African Initiative Policy Framework" submitted by Trades Centre on the same occasion. Here is the Conference Report which summarizes the activities and presentations at the October 2001 Ottawa Conference. 3rd African ICC Regional Meeting (Oct. 30-31, 2002, Yaounde, Cameroon) A glimpse of the business-driven underbelly of the NEPAD initiative. Note that Business for Africa is a coalition of business groups that was put initiated in Monterrey (March 2002), but is primarily led by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Should SA lead a split in Africa? (July 2001 / Institute for Global Dialogue) Written just prior to the unveiling of the NAI, this article offers some political analysis of the underlying forces behind MAP and the Omega Plan, and how these elements played out in negotiations leading to the NAI. Will these plans really lead Africa out of intensive care? (June, 2001 / Gender and Trade) - by Mohau Pheko. This is a short critique of MAP - an earlier incarnation of NEPAD - and OMEGA in which they are dismissed as external, corporate driven initiatives. The Role of Foreign Direct Investments in Africa's Human Development - by Yash Tandon (a report commissioned by UNCTAD). This study maintains that "the very assumption that FDIs are necessary for development of Africa (or for the developing countries generally) was itself at best an untested theory, and at worst a plain inversion of the truth; it was growth that attracted FDIs, and not FDIs that brought growth." The author concludes by urging "resistance against the imposition of conditionalities for receiving international capital that compromises national independence." The paper was published in 2000 and thus makes no mention of NEPAD, but the relevance of the thesis to the latter should be clear. U.S. Officials Cite Importance of African Oil to U.S. Economy (Feb. 1, 2002 / US Dept. of State) A VERY revealing article. As tensions in the Middle East mount and non-OPEC production falls, the U.S. plans to develop African sources, upping its reliance on African oil from the current 15% of total supply to 25%. Certain "prime energy locations" are mentioned, notably West Africa, Sudan, and Central Africa. A Defense Department official states that this means "U.S. trade, freedom of movement, government transparency, protection of U.S. interests are even more important in these [regional] areas, " and specifically mentions the need to "improve today's security for U.S. investments and operations" and "increase the level of accountable government and overall economic development that comes with adherence to rule of law, freedom of the marketplace...." The report continues with quotes from an economic specialist from the State Dept. who says: "By 2003, investment in the African oil industry will exceed $10 billion [thousand million] a year. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of our foreign direct investment in Africa will be in the energy sector." The CIA report mentioned in this article is available here: Global Trends 2015. Mbeki names top advisers to his International Investment Council (Feb. 4 2000 / Daily Mail & Guardian) Note that this is still four or five months prior to the appearance of the Millenium African Recovery Plan (MAP), and also that Frank Savage is one of the appointees. Promoting U.S.. Economic Relations With Africa (Feb. 1998 / Council on Foreign Relations) Executive summary of a report by a Council on Foreign Relations bipartisan task force mandated to investigate and make recommendations on the "Partnership for Growth and Opportunity in Africa", a general policy statement unveiled by President Clinton in 1997. Out of these recommendations came the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2000, and NEPAD was largely inspired by this line of thought. Certainly the presence of Frank Savage on the Task Force - he is now associated with both the Corporate Council on Africa (which is now the coordinating hub for U.S. business involvement in NEPAD), he chairs the Africa Millenium Fund, and he continues to sit on the board of directors at Enron - provides a direct link. President Clinton's first speech on the 'Partnership for Growth and Opportunity' strategy (June 17, 2002) (and here is a follow up letter from Dec. 17, 1997) Links to U.S. Congressional Subcommittee on Africa Hearings: Africa and the War on Global Terrorism
11/15/2001 African Crisis Response Initiative: A Security Building Block
07/12/2001 Bridging the Information Technology Divide in Africa
05/16/2001 Africa in the World Economy05/07/1998 The Africa Crisis Response Initiative10/08/1997 Africa's Emerging Capital Markets06/18/1997 - Featuring testimony from Frank Savage (note: this is just one day after the 'Partnership for Growth and Opportunity in Africa' speech given by Clinton - see link above). Markup of H.R. 1432 African Growth And Opportunity Act05/22/1997 Obstacles to U.S. - African Trade And Investment05/20/1997 Economic Development of Africa's Natural Resources03/19/1997 The Impact of U.S. Development Assistance in Africa03/13/1997 To Rendezvous in Kananaskis - Main Page
To Rendezvous in Kananaskis - G8 News
