G20-What the heck?
A question from a Local MF
What is the G20 and why were 500 people arrested at it’s conference?
Dear MF,
The semi-annual G20 was held in Toronto on 26 and 27 June in Toronto. Toronto is in Canadia, also known as “U.S. North: the cooler, kinder America.” Many people heard of the conference and the arrests, but it isn’t very often you hear what the G20 actually does, or why people would want to get angry about it.
The G20 summit is an informal meeting of the financial heads of the 19 most wealthy countries in the world, plus the European Union, which represents a single currency.
In the 1970s German and French leaders decided there should be an informal meeting of financial leaders to discuss the wellbeing of the world; that was G6; Canada was quickly added making it the G7 and Russia joined in the late 90s to form the G8.
The G8 is France, Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Russia, Canada and Italy.
The G8 summits continue to be held; indeed, one was held in Canada the two days before the G20. But the G20 took most of the protests, partly because the protesters got more exposure at the G20 and because Brazil and other countries who are members of the G20 but not the G8 draw a lot of fire from indigenous and land rights groups.
The summits are intended to increase economic gain for the whole world. It is the firm belief of those present that capitalism and development automatically bring a better life. This is the very same philosophy that brought us the American Genocide, the Trail of Tears, the Triangle Trade, and so on. Nearly all hegemonies assume they bring enlightenment and advancement to the people they conquer; Rome did, Spain did, Britain did, and now the financial rulers of those extinct empires continue to believe that participation in capitalism is the only way to a happy life.
Sometimes they are right; not always.
The fact that the major financial heads of the 20 most developed countries and the EU are getting together to talk doesn’t please some people.
However, the people it doesn’t please have very little in common except that they are displeased. That is, groups from the far right, and the far left, and some groups that don’t appear on a two dimensional graph disagree on almost everything except that those in charge are screwing everyone else.
According to some reports, read one HERE a group of about 60 anarchists covered completely in black broke free from the crowd, bullied reporters, broke windows, set 4 police cars on fire and generally ran amok before dumping their black clothes and melting back in to the crowd.
The group attacked symbols of American Capitalism like Starbucks.
During this attack, according to one report, the cops weren’t in evidence, despite the burning of four cop cars.
After, however, the cops moved in on protestors, even those who were protesting in the designated “protest area”. Eventually, part of the crowd retook the streets from the cops and marched forward toward the actual summit (instead of the “protest area” which is pretty much out of sight of the summit).
The point of the 60 people in black seems to be anti-capitalism, but that isn’t the message of all the people protesting, some actually wanted greater participation in the market. Some wanted land, their own land back, or someone else’s.
What is the real point of the summit, the protests, and the arrests? It’s this: Them as has wants to keep; them as has not wants to have; them as has a little wants a little more.
Epilogue: There are rumors in the blogosphere that it was cops wearing all black and attacking empty cop cars to give the massive army of Toronto cops a reason to move in on the protestors. This, we guess, is why there were no cops present to keep the 60 political ninjas from running amok or at least nab one. There are always rumors in the blogosphere; sometimes they are right, sometimes they are BlogoSphere.
What is the G20 and why were 500 people arrested at it’s conference?
Dear MF,
The semi-annual G20 was held in Toronto on 26 and 27 June in Toronto. Toronto is in Canadia, also known as “U.S. North: the cooler, kinder America.” Many people heard of the conference and the arrests, but it isn’t very often you hear what the G20 actually does, or why people would want to get angry about it.
The G20 summit is an informal meeting of the financial heads of the 19 most wealthy countries in the world, plus the European Union, which represents a single currency.
In the 1970s German and French leaders decided there should be an informal meeting of financial leaders to discuss the wellbeing of the world; that was G6; Canada was quickly added making it the G7 and Russia joined in the late 90s to form the G8.
The G8 is France, Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Russia, Canada and Italy.
The G8 summits continue to be held; indeed, one was held in Canada the two days before the G20. But the G20 took most of the protests, partly because the protesters got more exposure at the G20 and because Brazil and other countries who are members of the G20 but not the G8 draw a lot of fire from indigenous and land rights groups.
The summits are intended to increase economic gain for the whole world. It is the firm belief of those present that capitalism and development automatically bring a better life. This is the very same philosophy that brought us the American Genocide, the Trail of Tears, the Triangle Trade, and so on. Nearly all hegemonies assume they bring enlightenment and advancement to the people they conquer; Rome did, Spain did, Britain did, and now the financial rulers of those extinct empires continue to believe that participation in capitalism is the only way to a happy life.
Sometimes they are right; not always.
The fact that the major financial heads of the 20 most developed countries and the EU are getting together to talk doesn’t please some people.
However, the people it doesn’t please have very little in common except that they are displeased. That is, groups from the far right, and the far left, and some groups that don’t appear on a two dimensional graph disagree on almost everything except that those in charge are screwing everyone else.
According to some reports, read one HERE a group of about 60 anarchists covered completely in black broke free from the crowd, bullied reporters, broke windows, set 4 police cars on fire and generally ran amok before dumping their black clothes and melting back in to the crowd.
The group attacked symbols of American Capitalism like Starbucks.
During this attack, according to one report, the cops weren’t in evidence, despite the burning of four cop cars.
After, however, the cops moved in on protestors, even those who were protesting in the designated “protest area”. Eventually, part of the crowd retook the streets from the cops and marched forward toward the actual summit (instead of the “protest area” which is pretty much out of sight of the summit).
The point of the 60 people in black seems to be anti-capitalism, but that isn’t the message of all the people protesting, some actually wanted greater participation in the market. Some wanted land, their own land back, or someone else’s.
What is the real point of the summit, the protests, and the arrests? It’s this: Them as has wants to keep; them as has not wants to have; them as has a little wants a little more.
Epilogue: There are rumors in the blogosphere that it was cops wearing all black and attacking empty cop cars to give the massive army of Toronto cops a reason to move in on the protestors. This, we guess, is why there were no cops present to keep the 60 political ninjas from running amok or at least nab one. There are always rumors in the blogosphere; sometimes they are right, sometimes they are BlogoSphere.
