Focus on Trade

NUMBER 87, May 2003

TOMORROW the G8 will meet in Evian where they will attempt to do the impossible: bury their differences while protecting their interests. Already, 25,000 police and military from France, Germany and Switzerland have massed outside Geneva and Annemasse in France, where many of the alternative events are being held. That's almost one per protestor although it is expected that 100,00 will join the mass demonstration on Sunday - the numbers would be even greater if not for the public sector strikes in France against pension reforms which saw 400,000 on the streets
last week and will continue through next week. The mountains surrounding Geneva and Evian are apparently bristling with anti-aircraft guns and the rumour is that the US brought eleven of its own high speed boats to ensure that President Bush is protected from protestors ready to plunge into the chilly waters of Lake Geneva.

Given the feeble state of the global economy, deepening splits in the elite consensus and the mass rejection of the G8 on the streets, the official public relations machine will have to work triple time to ensure that, regardless of the real outcome of the Summit, the public gets the message that the global economy is in safe hands, that the Doha trade round is on track and that the G8 has found a gentlemanly way to share the power. Don't believe a word
of it: Old Europe and the US are oceans apart in their perceptions of their place in history. President Chirac - as a true son of de Gaulle - believes in a multi-polar world where "La France" assumes her rightful place. Bush, on the other hand, couldn't give a toss and, in the new era of impunity heralded by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, has no interest in sharing power with anyone.What's more, globalisation is proving to be not all it was cracked up to be: deflation (or inflation, deepening on which expert you read) is around the corner, growth is nowhere in sight and domestic debt, productivity and unemployment figures are enough to make you put your money under the mattress. It is probably a mathematical truth that the size of the world's problems is inversely proportional to the legitimacy of the world's leaders and their capacity (and willingness) to deal with them.

Not that the hundreds of thousands of activists gathering in Annemasse or across the lake in Geneva expect them to, nor do they have any illusions about the possibility of exploiting the big power struggle to usher in a new era of multilateralism. Both sides of the Atlantic - regardless of their positions on war - are offering world-views that are out of synch with the mood and the demands of the no-globo and peace movements. A new politics is being built in Annemasse and Geneva, at the World Social Forums, and in countless other local and national democratic spaces and processes. And while we might enjoy the sight of the Great and the Good biting each other's backs and, from time to time take advantage of the contradictions that throws up, the future will not be announced in next week's G8 declaration.

In this issue of Focus on Trade, an assessment of the state of play in Geneva just sixty working days before Cancun, a report from the global assembly against the FTAA and WTO in Mexico (announcing the key dates for the Cancun mobilisation 9th and 13th September), an activist's guide to the history of the G8, and some reflections on why African governments come back to the G8 year after year even though they always leave empty handed.