G8 2006 St. Petersburg

In July 2006 G8 will hold its summit in St.Petersburg, Russia.

G7 was created in 1975, for informal discussions on economic and political questions between heads of most powerful capitalist states. Russia joined in 1998 - it was accepted thanks to its nuclear arsenal and vast natural resources (in 2004, Russia was only 16th largest economy of the world; e.g. China was not invited to the club). G8 has no juridical status whatsoever, so it exists outside any democratic framework. But it still has become an important spectacle and platform, where top leaders of the world may look for consensus among each other, before imposing their policies on their populations.

We have no illusions about parliamentarian democracy, we are against any governments. Current state of the world proves all too well, that with a submissive mainstream media spreading anti-terrorist hysteria, powers are yet able to submit their citizens to policy of war and destruction. Russia has been one of the forerunners of these developments, with an endless war in Northern Caucasus and suppression of independent media.

We are anticapitalists, and we do not have any illusions about national capital as an alternative to global one. Small diplomatic skirmishes between major powers in regards to North Caucasian and Iraq wars were quickly settled, and essentially all G8 states give at least passive support to policies of each other. Solidarity between elites passes any borders, so our solidarity must do this as well.

Whatever labels media put on us, we are not "antiglobalists". We are for a free flow of people, ideas and struggles - across any borders. When G8 leaders claim to fight for freedom, they are fighting for a freedom of capital accumulation - according to which nuclear waste must have freedom to cross borders into Russia, but people must not have this right. G8 leaders also claim to fight against poverty, but in reality it is their policies that cause poverty in the first place. Moscow has more billionaries than any other city of the world, while vast majority of Russian population has profited nothing from the politics, declared to be aimed at "economic growth", which in any case will last just as long as there are natural resources to be looted. In contrary, it is the very poorest who have been targeted with the neoliberal reforms, such as revoking free social benefits and rising prices of communal payments, which is connected to the plan of Russia joining the WTO.

We call for protests all around the world during G8 summit in St. Petersburg. We also call for a global convergence to St. Petersburg in time of the summit - attention of the whole world will be directed to spectacle of the G8, and we must show that they will be met with protest anywhere they will go! We are everywhere!

Network Against G8 (Russia / ex-USSR)