[Stopwar-l] Vancouver G-8/20 protest and march

[StopWar]

please circulate widely! apologies for cross postings.
SLAM the GATE on the G8!

A Rally & March in Opposition to the G8/G20 Summits


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Saturday, June 26th, 2010 @ Noon
Grandview Park
(Commercial Drive, between William and Charles St.)
Bring noise makers, banners, water and friends!
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Come join us as we march in solidarity with the thousands protesting the
G8/G20 Summits in Toronto and around the world.  Let’s send a loud and
clear message to the G8/G20 elite that we wholly reject their
unaccountable meetings. We know their decisions will only lead to further
economic and social disparity, promote exploitation environmental
degradation and colonization.

>From June 25 to 27th, the so-called ‘leaders’ and bankers of the twenty
richest countries are gathering in Huntsville and Toronto for closed door
meetings. The outcome of this summit is predictable: more of the same. 
More trade deals that benefit only multinational corporations. More
threats to the existence of the worlds most vulnerable.  More
impoverishment. More addiction to the consumption of energy – dirty or
clean.  More economic policies that value profit and expansion over
community and health. These are the policies that brought us to the crisis
now facing the world economically, politically, environmentally and
socially.


We say NO! We say that a better world is possible, there is an
alternative!  Add your presence and voice to the thousands in Toronto and
millions around the world demanding a new vision of social and
environmental justice. Change the System, not the Climate!

Organized by the Vancouver Community Mobilization Network  Contact: 
van.mobilize at gmail.com
On the web: http://vcmn.resist.ca/
SEE OUR PROMOTION VIDEO here: http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/video/3636

Endorsed by: Friends of UBC Farm, UBC Social Justice Center, Vancouver
Climate Justice, Purple Thistle, Justicia for Migrant Workers, No One Is
Illegal - Vancouver, Ugnayan ng kabataang Pilipino sa Canada
(Filipino-Canadian youth alliance), SIKLAB (Overseas Filipino workers
organization), Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group, Council of
Canadians - Delta Richmond Chapter, Streams of Justice, VANACT, Solidarity
with Anti-Olympic Convergence Arrestees,
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What are the G8 and G20 Summits?

The G8 and G20 Summits are meetings of the heads of states, financial
ministers and bankers of the richest countries in the world. The IMF and
World Bank and other institutions are also present. A gathering of the
world's richest industrialized countries, the extensively secured meetings
are an attempt to further the ongoing exploitation of global communities
and resources through the same policies, multilateral agreements, and wars
that have resulted in the current financial crisis and ecological
destruction of our planet.

The G8 and G20 summits consistently push an agenda of neo-liberalism and
structural adjustment programs commonly including: putting economic growth
measured by GDP ahead of all else, decreased trade barriers, the removal
of labour and environmental protections, cut backs on social services, and
the privatization of both resources and public sector services. They are
meeting to make decisions that will result in more exploitation of people
and the environment while ensuring that the systems that increase
colonization, wars and displacement are maintained.


Why Oppose the G8 and G20 Summits?
As diverse communities from in and around the un-ceded Coast Salish
Territories known as Vancouver, we reject both the institution of the
G8/G20 and the ideology of neo-liberalism on which it is based. Neoliberal
policies lead to increased corporate control, and to increased levels of
inequality between the rich and the poor - both locally and
internationally. The so-called "world leaders" who led the world to the
brink of ecological collapse, and into one of the worst economic disasters
ever have no right to make economic policy for the rest of us.

Globally, economic inequality is greater today than it has ever been in
the history of the world. We oppose the agenda of free trade,
privatization and market deregulation that the G8/G20 stands for, seeing
it as a tool to reinforce the colonial pattern of domination of the global
south by the north and the vast discrepancies between the wealthiest and
poorest people in the world.

For more information, or if your organization would like to endorse this
rally, please email: van.mobilize at gmail.com, call 604.715.6990, or visit
http://vcmn.resist.ca/.