[van-announce] g-8/20 protest in vancouver

[marla renn]

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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/*.