Open letter to the G8 Ministers
To coincide with this week's G8 Summit, STWR have published a full page open letter in the The Guardian (6th June) and The Independent (7th June) newspapers directly addressing the Ministers.
The text of the letter is presented below and a link to the original PDF version is available here.
Ministers, as you begin your meetings in Heiligendamm, may we ask you to pause and remember those you are called to represent. Now is the time to leave aside the fixation with economic dominance, military strength and corporate welfare, and instead prioritise the rights of the majority world, 50,000 of whom die needlessly every day having been denied the essentials of life.
As you determine the fate of Africa, let us not forget that after decades of pledges the continent is more impoverished than it was in 1980 when the Brandt Report was published.
May we point out that the current system of international aid is largely ineffective, insufficient, and incapable of ending poverty. As civil society repeatedly condemns your broken promises for more aid, may we remind you that the Millennium Development Goals, even if reached by 2015, will still leave 900 million people living on less than one dollar a day.
For how much longer will you believe in the ability of market forces to create wealth and prosperity for all? For how long must we point out that your priorities are based on competitive self-interest, that the endless pursuit of economic growth is leading us toward ecological disaster?
Ministers, must we remind you that enough food, water and medicine exists in surplus for every person on the planet, that honouring your commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a foremost duty which you have neglected to fulfil.
Will you ever concede that the WTO, World Bank and IMF, armed with biased neoliberal ideology, have failed to represent the majority and function principally to sustain your financial hegemony and the power of multinationals?
As you continue with your private summit, we would like to tell you that the rest of the world is faced with two distinct choices. Either we continue on the path of commercialisation, over-consumption, and geo-political instability – or else we work towards a sustainable future in which competition is replaced with cooperation and resources are more equally shared.
Sharing is not an ‘ism’ or an ideology but a natural law of economy, a simple process that, when implemented in world affairs, can transform the way resources are distributed and lead to peaceful international relations.
The campaign for global economic reform based upon the principle of sharing is gathering momentum. It calls for essential resources such as food, water, medicine, land and energy to be cooperatively owned by the public and shared internationally under the auspices of a reformed United Nations.
Ministers of the G8, our message is clear – Share The World’s Resources.
* To download a PDF version of the complete advertisement, please click here.