Stop G8! Solidarity March in the South and the North

The Japanese government will host some Ministerial meetings before the G8 summit in Toyako in July. As a part of the meetings, the G8 Development Ministerial Meeting is planned in Tokyo on 5-6 April. Those kinds of Meetings had been held around the same time as the IMF and the World Bank's annual meetings before 2002. This shows that the Meeting has been strongly influenced by major powers and big businesses.

G8 countries and transnational companies promoted 'development' in poor countries, but it causes various problems everywhere such as abuse of human rights, illegitimate debts, and global warming. Nonetheless, the Japanese government the host country does not think seriously about the past failures.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda set three agendas on 'development' - healthcare, water, and education - for key critical issues in World Economic Forum in Davos this January, but he never referred to the IMF and the WB's Structural Adjustment Policies which force developing countries to cut their public services including healthcare, water, and education.
Also, he ignored debt problems which have led to further poverty in developing countries.

Fukuda officially announced that the government would help African countries to set up infrastructure of roads, power networks or the like to facilitate private investment. The announcement clearly shows that the Japanese government and G8 countries aim to end the poverty THROUGH ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH INCREASED PRIVATE INVESTMENT..

This traditional way of development is based on neo-liberalism. It results in violating human rights for many people such as workers, farmers, or women, massively destroying environment, producing huge profits for multinational companies, and finally triggering large protests against major powers and big corporations all over the world.

African development and climate change are presented as key agenda of the G8 Summit by the Japanese government, which is the same with Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) IV planned in Yokohama around the end of May. Issues on African development will be discussed as a top agenda at TICAD IV. The councils have already been set up as a forum for discussion between the government and multinational corporations like trading or construction companies

We organize a March against the Development Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo on 5 April to express our voices, 'Enough is Enough!', which will also serve as a good opportunity to think about issues of the dominance of the North over the South again. This is part of our activities against the G8 summit in Toyako in July. We ask all of you to support our action for 'another world' without poverty, violence, exploitation, and environmental devastation.

To endorse this call to support, please email kuroudog@hotmail.co.jp BY 4
APRIL MIDNIGHT JAPAN TIME

Signed
Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, Australia
Centre for Human Rights and Development - Mongolia
Community Development Library (CDL) - Bangladesh
Economic Justice and Development Organization (EJAD) - Pakistan
Europe solidaire sans frontieres (ESSF) - France
Globalization Monitor(Hong kong)
International Gender and Trade Network-Asia (IGTN-Asia)
Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development
New Delhi, INDIA
JUBILEE SOUTH
JUBILEE SOUTH/AMERICAS
Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD) (Movement for National Democracy-Phils.)
Makabayan-Phils. (Workers for People's Liberation-Phils.)
Kaisaka-Phils. (Unity of Women for Freed om-Phils.)
League of Urban Poor for Action-Phils. (LUPA)
Action and Solidarity for the Empowerment of Teachers-Phils. (ASSERT)
Youth for Nationalism and Democracy-Phils.
PKMM (Patriotic Peasant Alliance of the Phils.)
Pangisda (Progressive Fisherfolk Alliance in the Phils.)
Teatrong Bayan (People's Theater-Phils.)

Organizations in Japan
アジア女性資料センター
アジア連帯講座
釜ヶ崎パトロールの会
脱WTO/FTA草の根キャンペーン
「持たざる者」の国際連帯行動実行委員会
横浜でG8とTICADを考える会
ATTAC-Japan
No! G8 action