The G20 summit opened in London amidst widespread protests in the streets. British Prime Minister opened the talks declaring there was a “high degree of consensus” on a recovery plan for the ailing global economy. World leaders are expected to impose new financial rules and come up with more funds for the IMF.
Meanwhile, police in London are bracing for more protests a day after thousands of demonstrators jammed the streets of London’s financial district. Most of the demonstrators were peaceful, but some skirmishes broke out as police tried to keep thousands in containment pens surrounding the Bank of England. A number of protesters smashed their way into the Royal Bank of Scotland and wrote “thieves” on the side of the walls of the bank. Demonstrators raised effigies of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, representing war, climate chaos, financial crimes and homelessness. A small number of protesters played a giant game of Monopoly, armed with huge crates of fake money.
Up to eighty-eight people were arrested Wednesday with police mounting one of Britain’s biggest security operations in years. Security is at the ExCeL Centre, where the G20 talks are being held. It’s extremely tight, with police turning away anyone within a half-mile radius who doesn’t have accreditation.
People had three big anxieties. One was the continuation of the war in Afghanistan, and secondly, the obvious crisis in relations between Israel and Palestine, because the new Israeli government says they are not in favor of a Palestinian state, and also anxiety about nuclear weapons, where some progressive moves have been made.
What’s going on now is that the leaders of the world are trying to recreate as best they can by subsidy, enormous subsidies, the system that has let us down. And we are facing a very, very serious crisis. And it’s not just an economic crisis; it is a political crisis, a democratic crisis.
Mass unemployment; foreclosures of people on their homes, which is a disgrace; money spent on war, there’s a threat to Iran now from the new Israeli government etc. People say we are not prepared to accept it. These are not protests. These are demands. And all progress is really made when people make demands upon the government. We will not accept war. We will not accept unemployment.
Gordon Brown talks about a global structure to deal with a global crisis. Well, fine, but who will control the global structure? Will it be democratic, or will it be run by the banks and the multinational corporations?
One of the great dangers of an economic crisis is it can lead to war. Remember how Hitler came to power. There were six million unemployed in Germany, and Hitler said it’s all due to the Jews and the communists and the trade unions. “Give me power,” said Hitler, “and I will give you jobs.” And he did. Half the unemployed, he put in the arms factories. The other half, he put in the German army. And we had another bloody war. And the two European wars from 1914 to 1945, in thirty-one years, cost 105 million lives, were lost in two wars, and that was not unpredicted with the grave economic crisis in the 1930s.
The United Nations was set up after the war, and the five permanent members have a veto. They were the victors in the last war. But if you look at a democratic world, if you look at drawing up a constitution for the world, like the American Constitution, you’ve got to base it on population. And, of course, China has 1.2 billion people, and they have the same vote at the United Nations as Luxembourg, with a population of a few hundred thousand. And then India has a population of 1.2 billion. So we’re talking about something that’s never really been contemplated before, that the world economy should be supervised by people.
Tony Benn talking.
Tony Benn, former British MP and current president of the Stop the War Coalition.
– from democracynow