By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

MANILA — Various militant groups and activists led by the umbrella organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance or Bayan) trooped to the US embassy to protest the Group of 20 (G20) on Sept. 24-25 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the US.

The protesters slammed the G20 for questionable mandate and illegitimacy in addressing the plight of the world economy. The protesters said the G20 has no clear agenda in dealing with the worsening global crisis where the United Nations (UN) earlier projected additional 100 million job losses. At present, over 61 million people are jobless worldwide.

“On September 24-25, members of the G20 are holding a summit that, in the words of US President Barack Obama, “will chart the course for growth that is balanced and sustained”. The G20 is made up of the world’s 19 largest industrialized and emerging economies plus the European Union (EU),” the group Bayan said.

Bayan added that the G20 summit is only an instrument of the US and the world’s richest and most powerful countries to further legitimize their neoliberal policies and discredited multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This, the group said is under the guide of addressing global and economic crunch.

Bayan explained that neoliberal policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization which are being imposed on thirld world countries like the Philippines through the IMF worsened the backwardness and poverty of poor countries. These even made these poor countries vulnerable to the ongoing recession in the US and other rich countries.

Meanwhile, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said the G20 summit and the crisis prescriptions from the member countries through their proposed massive bail-out programs and debt-dumping pushed by the IMF and World Bank (WB) create new tax impositions to the people of poor countries like the Philippines. KMU added that the global elites are meeting in the summit to look for ways to free their selves from the crisis while making the poor people suffer from debt through unsolicited loans.

The world’s poor majority are then forced to shoulder more taxes, squeezing what is left from their pockets,” said KMU Chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog. Labog added that with these, economic recovery is a myth. He said the global elites of the G20 who have caused the global crisis because of their incontrollable competition are not leading the way out of the crisis but actually taking thirld world people to the drain.

“Massive retrenchments, contractualization, proposed hike in excise tax of gasoline and tax on text are actually meant to render workers and the people as shock-absorbers of the crisis, even as we already face massive joblessness and steep commodity prices,” said Labog.

Bayan added that thirld world countries like the Philippines must reject G20 “prescriptions” for additional sustained opening of the economy to liberalized trade and investment as well as increased payments to the IMF. Bayan said the Philippines together with other poor countries must not allow a handful of rich and powerful countries to determine and maneuver the global crisis agenda. # nordis.net