WORD FOR WORD: Jean Ziegler

DER ALTERNATIVGIPFEL - DAY ONE

Notes on Jean Ziegler’s opening speech at the G8 Alternative Summit.

The Summit is taking place between the 5 – 7 of June in Rostock,, more information about the extensive and well-organised program is online at g8-alternative-summit.org.

"To act inhumanly towards another destroys the humanity in our own person"
- Immanuel Kant

Every 5 seconds a child younger than 7 years dies.
Every 5 minutes, someone looses his sight, because of lack of vitamin A.
There is enough food in the world to sufficiently feed 7 billion people. As the population of the world currently sits at 6,2 billion, in theory no one should be hungry.

This absurd world order kills without necessity; it is a daily and unacceptable massacre.

No matter our background, citizenship, religion, or beliefs, we are all joined by Kant‘s moral imperative.

2,7 billion people live bellow the extreme poverty threshold. As the citizens of the worlds most powerful countries, we must speak and fight for these people.

In a leaked document, the Heiligendamm G8 Summit Programme states Africa as a major priority - the main priority of which will be: Investment Security.

The G8 represent only 13% of the world population.
The G8 is an oligarchy of transcontinental financial capital.

The 500 most powerful trans-national corporations account for 52% of global gross domestic product. Their goal is solely the maximisation of products.

Yet solidarity and capital belong to the State, to the community of citizens.

Though he hates being a moralist, and has no interest in the rhetoric of good and bad; he is talking of
- a system of structural violence.
- the predator Capitalism, driven by greed and the will to be powerful

Multinational corporations are good at what they do:
The World Bank states that :
- global GDP has doubled during the past 20 years;
- during which world trade has tripled.
- energy consumption doubles every 4 years.

Globalisation works. The Invisible Hand has been formed; it is the World Market.
The World Market is more powerful than any of History's emperors kings dictators or popes.
Capital is alive 24 hours a day, from Tokyo to London to New York, and capital goes to where it gains the highest profit.

Neoliberalism works when normative forces are eliminated.

And when profit increases, casualties mount.

ON HUNGER

In 2005, 842 million children under 7 years old died of hunger.
In 2006, 854 million children under 7 years old died of hunger.
Of course there are other factors, but the point is these children are dying, more and more each year. By the end of this 2-hour long discussion, 175 children will be dead.

We don't just want to be outraged.
This is about common sense.

"Good sense beyond the dialectic progession of events"
- Hegel

Everything that is wrong has been created by human beings. Everything that is wrong can be radically resolved by human beings.

The economy of Neoliberalism has no objective laws. It is irrationalism: economics are not subject to human desires, issues...

For Example:
Last year, the industrial nations gave 341 billion dollars (nearly one billion a day) to its farmers. Anywhere in Africa, you can buy fruit and vegetable from Spain, Italy, the Netherlands for half the price of the local produce.
That is a fact.

Another fact: Flooding the world with heavily subsidised products from the EU can be stopped tomorrow morning!

Of the 54 countries in Africa, 37 are purely agricultural.

For the International Monetary Fund (IMF), every dollar is a voice, therefore the industrialised nations have clout. They have the power to vote for the dying children (etc) and against the creditor bank in Europe or North America.

ON NEOLIBERALISM

In Nigeria: the National Veterinarian Office has been privatized. The farmers now can not afford the standardised vaccines demanded by transnational corporations.

We have to defend ourselves against the outside. We have come to a crossroad.

We have to explain ourselves better to each other. We have the express ourselves better to the public.

„Revolutionaries have to hear the grass grow“
...das Gras wachsen hören
- Karl Marx

A colleague of Mr. Ziegler pointed out the need for a "consistent and coherent anti-globalisation programme."

In rebuttal, Mr. Ziegler points out how in History human beings always knew, but only knew, what they didn't want.
What we don‘t want is capitalism to spread like a locust plague on developing countries, devouring everything and then quickly retreating.
What we want is for all-powerful multinational corporations to subscribe to human rights.

What we want are the tenets of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the Constitutional Rights as a result of the American and French revolutions.

"Entre le fort et le faible, entre le riche et le pauvre, entre le maître et le serviteur, c’est la liberté qui opprime, c’est la loi qui affranchit."
- Henri de Lacordaire (cited as Rousseau)

If Rousseau had been interviewed on the day the Bastille was stormed, what would he say to the question: what is next, what is your consistent and coherent plan?
It is absurd! he didn't know.

Quote from a general defeated by Franco, on the future:

" --- the path before us is being trodden by our feet."

Human beings move forward - it is part of our identity.

"God does not have any other hands but ours"
- Great Catholic Writer

"Whatever you want to say, be it critical, unpleasant (...), you have to end with Hope"
- Willy Brandt

Hope is the only permanent power. It is a connecting power.
The moral imperative unites us all.
Hope is in the indomitable will of human beings to change the absurd and murderous regime.

"He awoke at dawn and went into the rising sun... limping"
- Walt Whitman

Everywhere people have awoken. Progress may be limping at times, because we don‘t own absolute Truth. We have to rediscover Truth in all her multifaceted glory and splendour.

Last point: Who will win? How will the fight end?
We are realists. Democracy could be eliminated from the world by neoliberalist greed and nepotism. Citizens of our countries could one day live in the same third world conditions as the citizens of today's Africa.

Who will win? the Jungle or Good Sense?

"They, our enemies, can cut off all the flowers, but they will never keep spring from coming."
- Pablo Neruda

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Please keep in mind that these are quick notes taken during the discussion, translated from German. Certain facts might therefore not be accurate, and the quotes certainly have been lost in the translation. I will post the original quotations and detailed references tomorrow.