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G8 Germany 2007

One of the key dates in the fight against poverty and inequality is the annual G8 summit which takes place in Germany from June 6-8, 2007. Deine Stimme Gegen Armut - the GCAP Germany coalition - is calling on the G8 leaders to meet their promises made two years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland.

The German G8 is one of the key moments in the year to influence rich countries to deliver on their previous commitments and deliver new aid and actions to help end poverty. It is one of the four key dates in the official GCAP calendar.

This is a crucial moment to come together and put pressure on the world’s richest and most powerful leaders, to ensure that they put our issues at the heart of their discussions, keep their promises and go further in the fight against poverty.

The GCAP G8 Working Group, and the G8 Action Taskforce as well as the German GCAP coalition – Deine Stimme gegen Armut - have been working on a number of initiatives to influence the G8.

See the mobilisation toolkit and the GCAP @ G8 in Germany 07 Timetable

The 2007 German G8 has two sections – one on the world economy and investment, and one on Africa. The African section includes the following issues:

- HIV/AIDS

- Health Systems

- Infrastructure

- Climate Change

- Africa and inward investment

The GCAP G8 Working Group has put together common lobbying points for the key GCAP areas.

An open letter to G8 Finance Ministers

This open letter, signed by 35 economists, Nobel Prize Winners, Writers and other influential people from G8 countries, Africa and other countries argues that it makes economic sense for the G8 to tackle poverty appeared just ahead of the G8 Finance Ministers Meeting in Potsdam on May 18-19th in The Financial Times and Key german newspapers.

Click here to join Desmond Tutu by signing on: http://www.avaaz.org/en/g8_poverty_letter/tf.php ...

Send your voices to German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Send an email to German leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who leads the G8 in this crucial year. Please click here.

Millions of people are calling for change by sending their ‘voices’ to Chancellor Merkel to call for an end to poverty. GCAP coalitions in the G8 countries, and around the world, are sending their ‘voices’ in the form of an e-action where people can add their voices online. This total will be presented to Chancellor Merkel prior to the G8 Summit by the GCAP Germany.

You and your supporters can send your voices to Germany this year. The e-action is available in eight languages:
Dutch
English
French
German
Indonesian
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish

To participate you can:

You: First of all, add your own voice!
Your website: Add a link to the petition to your websites so that people who are interested in your national campaign can also joint the international campaigning
Email supporters: Send an email to your supporters with a link to the action, asking them to give their voice.
Your own action: Ask people to sign up to an offline petition with the same demands as the e-action. You can then send the total number of people who give their voice in your country to: u.schlenker@venro.org

The Longest Click Film – add your click

Every 3 seconds a child dies. Click.

This is the simple truth behind the click films that have been used by
various GCAP coalitions since 2005. "Deine Stimme gegen Armut" is making the longest ever click film, and you and your supporters can feature in it. This film will be broadcast online and also at events in Germany around the G8 Summit.

You and your supporters can upload their photo showing their own ‘click’, and star alongside celebrities and people from other countries.

Click here for German: http://www.millennium-spot.org/
Click here for English: http://www.millennium-spot.org/en/en,1.html

For more information on either of these actions, please contact: u.schlenker@venro.org

Find our position paper "Stand by your commitments" online (in English): http://www.deine-stimme-gegen-armut.de/
standpunkte_forderungspapier.html

For more information contact:

Ulrich Schlenker
Coordinator "Deine Stimme gegen Armut"
Dein Blog gegen Armut: http://www.deine-stimme-gegen-armut.de/blog

Dein Video im Millennium-Spot:
http://www.millennium-spot.org

Act now. Sign the calls for CSO activities and people's movements at the G8 meeting.

International demonstration on the 2nd of June

Alternative summit

Mass blockades (Please, note that this action is legitimate, but not legal.)

For more information, contact:
Sven Giegold, Attac Germany, giegold@attac.de

The climate change petition

In some days, Avaaz's global climate change petition has exploded--bursting far past our 200,000-signer goal, with more than a thousand new people signing every hour!

And now we have a critical chance to make it count: at the end of this week, we're hand-delivering the petition to German Chancellor Merkel's top negotiator for the G8+5 summit. He's locked in fierce negotiations with the Bush administration on a G8+5 climate treaty. Germany chairs the talks, and wants to use our petition to show the strength of global opinion on this issue. Can you sign it now, and then forward this email to five friends? Sign up here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_g8

That's where we come in. This petition--the biggest global climate petition in history--will be a vital tool at the negotiating table. During the diplomatic showdown, the petition will be in the hands of Merkel's top G8+5 negotiator, and we will be carrying it on banners through the streets outside. The larger this petition becomes, the more powerful it will be.

The Alternative Summit

The week of protest against the G8 summit includes mobilisation, demonstrations, blockades as well as debates and seminars. Next to a day of action for migration (4 June) and a day of action against militarism, war, torture and the global state of emergency (5 June), various blockades and demonstrations are planned.

Undoubtedly the Alternative summit (5-7 June, Rostock,) will be the one of the highlights of the mobilisation.

More at: http://www.g8-alternative-summit.org/

National Coalitions Actions

Embassy Action – speak to the G8 through your Embassies

You can send a message to the G8 through your own national Embassies. Visit your G8 Embassies and ask them to ensure that the G8 is prioritizing your demands this year in Germany. As the lead of the G8 this year, the German Embassy is crucial, but other G8 countries also have a key role to play so work with as many of them as you can.

In the past GCAP coalitions have targeted their Embassies in a number of ways:

- Organise a march to your Embassy, or an event outside the Embassy building

- Set up a lobby meeting with Ambassador to talk through your demands

- Send a letter to your Embassy

If you are intending to do an Embassy action, please contact: kel_currah@wvi.org

Open Letters & Editorials – speak to decision-makers through the media

You can make your voices heard through your local and national media. In the past coalitions have done this in a number of ways such as:

- writing letters to the editors of national and local newspapers and radio broadcasts

- submitting articles on the G8 and the importance of rich country nations meeting and going beyond their commitments to end poverty

- get national spokespeople and ambassadors to write opinion editorials in local and national newspapers

This year GCAP G8 Working Group prepared a template article (editorial or ‘op-ed’) for national coalitions to download and use as a basis for national work. These will be prepared for the week beginning the 4^th June, so that we can act together in the period just before the G8 Summit begins. This will put the issue of the G8 failing to meet their pledges into the national media and show international support and solidarity for our campaigning.

See the template article

Kumi Naidoo wrote an opinion editorial following his meeting with Angela Merkel in May. This may be attractive for some publications and should be published ideally in the next week so it feels current.

See editorial from CIVICUS Secretary General Kumi Naidoo

Send-Off Media Event – June 2^nd

On June 2 there will be a number of marches and media events around the world to show G8 leaders that people everywhere are watching and expecting the G8 to deliver, and to take decisive action to end poverty. German campaigners will hold a march in Rostock (near the G8 Summit venue) and they are encouraging other nations to undertake a similar rally.

As the G8 group, we have prepared a specific ‘send-off action’ for the leaders to take place in the G8 countries on June 2^nd. This is primarily a media event, to put the media spotlight on the leaders before they go to the G8 Summit, and to remind them that their national constituencies are expecting them to remember poverty in their negotiations.

We already know that some African and other leaders from around the world will attend the G8. If your leader is attending and you want to participate in this send off action, please contact: kel_currah@wvi.org

Please also note some important links that will help you:

Also see Oxfam International's G8 blog
Check out the UN Millennium Campaign blog at End Poverty Blog.
Panos brings African voices from G8
www.heiligendamm2007.de: Website with information about the action conferences and the international demonstration.
http://www.g-8.de/Webs/G8/EN/Homepage/home.html: Official website of the German government on the German G8 presidency.
http://www.g8-alternative-summit.org/: the Alternative-Summit

See also:

A number of GCAP West Africa colleagues will attend the People's Forum in Sikasso to raise awareness on GCAP demands for the G8 and hold a press conference see more at www.forumdespeuples.org
The GCAP Russia online call to Angela Merkel available at: http://protivbed.ru/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=58
The MAKE AID WORK campaign: With the help of CIDSE and CARITAS partners all over the world, more than 65'000 signatures were collected. These will be part of the GCAP signatures handed over next week during the concert in Rostock. Supporters also provided photos for the campaign-photo-gallery - have a look at it on. More...
The Oxfam report: The World is Still Waiting - Broken G8 promises are costing millions of lives
The DATA release on its report 2007 “Aid Working in Africa, But G8 Countries Seriously Off Track in Meeting Promises”