The G8 are the leaders of the eight richest countries on earth – the USA, Germany, Britain, France, Japan, Canada, Italy, and Russia. This year the G8 summit will take place near Enniskillen on 16 and 17 June. They will gather to co-ordinate policies for defending privilege and inequality. The G8 and its associates represent the pillar organisations of corporate globalisation.
It will be a focus for protestors to gather and voice demands for global justice. So far, the ICTU is planning a march in Belfast on Saturday 15 June. A counter summit is being organised by G8 Alternatives on Sunday 16 June in Belfast. And a major protest is scheduled for Enniskillen on Monday 17 June.
There will also be public meetings around the country to help mobilise for the G8 protests. If you want to get involved contact 085 858 5292.
Download timetable for G-8 Counter Summit here
In a statement today, Richard Boyd Barrett TD for People Before Profit/ULA and chairperson of the Irish Anti-War Movement said that the Israeli-initiated violence on the Gaza Strip must be addressed in the strongest possible terms. The government should take steps to ensure that no Irish state-funded institution engages in any trade with the state of Israel and cease all grants to Israel made under the EU’s framework programme for research until it complies fully with international law.
Richard Boyd Barrett, People Before Profit – ULA TD, speaking on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation issues in the Dáil today, highlighted some of the obstacles which stand in the way of non-proliferation.
“Every effort must be made to prevent states that do not yet have nuclear weapons from developing them. However, any claim to be serious about preventing nuclear proliferation have little credibility as long as we fail to deal with the issue of double standards practiced by the main nuclear states: the US, Russia, China, Britain and France. All smaller states which have developed nuclear weapons have done so with aid, either explicit or tacit, from the main nuclear powers.”
Richard Boyd Barrett, TD for the People Before Profit Alliance expressed his grave concern about the fate of Palestinian hunger striker, Hana Shalabi, who had been protesting her illegal detention in an Israeli prison by hunger striking for the last 43 days. She had already spent two arduous years in an Israeli prison without charge or trial before being released in 2011, only to be arrested again a few months later. She had been facing the prospect of months, or perhaps years, of imprisonment without charge or trial, when she decided to begin her hunger strike on February 16th. The Israeli authorities now claim to have struck a deal with her for her release on condition that she be exiled to Gaza, away from her home and family in the West Bank. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians and international supporters have been participating in a peaceful march to Jerusalem which was met with live ammunition resulting in several injuries so far.
