WCC officials challenge nearby G-8 summit

Christian Century, June 28, 2003

Church officials and protesters who met during the early June summit of the Group of Eight nations in Evian, France, rejected the validity of the G-8 grouping of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the U.S., which was holding one of its periodic meetings on world economy, security, democracy and the fight against HIV/AIDS. "We see the G-8 as an illegitimate group because they were not elected by anybody to rule the world," said Rogate Mshana, economy and justice program executive for the World Council of Churches. "On whose behalf are they speaking?"

The church meeting June 2--at Geneva's Ecumenical Center, only about 25 miles from the G-8 summit--was hosted by the general secretaries of four world church bodies headquartered there: the WCC, the Lutheran World Federation, the Conference of European Churches and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

An amalgam of protesters said to number between 50,000 and 120,000 tried to disrupt the G-8 meeting by marching in Geneva and Lausanne, the Swiss cities closest to Evian. Most of the demonstrations were peaceful, with discussions like those at the WCC occurring in different locations. But some street protests included destruction of property and were met by riot police using rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas.

Nicola Bullard of Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based policy and research organization, ridiculed the "hypocrisy" of the G-8 agenda, criticizing the inclusion of global security "when two of the members [the U.S. and Britain] were involved in an illegal war of occupation" in Iraq. She contended before ecumenical colleagues that the professed concern with the HIV/AIDS epidemic contrasted with trade agreements that looked after the rights of pharmaceutical companies before the needs of public health.

Moreover, Bullard said, the presence of leaders from the global south was a "public relations manipulation" on the part of the G-8 leaders. French President Jacques Chirac had invited heads of state and governments of 21 countries not in the G-8 to participate in a "dialogue" June 1 at Evian. To "legitimize the G-8," she contended, "they smile for the photo and go away empty-handed." The ecumenical meeting was called in part to voice peaceful critiques amid news media attention to violent protests.--ENI