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- Poor Peoples of the Developing Countries, Unite!
About 150 thousand demonstrators gathered in the Italian City of Genoa, protesting at the G8 summit of 20 July 2001. The demonstrators, who came from various countries to the coastal city, were protesting at the economic policies imposed by governments of the rich countries. Demonstrators, armed with angry throats, juice cans, and musical instruments, faced the thirty thousand Italian soldiers, armed with advanced weapons, who came to protect presidents of major countries (USA, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Russia). They raised banners and slogans for fair trade, the abolition of immigration controls and debts of the developing countries
The international anti-globalization movement, in which NGOs, political parties, and trade union organizations participated, organized thousands of demonstrations in Seattle 1999, Prague 2000 and finally in Genoa. It organized 30 thousand demonstrations during the three days of the summit when one killed, 46 injured and 39 arrested.
What happens now in Genoa is a small sample for the world that eight members of the summit discussed in vain projects like establishing box for diseases struggle in the world, searching for new mechanisms for drugs and decreasing debts of poor countries. In fact, these projects are far from real needs of poor people. For example, there is less than billion for project of international medical care. About project of poor countries debts, there was no real intention from presidents of the eight countries to decrease debts that revealed great contradiction between benefits of the poor and rich around the world.
Therefore, the importance of role of the poor and their representatives internationally and locally revealed that numerous people, who passed borders to scandal policies of group of betrayers, were poor. At the time that participation of developing countries presidents were very marginal and unaffected.
The poor of the third world are seemed to be outside the picture although they are in its middle that at the time they suffer from burdens of negative effects of economical policies that the global system imposes, have no real existence or clear voice that expresses their demands. Those poor countries suffer from this crisis doubling because they don’t suffer only from poverty but they have no real opportunities to express themselves through democratic system or participate in making decisions that form their destines. Demonstrations in Seattle, Brag or Genoa emphasized that the poor have to press to transform globalization to agree with their conditions and demands. Moreover, they asserted that the new global system has to comprise cooperation in making decisions and unionize powers of the poor around the world by imposing their demands. Therefore, the poor and representatives of NGOs and civil society organizations have a historical duty representing in unionization of people to press with all their forces to create their position on the square. Those demonstrations are declarations for all poor people to inform them that resistance is the only weapon for survive and achieving poor humanistic rights for fair life.
The present stage of the world history is the stage of changes and historical transformations that reform the global view and replace roles and positions where we find ourselves in the back because we are developing countries. Therefore, we have to act as a tribune for the poor in our country by drawing the attention of NGOs and civil society organizations to poor farmers, laborers and unemployed youth.
Land Center for Human Rights declares his complete agreement for the movement of Genoa and calls on poor population, civil society organizations and NGOs in Egypt and the Arab world to coordinate their resistance against despotism for the establishment of a fair and humanistic society.