On November 18 and 19, Brazil will host the G20 summit of the heads of state and government in the city of Rio de Janeiro. This is a meeting in which the main imperialist countries of the world and their partners participate. “Opinião” spoke with Herbert Claros, of the International Secretariat of CSP-Conlutas, who discussed the holding of the G20 in the country, the trap prepared by the Lula government for the social movements, and what activities will be carried out in protest against the G20, by the People’s Summit.
By PSTU Brazil
What is the G20 and what is the international context in which this meeting is taking place, here in Brazil?
The G20, formed by the finance ministers and central bank governors of the 19 largest economies in the world, plus the African Union and the European Union, is not a real entity. It is an international body that was created during the economic crisis of the late 1990s, during which there were economic crises in Mexico and Russia, and U.S. imperialism saw the need to involve other countries to try to solve the problem. The creation of the G20 [then] was to save capitalism from the economic crisis that it had created.
The G20 is not an official body, but in recent years it has been dictating, together with the G7 [a group formed by the so-called great powers: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a representative of the European Union], the IMF and the World Bank, the austerity plans, neoliberal projects, and privatizations that will be applied by those countries. The G20 rotates among the member countries. Last year it was in India. Next year it will be in South Africa. This year the presidency fell to Brazil.
The meeting is taking place in a context of a deep crisis in which capitalism finds itself, which is marked by the increasing harm done to the working class by neoliberal austerity plans. It is also a context characterized by the advance of the far right in several countries and by several wars, such as the one in Ukraine and the genocide of the State of Israel against Palestine, which has now extended to Lebanon.
And what do you think about Brazil hosting the meeting of the group? Is there a “social G20” as the government claims?
President Lula should have refused to hold the G20 in Brazil. It is absurd to hold such a summit that only serves the interests of the big imperialist powers, such as the United States and Europe. It is absurd to hold this G20 in Brazil, because we are a country that directly suffers the consequences of imperialist domination. But let us not forget that Lula has had a pro-imperialist agenda for a long time. In that sense, we are not surprised that he has accepted the proposal to hold the G20 here, which is an embarrassment for Brazil. Lula himself, in his first government, was responsible for leading the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), which sent troops from Brazil to occupy Haiti.
There is no “social G20” and there has never been one in any of the editions of the G20. It is the first time that there will be a so-called, among many quotation marks, “Social G20”. Lula created this hoax with the sole objective of trying to stop and prevent any attempt to mobilize independently against the G20 that will take place here.
At the “Social G20” there will be workshops and social movements will send a letter with recommendations to the G20 governments. You don’t have to be an enlightened militant to know that Biden (U.S. President) or Macron (France) or Olaf Scholz (Germany) will not even look at this letter. Imperialism doesn’t care about social movements.
Wherever there are G20 meetings, there are demonstrations organized by social movements. Be it in Europe or North America. And we will have them here as well.
What should social, popular and trade union movements do before the G20 meeting? How will CSP-Conlutas participate in the summit?
When we heard about the G20, we passed a resolution to build an international mobilization against the meeting. At the beginning of the year, we had meetings with some social movement organizations, convened mainly by the People’s Summit, including the Landless Movement (MST), CUT (Trade Union Center), the World March of Women, black movements in Rio de Janeiro, as well as organizations from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. We built what we called the “People’s Summit against the G20,” in unity of action with different social movement organizations.
But in the last few weeks, the CUT and the MST decided to break with the People’s Summit, because in a meeting they had with a representative of the federal government, the government explicitly said that Lula does not want any demonstration or any kind of action that rejects imperialism and the G20 in our country.
The CUT and the MST, organizations on the “white list” linked to the government, have decided to withdraw from the summit and will only participate in the “Social G20” as collaborators, making proposals for the G20. This is regrettable from the point of view of building popular unity against imperialism, and it also makes it very clear that these organizations are increasingly tied to the government. It reveals that they are in fact abandoning the class struggle, and the real struggles of the workers, both in the cities and in the countryside.
Nevertheless, the People’s Summit remains. In fact, most of the organizations reaffirmed the importance of an independent summit. On Thursday afternoon, November 14, there will be a plenary session and CSP-Conlutas will participate with its delegation.
The idea is that at this People’s Summit there will be some debates on issues such as the environment, indigenous peoples, LGBTIphobia, black and women’s movements, and attacks on the working class. On the morning of Saturday, November 16, we will hold a big demonstration in Copacabana to reject the presence of imperialism in our country.
Here is the agenda of the People’s Summit:
Plenary – November 14. Location: Brazilian Press Association. Schedule: from 2 pm to 7 pm.
Popular March – November 16. Location: Copacabana Beach. Period: morning.
