Fwd: Meeting on G20

[Ashish Kothari]

Friends, pl see below, do join if this is of interest to you.

ashish

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Dear friends,

We are writing to you as the preparations for the G20 Summit in Brazil are underway.  We learn that civil society is engaged with the process with the government opening up the opportunities for such engagement. We also learn that key issues such as climate crisis, income and wealth inequality, debt and unjust taxation are in focus for the Brazilian presidency. 

India's presidency in 2023 was different. Ruled by an authoritarian government, the presidency was under the shadow of massive human rights violations, criminalisation of dissent, and incarceration of journalists and activists. More than 350,000 houses of the poor were demolished to 'beautify' the cities, mainly the capital city New Delhi, for G20 related meetings. The Civil-20 space was filled with people close to the regime - politically and ideologically. 

Two parallel People's Summits were held - People's 20 Assembly and We20 Summit - which was attended by over 700 delegates from trade unions, people's movements and other civil society organisations was forcefully shutdown midway by the police. We20 Summit adopted a resolution putting together our position on G20 and demanding People and Nature over Profits for a Just, Inclusive, Transparent and Equitable Future. Working Groups brought out position papers on key issues like Agriculture, debt, just energy transition, inequality and others. India's presidency lost an opportunity to bring focus on some of the key issues like climate crisis, debt and inequality, and turned it into another political spectacle aimed at the domestic voters.

We learn that CSOs in Indonesia were a part of the C20 during the presidency of 2022. Going forward, it would be interesting to see how CSOs in South Africa will be engaging with G20/C20 in 2025.

While there were/are different shades of CSO engagement with G20/C20 process, what is common between these engagements is the recognition that such forums and their decisions are too important to ignore, the importance of a civil society space and the criticality of building pressure to put people’s agenda on the table.

It would be imperative to come together and try to understand the CSO positions and strategies rooted in particular political & social contexts to sharpen our critique and pave the way for better collaborations and solidarity.

In this context, we would like to propose an online meeting with like-minded people and CSOs across Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa. We know that just one meeting may not suffice to develop an understanding, but it can certainly be a beginning.

We propose July 11, 2024 for this meeting. Keeping in mind the time zones we propose 10 am BRT (6.30 pm IST, 3 pm SAST, 8 pm Indonesia) for the meeting.

We request you to kindly share this with your friends in Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa.

Please register for the zoom link.

We are looking forward to your response.

Best,
Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South
Sagari Ramdas, Food Sovereignty Alliance
Ashish Kothari, Global Tapestry of Alternatives  
Joe Athialy, Centre for Financial Accountability

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Joe Athialy

Executive Director

Centre for Financial Accountability

Office: R-21, South Extn II, New Delhi – 110 049

Tel: +91-11-49123696

Camp: Pune

www.cenfa.org | Twitter: joeathialy