A brief reminder: Every 10 seconds, a child dies of starvation somewhere in the world, despite there being enough food on the planet to feed between 10 and 12 billion people -- and the global population is just 7.5 billion. Almost 800 million people in the world live in extreme poverty, despite there being more money in the world than ever before. Fully 81 percent of the energy produced in the world is the product of burning fossil fuels, even though this practice warms the climate and alternatives such as wind and solar are available. When G-20 leaders gather in Hamburg later this week, they will have an opportunity to at least mitigate some of the most blatant contradictions facing our world. After all, they are largely responsible for the existence of such contradictions in the first place.
The G-20 nations represent two-thirds of the global population, just over three-quarters of its economic output and four-fifths of its greenhouse gas emissions -- and they are the prime target of anti-globalization activists. "The G-20 are part of the problem, not the solution," says Werner Rätz, co-founder of the German chapter of the network Attac, which is critical of globalization. It is that conviction that has driven Rätz to coordinate protests planned for Hamburg this week. He has plenty of experience doing so. . .
Globalization critics have been receiving an unexpected amount of support in recent months. Last September, 170,000 people demonstrated across Germany against the free trade agreements TTIP and CETA, with the United States and Canada respectively. Now, the masses of critics are heading for Hamburg to stand in the way of world leaders. A broad alliance is behind the protest movement: church groups, environmental organizations, trade unions, refugee councils and peace movements. They are united in their belief in the good of humanity and in the malignance of the system.
They all believe that free trade and the market economy do not produce prosperity for all and merely make the rich richer. They are convinced that the intertwined global economy, digital advance and untamed financial markets only serve a small elite and that the masses become the losers. The majority, they believe, are excluded from prosperity. . .
Two weeks ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel surprised participants at a meeting of non-governmental organizations in Hamburg called the Civil20 Summit, or C-20 for short. During a panel discussion at the summit, Merkel conceded that economic policy should not focus "simply on growth," but also on "sustainable, inclusive growth." She said that market freedoms were beneficial, but added: "Nothing about globalization is perfect."'
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