NEXT Saturday, 2 June, tens of thousands of activists from Germany
and across the world will converge in the small north German town of
Rostock to launch a week of mobilisations, demonstrations, blockades
and alternative events protesting the policies (and even the fact) of the
G8. The summit itself will be in the exclusive Baltic seaside resort of
Heiligendamm, where the self-appointed leaders of the work will be
sequestered behind a 14km long, 12 million euro fence.

Although most of the useful discussions will take place outside the
fence, this should be an interesting summit, giving some clues to how
the elite alliances will play out in the next few years. It will be the
first for France’s newly-elected right wing president, Nicholas
Sarkozy, and the last for Tony Blair. Gordon Brown may (or may not)
turn up. George W. Bush will certainly be there, but with his domestic
and international credibility in tatters, his only strategy is a negative
one of block-and-veto. Russia’s cooling relations with the West and
warming relations with the East will add frisson but what is most
interesting is that the G8 now meets in the growing shadow of China,
whose global economic presence challenges the G8’s assumed
privilege to rule the world. Nicola Bullard explores these dynamics in
this issue.

Insofar as the G8 ritual strutting has any content, Africa — a topic dear
to the heart of all former colonialists and current day imperialists —
will be high on the agenda, as will global warming. If the lead-up to
the summit is any indication, Chancellor Merkel’s failed efforts to get
the G7 finance ministers to agree on regulating hedge funds shows
that they remain acutely sensitive to the needs of global capital. We
can certainly expect a similarly market-friendly result on what to do
about global warming. Which makes one wonder why more than 40
German NGOs have even bothered, yet again, to spend their time and
credibility writing long letters of demand asking the G8 to take action
on key global issues. (Did we learn nothing from the White Band
white-wash of Gleneagles?) In this issue we publish an open letter
from BUKO, a network of German solidarity, development and
internationalist organisation, arguing that this approach merely serves
to legitimise the G8.

Even as the G8 loses ground, national politics appears to be going
through something of a renaissance (if Latin America and the mass
turnout in the French presidential elections are any indication). In this
issue Asjorn Wahl writes with strategic clarity about the experience in
Norway where the left was able to build new political alliances across
sectors and issues to shift neo-liberal policies. This should give heart
to those who still believe in party politics. And finally Walden Bello
writes about the World Social Forum, praising the forum for its
historic function of "aggregating and linking the diverse counter-
movements spawned by global capitalism", but asking whether, after
the “fiasco” of Nairobi, it’s time for the WSF to “fold up its tent”.

And if, after all this, you are tired of reading and would like some on-
line radio, this week’s edition of RADIO NEW
INTERNATIONALIST features a discussion of the upcoming G8. Go
to http://www.newint.org/radio/ and click on the programme "Not the
only game in town." Enjoy.

The articles mentioned in this introduction to the May 2007 issue of Focus on Trade can also be found on ESSF website:

Nicola Bullard, The G8 – not the only show in town

BUKO, G8: testing the credibility of the NGOs the NGO G8 Policy Document

Asjorn Wahl The Norwegian Method: on alliance policies and experiences in the figth against neo-liberalism

Walden Bello The Forum at the Crossroads