People Organize to Protest G8, Present Alternative Economic View

by Gary Berg-Cross

May 18, 2012 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Community Room, C. Burr Artz Public Library
110 E. Patrick Street, Frederick, Maryland

The “Occupy G8 Summit for the People” is an alternative to the G8 that will have speakers (see agenda below) discuss the effect of concentrated wealth on global public policy, the effects of wealth inequality on peoples’ well-being and alternative economic structures that would close the wealth divide and create a more democratic, sustainable economy. The Summit will include time for hearing the voices of the 99% who will be in attendance. The public and the press are invited.

This summit will discuss how to:

• Build the international economy from the bottom up, not the top down.
• Highlight the wealth divide that undermines the foundation of the economy and corrupts political decision-making.
• Increase the minimum wage, end poverty and reduce debt to provide a stronger foundation on which to build a new sustainable economy.
• Institute a Robin Hood Tax on the purchase of stocks, bonds and derivatives.
• Build a new economy that is both economically and environmentally sustainable.
• Build wealth at the base by encouraging worker owned co-ops and other democratized economic institutions; and by turning corporate welfare into taxpayer investment where everyone profits from the investment by the commonwealth, not just the corporate owners.
• Recognize that we all share a common destiny and that even the wealthiest require the commonwealth in order to increase their riches.

Schedule

10:00 am – Welcome Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, co-directors, ItsOurEconomy.US and organizers for October2011.org/OccupyWashington, DC

10:10 am – Global Wealth Inequality Sam Pizzigati, Too Much; Brooke Harper, Global Trade Watch; Jeremy Weyl, JubileeUSA

11:10 am – Creating a Global Economy Based on Sustainable Resources Brent Blackwelder, former executive director Friends of the Earth and Steady State; Ruth Caplan,Campaign for Global Water Watch and Alliance for Democracy; Alexis Baden-Mayer, Organic Consumers Association

12:10 pm – Break

12:20 pm –Building a New Economy from the Bottom Up Rob Kall, Editor of OpEd News and Bottom Up Radio Show; James Riker, University of Maryland and co-facilitator of 2010 G20 Civil Society Dialogue; Emily Kawano, Solidarity Economy Network and Center for Popular Economics; Lisa Stolarski, The National Cooperative Business Association

1:30 – Reception

Sponsored by OccupyFrederick, October2011.org/OccupyWashington,DC and ItsOurEconomy.us