The anti-globalisation movement’s alternative summit opened on Thursday in the south-eastern French town of Annemasse with a challenge to the legitimacy of this weekend’s G8 summit in nearby Evian.
The ”Summit for Another World” — known as Spam under its French acronym — aims to match the agenda of the group of the world’s most industralised countries with a series of debates until Saturday on alternative proposals for world governance and development.
”We reject the policies of the G8 and the very nature of a body which claims to be the world’s board of directors,” said Bernard Pinaud, secretary general of a French Third world campaign group known as Crid.
Spam organisers said they had arranged to hand over the proposals to French President Jacques Chirac’s delegation in Evian on Monday, the second day of the G8 summit.
Other groups campaigning for more development aid and debt reduction for poor countries, as well as environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth and the anti-globalisation group Attac, are taking part in the alternative meeting.
Representatives from African countries including DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Uganda, have been invited to take part, organisers said. – Sapa-AFP