"I PROPOSE WE MOVE THE 2009 G-20 SUMMIT TO THE SUBURBS", BY DAWN NARET'
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009
IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS NEWS..............
AND THE NEWS WAS GOOD.............................
THE INTERNATIONAL GROUP OF 20 WORLD LEADERS WOULD HOLD THEIR SUMMIT IN PITTSBURGH.........................
HOORAH ! HOORAH ! WE CAN HANDLE IT!............
WE HAVE A CONVENTION CENTER !...................
BUT IT NEVER HOUSED THIS TYPE OF TOP LEVEL VISITORS AND SECURITY NEEDS.............WHAT TO DO ? WHAT TO DO ?...........
MOVE THE G-20 SUMMIT TO THE SUBURBS.................POSSIBLY C.C.A.C. - BOYCE CAMPUS, WITH THESE FOLLOWING AMMENITIES OF COMPETITIVE LURES.......
- NO DOWNTOWN CLOSE DOWNS OR CHAOS
- NO DOWNTOWN RESIDENTS INCONVENIENCES
- NO DOWNTOWN EMPLOYEE INCONVENIENCE
- NO DOWNTOWN INNER-PERAMETER BUSINESS SHUT DOWNS OR LOST REVENUE
- NO DOWNTOWN OUTER PERIMETER CONGESTION BY PROTESTERS
- NO DOWNTOWN OUTER PERIMETER RE-ROUTING OF BUSES OR TRAFFIC
- NO DOWNTOWN EXTRA-OUTER PERIMETER MISSED DAYS WORK OR TARDINESS, BY EMPLOYEES TRYING TO COMMUTE PASSED THE DOWNTOWN CHAOS ON BUSES THAT MUST STILL GET THROUGH THE TRAFFIC CHAOS AND RE-ROUTING
ETC.............ETC................ETC.
NOW LETS LOOK AT THE POSITIVE ASPECTS OF A "SUBURBAN SUMMIT" !
ONLY 15-20% AS MUCH SPECIAL PLANNING AND ARRANGEMENTS REQUIRED
TIGHTER SECURITY POTENTIAL, WITH ONLY 2 ROADS ACCESSING THE CAMPUS
EXTRA MEDIA PARKING
A 4 DAY WEEK-END FOR STUDENTS AND FACULTY - HOORAH ! THEREFORE NO ONE COMPLAINING ABOUT ALL THE INCONVENIENCE !
DOWNTOWN CITIZENS KISSING THE FEET OF THE MAYOR WHO WAS WISE ENOUGH TO LOOK OUT FOR THEIR INTERESTS AND PROTECT THEM FROM ALL THE INCONVENIENCE, THE TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND EVEN THE POSSIBLE BANNING OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH PROTESTERS, WHO JUST TOOK UP TOO MUCH ROOM IN THE CONGESTION OUTSIDE OF THE ALREADY CLOSED AREAS !
A MAYOR WHO IS PROTECTING EVERYONE - EVEN THEIR RIGHT TO HOLD PROTEST.........IN A LESS INTRUSIVE SPACE !
OPEN LANDING SITES AVAILABLE FOR HELICOPTER TRANSPORT FOR FASTER AND MORE SECURE ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF PERTINENT VISITORS AND SECURITY PERSONNEL.
NEAR-BY BOYCE PARK IS IN THE VICINITY FOR DEMONSTRATORS TO ORGANIZE AND GIVE MEDIA INTERVIEWS (IF THEY PROMISE TO BE GOOD AND NICE TO THE G-20 PLANNING COMMITTEE - TV COVERAGE CAN BE ARRANGED, IF THEY DO NOT EMBARRASS PITTSBURGHERS, WITH THEIR INCONSIDERATE INSISTENCE OF DEMONSTRATING AT AN INAPPROPRIATE TIME AND GLOBAL FUNCTION PURPOSE - MAN, PUT A LID ON IT AND LET THIS OCCUR. IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR CELEBRATY ! - DO NOT EMBARRASS PITTSBURGH, AS THOUGH WE ARE IMMATURE, UNINTELLECTUAL AND TUNNEL VISIONED INSTEAD OF GLOBAL BENEFIT MINDED ! )
THERE'S MY GAME PLAN BOYS...........JUST DO IT ! ! !
ATTENTION ! ATTENTION ! WOO ! WOO !
SEPTEMBER 19, 2009 - ADD-ON:
I READ TODAY, THAT THERE IS NOW A POSSIBILITY THAT UP TO 500 BUDDIST MONKS ALSO ARE HEADING TO PITTSBURGH TO RALLY AT THE G-20 SUMMIT.......WHY ?
EASY ! THIS IS EXACTLY THE EXAMPLE I NEEDED TO GET THIS EVENT INTO PROPER PERSPECTIVE, FOR THOSE WHO ARE LOSTT IN THE LOCAL AGENDA LAND !
FIRST OF ALL THEY NEED TO SHAKE THE DELUSION THAT THIS IS A PITTSBURGH EVENT. IT IS NOT, THERE WILL BE NOTHING ON THE AGENDA, THAT WILL BE DISCUSSING PITTSBURGH ISSUES.
IT IS A GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WORLD LEADERS, WHO JUST HAPPENED TO DECIDE THAT PITTSBURGH MIGHT BE A NICE PLACE TO JOIN TOGETHER, FOR THEIR MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ON POSSIBLY, WORLD ECONOMY, THE PRESERVATION AND STABLIZATION OF THE VALUE OF THE EURO-DOLLAR, THE POSSIBLE DEVALUATION OF THE U.S. DOLLAR, SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN AND CUBA, THE CONTINUING EFFORTS TO AVOID ESCALATIONS TOWARD WORLD WAR III, THE CONCERN THAT IRAN MAY BE DEVELOPING NUCLEAR WEAPONS.........BIG ISSUES ! THEY ARE NOT HERE TO LISTEN TO WHAT PITTSBURGHERS THINK ABOUT ANYTHING !
NOW, WITH THEIR PURPOSE CLARIFIED, WE NEED TO LOOK AT HOW THEIR ARRIVAL IS BEING USED OR EXPLOITED BY GROUPS THAT HAVE BEEN REGISTERING COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE RIGHT TO PROTEST.
THIS IS A BIGGER PROBLEM, THAN I BELIEVE THE LOCAL POLITICOS ARE CREDITING IT TO BE. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? MANY, I'M SURE, HAVE LEGITIMATE CONCERNS, THAT THEY BELIEVE WILL IMPROVE LIFE SITUATIONS FOR OTHERS. GOD BLESS THEM AND GOOD LUCK TO THEIR EFFORTS. I AM SURE THAT THEY ARE NOT AT ALL "PROTESTING" OR COMPLAINING THAT THE G-20 WILL BE PRESENT HERE, OR ANY OF THE SUBJECT MATTERS THAT THE G-20 WILL BE DISCUSSING.. SO WHY ARE WE CALLING THEM "PROTESTERS" ?
I THINK WE SHOULD VIEW THEM AS "LOBBYISTS" TO MORE CORRECTLY COMPREHEND THEIR MOTIVATIONS. NOW, I MUST SAY, THAT I STILL CONSIDER THIS SUMMIT, AN INAPPROPRIATE TIME TO PUSH "LOBBY ISSUES" ONTO THE TABLE OF DISCUSSION. BUT I AM EVEN MORE OPPOSED TO THE SLOWING EVOLVING EVIDENCE, THAT WE HAVE AMONG THOSE "LOBBYISTS", A FACTION OF APPARENT "CHAOS CREATORS", WHO HAVE BEEN PHONING AND ATTEMPTING TO PULL EVEN MORE THOUSANDS OF "LOBBYISTS" INTO PITTSBURGH FOR THE 2 DAY PERIOD.
THE NEWS, THIS MORNING, OF THAT GROUP, OF UP TO 500 TIBETAN MONKS, ALREADY HEADING TO PITTSBURGH, TO PROTEST THEIR TREATMENT BY CHINA, BURSTS FORTH THE REALITY OF THE COMING SITUATION AND JAMS IT IN TO STIR CLARITY OF OUR FUZZY, STUMBLING BRAINS, BETTER THAN ANY OTHER EXAMPLE I COULD USE TO REVEAL THE URGENCY, OF MY PLEA TO THE ADMINISTRATORS, TO MOVE THIS EVENT TO THE SUBURBS.
I READ THAT IT WAS ANNOUNCED BY AN AMERICAN, WHO PROBABLY SUGGESTED IT TO THEIR GROUP............AND TO HOW MANY OTHER GROUPS...............THAT THEY DESCEND ONTO PITTSBURGH. WE COULD HAVE A VERY MEAN INTENTIONED EFFORT TRYING TO ORGANIZE ABSOLUTE CHAOS HERE, WITH AN EXORBINATE NUMBER OF OUT OF TOWNERS PLANNING TO ARRIVE FOR THE SAME 2 DAY EVENT.
WE HAVE TO RE-ADJUST THE THOUGHT PROCESS TO BE PREPARED FOR UNTOLD NUMBERS OF VISITORS. THE ESTIMATED GUESS WAS ONLY ABOUT 10% OF WHAT THE REALITY WILL BE.
THESE MONKS ARE AN EXAMPLE, THAT THEY ARE NOT EVEN FROM THIS COUNTRY, BUT ARE INTERESTED IN EXPLOITING THE PRESCENSE OF THESE GLOBAL LEADERS SUMMIT TO HAVE A "PHOTO OPPORTUNITY" WITH GLOBAL MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE EVENT.
THAT'S ALL ANY OF THESE GROUPS ARE DOING. THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO SNATCH A "PHOTO OPPORTUNITY" DURING A GLOBAL EVENT, TO ANNOUNCE AND PROMOTE THEIR ISSUES AND AGENDAS.
I TRULY DO NOT THINK THAT THE G-20 PLANNERS HAVE HAD A CORRECT HANDLE ON ALL OF THIS MOTIVE AND PROBABLE OUTCOME. THEY HAVE BEEN MISDIRECTED TO TRY TO SHOW HOW NICE OUR CITY IS........NO ONE REALLY CARES, EXCEPT MAYBE PRESIDENT OBAMA, WHO INITIATED THE LOCATING OF THE SUMMIT IN PITTSBURGH, IN ORDER TO ASSIST PITTSBURGH IN GLOBALIZING THEIR DETERMINED "METROPOLITAN IMAGE" SETTING.
BUT, NOW WE HAVE MORE AND MORE GROUPS PLANNING TO ARRIVE, TO A NEIGHBORHOOD THAT ALREADY WAS MAX SPACED-OUT AND CONGESTED. WE LOST SPACE TO SECURITY ROPE-OFF AND STREET CLOSE-DOWNS AND BEYOND THE NO-ACCESS PERIMETER, WE HAVE PLANNED PEDESTRIAN CONGESTION OF "LOBBYISTS" STANDING IN THE STREETS, BLOCKING TRAFFIC FLOW OF THE ACCESSIBLE INNER-PERIMETER, AND NOW MORE AND MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS OF INCREASED PLANNED GROUP ATTENDANCE, THAT WILL TOTALLY EXPAND THAT ACCESSIBLE INNER-PERIMETER TO EXCEED THE BOUNDRIES OF THE OUTER-ACCESSIBLE AREAS AND CREATE A TOTAL SHUT-DOWN OF TRAFFIC FLOW AS FAR BACK AS OAKLAND, SQUIRREL HILL, EAST LIBERTY AND BLOOMFIELD!
WE CANNOT CONSCIOUSLY CONSIDER GAMBLING LIVES TO THIS POSSIBILITY OF MAXED-OUT MASSIVE CHAOS. WHAT IF..................WE NEEDED TO EVACUATE THE CITY ? WHAT IF.....................WE EVEN HAD A FIRE WITH-IN THE NO-ACCESS PERIMITER? IMMPOSSIBLE TO REACH OR CLEAR FOR MOVEMENT OF EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT.
WE MUST FOCUS 24/7/365 ON THE NEED TO MAINTAIN EMERGENCY ACCESS AND THE POSSIBILITY OF THE NEED FOR EVACUATION. BUT AT A GLOBAL EVENT, LIKE THIS, WE MUST PLACE IT AT AN EVEN HIGHER LEVEL OF "OCCURRENCE POSSIBILITY".
THE DOWNTOWN PLANNING MUST CEASE.
WE MUST MOVE THIS TO THE SUBURBS. THESE PEOPLE ARE DETERMINED TO HAVE THEIR 15 MINUTES OF FAME TO PROMOTE THEIR AGENDAS......LET THEM HAVE IT !
BUT, PITTSBURGH ADMISTRATORS MUST HAVE CONTROL OF IT AND THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE CONTROL OF IT IS TO PLAN FOR A POSITIVE APPROACH TO THE INCREASING AND PRESSING NEEDS OF THESE CROWDS.
LET'S ASSUME THAT MY SUGGESTION FOR C.C.A.C.-BOYCE, AND BOYCE PARK ARE ACCEPTABLE AS THE IDEAL LOCATIONS TO ACCOMODATE BOTH THE SECURITY NEEDS FOR THE G-20 ATTENDEES AND THE MASSIVE PERSONAL NEEDS OF THE GROWING NUMBERS OF "LOBBYISTS" AND CURIOSITY ON-LOOKERS.
WE ALREADY HAVE SECURITY PLANS AND MINUTE BY MINUTE FUNCTIONS FOR THE MEETINGS COMPLETED. JUST ERASE ALL THE SHUT-DOWN AND BUS AND TRAFFIC REROUTING PLANS AND RELAX WITH THE LAND SECURITY CONVENIENCE OF ONLY 2 ROADS THAT ENTER THE C.C.A.C. CAMPUS.
ADD HELICOPTER AVAILABILTY REGISTERING AND SCHEDULING AND THE SUMMIT IS HANDLED.
NOW, ANNOUNCE IMMED. THE CHANGE IN LOCATION TO GET THE OTHERS AWAY FROM THE CITY. MAKE THE NEW LOCATION WELL KNOWN. PREPARE THE PARK AS THOUGH YOU WERE PREPARING TO OPEN IT FOR A "WOODSTOCK" TYPE EVENT.
HAVE P.A.T. CREATE A TEMPORARY "G-20-BOYCE PARK" SHUTTLE BUS ROUTE THAT A HAS FREQUENT SCHEDULE THAT WILL GET THEM OUT OF THE CITY AS FAST AS THEY ARRIVE. THE SHUTTLE SHOULD BE AN EXPRESS RUN FROM OAKLAND CRAIG AND FORBES TO RT. 22 MONROEVILL MALL, MIRACLE MILE SHOPPING CENTER AND BOYCE PARK . PICK-UP AND DROP-OFF AT ALL 3 STOPS.
ORDER 100-300 "PORTABLE JOHNNIES" FOR BOYCE PARK - (AND PUT AT LEAST 20 IN POINT STATE PARK FOR INCREASED WANDERING TOURISM).
PREPARE A MEDIA STAGE, WITH ELECTRICAL ACCEPTABILITY, FOR "LOBBYIST ISSUE ORATION". GIVE THEM THE CHANCE TO SPEAK. GIVE THEM MEDIA PERSONNEL TO SPEAK TO. GIVE THEM A REASON TO STAY AWAY FROM THE CAMPUS, BUT STILL EXPLOIT THE EVENT ENOUGH TO SATISFY THEM.
ESTABLISH A "WELCOME", "CAN WE HELP YOU" ATTITUDE BY CROWD CONTROL PERSONNEL. OPEN ALL RESTRICTION, IN THE PARK: TENTS ARE O.K. OVERNIGHT IS O.K. FROM 6 P.M. WEDNESDAY UNTIL 6 P.M. FRIDAY. PROVIDE 300-500 ADDITIONAL LITTER CANS.
SET UP A MEDICAL EMERGENCY TENT, IN THE PARK.
SET UP A "SECURITY AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE" TENT TO SERVE SAFETY AND COMPLAINT NEEDS. THERE WILL BE NO ARRESTING UNLESS THERE EXISTS A USUAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OF PURSE-SNATCHING, AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR ETC.
CUT PAYROLL AND UTILIZE MILITARY PERSONNEL TO CONDUCT "FOOT PATROLS FOR SAFETY" 24 HRS. FOR THE 3 NIGHTS AND 2 DAYS OF THE EVENT. HAVE THEM OFFER RIDES TO PARK AREAS FOR ELDERLY AND DISABLED
PROVIDE 2-3 UNMANNED FOOD PREP AND GATHERING TENTS, FOR USE BY VISITING GROUPS, TO BRING THEIR OWN SUPPLIES TO.
DIVIDE THE PARK INTO SECTIONS AND ASSIGN REGISTERED GROUPS TO SPECIFIC IDENTIFIED SECTIONS. THEY ARE ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEAN-UP OF THEIR AREA.
THESE ARE THE MAJOR CONCERNS AND SUGGESTIONS I HAVE. THE MINOR ONES WILL FALL INTO PLACE, WITH AN APPROPRIATE ATTITUDE CHANGE TO "WELCOME, MAY WE BE OF ASSISTANCE ?".
PITTSBURGH COULD GO DOWN AS THE MODEL OF "PROPER CROWD HANDLING" WITH NO VIOLENT OUT-BREAKS, NO TRAFFIC INTERRUPTIONS, THE MOST SAFE AND SECURE ENVIRONMENTS FOR HONORABLE, LARGE GATHERINGS AND A DARN NICE PLACE TO VISIT OR RELOCATE TO ! ETC. ETC. ETC. ISN'T THIS WHAT WE ALWAYS HOPE TO ACHIEVE ?
LOVE, DAWN NARET', P.O. BOX 2315, PITTSBURGH, PA, 15230-2315
www.pittsburghnews.wordpress.com
www.authordawnnaret.blogspot.com
www.bydawnnaret.blogspot.com
OCTOBER, 2009 - POST SUMMIT:
THE SUMMIT WAS INDEED HELD IN THE CENTER CITY, OF PITTSBURGH. CONCERN FOR THE CONTINUED FUNCTIONALITY, OF CITY RESIDENTS, BUSINESSES AND LOCAL EMPLOYEES, WAS TOTALLY DISREGARDED.
ALL DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES, IN THE SUMMIT AREA, WERE FORCED TO CLOSE OR REMAIN OPEN WITH NO CUSTOMERS, BECAUSE TRAFFIC TO THEIR SITE WAS EXCESSIVELY RESTRICTED.
LOCAL RESIDENTS, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND PEACEFUL PROTESTERS WERE ALL TREATED WITH DISREGARD AND NON-GRACIOUS HERDING. THERE EXISTED A MILITANT SIEGE ENVIRONMENT WITH RESTRICTION OF ASSEMBLEDGE AND MOBILITY.
I ACTUALLY HAD A FRIGHTENING DE'JA VUE OF KENT STATE UNIVERSITY AND TIANANMEN SQUARE.
IF IT HAD BEEN HELD IN THE SUBURBS.........80% OF THE INCONVENIENCE, PERSONNEL, EXPENSE AND "LOST" OPPORTUNITIES, TO WELCOME AND IMPRESS VISITORS, COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED.
JUST BECAUSE WE WERE NOT BOMBED, BLASTED OR LOOTED, I DO NOT CONSIDER IT A SUCCESSFUL OR APPROPRIATLY HANDLED EVENT, WE THREW AWAY SO MUCH OPPORTUNITY TO MANAGE IT, AS A JOYOUS CELEBRATION OF FREE SPEECH, OF ENTERTAINMENT AND OF A POTENTIAL "WE-LOVE-AMERICA-AND-WILL-DEFEND-IT", BONDING OF THE VISITING MASSES AND FUTURE, POTENTIAL NEW RESIDENTS. LIKE A "MINI-WOODSTOCK" !
WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN SO TERRIBLE ?
THEY "MANAGED" HALF A MILLION PEOPLE, FOR 3 DAYS STRAIGHT, WITH NO VIOLENCE ! THE ENTERTAINMENT WAS A DETERRENT AND IT WAS "IN THE SUBURBS" WITH NO GLASS WINDOWS TO BREAK.
MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE HIRED "CHEECH AND CHONG", INSTEAD OF 7000 RIOT DRESSED "MEN-OF-WAR-AND-HERO-QUEST".
INSTEAD, OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT CHOSE EXCESSIVE "DELTA DUMMIES" MANAGMENT, OVER BEING A GRACIOUS AND HOSPITABLE HOST.
THE "DELTA BOYS" KNOW WHAT I MEAN. IT CHANGES YOU, FROM A RESPECTABLE PROTECTOR AND ENFORCER, OF CIVIL LAWS, TO AN "EXTERMINATOR" ROBOT WITH NO BRAIN, WHO DOES "IT", JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE SAYS SO, AND IS EVEN WILLING TO DO "IT", TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE.
THEY GET ALL PUMPED UP AND FIRE OFF OR ERUPT WITH LESS THAN APPROPRIATE MOTIVATION, BECOMING THEMSELVES THE INSTIGATORS AND TERRORIZERS. WHEN THEY WAKE UP, THEY ARE EMBARRASSED WHILE VIEWING SOME POOR, INNOCENT KID, OR SOME OLD LADY, BEING BEATEN BY THEM FOR COMMITING "NO" CRIMINAL ACT...THEY JUST "HAD" TO LET OFF THE STEAM AND NOW THEY LOOK LIKE FOOLS.
NO DECENT MAN OR WOMAN WANTS THAT.
I RESPECT ALL LAW EMFORCMENT AUTHORITIES AND THANK THEM FOR BEING THERE, BUT I HAVE "NO" RESPECT FOR BRAINLESS, "DELTA-DUMMY MENTALITY" OR AN "OVER-MILITARIZED" RESPONSE TO MANAGING A SMALL EVENT.
IN A LARGE SUBURBAN PARK, WE WOULD HAVE HAD "TOTAL CONTAINMENT" AND FULL CONTROL, TO TAKE IT WHERE IT SHOULD HAVE GONE. INSTEAD, THEY TOOK IT RIGHT DOWN THE TOILET, ALONG WITH THE REVEALED DISRESPECT AND LACK OF CONCERN FOR THE CONVENIENCE OR WELFARE, OF LOCAL RESIDENTS. A DISDAIN THAT HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN CLEVERLY CONCEALED.
YES........."I TOLD YOU SO" - DAWN NARET'
"PERHAPS THE PITTSBURGH POLICE WERE NOT THE ONES ABUSING AUTHORITY", BY DAWN NARET'
OCTOBER 2009
NOTE:
IN ALL FAIRNESS, I FELT A NEED TO INVESTIGATE FURTHER, THE FRIGHTENING REPORTS OF CITIZEN ABUSE, BY PITTSBURGH POLICE, AT THE G-20 DEMONSTRATIONS.
MY FINAL IMPRESSION IS LEANING TOWARD THEIR INNOCENCE.
I AM PROVIDING THE MATERIAL AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE TO MAKE THEIR OWN JUDGEMENT.
DIRECTLY BELOW THIS NOTE, IS AN ARTICLE I FOUND,THAT WAS WRITTEN BY MR. HUGH SCHLESINGER, FEATURE WRITER WHO WAS ARRESTED AND RELEASED, DURING THE FRENZIED ACTIVITY. HIS ARTICLE IS VERY INFORMATIVE AND I AM SURE IT IS ALL TRUTHFUL.
FOLLOWING THE ARTICLE, THERE ARE MANY SHORT VIDEO CLIPS, FROM YOUTUBE.COM., MANY SENT IN, BY THE STUDENTS WHO WERE ABUSED, WHEN THEY WERE INNOCENT OBSERVERS, WATCHING THE ACTIVITY IN OAKLAND, FROM A SAFE PERCH IN A UNIVERSITY RESIDENT HALL.
THEY FIRST SAW A MASS OF STUDENTS RUNNING TOWARD THEIR END OF THE STREET, SCREAMING OF FRIGHT. THEY THEN SAW A LINE FORMATION, OF POLICE IN RIOT GEAR, MARCHING AFTER THEM. SOON, THERE WERE EXPLOSIONS OF TEAR GAS AND THE OBSERVERS BEGAN COUGHING, AS THE TEAR GAS SEEPED INTO THE STAIRWELL BRIDGE ENTRY, THAT THEY HAD BEEN PERCHED IN, ABOVE THE STREET, LOOKING OUT THE WINDOWS.
THEY RAN DOWN THE STAIRS AND ATTEMPTED TO RUN OUT OF THE BUILDING, BUT WERE STOPPED, BY POLICE, WHO ORDERED THEM BACK INTO THE BUILDING.
WHEN THEY COULD NOT GET AN EAR OF MERCY, THEY WENT BACK IN AND STARTED UP THE STAIRS, WITH POLICE HERDING BEHIND THEM.
HALF-WAY UP THE STAIRS, THEY SAW THE FEET, OF 2 OFFICERS, AT THE TOP OF THE STEPS. THESE OFFICERS BLOCKED THEIR PATH AND WOULD NOT ALLOW THEM TO GO INTO THE RESIDENT HALL, OF THE BUILDING. THIS LEFT THEM TRAPPED IN THE STAIRWELL, HERDED FROM BOTH UP THE STAIRS AND FROM DOWN THE STAIRS. THIS INCIDENT CONCERNS ME GREATLY.
I WAS NOT ABLE TO SEE AN IDENTIFYING NAME ON THE UNIFORMS, IN THIS VIDEO, BUT IN OTHERS, I REALIZED THAT SOME OF THE WORST INCIDENTS, WERE BEING CONDUCTED BY OUT-OF-TOWN ASSISTANTS,TO THE PITTSBURGH POLICE. ONE CLEARLY LABLED "N.Y.P.D." AND ONE LABELED "PA HIGHWAY PATROL".
WHAT ALSO CONCERNS ME GREATLY, ARE 2 VIDEOS SHOWING, WHAT APPEAR TO BE "AN ABDUCTION" DISGUISING ITSELF AS AN ARREST. IT IS BEING CONDUCTED BY 3 MEN IN MILITARY CAMOPHLAGE UNIFORMS. THEY ARE SHOVING A YOUNG MAN INTO AN "UNOFFICIAL" CIVILIAN CAR, AND I FEAR THAT THEY MAY HAVE, NOT EVEN BEEN "OFFICIAL" ASSISTANTS, ON DUTY TO AID THE OFFICIAL POLICE. I FEAR THIS, BECAUSE I FOUND ANOTHER VIDEO, ALSO SHOWING 3 MEN IN CAMOPHLAGE AND THEY MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN THE SAME MEN. BUT THEIR CLOTHES WERE SWITCHED FROM GREEN TO TAN FATIGUES.
WHO WERE THESE "ABDUCTORS" ?
WHO WERE THEY "ABDUCTING" ?
THEN I FOUND ANOTHER VIDEO THAT IS INTERVIEWING, WHAT I ASSUME WAS AN "OFFICIAL" LOCAL NATIONAL GUARDSMAN, WHO CLEARLY DENIED ANY APPROVAL OR INSTRUCTION, OR GIVEN AUTHORITY TO APPREHEND, ARREST OR ABDUCT PROBLEM ACTIVISTS. HE SEEMED TO UNDERSTAND HIS ORDERS WERE TO BE SIMPLY A PRESENCE, AIDING IF NEC., BUT MORE AN IMAGE OF SECURITY THAN AN ACTIVE ENFORCER.
I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT TO CLARIFY AND VERIFY THESE INSTRUCTIONS, TO GET A FACTUAL COMPREHENSION OF WHETHER OR NOT THE PITTSBURGH POLICE WERE ACTUALLY ABUSIVE TO THEIR OWN CITIZENS AND STUDENTS.
BUT I WOULD LIKE AN EXPLANATION OF WHY THE YOUNG MAN WAS BEING SHOVED INTO A CIVILIAN CAR, BY 3-4 MEN IN CAMOPHLAGE.
WERE THEY "OFFICIAL" AIDES ?
WERE THEY IMPOSTERING THE "OFFICIAL" AIDES ?
WERE THEY OFFICIAL MILITARY ?
WERE THEY IMPOSTERING THE U.S. MILITARY ?
THESE ARE EXTREMELY SERIOUS CONCERNS. IN A "WORST CASE SCENARIO" CONTEMPLATION.......WHICH I ALWAYS CONDUCT, BEFORE GOING BALLISTIC OR BECOMING OVERLY FOCUSED ON SECURITY NEEDS, I DEEMED THIS ONE "WARRENTING ATTENTION AND IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION".
IT WOULD BE A POSSIBILITY, IN A “W.C.S” THEORY, THAT ANTI-U.S. GOVERNMENT INFILTRATORS COULD SEEK TO AROUSE CHAOS AND CITIZEN MISTRUST IN AMERICAN FIGURES OF AUTHORITY.
THEIR “EASIEST MEANS” OF DOING THIS, WOULD BE TO IMPOSTER THE AMERICAN AUTHORITY FIGURES AND ABUSE THE CITIZENS.
THE BEST “OPPOSITION”, TO THIS IMPOSTERING, WOULD BE FOR THE AMERICAN AUTHORITY FIGURES TO;
"NUMBER ONE, FIRST AND ALWAYS FOREMOST" :
* DISPLAY AN ABUNDANCE OF RESPECT, COMPASSION AND INTEREST IN HELPING AND PROTECTING CITIZENS
* TRACK THE IMPOSTERS/ABUSERS DOWN
* EXPOSE THEIR IMPOSTERING
* PROSECUTE THEM
ISN'T THAT THE PURPOSE OF THEIR FUNCTION "ALL THE TIME" ANYWAY ? ? ?
BY DAWN NARET'
P.O. BOX 2315, PITTSBURGH, PA 15230-2315
dnaret@gmail.com
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NEXT ITEM:
SHARED SPECIAL FEATURE:
Special feature: G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh
Reporter documents police brutality at Summit protests
Hugh Schlesinger
Issue date: 10/15/09 found at:
http://media.www.vanderbiltorbis.com/media/storage/paper983/news/2009/10/15/Newsfeatures/Special.feature.g20.Summit.In.Pittsburgh-3804843.shtml
(DAWN RETURNS, AT THE END OF THIS FEATURE STORY, WITH ACTUAL LIVE VIDEOS AND MORE COMMENTARY)
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One moment from my time at late September's G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh has stuck in my mind: the image of about 300 police officers in full riot gear and backed up by armored vehicles sporting various non-lethal weapons, including the sonic cannon, blocking off three of the four streets of an intersection.
These officers were deployed at this location to break up an unpermitted protest march, dubbed the "People's Uprising," on the first day of the summit. The officers' presence was much larger than that of the protesters, and they seemed more confident of and prepared for imminent violence than any of the marchers.
Not surprisingly, violence did occur, as attempts by the police to disperse the protesters, including arrests and the use of tear gas, led to a retreat en masse by the protesters, some confrontations between protesters and police, and sporadic instances of property destruction.
The police's behavior typified the disproportionate force they used throughout the summit. Hours after the People's Uprising, police continued to occupy the area surrounding the march, blocking off entire streets and displacing some from their homes or businesses for hours. During this time they arrested multiple individuals and fired on protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas.
The two arrests I witnessed during this period where particularly shocking. First, I was standing with a group of people on a street corner close to a police line. When the police decided to move forward about fifteen feet, they ordered us off the corner and across two lanes of traffic. The officers immediately apprehended one of the members who didn't move fast enough.
The second arrest involved a protester who had filmed this first arrest. About ten minutes after ordering us to move, two officers charged down the street filled with 50 people and tackled a man to the ground. A person who knew the arrested man reported that he had been bruised and bloodied during the arrest and that his video camera had been smashed. He also said he witnessed a policeman pointing out protesters to his fellow officers and suggested that his apprehended friend had been targeted for video recording the other arrest.
Members of the ACLU were on hand to gather information about detained protesters and to monitor police action during the demonstrations.
That night another rally at Schenley Plaza near the University of Pittsburgh, ironically organized in protest of police brutality and in solidarity with those arrested, was violently dispersed by police and many more people were arrested. While a permitted protest march the next day of nearly 5,000 participants was peaceful, it was accompanied by a police presence of more than 1,000 officers. (Other reporting indicated that about 5,000 officers had been called up for security that weekend.) Then, that evening, the incident repeated itself at Schenley Plaza, with more arrests and another jail solidarity protest violently dispersed by the police.
It must be said that during all of these events, there were participants who planned to commit acts of vandalism and destruction, and they did succeed in causing about $50,000 worth of damage, $20,000 of which was reportedly caused by a single demonstrator. But these violent protesters made up only a fraction of the demonstrators, and they necessitated a proportional police response, not overwhelming force, to stymie their efforts.
Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Police Department instead treated all protesters as if they were violent. When applied, force and arrests were used indiscriminately, with protesters and non-protesters (including a number of University of Pittsburgh students) being targeted.
These experiences left me with a central question: What was the point of law enforcement's harsh treatment of protesters? It was clear that the amount of security dedicated to the demonstrations was excessive. I also have little doubt that the tactics used against these demonstrators instigated the violence that occurred, making them highly ineffective crowd-control methods. Even if some of the protesters were motivated to disturb the peace, these individuals appeared not to have the means or the organization to cause much damage to the city or to present any threat to the G-20 delegates.
The disproportionate police response had no goal other than to intimidate, and this was the most disturbing aspect of the police's actions. They seemed purposeless, acting only to demonstrate the force and authority they had been granted and to try out the new toys they had obtained. For example, they proudly claimed during the protests that they were the first police force in the United States to publicly use the sonic cannon.
As a nation, we allowed this to happen. As they have done many times before, the public and media stood by with seemingly little notice or concern. Because of the marginal nature of the political ideas represented by these protesters, few cared to stand up in their defense.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Police officers arrested several demonstrators during the Pittsburgh summit.
Special feature: G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh
Reporter documents police brutality at Summit protests
Hugh Schlesinger
Issue date: 10/15/09 found at: media.www.vanderbiltorbis.com
One moment from my time at late September's G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh has stuck in my mind: the image of about 300 police officers in full riot gear and backed up by armored vehicles sporting various non-lethal weapons, including the sonic cannon, blocking off three of the four streets of an intersection.
These officers were deployed at this location to break up an unpermitted protest march, dubbed the "People's Uprising," on the first day of the summit. The officers' presence was much larger than that of the protesters, and they seemed more confident of and prepared for imminent violence than any of the marchers.
Not surprisingly, violence did occur, as attempts by the police to disperse the protesters, including arrests and the use of tear gas, led to a retreat en masse by the protesters, some confrontations between protesters and police, and sporadic instances of property destruction.
The police's behavior typified the disproportionate force they used throughout the summit. Hours after the People's Uprising, police continued to occupy the area surrounding the march, blocking off entire streets and displacing some from their homes or businesses for hours. During this time they arrested multiple individuals and fired on protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas.
The two arrests I witnessed during this period where particularly shocking. First, I was standing with a group of people on a street corner close to a police line. When the police decided to move forward about fifteen feet, they ordered us off the corner and across two lanes of traffic. The officers immediately apprehended one of the members who didn't move fast enough.
The second arrest involved a protester who had filmed this first arrest. About ten minutes after ordering us to move, two officers charged down the street filled with 50 people and tackled a man to the ground. A person who knew the arrested man reported that he had been bruised and bloodied during the arrest and that his video camera had been smashed. He also said he witnessed a policeman pointing out protesters to his fellow officers and suggested that his apprehended friend had been targeted for video recording the other arrest.
Members of the ACLU were on hand to gather information about detained protesters and to monitor police action during the demonstrations.
That night another rally at Schenley Plaza near the University of Pittsburgh, ironically organized in protest of police brutality and in solidarity with those arrested, was violently dispersed by police and many more people were arrested. While a permitted protest march the next day of nearly 5,000 participants was peaceful, it was accompanied by a police presence of more than 1,000 officers. (Other reporting indicated that about 5,000 officers had been called up for security that weekend.) Then, that evening, the incident repeated itself at Schenley Plaza, with more arrests and another jail solidarity protest violently dispersed by the police.
It must be said that during all of these events, there were participants who planned to commit acts of vandalism and destruction, and they did succeed in causing about $50,000 worth of damage, $20,000 of which was reportedly caused by a single demonstrator. But these violent protesters made up only a fraction of the demonstrators, and they necessitated a proportional police response, not overwhelming force, to stymie their efforts.
Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Police Department instead treated all protesters as if they were violent. When applied, force and arrests were used indiscriminately, with protesters and non-protesters (including a number of University of Pittsburgh students) being targeted.
These experiences left me with a central question: What was the point of law enforcement's harsh treatment of protesters? It was clear that the amount of security dedicated to the demonstrations was excessive. I also have little doubt that the tactics used against these demonstrators instigated the violence that occurred, making them highly ineffective crowd-control methods. Even if some of the protesters were motivated to disturb the peace, these individuals appeared not to have the means or the organization to cause much damage to the city or to present any threat to the G-20 delegates.
The disproportionate police response had no goal other than to intimidate, and this was the most disturbing aspect of the police's actions. They seemed purposeless, acting only to demonstrate the force and authority they had been granted and to try out the new toys they had obtained. For example, they proudly claimed during the protests that they were the first police force in the United States to publicly use the sonic cannon.
As a nation, we allowed this to happen. As they have done many times before, the public and media stood by with seemingly little notice or concern. Because of the marginal nature of the political ideas represented by these protesters, few cared to stand up in their defense.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Police officers arrested several demonstrators during the Pittsburgh summit.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Many people took to the streets in favor of economic and social justice.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
A line of officers monitored the parade of demonstrators during the second day of protests.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Many people took to the streets in favor of economic and social justice.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
A line of officers monitored the parade of demonstrators during the second day of protests.
YOUTUBE.COM VIDEOS ON PITTSBURGH G-20 SUMMIT PROTESTORS AND ACTIONS
MILITARY ATTACKS PROTESTORS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqU3-MLycLc
CAMOPHLAGE TROOPS BLACK ONE IN TAN – WHITE ONE IN GREEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZFvJn04_hs
CAMOPHLAGE ABDUCTION – 1 WHITE/1 BLACK – BLACK ONE NOW, IN GREEN NOT TAN CAMOPHLAGE-WHITE VICTIM-WHITE DRIVER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-TqMDthnEo
CAMOPHLAGE DENIES ASSIGNMENT/ DUTY AUTHORITY TO TAKE PROTESTERS INTO CUSTODY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zvxk0Tn0v8
ENGLAND – TOMLINSON DEATH – POLICE ABUSE ON MAN WITH HIS HANDS IN HIS POCKETS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ
OBSERVING STUDENTS TRAPPED ON STAIRCASE – POLICE INVADED STAIRWAY OF RESIDENCE HALL AND BLOCKED THEM AT TOP AND BOTTOM OF STAIRS – THEY WERE ONLY WATCHING FROM ABOVE THE STREET- BATON JAB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNyV7UQJpyY
NYPD POLICE BEAT UP PGH TIBET PROTESTORS AND ARE TAZERING (?) SEVERAL DURING GANG PIN DOWN – VICTIM CANNOT STAND – LAYING AROUND ON STREET AFTERWARDS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbfA5q0QaNI
TV NEWS REPORT LOOKIN VERY BAD FOR PGH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CYknz7FCQ
ARRESTS – CAMERAS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_acjSiJRbo
NOTE:
IN ALL FAIRNESS, I FELT A NEED TO INVESTIGATE FURTHER, THE FRIGHTENING REPORTS OF CITIZEN ABUSE, BY PITTSBURGH POLICE, AT THE G-20 DEMONSTRATIONS.
MY FINAL IMPRESSION IS LEANING TOWARD THEIR INNOCENCE.
I AM PROVIDING THE MATERIAL AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE TO MAKE THEIR OWN JUDGEMENT.
DIRECTLY BELOW THIS NOTE, IS AN ARTICLE I FOUND,THAT WAS WRITTEN BY MR. HUGH SCHLESINGER, FEATURE WRITER WHO WAS ARRESTED AND RELEASED, DURING THE FRENZIED ACTIVITY. HIS ARTICLE IS VERY INFORMATIVE AND I AM SURE IT IS ALL TRUTHFUL.
FOLLOWING THE ARTICLE, THERE ARE MANY SHORT VIDEO CLIPS, FROM YOUTUBE.COM., MANY SENT IN, BY THE STUDENTS WHO WERE ABUSED, WHEN THEY WERE INNOCENT OBSERVERS, WATCHING THE ACTIVITY IN OAKLAND, FROM A SAFE PERCH IN A UNIVERSITY RESIDENT HALL.
THEY FIRST SAW A MASS OF STUDENTS RUNNING TOWARD THEIR END OF THE STREET, SCREAMING OF FRIGHT. THEY THEN SAW A LINE FORMATION, OF POLICE IN RIOT GEAR, MARCHING AFTER THEM. SOON, THERE WERE EXPLOSIONS OF TEAR GAS AND THE OBSERVERS BEGAN COUGHING, AS THE TEAR GAS SEEPED INTO THE STAIRWELL BRIDGE ENTRY, THAT THEY HAD BEEN PERCHED IN, ABOVE THE STREET, LOOKING OUT THE WINDOWS.
THEY RAN DOWN THE STAIRS AND ATTEMPTED TO RUN OUT OF THE BUILDING, BUT WERE STOPPED, BY POLICE, WHO ORDERED THEM BACK INTO THE BUILDING.
WHEN THEY COULD NOT GET AN EAR OF MERCY, THEY WENT BACK IN AND STARTED UP THE STAIRS, WITH POLICE HERDING BEHIND THEM.
HALF-WAY UP THE STAIRS, THEY SAW THE FEET, OF 2 OFFICERS, AT THE TOP OF THE STEPS. THESE OFFICERS BLOCKED THEIR PATH AND WOULD NOT ALLOW THEM TO GO INTO THE RESIDENT HALL, OF THE BUILDING. THIS LEFT THEM TRAPPED IN THE STAIRWELL, HERDED FROM BOTH UP THE STAIRS AND FROM DOWN THE STAIRS. THIS INCIDENT CONCERNS ME GREATLY.
I WAS NOT ABLE TO SEE AN IDENTIFYING NAME ON THE UNIFORMS, IN THIS VIDEO, BUT IN OTHERS, I REALIZED THAT SOME OF THE WORST INCIDENTS, WERE BEING CONDUCTED BY OUT-OF-TOWN ASSISTANTS,TO THE PITTSBURGH POLICE. ONE CLEARLY LABLED "N.Y.P.D." AND ONE LABELED "PA HIGHWAY PATROL".
WHAT ALSO CONCERNS ME GREATLY, ARE 2 VIDEOS SHOWING, WHAT APPEAR TO BE "AN ABDUCTION" DISGUISING ITSELF AS AN ARREST. IT IS BEING CONDUCTED BY 3 MEN IN MILITARY CAMOPHLAGE UNIFORMS. THEY ARE SHOVING A YOUNG MAN INTO AN "UNOFFICIAL" CIVILIAN CAR, AND I FEAR THAT THEY MAY HAVE, NOT EVEN BEEN "OFFICIAL" ASSISTANTS, ON DUTY TO AID THE OFFICIAL POLICE. I FEAR THIS, BECAUSE I FOUND ANOTHER VIDEO, ALSO SHOWING 3 MEN IN CAMOPHLAGE AND THEY MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN THE SAME MEN. BUT THEIR CLOTHES WERE SWITCHED FROM GREEN TO TAN FATIGUES.
WHO WERE THESE "ABDUCTORS" ?
WHO WERE THEY "ABDUCTING" ?
THEN I FOUND ANOTHER VIDEO THAT IS INTERVIEWING, WHAT I ASSUME WAS AN "OFFICIAL" LOCAL NATIONAL GUARDSMAN, WHO CLEARLY DENIED ANY APPROVAL OR INSTRUCTION, OR GIVEN AUTHORITY TO APPREHEND, ARREST OR ABDUCT PROBLEM ACTIVISTS. HE SEEMED TO UNDERSTAND HIS ORDERS WERE TO BE SIMPLY A PRESENCE, AIDING IF NEC., BUT MORE AN IMAGE OF SECURITY THAN AN ACTIVE ENFORCER.
I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT TO CLARIFY AND VERIFY THESE INSTRUCTIONS, TO GET A FACTUAL COMPREHENSION OF WHETHER OR NOT THE PITTSBURGH POLICE WERE ACTUALLY ABUSIVE TO THEIR OWN CITIZENS AND STUDENTS.
BUT I WOULD LIKE AN EXPLANATION OF WHY THE YOUNG MAN WAS BEING SHOVED INTO A CIVILIAN CAR, BY 3-4 MEN IN CAMOPHLAGE.
WERE THEY "OFFICIAL" AIDES ?
WERE THEY IMPOSTERING THE "OFFICIAL" AIDES ?
WERE THEY OFFICIAL MILITARY ?
WERE THEY IMPOSTERING THE U.S. MILITARY ?
THESE ARE EXTREMELY SERIOUS CONCERNS. IN A "WORST CASE SCENARIO" CONTEMPLATION.......WHICH I ALWAYS CONDUCT, BEFORE GOING BALLISTIC OR BECOMING OVERLY FOCUSED ON SECURITY NEEDS, I DEEMED THIS ONE "WARRENTING ATTENTION AND IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION".
IT WOULD BE A POSSIBILITY, IN A “W.C.S” THEORY, THAT ANTI-U.S. GOVERNMENT INFILTRATORS COULD SEEK TO AROUSE CHAOS AND CITIZEN MISTRUST IN AMERICAN FIGURES OF AUTHORITY.
THEIR “EASIEST MEANS” OF DOING THIS, WOULD BE TO IMPOSTER THE AMERICAN AUTHORITY FIGURES AND ABUSE THE CITIZENS.
THE BEST “OPPOSITION”, TO THIS IMPOSTERING, WOULD BE FOR THE AMERICAN AUTHORITY FIGURES TO;
"NUMBER ONE, FIRST AND ALWAYS FOREMOST" :
* DISPLAY AN ABUNDANCE OF RESPECT, COMPASSION AND INTEREST IN HELPING AND PROTECTING CITIZENS
* TRACK THE IMPOSTERS/ABUSERS DOWN
* EXPOSE THEIR IMPOSTERING
* PROSECUTE THEM
ISN'T THAT THE PURPOSE OF THEIR FUNCTION "ALL THE TIME" ANYWAY ? ? ?
BY DAWN NARET'
P.O. BOX 2315, PITTSBURGH, PA 15230-2315
dnaret@gmail.com
******************************************************************
******************************************************************
NEXT ITEM:
SHARED SPECIAL FEATURE:
Special feature: G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh
Reporter documents police brutality at Summit protests
Hugh Schlesinger
Issue date: 10/15/09 found at:
http://media.www.vanderbiltorbis.com/media/storage/paper983/news/2009/10/15/Newsfeatures/Special.feature.g20.Summit.In.Pittsburgh-3804843.shtml
(DAWN RETURNS, AT THE END OF THIS FEATURE STORY, WITH ACTUAL LIVE VIDEOS AND MORE COMMENTARY)
******************************************************************
One moment from my time at late September's G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh has stuck in my mind: the image of about 300 police officers in full riot gear and backed up by armored vehicles sporting various non-lethal weapons, including the sonic cannon, blocking off three of the four streets of an intersection.
These officers were deployed at this location to break up an unpermitted protest march, dubbed the "People's Uprising," on the first day of the summit. The officers' presence was much larger than that of the protesters, and they seemed more confident of and prepared for imminent violence than any of the marchers.
Not surprisingly, violence did occur, as attempts by the police to disperse the protesters, including arrests and the use of tear gas, led to a retreat en masse by the protesters, some confrontations between protesters and police, and sporadic instances of property destruction.
The police's behavior typified the disproportionate force they used throughout the summit. Hours after the People's Uprising, police continued to occupy the area surrounding the march, blocking off entire streets and displacing some from their homes or businesses for hours. During this time they arrested multiple individuals and fired on protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas.
The two arrests I witnessed during this period where particularly shocking. First, I was standing with a group of people on a street corner close to a police line. When the police decided to move forward about fifteen feet, they ordered us off the corner and across two lanes of traffic. The officers immediately apprehended one of the members who didn't move fast enough.
The second arrest involved a protester who had filmed this first arrest. About ten minutes after ordering us to move, two officers charged down the street filled with 50 people and tackled a man to the ground. A person who knew the arrested man reported that he had been bruised and bloodied during the arrest and that his video camera had been smashed. He also said he witnessed a policeman pointing out protesters to his fellow officers and suggested that his apprehended friend had been targeted for video recording the other arrest.
Members of the ACLU were on hand to gather information about detained protesters and to monitor police action during the demonstrations.
That night another rally at Schenley Plaza near the University of Pittsburgh, ironically organized in protest of police brutality and in solidarity with those arrested, was violently dispersed by police and many more people were arrested. While a permitted protest march the next day of nearly 5,000 participants was peaceful, it was accompanied by a police presence of more than 1,000 officers. (Other reporting indicated that about 5,000 officers had been called up for security that weekend.) Then, that evening, the incident repeated itself at Schenley Plaza, with more arrests and another jail solidarity protest violently dispersed by the police.
It must be said that during all of these events, there were participants who planned to commit acts of vandalism and destruction, and they did succeed in causing about $50,000 worth of damage, $20,000 of which was reportedly caused by a single demonstrator. But these violent protesters made up only a fraction of the demonstrators, and they necessitated a proportional police response, not overwhelming force, to stymie their efforts.
Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Police Department instead treated all protesters as if they were violent. When applied, force and arrests were used indiscriminately, with protesters and non-protesters (including a number of University of Pittsburgh students) being targeted.
These experiences left me with a central question: What was the point of law enforcement's harsh treatment of protesters? It was clear that the amount of security dedicated to the demonstrations was excessive. I also have little doubt that the tactics used against these demonstrators instigated the violence that occurred, making them highly ineffective crowd-control methods. Even if some of the protesters were motivated to disturb the peace, these individuals appeared not to have the means or the organization to cause much damage to the city or to present any threat to the G-20 delegates.
The disproportionate police response had no goal other than to intimidate, and this was the most disturbing aspect of the police's actions. They seemed purposeless, acting only to demonstrate the force and authority they had been granted and to try out the new toys they had obtained. For example, they proudly claimed during the protests that they were the first police force in the United States to publicly use the sonic cannon.
As a nation, we allowed this to happen. As they have done many times before, the public and media stood by with seemingly little notice or concern. Because of the marginal nature of the political ideas represented by these protesters, few cared to stand up in their defense.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Police officers arrested several demonstrators during the Pittsburgh summit.
Special feature: G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh
Reporter documents police brutality at Summit protests
Hugh Schlesinger
Issue date: 10/15/09 found at: media.www.vanderbiltorbis.com
One moment from my time at late September's G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh has stuck in my mind: the image of about 300 police officers in full riot gear and backed up by armored vehicles sporting various non-lethal weapons, including the sonic cannon, blocking off three of the four streets of an intersection.
These officers were deployed at this location to break up an unpermitted protest march, dubbed the "People's Uprising," on the first day of the summit. The officers' presence was much larger than that of the protesters, and they seemed more confident of and prepared for imminent violence than any of the marchers.
Not surprisingly, violence did occur, as attempts by the police to disperse the protesters, including arrests and the use of tear gas, led to a retreat en masse by the protesters, some confrontations between protesters and police, and sporadic instances of property destruction.
The police's behavior typified the disproportionate force they used throughout the summit. Hours after the People's Uprising, police continued to occupy the area surrounding the march, blocking off entire streets and displacing some from their homes or businesses for hours. During this time they arrested multiple individuals and fired on protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas.
The two arrests I witnessed during this period where particularly shocking. First, I was standing with a group of people on a street corner close to a police line. When the police decided to move forward about fifteen feet, they ordered us off the corner and across two lanes of traffic. The officers immediately apprehended one of the members who didn't move fast enough.
The second arrest involved a protester who had filmed this first arrest. About ten minutes after ordering us to move, two officers charged down the street filled with 50 people and tackled a man to the ground. A person who knew the arrested man reported that he had been bruised and bloodied during the arrest and that his video camera had been smashed. He also said he witnessed a policeman pointing out protesters to his fellow officers and suggested that his apprehended friend had been targeted for video recording the other arrest.
Members of the ACLU were on hand to gather information about detained protesters and to monitor police action during the demonstrations.
That night another rally at Schenley Plaza near the University of Pittsburgh, ironically organized in protest of police brutality and in solidarity with those arrested, was violently dispersed by police and many more people were arrested. While a permitted protest march the next day of nearly 5,000 participants was peaceful, it was accompanied by a police presence of more than 1,000 officers. (Other reporting indicated that about 5,000 officers had been called up for security that weekend.) Then, that evening, the incident repeated itself at Schenley Plaza, with more arrests and another jail solidarity protest violently dispersed by the police.
It must be said that during all of these events, there were participants who planned to commit acts of vandalism and destruction, and they did succeed in causing about $50,000 worth of damage, $20,000 of which was reportedly caused by a single demonstrator. But these violent protesters made up only a fraction of the demonstrators, and they necessitated a proportional police response, not overwhelming force, to stymie their efforts.
Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Police Department instead treated all protesters as if they were violent. When applied, force and arrests were used indiscriminately, with protesters and non-protesters (including a number of University of Pittsburgh students) being targeted.
These experiences left me with a central question: What was the point of law enforcement's harsh treatment of protesters? It was clear that the amount of security dedicated to the demonstrations was excessive. I also have little doubt that the tactics used against these demonstrators instigated the violence that occurred, making them highly ineffective crowd-control methods. Even if some of the protesters were motivated to disturb the peace, these individuals appeared not to have the means or the organization to cause much damage to the city or to present any threat to the G-20 delegates.
The disproportionate police response had no goal other than to intimidate, and this was the most disturbing aspect of the police's actions. They seemed purposeless, acting only to demonstrate the force and authority they had been granted and to try out the new toys they had obtained. For example, they proudly claimed during the protests that they were the first police force in the United States to publicly use the sonic cannon.
As a nation, we allowed this to happen. As they have done many times before, the public and media stood by with seemingly little notice or concern. Because of the marginal nature of the political ideas represented by these protesters, few cared to stand up in their defense.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Police officers arrested several demonstrators during the Pittsburgh summit.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Many people took to the streets in favor of economic and social justice.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
A line of officers monitored the parade of demonstrators during the second day of protests.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
Many people took to the streets in favor of economic and social justice.
Media Credit: Hugh Schlesinger
A line of officers monitored the parade of demonstrators during the second day of protests.
YOUTUBE.COM VIDEOS ON PITTSBURGH G-20 SUMMIT PROTESTORS AND ACTIONS
MILITARY ATTACKS PROTESTORS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqU3-MLycLc
CAMOPHLAGE TROOPS BLACK ONE IN TAN – WHITE ONE IN GREEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZFvJn04_hs
CAMOPHLAGE ABDUCTION – 1 WHITE/1 BLACK – BLACK ONE NOW, IN GREEN NOT TAN CAMOPHLAGE-WHITE VICTIM-WHITE DRIVER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-TqMDthnEo
CAMOPHLAGE DENIES ASSIGNMENT/ DUTY AUTHORITY TO TAKE PROTESTERS INTO CUSTODY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zvxk0Tn0v8
ENGLAND – TOMLINSON DEATH – POLICE ABUSE ON MAN WITH HIS HANDS IN HIS POCKETS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ
OBSERVING STUDENTS TRAPPED ON STAIRCASE – POLICE INVADED STAIRWAY OF RESIDENCE HALL AND BLOCKED THEM AT TOP AND BOTTOM OF STAIRS – THEY WERE ONLY WATCHING FROM ABOVE THE STREET- BATON JAB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNyV7UQJpyY
NYPD POLICE BEAT UP PGH TIBET PROTESTORS AND ARE TAZERING (?) SEVERAL DURING GANG PIN DOWN – VICTIM CANNOT STAND – LAYING AROUND ON STREET AFTERWARDS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbfA5q0QaNI
TV NEWS REPORT LOOKIN VERY BAD FOR PGH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CYknz7FCQ
ARRESTS – CAMERAS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_acjSiJRbo
PRESIDENT BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA
2009 G-20 SPEECH
Leaders' Statement:
The Pittsburgh Summit September 24 – 25, 2009
PREAMBLE
1. We meet in the midst of a critical transition from crisis to recovery to turn the page on an era of irresponsibility and to adopt a set of policies, regulations and reforms to meet the needs of the 21st century global economy.
2. When we last gathered in April, we confronted the greatest challenge to the world economy in our generation.
3. Global output was contracting at pace not seen since the 1930s. Trade was plummeting. Jobs were disappearing rapidly. Our people worried that the world was on the edge of a depression.
4. At that time, our countries agreed to do everything necessary to ensure recovery, to repair our financial systems and to maintain the global flow of capital.
5. It worked.
6. Our forceful response helped stop the dangerous, sharp decline in global activity and stabilize financial markets. Industrial output is now rising in nearly all our economies. International trade is starting to recover. Our financial institutions are raising needed capital, financial markets are showing a willingness to invest and lend, and confidence has improved.
7. Today, we reviewed the progress we have made since the London Summit in April. Our national commitments to restore growth resulted in the largest and most coordinated fiscal and monetary stimulus ever undertaken. We acted together to increase dramatically the resources necessary to stop the crisis from spreading around the world. We took steps to fix the broken regulatory system and started to implement sweeping reforms to reduce the risk that financial excesses will again destabilize the global economy.
8. A sense of normalcy should not lead to complacency.
9. The process of recovery and repair remains incomplete. In many countries, unemployment remains unacceptably high. The conditions for a recovery of private demand are not yet fully in place. We cannot rest until the global economy is restored to full health, and hard-working families the world over can find decent jobs.
10. We pledge today to sustain our strong policy response until a durable recovery is secured. We will act to ensure that when growth returns, jobs do too. We will avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus. At the same time, we will prepare our exit strategies and, when the time is right, withdraw our extraordinary policy support in a cooperative and coordinated way, maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility.
11. Even as the work of recovery continues, we pledge to adopt the policies needed to lay the foundation for strong, sustained and balanced growth in the 21st century. We recognize that we have to act forcefully to overcome the legacy of the recent, severe global economic crisis and to help people cope with the consequences of this crisis. We want growth without cycles of boom and bust and markets that foster responsibility not recklessness.
12. Today we agreed:
13. To launch a framework that lays out the policies and the way we act together to generate strong, sustainable and balanced global growth. We need a durable recovery that creates the good jobs our people need.
14. We need to shift from public to private sources of demand, establish a pattern of growth across countries that is more sustainable and balanced, and reduce development imbalances. We pledge to avoid destabilizing booms and busts in asset and credit prices and adopt macroeconomic policies, consistent with price stability, that promote adequate and balanced global demand. We will also make decisive progress on structural reforms that foster private demand and strengthen long-run growth potential.
15. Our Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth is a compact that commits us to work together to assess how our policies fit together, to evaluate whether they are collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced growth, and to act as necessary to meet our common objectives.
16. To make sure our regulatory system for banks and other financial firms reins in the excesses that led to the crisis. Where reckless behavior and a lack of responsibility led to crisis, we will not allow a return to banking as usual.
17. We committed to act together to raise capital standards, to implement strong international compensation standards aimed at ending practices that lead to excessive risk-taking, to improve the over-the-counter derivatives market and to create more powerful tools to hold large global firms to account for the risks they take. Standards for large global financial firms should be commensurate with the cost of their failure. For all these reforms, we have set for ourselves strict and precise timetables.
18. To reform the global architecture to meet the needs of the 21st century. After this crisis, critical players need to be at the table and fully vested in our institutions to allow us to cooperate to lay the foundation for strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
19. We designated the G-20 to be the premier forum for our international economic cooperation. We established the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to include major emerging economies and welcome its efforts to coordinate and monitor progress in strengthening financial regulation.
20. We are committed to a shift in International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota share to dynamic emerging markets and developing countries of at least 5% from over-represented countries to under-represented countries using the current quota formula as the basis to work from. Today we have delivered on our promise to contribute over $500 billion to a renewed and expanded IMF New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB).
21. We stressed the importance of adopting a dynamic formula at the World Bank which primarily reflects countries’ evolving economic weight and the World Bank’s development mission, and that generates an increase of at least 3% of voting power for developing and transition countries, to the benefit of under-represented countries. While recognizing that over-represented countries will make a contribution, it will be important to protect the voting power of the smallest poor countries. We called on the World Bank to play a leading role in responding to problems whose nature requires globally coordinated action, such as climate change and food security, and agreed that the World Bank and the regional development banks should have sufficient resources to address these challenges and fulfill their mandates.
22. To take new steps to increase access to food, fuel and finance among the world’s poorest while clamping down on illicit outflows. Steps to reduce the development gap can be a potent driver of global growth.
23. Over four billion people remain undereducated, ill-equipped with capital and technology, and insufficiently integrated into the global economy. We need to work together to make the policy and institutional changes needed to accelerate the convergence of living standards and productivity in developing and emerging economies to the levels of the advanced economies. To start, we call on the World Bank to develop a new trust fund to support the new Food Security Initiative for low-income countries announced last summer. We will increase, on a voluntary basis, funding for programs to bring clean affordable energy to the poorest, such as the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program.
24. To phase out and rationalize over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support for the poorest. Inefficient fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, reduce our energy security, impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to deal with the threat of climate change.
25. We call on our Energy and Finance Ministers to report to us their implementation strategies and timeline for acting to meet this critical commitment at our next meeting.
26. We will promote energy market transparency and market stability as part of our broader effort to avoid excessive volatility.
27. To maintain our openness and move toward greener, more sustainable growth.
28. We will fight protectionism. We are committed to bringing the Doha Round to a successful conclusion in 2010.
29. We will spare no effort to reach agreement in Copenhagen through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.
30. We warmly welcome the report by the Chair of the London Summit commissioned at our last meeting and published today.
31. Finally, we agreed to meet in Canada in June 2010 and in Korea in November 2010. We expect to meet annually thereafter and will meet in France in 2011.
* * * 1. We assessed the progress we have made together in addressing the global crisis and agreed to maintain our steps to support economic activity until recovery is assured. We further committed to additional steps to ensure strong, sustainable, and balanced growth, to build a stronger international financial system, to reduce development imbalances, and to modernize our architecture for international economic cooperation.
A Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth
2. The growth of the global economy and the success of our coordinated effort to respond to the recent crisis have increased the case for more sustained and systematic international cooperation. In the short-run, we must continue to implement our stimulus programs to support economic activity until recovery clearly has taken hold. We also need to develop a transparent and credible process for withdrawing our extraordinary fiscal, monetary and financial sector support, to be implemented when recovery becomes fully secured. We task our Finance Ministers, working with input from the IMF and FSB, at their November meeting to continue developing cooperative and coordinated exit strategies recognizing that the scale, timing, and sequencing of this process will vary across countries or regions and across the type of policy measures. Credible exit strategies should be designed and communicated clearly to anchor expectations and reinforce confidence.
3. The IMF estimates that world growth will resume this year and rise by nearly 3% by the end of 2010. Subsequently, our objective is to return the world to high, sustainable, and balanced growth, while maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility and sustainability, with reforms to increase our growth potential and capacity to generate jobs and policies designed to avoid both the re-creation of asset bubbles and the re-emergence of unsustainable global financial flows. We commit to put in place the necessary policy measures to achieve these outcomes.
4. We will need to work together as we manage the transition to a more balanced pattern of global growth. The crisis and our initial policy responses have already produced significant shifts in the pattern and level of growth across countries. Many countries have already taken important steps to expand domestic demand, bolstering global activity and reducing imbalances. In some countries, the rise in private saving now underway will, in time, need to be augmented by a rise in public saving. Ensuring a strong recovery will necessitate adjustments across different parts of the global economy, while requiring macroeconomic policies that promote adequate and balanced global demand as well as decisive progress on structural reforms that foster private domestic demand, narrow the global development gap, and strengthen long-run growth potential. The IMF estimates that only with such adjustments and realignments, will global growth reach a strong, sustainable, and balanced pattern. While governments have started moving in the right direction, a shared understanding and deepened dialogue will help build a more stable, lasting, and sustainable pattern of growth. Raising living standards in the emerging markets and developing countries is also a critical element in achieving sustainable growth in the global economy.
5. Today we are launching a Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth. To put in place this framework, we commit to develop a process whereby we set out our objectives, put forward policies to achieve these objectives, and together assess our progress. We will ask the IMF to help us with its analysis of how our respective national or regional policy frameworks fit together. We will ask the World Bank to advise us on progress in promoting development and poverty reduction as part of the rebalancing of global growth. We will work together to ensure that our fiscal, monetary, trade, and structural policies are collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced trajectories of growth. We will undertake macro prudential and regulatory policies to help prevent credit and asset price cycles from becoming forces of destabilization. As we commit to implement a new, sustainable growth model, we should encourage work on measurement methods so as to better take into account the social and environmental dimensions of economic development.
6. We call on our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to launch the new Framework by November by initiating a cooperative process of mutual assessment of our policy frameworks and the implications of those frameworks for the pattern and sustainability of global growth. We believe that regular consultations, strengthened cooperation on macroeconomic policies, the exchange of experiences on structural policies, and ongoing assessment will promote the adoption of sound policies and secure a healthy global economy. Our compact is that:
G-20 members will agree on shared policy objectives. These objectives should be updated as conditions evolve. G-20 members will set out our medium-term policy frameworks and will work together to assess the collective implications of our national policy frameworks for the level and pattern of global growth and to identify potential risks to financial stability. G-20 Leaders will consider, based on the results of the mutual assessment, and agree any actions to meet our common objectives. 7. This process will only be successful if it is supported by candid, even-handed, and balanced analysis of our policies. We ask the IMF to assist our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in this process of mutual assessment by developing a forward-looking analysis of whether policies pursued by individual G-20 countries are collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced trajectories for the global economy, and to report regularly to both the G-20 and the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), building on the IMF’s existing bilateral and multilateral surveillance analysis, on global economic developments, patterns of growth and suggested policy adjustments. Our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will elaborate this process at their November meeting and we will review the results of the first mutual assessment at our next summit.
8. These policies will help us to meet our responsibility to the community of nations to build a more resilient international financial system and to reduce development imbalances.
9. Building on Chancellor Merkel’s proposed Charter, on which we will continue to work, we adopted today Core Values for Sustainable Economic Activity, which will include those of propriety, integrity, and transparency, and which will underpin the Framework.
Strengthening the International Financial Regulatory System
10. Major failures of regulation and supervision, plus reckless and irresponsible risk taking by banks and other financial institutions, created dangerous financial fragilities that contributed significantly to the current crisis. A return to the excessive risk taking prevalent in some countries before the crisis is not an option.
11. Since the onset of the global crisis, we have developed and begun implementing sweeping reforms to tackle the root causes of the crisis and transform the system for global financial regulation. Substantial progress has been made in strengthening prudential oversight, improving risk management, strengthening transparency, promoting market integrity, establishing supervisory colleges, and reinforcing international cooperation. We have enhanced and expanded the scope of regulation and oversight, with tougher regulation of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, securitization markets, credit rating agencies, and hedge funds. We endorse the institutional strengthening of the FSB through its Charter, following its establishment in London, and welcome its reports to Leaders and Ministers. The FSB’s ongoing efforts to monitor progress will be essential to the full and consistent implementation of needed reforms. We call on the FSB to report on progress to the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in advance of the next Leaders summit.
12. Yet our work is not done. Far more needs to be done to protect consumers, depositors, and investors against abusive market practices, promote high quality standards, and help ensure the world does not face a crisis of the scope we have seen. We are committed to take action at the national and international level to raise standards together so that our national authorities implement global standards consistently in a way that ensures a level playing field and avoids fragmentation of markets, protectionism, and regulatory arbitrage. Our efforts to deal with impaired assets and to encourage the raising of additional capital must continue, where needed. We commit to conduct robust, transparent stress tests as needed. We call on banks to retain a greater proportion of current profits to build capital, where needed, to support lending. Securitization sponsors or originators should retain a part of the risk of the underlying assets, thus encouraging them to act prudently. It is important to ensure an adequate balance between macroprudential and microprudential regulation to control risks, and to develop the tools necessary to monitor and assess the buildup of macroprudential risks in the financial system. In addition, we have agreed to improve the regulation, functioning, and transparency of financial and commodity markets to address excessive commodity price volatility.
13. As we encourage the resumption of lending to households and businesses, we must take care not to spur a return of the practices that led to the crisis. The steps we are taking here, when fully implemented, will result in a fundamentally stronger financial system than existed prior to the crisis. If we all act together, financial institutions will have stricter rules for risk-taking, governance that aligns compensation with long-term performance, and greater transparency in their operations. All firms whose failure could pose a risk to financial stability must be subject to consistent, consolidated supervision and regulation with high standards. Our reform is multi-faceted but at its core must be stronger capital standards, complemented by clear incentives to mitigate excessive risk-taking practices. Capital allows banks to withstand those losses that inevitably will come. It, together with more powerful tools for governments to wind down firms that fail, helps us hold firms accountable for the risks that they take. Building on their Declaration on Further Steps to Strengthen the International Financial System, we call on our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to reach agreement on an international framework of reform in the following critical areas:
Building high quality capital and mitigating pro-cyclicality: We commit to developing by end-2010 internationally agreed rules to improve both the quantity and quality of bank capital and to discourage excessive leverage. These rules will be phased in as financial conditions improve and economic recovery is assured, with the aim of implementation by end-2012. The national implementation of higher level and better quality capital requirements, counter-cyclical capital buffers, higher capital requirements for risky products and off-balance sheet activities, as elements of the Basel II Capital Framework, together with strengthened liquidity risk requirements and forward-looking provisioning, will reduce incentives for banks to take excessive risks and create a financial system better prepared to withstand adverse shocks. We welcome the key measures recently agreed by the oversight body of the Basel Committee to strengthen the supervision and regulation of the banking sector. We support the introduction of a leverage ratio as a supplementary measure to the Basel II risk-based framework with a view to migrating to a Pillar 1 treatment based on appropriate review and calibration. To ensure comparability, the details of the leverage ratio will be harmonized internationally, fully adjusting for differences in accounting. All major G-20 financial centers commit to have adopted the Basel II Capital Framework by 2011. Reforming compensation practices to support financial stability: Excessive compensation in the financial sector has both reflected and encouraged excessive risk taking. Reforming compensation policies and practices is an essential part of our effort to increase financial stability. We fully endorse the implementation standards of the FSB aimed at aligning compensation with long-term value creation, not excessive risk-taking, including by (i) avoiding multi-year guaranteed bonuses; (ii) requiring a significant portion of variable compensation to be deferred, tied to performance and subject to appropriate clawback and to be vested in the form of stock or stock-like instruments, as long as these create incentives aligned with long-term value creation and the time horizon of risk; (iii) ensuring that compensation for senior executives and other employees having a material impact on the firm’s risk exposure align with performance and risk; (iv) making firms’ compensation policies and structures transparent through disclosure requirements; (v) limiting variable compensation as a percentage of total net revenues when it is inconsistent with the maintenance of a sound capital base; and (vi) ensuring that compensation committees overseeing compensation policies are able to act independently. Supervisors should have the responsibility to review firms’ compensation policies and structures with institutional and systemic risk in mind and, if necessary to offset additional risks, apply corrective measures, such as higher capital requirements, to those firms that fail to implement sound compensation policies and practices. Supervisors should have the ability to modify compensation structures in the case of firms that fail or require extraordinary public intervention. We call on firms to implement these sound compensation practices immediately. We task the FSB to monitor the implementation of FSB standards and propose additional measures as required by March 2010. Improving over-the-counter derivatives markets: All standardized OTC derivative contracts should be traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms, where appropriate, and cleared through central counterparties by end-2012 at the latest. OTC derivative contracts should be reported to trade repositories. Non-centrally cleared contracts should be subject to higher capital requirements. We ask the FSB and its relevant members to assess regularly implementation and whether it is sufficient to improve transparency in the derivatives markets, mitigate systemic risk, and protect against market abuse. Addressing cross-border resolutions and systemically important financial institutions by end-2010: Systemically important financial firms should develop internationally-consistent firm-specific contingency and resolution plans. Our authorities should establish crisis management groups for the major cross-border firms and a legal framework for crisis intervention as well as improve information sharing in times of stress. We should develop resolution tools and frameworks for the effective resolution of financial groups to help mitigate the disruption of financial institution failures and reduce moral hazard in the future. Our prudential standards for systemically important institutions should be commensurate with the costs of their failure. The FSB should propose by the end of October 2010 possible measures including more intensive supervision and specific additional capital, liquidity, and other prudential requirements. 14. We call on our international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve a single set of high quality, global accounting standards within the context of their independent standard setting process, and complete their convergence project by June 2011. The International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) institutional framework should further enhance the involvement of various stakeholders.
15. Our commitment to fight non-cooperative jurisdictions (NCJs) has produced impressive results. We are committed to maintain the momentum in dealing with tax havens, money laundering, proceeds of corruption, terrorist financing, and prudential standards. We welcome the expansion of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information, including the participation of developing countries, and welcome the agreement to deliver an effective program of peer review. The main focus of the Forum’s work will be to improve tax transparency and exchange of information so that countries can fully enforce their tax laws to protect their tax base. We stand ready to use countermeasures against tax havens from March 2010. We welcome the progress made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing and call upon the FATF to issue a public list of high risk jurisdictions by February 2010. We call on the FSB to report progress to address NCJs with regards to international cooperation and information exchange in November 2009 and to initiate a peer review process by February 2010.
16. We task the IMF to prepare a report for our next meeting with regard to the range of options countries have adopted or are considering as to how the financial sector could make a fair and substantial contribution toward paying for any burdens associated with government interventions to repair the banking system.
Modernizing our Global Institutions to Reflect Today’s Global Economy
17. Modernizing the international financial institutions and global development architecture is essential to our efforts to promote global financial stability, foster sustainable development, and lift the lives of the poorest. We warmly welcome Prime Minister Brown’s report on his review of the responsiveness and adaptability of the international financial institutions (IFIs) and ask our Finance Ministers to consider its conclusions.
Reforming the Mandate, Mission and Governance of the IMF
18. Our commitment to increase the funds available to the IMF allowed it to stem the spread of the crisis to emerging markets and developing countries. This commitment and the innovative steps the IMF has taken to create the facilities needed for its resources to be used efficiently and flexibly have reduced global risks. Capital again is flowing to emerging economies.
19. We have delivered on our promise to treble the resources available to the IMF. We are contributing over $500 billion to a renewed and expanded IMF New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB). The IMF has made Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocations of $283 billion in total, more than $100 billion of which will supplement emerging market and developing countries’ existing reserve assets. Resources from the agreed sale of IMF gold, consistent with the IMF’s new income model, and funds from internal and other sources will more than double the Fund’s medium-term concessional lending capacity.
20. Our collective response to the crisis has highlighted both the benefits of international cooperation and the need for a more legitimate and effective IMF. The Fund must play a critical role in promoting global financial stability and rebalancing growth. We welcome the reform of IMF’s lending facilities, including the creation of the innovative Flexible Credit Line. The IMF should continue to strengthen its capacity to help its members cope with financial volatility, reducing the economic disruption from sudden swings in capital flows and the perceived need for excessive reserve accumulation. As recovery takes hold, we will work together to strengthen the Fund’s ability to provide even-handed, candid and independent surveillance of the risks facing the global economy and the international financial system. We ask the IMF to support our effort under the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth through its surveillance of our countries’ policy frameworks and their collective implications for financial stability and the level and pattern of global growth.
21. Modernizing the IMF’s governance is a core element of our effort to improve the IMF’s credibility, legitimacy, and effectiveness. We recognize that the IMF should remain a quota-based organization and that the distribution of quotas should reflect the relative weights of its members in the world economy, which have changed substantially in view of the strong growth in dynamic emerging market and developing countries. To this end, we are committed to a shift in quota share to dynamic emerging market and developing countries of at least five percent from over-represented to under-represented countries using the current IMF quota formula as the basis to work from. We are also committed to protecting the voting share of the poorest in the IMF. On this basis and as part of the IMF’s quota review, to be completed by January 2011, we urge an acceleration of work toward bringing the review to a successful conclusion. As part of that review, we agree that a number of other critical issues will need to be addressed, including: the size of any increase in IMF quotas, which will have a bearing on the ability to facilitate change in quota shares; the size and composition of the Executive Board; ways of enhancing the Board’s effectiveness; and the Fund Governors’ involvement in the strategic oversight of the IMF. Staff diversity should be enhanced. As part of a comprehensive reform package, we agree that the heads and senior leadership of all international institutions should be appointed through an open, transparent and merit-based process. We must urgently implement the package of IMF quota and voice reforms agreed in April 2008.
Reforming the Mission, Mandate and Governance of Our Development banks
22. The Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) responded to our April call to accelerate and expand lending to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the world’s poorest with streamlined facilities, new tools and facilities, and a rapid increase in their lending. They are on track to deliver the promised $100 billion in additional lending. We welcome and encourage the MDBs to continue making full use of their balance sheets. We also welcome additional measures such as the temporary use of callable capital contributions from a select group of donors as was done at the InterAmerican Development Bank (IaDB). Our Finance Ministers should consider how mechanisms such as temporary callable and contingent capital could be used in the future to increase MDB lending at times of crisis. We reaffirm our commitment to ensure that the Multilateral Development Banks and their concessional lending facilities, especially the International Development Agency (IDA) and the African Development Fund, are appropriately funded.
23. Even as we work to mitigate the impact of the crisis, we must strengthen and reform the global development architecture for responding to the world’s long-term challenges.
24. We agree that development and reducing global poverty are central to the development banks’ core mission. The World Bank and other multilateral development banks are also critical to our ability to act together to address challenges, such as climate change and food security, which are global in nature and require globally coordinated action. The World Bank, working with the regional development banks and other international organizations, should strengthen:
its focus on food security through enhancements in agricultural productivity and access to technology, and improving access to food, in close cooperation with relevant specialized agencies; its focus on human development and security in the poorest and most challenging environments; support for private-sector led growth and infrastructure to enhance opportunities for the poorest, social and economic inclusion, and economic growth; and contributions to financing the transition to a green economy through investment in sustainable clean energy generation and use, energy efficiency and climate resilience; this includes responding to countries needs to integrate climate change concerns into their core development strategies, improved domestic policies, and to access new sources of climate finance. 25. To enhance their effectiveness, the World Bank and the regional development banks should strengthen their coordination, when appropriate, with other bilateral and multilateral institutions. They should also strengthen recipient country ownership of strategies and programs and allow adequate policy space.
26. We will help ensure the World Bank and the regional development banks have sufficient resources to fulfill these four challenges and their development mandate, including through a review of their general capital increase needs to be completed by the first half of 2010. Additional resources must be joined to key institutional reforms to ensure effectiveness: greater coordination and a clearer division of labor; an increased commitment to transparency, accountability, and good corporate governance; an increased capacity to innovate and achieve demonstrable results; and greater attention to the needs of the poorest populations.
27. We commit to pursue governance and operational effectiveness reform in conjunction with voting reform to ensure that the World Bank is relevant, effective, and legitimate. We stress the importance of moving towards equitable voting power in the World Bank over time through the adoption of a dynamic formula which primarily reflects countries’ evolving economic weight and the World Bank’s development mission, and that generates in the next shareholding review a significant increase of at least 3% of voting power for developing and transition countries, in addition to the 1.46% increase under the first phase of this important adjustment, to the benefit of under-represented countries. While recognizing that over-represented countries will make a contribution, it will be important to protect the voting power of the smallest poor countries. We recommit to reaching agreement by the 2010 Spring Meetings.
Energy Security and Climate Change
28. Access to diverse, reliable, affordable and clean energy is critical for sustainable growth. Inefficient markets and excessive volatility negatively affect both producers and consumers. Noting the St. Petersburg Principles on Global Energy Security, which recognize the shared interest of energy producing, consuming and transiting countries in promoting global energy security, we individually and collectively commit to:
Increase energy market transparency and market stability by publishing complete, accurate, and timely data on oil production, consumption, refining and stock levels, as appropriate, on a regular basis, ideally monthly, beginning by January 2010. We note the Joint Oil Data Initiative as managed by the International Energy Forum (IEF) and welcome their efforts to examine the expansion of their data collection to natural gas. We will improve our domestic capabilities to collect energy data and improve energy demand and supply forecasting and ask the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to ramp up their efforts to assist interested countries in developing those capabilities. We will strengthen the producer-consumer dialogue to improve our understanding of market fundamentals, including supply and demand trends, and price volatility, and note the work of the IEF experts group. Improve regulatory oversight of energy markets by implementing the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) recommendations on commodity futures markets and calling on relevant regulators to collect data on large concentrations of trader positions on oil in our national commodities futures markets. We ask our relevant regulators to report back at our next meeting on progress towards implementation. We will direct relevant regulators to also collect related data on over-the-counter oil markets and to take steps to combat market manipulation leading to excessive price volatility. We call for further refinement and improvement of commodity market information, including through the publication of more detailed and disaggregated data, coordinated as far as possible internationally. We ask IOSCO to help national governments design and implement these policies, conduct further analysis including with regard with to excessive volatility, make specific recommendations, and to report regularly on our progress. 29. Enhancing our energy efficiency can play an important, positive role in promoting energy security and fighting climate change. Inefficient fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, distort markets, impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to deal with climate change. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the IEA have found that eliminating fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 by ten percent. Many countries are reducing fossil fuel subsidies while preventing adverse impact on the poorest. Building on these efforts and recognizing the challenges of populations suffering from energy poverty, we commit to:
Rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption. As we do that, we recognize the importance of providing those in need with essential energy services, including through the use of targeted cash transfers and other appropriate mechanisms. This reform will not apply to our support for clean energy, renewables, and technologies that dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will have our Energy and Finance Ministers, based on their national circumstances, develop implementation strategies and timeframes, and report back to Leaders at the next Summit. We ask the international financial institutions to offer support to countries in this process. We call on all nations to adopt policies that will phase out such subsidies worldwide. 30. We request relevant institutions, such as the IEA, OPEC, OECD, and World Bank, provide an analysis of the scope of energy subsidies and suggestions for the implementation of this initiative and report back at the next summit.
31. Increasing clean and renewable energy supplies, improving energy efficiency, and promoting conservation are critical steps to protect our environment, promote sustainable growth and address the threat of climate change. Accelerated adoption of economically sound clean and renewable energy technology and energy efficiency measures diversifies our energy supplies and strengthens our energy security. We commit to:
Stimulate investment in clean energy, renewables, and energy efficiency and provide financial and technical support for such projects in developing countries. Take steps to facilitate the diffusion or transfer of clean energy technology including by conducting joint research and building capacity. The reduction or elimination of barriers to trade and investment in this area are being discussed and should be pursued on a voluntary basis and in appropriate fora. 32. As leaders of the world’s major economies, we are working for a resilient, sustainable, and green recovery. We underscore anew our resolve to take strong action to address the threat of dangerous climate change. We reaffirm the objective, provisions, and principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including common but differentiated responsibilities. We note the principles endorsed by Leaders at the Major Economies Forum in L’Aquila, Italy. We will intensify our efforts, in cooperation with other parties, to reach agreement in Copenhagen through the UNFCCC negotiation. An agreement must include mitigation, adaptation, technology, and financing.
33. We welcome the work of the Finance Ministers and direct them to report back at their next meeting with a range of possible options for climate change financing to be provided as a resource to be considered in the UNFCCC negotiations at Copenhagen.
Strengthening Support for the Most Vulnerable
34. Many emerging and developing economies have made great strides in raising living standards as their economies converge toward the productivity levels and living standards of advanced economies. This process was interrupted by the crisis and is still far from complete. The poorest countries have little economic cushion to protect vulnerable populations from calamity, particularly as the financial crisis followed close on the heels of a global spike in food prices. We note with concern the adverse impact of the global crisis on low income countries’ (LICs) capacity to protect critical core spending in areas such as health, education, safety nets, and infrastructure. The UN's new Global Impact Vulnerability Alert System will help our efforts to monitor the impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable. We share a collective responsibility to mitigate the social impact of the crisis and to assure that all parts of the globe participate in the recovery.
35. The MDBs play a key role in the fight against poverty. We recognize the need for accelerated and additional concessional financial support to LICs to cushion the impact of the crisis on the poorest, welcome the increase in MDB lending during the crisis and support the MDBs having the resources needed to avoid a disruption of concessional financing to the most vulnerable countries. The IMF also has increased its concessional lending to LICs during the crisis. Resources from the sale of IMF gold, consistent with the new income model, and funds from internal and other sources will double the Fund’s medium-term concessional lending capacity.
36. Several countries are considering creating, on a voluntary basis, mechanisms that could allow, consistent with their national circumstances, the mobilization of existing SDR resources to support the IMF’s lending to the poorest countries. Even as we work to mitigate the impact of the crisis, we must strengthen and reform the global development architecture for responding to the world’s long-term challenges. We ask our relevant ministers to explore the benefits of a new crisis support facility in IDA to protect LICs from future crises and the enhanced use of financial instruments in protecting the investment plans of middle income countries from interruption in times of crisis, including greater use of guarantees.
37. We reaffirm our historic commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals and our respective Official Development Assistance (ODA) pledges, including commitments on Aid for Trade, debt relief, and those made at Gleneagles, especially to sub-Saharan Africa, to 2010 and beyond.
38. Even before the crisis, too many still suffered from hunger and poverty and even more people lack access to energy and finance. Recognizing that the crisis has exacerbated this situation, we pledge cooperation to improve access to food, fuel, and finance for the poor.
39. Sustained funding and targeted investments are urgently needed to improve long-term food security. We welcome and support the food security initiative announced in L’Aquila and efforts to further implement the Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security and to address excessive price volatility. We call on the World Bank to work with interested donors and organizations to develop a multilateral trust fund to scale-up agricultural assistance to low-income countries. This will help support innovative bilateral and multilateral efforts to improve global nutrition and build sustainable agricultural systems, including programs like those developed through the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP). It should be designed to ensure country ownership and rapid disbursement of funds, fully respecting the aid effectiveness principles agreed in Accra, and facilitate the participation of private foundations, businesses, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in this historic effort. These efforts should complement the UN Comprehensive Framework for Agriculture. We ask the World Bank, the African Development Bank, UN, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Food Programme (WFP) and other stakeholders to coordinate their efforts, including through country-led mechanisms, in order to complement and reinforce other existing multilateral and bilateral efforts to tackle food insecurity.
40. To increase access to energy, we will promote the deployment of clean, affordable energy resources to the developing world. We commit, on a voluntary basis, to funding programs that achieve this objective, such as the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program and the Energy for the Poor Initiative, and to increasing and more closely harmonizing our bilateral efforts.
41. We commit to improving access to financial services for the poor. We have agreed to support the safe and sound spread of new modes of financial service delivery capable of reaching the poor and, building on the example of micro finance, will scale up the successful models of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing. Working with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other international organizations, we will launch a G-20 Financial Inclusion Experts Group. This group will identify lessons learned on innovative approaches to providing financial services to these groups, promote successful regulatory and policy approaches and elaborate standards on financial access, financial literacy, and consumer protection. We commit to launch a G-20 SME Finance Challenge, a call to the private sector to put forward its best proposals for how public finance can maximize the deployment of private finance on a sustainable and scalable basis.
42. As we increase the flow of capital to developing countries, we also need to prevent its illicit outflow. We will work with the World Bank’s Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) program to secure the return of stolen assets to developing countries, and support other efforts to stem illicit outflows. We ask the FATF to help detect and deter the proceeds of corruption by prioritizing work to strengthen standards on customer due diligence, beneficial ownership and transparency. We note the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action and will work to increase the transparency of international aid flows by 2010. We call for the adoption and enforcement of laws against transnational bribery, such as the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, and the ratification by the G-20 of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the adoption during the third Conference of the Parties in Doha of an effective, transparent, and inclusive mechanism for the review of its implementation. We support voluntary participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which calls for regular public disclosure of payments by extractive industries to governments and reconciliation against recorded receipt of those funds by governments.
Putting Quality Jobs at the Heart of the Recovery
43. The prompt, vigorous and sustained response of our countries has saved or created millions of jobs. Based on International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates, our efforts will have created or saved at least 7 – 11 million jobs by the end of this year. Without sustained action, unemployment is likely to continue rising in many of our countries even after economies stabilize, with a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable segments of our population. As growth returns, every country must act to ensure that employment recovers quickly. We commit to implementing recovery plans that support decent work, help preserve employment, and prioritize job growth. In addition, we will continue to provide income, social protection, and training support for the unemployed and those most at risk of unemployment. We agree that the current challenges do not provide an excuse to disregard or weaken internationally recognized labor standards. To assure that global growth is broadly beneficial, we should implement policies consistent with ILO fundamental principles and rights at work.
44. Our new Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth requires structural reforms to create more inclusive labor markets, active labor market policies, and quality education and training programs. Each of our countries will need, through its own national policies, to strengthen the ability of our workers to adapt to changing market demands and to benefit from innovation and investments in new technologies, clean energy, environment, health, and infrastructure. It is no longer sufficient to train workers to meet their specific current needs; we should ensure access to training programs that support lifelong skills development and focus on future market needs. Developed countries should support developing countries to build and strengthen their capacities in this area. These steps will help to assure that the gains from new inventions and lifting existing impediments to growth are broadly shared.
45. We pledge to support robust training efforts in our growth strategies and investments. We recognize successful employment and training programs are often designed together with employers and workers, and we call on the ILO, in partnership with other organizations, to convene its constituents and NGOs to develop a training strategy for our consideration.
46. We agree on the importance of building an employment-oriented framework for future economic growth. In this context, we reaffirm the importance of the London Jobs Conference and Rome Social Summit. We also welcome the recently-adopted ILO Resolution on Recovering from the Crisis: A Global Jobs Pact, and we commit our nations to adopt key elements of its general framework to advance the social dimension of globalization. The international institutions should consider ILO standards and the goals of the Jobs Pact in their crisis and post-crisis analysis and policy-making activities.
47. To ensure our continued focus on employment policies, the Chair of the Pittsburgh Summit has asked his Secretary of Labor to invite our Employment and Labor Ministers to meet as a group in early 2010 consulting with labor and business and building on the upcoming OECD Labour and Employment Ministerial meeting on the jobs crisis. We direct our Ministers to assess the evolving employment situation, review reports from the ILO and other organizations on the impact of policies we have adopted, report on whether further measures are desirable, and consider medium-term employment and skills development policies, social protection programs, and best practices to ensure workers are prepared to take advantage of advances in science and technology.
An Open Global Economy
48. Continuing the revival in world trade and investment is essential to restoring global growth. It is imperative we stand together to fight against protectionism. We welcome the swift implementation of the $250 billion trade finance initiative. We will keep markets open and free and reaffirm the commitments made in Washington and London: to refrain from raising barriers or imposing new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions or implementing World Trade Organization (WTO) inconsistent measures to stimulate exports and commit to rectify such measures as they arise. We will minimize any negative impact on trade and investment of our domestic policy actions, including fiscal policy and action to support the financial sector. We will not retreat into financial protectionism, particularly measures that constrain worldwide capital flows, especially to developing countries. We will notify promptly the WTO of any relevant trade measures. We welcome the latest joint report from the WTO, OECD, IMF, and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and ask them to continue to monitor the situation within their respective mandates, reporting publicly on these commitments on a quarterly basis.
49. We remain committed to further trade liberalization. We are determined to seek an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Round in 2010, consistent with its mandate, based on the progress already made, including with regard to modalities. We understand the need for countries to directly engage with each other, within the WTO bearing in mind the centrality of the multilateral process, in order to evaluate and close the remaining gaps. We note that in order to conclude the negotiations in 2010, closing those gaps should proceed as quickly as possible. We ask our ministers to take stock of the situation no later than early 2010, taking into account the results of the work program agreed to in Geneva following the Delhi Ministerial, and seek progress on Agriculture, Non-Agricultural Market Access, as well as Services, Rules, Trade Facilitation and all other remaining issues. We will remain engaged and review the progress of the negotiations at our next meeting.
The Path from Pittsburgh
50. Today, we designated the G-20 as the premier forum for our international economic cooperation. We have asked our representatives to report back at the next meeting with recommendations on how to maximize the effectiveness of our cooperation. We agreed to have a G-20 Summit in Canada in June 2010, and in Korea in November 2010. We expect to meet annually thereafter, and will meet in France in 2011.
ANNEX: Core Values for Sustainable Economic Activity
1. The economic crisis demonstrates the importance of ushering in a new era of sustainable global economic activity grounded in responsibility. The current crisis has once again confirmed the fundamental recognition that our growth and prosperity are interconnected, and that no region of the globe can wall itself off in a globalized world economy.
2. We, the Leaders of the countries gathered for the Pittsburgh Summit, recognize that concerted action is needed to help our economies get back to stable ground and prosper tomorrow. We commit to taking responsible actions to ensure that every stakeholder – consumers, workers, investors, entrepreneurs – can participate in a balanced, equitable, and inclusive global economy.
3. We share the overarching goal to promote a broader prosperity for our people through balanced growth within and across nations; through coherent economic, social, and environmental strategies; and through robust financial systems and effective international collaboration.
4. We recognize that there are different approaches to economic development and prosperity, and that strategies to achieve these goals may vary according to countries’ circumstances.
5. We also agree that certain key principles are fundamental, and in this spirit we commit to respect the following core values:
We have a responsibility to ensure sound macroeconomic policies that serve long-term economic objectives and help avoid unsustainable global imbalances. We have a responsibility to reject protectionism in all its forms, support open markets, foster fair and transparent competition, and promote entrepreneurship and innovation across countries. We have a responsibility to ensure, through appropriate rules and incentives, that financial and other markets function based on propriety, integrity and transparency and to encourage businesses to support the efficient allocation of resources for sustainable economic performance. We have a responsibility to provide for financial markets that serve the needs of households, businesses and productive investment by strengthening oversight, transparency, and accountability. We have a responsibility to secure our future through sustainable consumption, production and use of resources that conserve our environment and address the challenge of climate change. We have a responsibility to invest in people by providing education, job training, decent work conditions, health care and social safety net support, and to fight poverty, discrimination, and all forms of social exclusion. We have a responsibility to recognize that all economies, rich and poor, are partners in building a sustainable and balanced global economy in which the benefits of economic growth are broadly and equitably shared. We also have a responsibility to achieve the internationally agreed development goals. We have a responsibility to ensure an international economic and financial architecture that reflects changes in the world economy and the new challenges of globalization.
G-20 Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth
1. Our countries have a shared responsibility to adopt policies to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth, to promote a resilient international financial system, and to reap the benefits of an open global economy. To this end, we recognize that our strategies will vary across countries. In our Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth, we will:
implement responsible fiscal policies, attentive to short-term flexibility considerations and longer-run sustainability requirements. strengthen financial supervision to prevent the re-emergence in the financial system of excess credit growth and excess leverage and undertake macro prudential and regulatory policies to help prevent credit and asset price cycles from becoming forces of destabilization. promote more balanced current accounts and support open trade and investment to advance global prosperity and growth sustainability, while actively rejecting protectionist measures. undertake monetary policies consistent with price stability in the context of market oriented exchange rates that reflect underlying economic fundamentals. undertake structural reforms to increase our potential growth rates and, where needed, improve social safety nets. promote balanced and sustainable economic development in order to narrow development imbalances and reduce poverty.
2. We recognize that the process to ensure more balanced global growth must be undertaken in an orderly manner. All G-20 members agree to address the respective weaknesses of their economies.
G-20 members with sustained, significant external deficits pledge to undertake policies to support private savings and undertake fiscal consolidation while maintaining open markets and strengthening export sectors. G-20 members with sustained, significant external surpluses pledge to strengthen domestic sources of growth. According to national circumstances this could include increasing investment, reducing financial markets distortions, boosting productivity in service sectors, improving social safety nets, and lifting constraints on demand growth. 3. Each G-20 member bears primary responsibility for the sound management of its economy. The G-20 members also have a responsibility to the community of nations to assure the overall health of the global economy. Regular consultations, strengthened cooperation on macroeconomic policies, the exchange of experiences on structural policies, and ongoing assessment can strengthen our cooperation and promote the adoption of sound policies. As part of our process of mutual assessment:
G-20 members will agree on shared policy objectives. These objectives should be updated as conditions evolve. G-20 members will set out their medium-term policy frameworks and will work together to assess the collective implications of our national policy frameworks for the level and pattern of global growth, and to identify potential risks to financial stability. G-20 leaders will consider, based on the results of the mutual assessment, and agree any actions to meet our common objectives. 4. We call on our Finance Ministers to develop our process of mutual assessment to evaluate the collective implications of national policies for the world economy. To accomplish this, our Finance Ministers should, with the assistance of the IMF:
Develop a forward looking assessment of G-20 economic developments to help analyze whether patterns of demand and supply, credit, debt and reserves growth are supportive of strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Assess the implications and consistency of fiscal and monetary policies, credit growth and asset markets, foreign exchange developments, commodity and energy prices, and current account imbalances. Report regularly to both the G-20 and the IMFC on global economic developments, key risks, and concerns with respect to patterns of growth and suggested G-20 policy adjustments, individually and collectively.
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