G8/NATO summit, for beginners

The G8/NATO summit is set to take place this May in Chicago and will bring thousands of journalists and political leaders to the city. While the event draws nearer, the former of the two organizations remains as ambiguous as ever.

Nearly 70 people gathered Jan. 22 for a meeting on the fifth floor of the Kent Law School in downtown Chicago. The Coalition Against the NATO and G8 War & Poverty Agenda—or CANGATE, as the assembled group referred to themselves— was a combination of activist organizations from all around the city, ranging from Occupy Chicago participants, to anti-war veterans, to members of the Jewish Voice for Peace.

Despite stemming from many political ideologies and representing visibly different social classes, those in the room shared a common goal: To protest the G8/NATO summit set to take place in May in Chicago.

During the two-hour meeting, the coalition members went over their recent accomplishments—namely forcing Mayor Emanuel to back down on some of his security measures—and prepared an agenda for the tasks still ahead.

Toward the end, with a few people already starting to leave, members addressed their undecided protesting plans, and later, the common confusion over what the summit will actually entail.

Created in the 1970's, as a forum for the heads of governments of seven major economies, the United States, France, Canada, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and Japan; the Group 8 has since expanded to incorporate Russia as well. Meetings usually revolve around global economic issues, but that is changing.

Pat Hunt, a central leader of the Coalition, said for some, there is an awareness of G8 but they don't have as deep an understanding of G8 that they have of NATO.

"The authorities did us a great favor by having NATO and G8 meet at the same time," he said. "They have tied the two organizations together in a way that has not been done for decades. We don't have to show the connection; they did it for us."

Animesh Ghoshal, professor of economics at DePaul University, said G8 is continuously evolving.

"At the beginning, it used be low-key and very informal," he said. "The countries would get together to talk about their economic issues, and only that. Since then the G8 has become more elaborate and its agenda has broadened."

"G8 is not a typical institution," Erik Tillman, professor of political science said. "It doesn't have headquarters, or an administrative structure. Its agenda always changes."

"It's essentially an elite club of large, wealthy countries," Ghoshal said. "Anytime you have a grouping of large political leaders, there will be protests."

Meetings of the World Trade Organization, World Economic Forum, and the G8's larger sister-forum, the G20, are known for many things, one of them including the enormous, often violent, protests that bring together masses of people disappointed with the economic situation, global inequality, and the principles of the free market.

"The G8 has been very controversial in the past," Tillman said. "One reason has to do with membership—it reflects rich countries' perspective. Of course, they can get together to talk about their own economic problems, but when they also bring up issues of non-member countries - they get put in a tricky situation."

In that sense, the G8 has been criticized for not doing enough about the problems of the developing world. According to Arguments Against G8 by Gill Hubbard and David Miller, G8 has been slow to respond to the 2005 Tsunami in East Asia, global warming, and the AIDS epidemic. Notable critics of the organization include Noam Chomsky and British journalists George Monbiot and Mark Curtis.

"I don't think the G7, or the G8, has paid much attention to problems of developing countries," Ghoshal said. "The larger group, G20 is more attuned to this."