G20 Won’t Fix This Crisis. We The 99% Are Stepping In
22 November 2025
As G20 leaders continued their Summit in Johannesburg, less than 10km away in Constitution Hill, We The 99 People’s Summit For Global Economic Justice rejected the technocratic, complacent, and diplomatic defence of the status quo by the G20.
We the 99 calls for dismantling the system shaped by neoliberalism and neocolonial control that the G20 wants to preserve. A system where the 1% hoards wealth and power while the majority struggles to survive. The vision of We the 99 is to replace this with a new system rooted in justice and dignity, in solidarity and peace.
“The G20 talks about inequality, debt and climate crises as if they are an easy fix, like billionaires buying elections. They’re not. They are the result of political choices that put the profits of the 1% above the lives of the 99%,” said Jenny Ricks, General Secretary of Fight Inequality Alliance. “The G20 Declaration protects the same system that is pushing people into hunger, homelessness, and climate chaos. The G20 had the power to act. They chose not to”, she continued.
The G20 frames the crises as neutral global challenges. The People’s Summit conversations made clear that these crises are a product of racism, imperialism, and untrammelled billionaire power.
“Communities from Soweto to São Paulo are paying the price for decisions made in boardrooms and war rooms. The G20’s incremental tweaks won’t stop the suffering. People are rising because they are done waiting for leaders who refuse to challenge corporate power, colonial debt, and fossil fuel interests,” said Sekoetlane Phamodi, Director of New Economy Hub.
The We the 99 People’s Summit called to confront an economic system built on exploitation, inequality and colonial power. It states that today’s global crises: inequality, debt, climate breakdown, war, and repression, are not accidents but the result of a system designed to protect the 1% while harming the majority.
We the 99 People’s Summit clearly rejected this status quo and demanded a new economic order grounded in justice, dignity and collective power. It called for cancelling predatory debts, taxing the super-rich, stopping illicit financial flows, enforcing corporate accountability, ending fossil fuels, defending land and Indigenous rights, valuing care work, protecting civic freedoms, securing food sovereignty and ending occupation and genocide in Sudan, Palestine and elsewhere.
We The 99 call for a decisive shift away from a global system that protects the wealth of the few and towards one that guarantees dignity, care and sovereignty for all. Our future is not being built in summits and boardrooms. Our future is built in our communities, movements and streets across the world.
Note: We the 99 are validating our own People's Declaration of how the global economy must be governed to deliver the world a true and deep justice. We are doing this in a democratic and participatory process.
Media Contacts
- C. Anzio Jacobs – Communications Coordination - We, The 99% - Call: 0825704919. Email: anzio@mobilizeagency.co.za