Demonstrate at the G8

    Fight For Socialism

"It would be very odd if people came to protest against this G8, as we’re focusing on poverty in Africa and climate change… I don’t quite know what they’ll be protesting against."

As usual Blair has his finger right on the pulse of what young people in Britain are thinking!

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge

There will be massive protests at the G8 summit in Gleneagles on 2 July. Blair thinks that saying he is concerned about poverty in Africa will win him support but he is seen as a liar.

We do not trust Blair, Bush, Berlusconi or any of the G8 to sort out the world’s problems. They represent the profit system. They do the bidding of big business. They promote privatisation at home and around the world. They are incapable of making poverty history.

The Observer paints a picture of Gordon Brown shedding crocodile tears: "Clasping the hand of a man dying with Aids, a disease which kills two million in Africa each year, Gordon Brown was clearly struggling to control his emotion. "We are all brothers", the Chancellor said."

Yet, since 1997 Brown and the rest of New Labour have failed to increase aid to 0.7% of national income, a target set by the UN over 30 years ago. Britain currently pays 3.4%, around £3.83 billion, which according to World Vision means that Britain owes around £10 billion in aid.

Guilty

But Blair and Brown aren’t just guilty of not paying up - they also champion privatisation in the poorest countries. In South Africa, where 28% of people have been affected by HIV/AIDS, Johannesburg City Council has recently installed pre-paid water meters in a public private partnership with Northumbrian Water. Privatisation is forcing people to drink unsafe water from dirty rivers when they can’t afford to pay.

Blair and Brown have no alternative to the system that presides over the death of one child every 15 seconds from lack of clean water. They and other European suppliers are also selling the South African government $4.8 billion worth of warships and military aircraft. Their hopes of sainthood will be frustrated by their dogged obedience to the fat cats.

International Socialist Resistance (ISR) members and supporters of our ideas and campaigns have a serious task ahead of us at the G8. Hundreds of thousands of people will be marching against poverty. We will be marching against the capitalist system that sustains poverty and inequality.

We will be marching and arguing for socialism. We cannot leave the decisions about how and where the world’s resources are used in the hands of these people. We cannot leave the future of the planet to the whims of an unplanned, chaotic system. We are going to the G8 to register our anger but also to put forward an alternative, the socialist alternative.

 ISR will part of the huge demo on 2 July and is co-organising an international youth camp from 1-6 July with the International Socialists, the Scottish affiliate to the Committee for Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is an international socialist organisation with members in 40 countries around the world, including the International Socialists in Scotland and the Socialist Party in England and Wales.

We will organise a coach going from the camp each day to take people to the protests and meetings which are planned for the counter-summit. There will be an opportunity to participate in political discussions with socialists from all over Europe.

Come to the ISR international youth camp

2nd to 7th July

Travel to and from Edinburgh & camp including food and transport to all G8 counter-summit events

£85 unwaged/ low-paid, £105 waged

If you can’t make the whole week join ISR on the demonstration in Edinburgh on 2 July

Travel to and from 2nd of July Make Poverty History demo in Edinburgh from London

£35 unwaged/low-paid, £55 waged

For details of transport from your area to the 6 July demonstration phone 020 8558 7947 or email anticapitalism@hotmail.co.uk