How can we make poverty history?

Every year 10 million children die of hunger and preventable diseases. That’s more than the equivalent of the whole population of London dying for the lack of food, water and the cures for common diseases. That’s one child every 3 seconds. 

But there is no lack of wealth on the planet - the combined riches of billionaires has reached record levels – US$1.9 trillion in March 2004, an increase of US$500 billion in just one year.

The desire of ordinary people worldwide to make poverty history is unprecedented. International solidarity is shown by, for example, the billions of pounds in donations made to charities and the huge generosity of the response to the tsunami appeal. The British public donated over £365 million towards tsunami relief in the first six weeks after the disaster. Governments were put to shame.

          NOW WE MUST DEMONSTRATE

  We want to make poverty history. Do  they?

Compare the record of ordinary working and young people to the record of the G8.

The G8 is made up of the governments of the 8 richest countries on the planet. Tony

Blair and Gordon Brown say they want to put the aim of making poverty history on the agenda of the meeting in July. We have to ask ourselves the question: can we trust the G8 to fulfil their promises on poverty in Africa and protecting the environment?

Let’s look at the G8’s record so far on keeping promises :

In 1997 New Labour pledged to end child poverty but there are still three million children in poverty in Britain today. Yet since Tony Blair came to power the wealth of the top 1% of the population has doubled from £355billion to £797billion, which is more than the government spends in five years on the NHS, education and housing combined!

In 2004 the Bush administration spent ten times its foreign aid budget on war and occupation in Iraq. In 2005 the US will spend almost half a trillion dollars on the military and war.

In 1999 the G8 promised debt relief worth £52 billion to 42 countries but as of March 2005 only 27 countries had benefited, and cuts in public spending and privatisation of key services have been conditions of that debt relief.  The Adam Smith Institute has received over £36 million from the British government over the last 7 years to promote the privatisation of public services in the poorest countries.

Africa has lost 50p for every pound it receives in aid because of the fall in prices of the commodities Africa sells. And the list goes on and on.

      This track record poses a question :

 How committed are the likes of Blair, Bush, Schroeder, etc, to making poverty history?

Under pressure from our anger at poverty, Blair and Brown make promises but they have no intention of keeping them. While their promises say one thing, their actions prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of the G8 leaders are acting in the interests of  ordinary people in Britain, Germany, France, the US, etc. Instead they do the bidding of the big corporations.

    Make capitalism history…

The big corporations do not exist to end poverty or to improve society. They are driven solely by the need to maximise their profits. For them wages can never be too low, or public services too inadequate, or the cost of raw materials too cheap. Because the lower all these things are – the greater their profits.  The capitalist system we live under cannot make poverty history – because poverty is a fundamental part of capitalism. 

      If the governments are not capable

      If the corporations are not capable

      of making poverty history

       who is?

     We are!

The governments and the media present the poor as victims of misfortune or grateful recipients of aid from the rich West. They fail to tell the real story. Socialists, trade unionists and other activists in Africa, in Latin America and in the tsunami-affected countries are involved in many battles both with their governments and with the corporations that are denying them their rights. In fact, there are many examples of ordinary people organising to fight back, to fight for their rights and winning. A recent example is in Bolivia where a powerful movement of workers, peasants and indigenous peoples - the poorest people in the poorest country of Latin America – has stopped the privatisation plans of a French water company. Here in Britain public sector workers, by threatening strike action, have forced the government withdraw their plans to force workers to work until 65. 

We have to link these everyday struggles for our rights to the need to fundamentally change society.  It is this capitalist system that causes poverty. It is a system run for the profits of a few instead of the needs of the many.

   So what is the alternative?

Socialism is a system where the huge resources of the world are taken into the democratic ownership of the working class. Under capitalism the world's 3 richest people have wealth greater than the combined Gross Domestic Product (the value of all goods and services) of the world's 48 poorest nations. Under capitalism millions of tons of grain are dumped into the sea to maintain high prices despite the levels of starvation.

Under socialism we could plan for what we need and for the environment.  Those who promote and uphold the capitalist system tell us constantly that they cannot afford to cancel the debt, to feed the world, to provide us with even the basics. If that is so then we can no longer afford not to struggle to overthrow that system and replace it with democratic socialism, which has nothing in common with the horrific dictatorships that existed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

International Socialist Resistance is an international youth organisation. If you agree with us join us and fight alongside the working and young people of the world to make poverty history – to make capitalism history. Make socialism our future.

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