And this, from the superb Red Pepper blogs:
Bello and Jagger defy MPH spin doctors
As Red Pepper told you exclusively this month, Make Poverty History's organisers had been working overtime to stop any message coming out of today's Edinburgh rally that might embarrass the government. Whatever tomorrow's newspaper coverage says, they didn't completely succeed. Predictably, thousands defied the dress code and turned out wearing an array of colours and slogans (and selling the 57 varieties of socialist newspaper). But it was from the Make Poverty History stage that the embarassment was most acute. Prominent anti-globalisation figure, Walden Bello, who heads the Bangkok-based development NGO Focus on the Global South, took almost every opportunity from press conferences to the main stage to press home the issue of war and occupation in Iraq. One insider told Red Pepper that MPH organisers 'winced' each time Bello went off-script.
Another long-standing human rights campaigner, Bianca Jagger, urged the crowd to not 'follow false prophets'. If people really cared about ending poverty, she said, they must call for the end of the global economic system that makes poverty inevitable. 'We must demand the abolition of the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO,' Jagger said. Such words do not sit well with MPH's official line and directly contrdict New Labour's key role in all three institutions. In a withering rhetorical flourish that received huge applause and cheers from the thousands listening, she warned celebrities and protesters against becoming 'political tools, co-opted and used by the governments of the richest countries in the world'. The mere mention of Tony Blair brought loud boos. Jagger said that if Blair really cared about the issues as much he purports, he wouldn't be forcing trade liberalisation and privatisation of services on already vulnerable countries. She ended by chanting 'trade justice not trade liberalisation'. A true Rolling Stone.
Alex Nunns & Stuart Hodkinson
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Walden Bello keeps Iraq in the picture
Kathy Haywood interviews Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South
KH. Why did you call for everyone to wear multicoloured rather than white T-shirts to this march?
WB. From my point of view it reflects the rainbow colour coalition of all the forces in the global justice movement - it shows that this is a global movement. People should just speak their minds today. Of course we want to 'make poverty history' but we also want to 'make war history' and even as we demand an end to poverty we also must demand an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. I think that these values are indivisible: If you are against economic injustice you also have to be against political injustice and you also have to be for national sovereignty, human rights and democracy. This is why when you talk about feeling the pain of Africa - we cannot divorce the pain we feel for the 100,000 people dead in Iraq.
Are you disappointed with the lack of discussion on trade in the build up talks of the G8?
Free trade is destroying the developing world's industry. Monopolised trade is destroying their agriculture. What we want, what we are calling for and what we need is 'managed trade'. Trade should not be a priority over development. Development must come above free trade and above monopolised trade. But we are not disappointed that trade is not on the agenda; we were expecting that the G8 would not touch trade. Trade, together with capital flows, is one of the central forces impoverishing the world, from which the northern counties and governments really benefit. I think that with trade you are down to basic issues, so they want to skirt it. I don't think anything will come out of the G8 or the WTO on trade. It will come from popular opinion. I think that what the struggles over trade are all about is stopping bilateral agreements, stopping the WTO and derailing the ministerial meetings. It is people's organisations uniting with the governments of the south against this push for trade liberalisation that Blair, Bush, Burlusconi and the other G8 leaders, with the possible exception of Russia, are supporting. This G8 is made of governments that push the interests of corporations, and whose policies are making the lives of poor countries miserable.
What do you think of the close relationship between Blair and Make Poverty History?
Blair is trying very hard to associate himself with this movement. The role of NGOs is to distance themselves from him. He has done this through celebrity networks, which are also entwined with the justice movement, and I think it is important for us to point out that this is Blair's strategy. I think what he wants to do is deflect attention from Iraq and the British role in by posing as Africa's saviour. We can't let him get away with it. The British public won't let him get away with it. In a day or two they will reassert themselves, saying that basically the Blair government is mainly hype - simply deflection from Downing Street memos and the continuing support Blair has given to G Bush.
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Police stop black bloc joining MPH march
SH. Red Pepper warned you that Make Poverty History organisers wanted only white T-shirts on their march around Edinburgh's city centre and they were true to their word. Around 400 protesters, deliberately wearing black in opposition to the Make Poverty History whitewash on the G8's destructive global agenda, were prevented from joining the main 'welcome walk for the G8' by a huge battalion of police. The protesters were detained for around three hours and stopped and searched under Section 60. Several tried to break through police lines only to be beaten back. As protesters finally allowed those detained to disperse, they began following members of the Wombles.
However, the organisers did not have it all their own way. Despite the much-hyped appearance of Gordon Brown, the chancellor never showed up on the 'dignitaries' march'. And just before the 225,000-strong popular march was about to start, political satire group CRAP society (Capitalism Represents Acceptable Policy) hijacked the front of the demonstration with placards like 'Bomb Iran Next', 'Bring Back the Slave Trade', 'Make Money Not Love' and other such gems. While the corporate media went into a mass feeding frenzy, the Make Poverty History faithful were not amused. One man angrily snatched placards from the pranksters while others shouted 'shame'. Keep watchin' Indymedia UK.
Saturday, 02 July 2005 in Protest | Permalink
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Not hand outs, just butt out
Jim Jepps. The debate around the G8 should not just consist of rich Westerners talking to powerful Westerners about how to help the poor. So we spoke to Amancay Colque, an indigenous Bolivian activist, on her views about the G8. JJ. With the G8 meeting next week what are Bolivia's recent experiences of international institutions and their effects on the people of Bolivia?
AC. Well the Structural Adjustment (SAPs) which were imposed by the IMF upon the Bolivian Government, had tragic consequences for the population. The conditions seemed reasonable at the start: transparency, fight against corruption. Excellent we all agree with that, but the most important bit is to comply with the IMF programs (SAP's) which have caused so much harm to the Bolivian economy. The immediate effect was the privatisation of estate companies including water. The Cochabamba water company was privatised by Bechtel, whose primary goal was to accumulate capital to obtain loans and with that capital improve infrastructure, but accumulating capital from the poorest people of the world meant increasing the water bills from 30 per cent to 200 per cent.
JJ. What was the response of the Bolivian people?
AC. The almost natural response from the people was not only to resist the water rates increase by refusing to pay the bills but also to demand the rupture of the contract and to reject the new legislation approved by congress allowing water to be treated as a commodity. As the government took the side of the multinationals ordinary citizens were forced to create an umbrella organisation under which various social groups (trade unions, peasants, cocaleros, street vendors, neighbourhood associations, etc.) came together in order to recover the water company. That struggle took almost 5 months, and one life (Hugo Daza, 17 year old, shot by an army officer), and due to the level of struggle it is now known as the Water War.
JJ. There has been a debate in this country about how effective aid and debt relief are for the poorest nations in the world. What is your perspective on this?
AC. The biggest problem in Bolivia is unemployment, or sub-employment, the very few jobs available have become casual and low paid. This is why we see that industrialisation of the natural resources such as oil and gas as the first step that could help create proper jobs, and this in turn help to fund basic services such as health care and education. It is difficult to walk in the streets in El Alto in Bolivia without avoiding small children and elderly people, who are hungry. Children are begging for food, are crying of hunger, this in the same country where transnationals demand to keep their low taxes intact, where transnationals are self regulated. The contrast between the poor and the rich is shocking, the areas where the rich live are absolutely beautiful and enjoy every comfort available in developed countries, while in poor neighbourhoods, basic facilities such as water and sewage are missing.
JJ. Do you think the G8 leaders are likely to improve Bolivian conditions?
AC. The leaders of the G8 are not going to change or scrape SAPs which are currently the cause of the economic crisis in Bolivia. People in Bolivia consider that the external debt including interests has already being paid. Between 1971 and 2000, more than 6.64 billion dollars has been paid from Bolivia to the international organizations which in effect it means that almost 900 million dollars was paid in interests, bringing the external debt to zero.
JJ. Would Bolivia benefit from G8 debt relief?
Bolivia is not a debtor country, but a creditor one. Bolivia even before its formal creation, up to this day, it has sent its natural resources in large quantities to Europe, from silver, to nitrate and tin. The natural resources that have helped to create the developed world, were extracted by my ancestors at the cost of millions of lives. It is time to pay back. We demand that all transnational corporations leave the country, and return the money stolen from us. The transnationals looting Bolivia right now are the oil companies who refuse to acknowledge people's demands and that is Nationalisation. We demand justice!
You can read the IMF's document on what they thought was good for Bolivia here http://www.imf.org/external/NP/PFP/Bolivia/INDEX.HTM