People Power Against Poverty

Thursday June 30: A Show of Strength

In the run-up to the Make Poverty History protest in Dublin, we had been putting up posters, leafleting, texting and emailing people to be there. In the end there was an overwhelming response to the call, with 20,000 taking part.

We marched to demand debt cancellation: only 18 countries receiving debt relief is not enough. We marched to demand more and better aid. And we marched to demand trade justice, not free trade. An Irish Anti War Movement banner called on the G8 leaders to ‘drop the debt instead of dropping bombs’ on Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Old age pensioners, nuns, families, children in buggies, trade unionists, NGOs, political parties, environmentalists, anti-war activists, anti-capitalists and socialists – they were all there, together creating a sea of white. Linking local and global exploitation by multinationals was a dragon with a large Shell sign on it that read: ‘Celtic tiger: global dragon’. Clearly, the protests in Mayo against the gas pipeline being installed by Shell were making an impression. It felt good to be part of this spontaneous upsurge of political commitment and passion…
The head of Trocaire Justin Kilcullen got the biggest cheer of the evening. He slammed the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, for failing to fulfil the promise made at the UN Assembly in 2000 to spend 0.7% of Ireland’s GNP on overseas Aid. Ahern was shown making this promise on a large screen: the crowd responded with enthusiastic booing. “The last time we marched, it was against war,” Justin said. “Ahern took us into an illegal war as part of the coalition of the willing – but where is the coalition against poverty? 40 years ago, the UN set the target to reach 0.7%. Ahern is a shame on this nation.”
A speaker from Zambia spoke with great passion. “Years ago they told us we were naïve when we talked about debt cancellation, but now we are the realists,” he said. “Opening up developing countries' markets will not bring development. The rich countries developed through subsidies and protection. Why are billions spent on war – yet there is no money for development?”
On the way home I was thinking about how the majority of people on the march were holding Make Poverty History posters. Not linked to any group, they had responded to the call. This is clearly a movement whose power is growing. As the first day of the long march to Gleneagles was drawing to a close I thought ‘good start, let’s hope the rest is as inspiring!’

Saturday July 2: Over 300,000 Form White Band Around Edinburgh
We arrived in Edinburgh early on Saturday morning. On the plane, we’d met campaigners from Make Poverty History, the Debt and Development Coalition, the Presentation Sisters, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party and assorted individuals who were also making the journey. The sun was warm as it shone across the beautiful and historic city of Edinburgh. The streets, shops, offices and churches were bedecked with the white banners of Make Poverty History. A good feeling…
Organisers were expecting 100,000 to show – but by half nine impressive streams of people were already heading towards the protest. Could be a big turnout. At half twelve, the meadows, where the protestors assembled, was an ocean of white. Eventually the march began. Locals lined the streets in support. Workers in shops were applauding. Edinburgh Castle was decorated with a massive Make Poverty History Banner. The sense of solidarity and strength was incredible. We felt, yes: we really can contribute to ending poverty. There were protestors from all over the UK, as well as from Italy, France, Portugal, Africa (with Zimababweans on the march carrying banners that read ‘Make Mugabe History’). And of course there were hundreds from Ireland.
At the Stop the War Coalition rally that took place at the end of the march, we heard that the demonstration planned for Gleneagles on Wednesday had been banned earlier in the week. In response, elected MSPs of the Scottish Socialist Party had disrupted the parliament, demanding the democratic right to march on Gleneagles. They were told to choose between the barricades and the benches. But the pressure they had exerted meant that the protest would now go ahead. The word was that, behind the scenes, the Make Poverty History campaign had tried to prevent this ‘Stop the War’ rally from taking place. Curious.
Despite fears of violence, a quarter of a million people marched peacefully in Edinburgh. After Genoa in 2001, all the talk was of the violence of the protestors. This time the focus, so far at least, had been on the violence of the G8 leaders, as they preside over the death of 30,000 children a day from hunger – and the massacre to date of over 100,000 in Iraq. The way it should be.

Sunday July 3: The G8 alternatives summit
Disappointed with the press coverage of yesterday’s protest. Aside from the Scottish papers, the rest of the media was full of Hyde Park and Live 8. Why did they effectively ignore over 300,000 people marching in protest? Because it isn’t as media-friendly as the concerts? Because the protest raised political issues? A frustrating realisation that this is how the game is played.
Headed to the G8 Alternatives conference in Edinburgh. Protests against the G8 are often portrayed as having little by way of serious alternatives to offer, but over 5,000 people attended the alternative summit, to discuss the causes of poverty, environmental destruction and racism – and to debate alternatives to the present neo-liberal capitalist system. The atmosphere was defiant.
“Yesterday the mood was mellow, today it is militant,” the Philippines activist Walden Bello warned. “We should not trust the G8 and their promises. They ‘pledged’ to help the Tsunami victims, yet only 10% of what was pledged has been delivered.”
And it was upbeat. “We have come along way since Seattle,” Susan George (ATTAC France) said. “This movement is becoming a new actor in history. We must build this movement together. We can do it. We did it in France with the no vote.”
The final rallying call was for as many people as possible to get to Gleneagles on Wednesday to “make the G8 History”.
It could be a long, hot week…

Monday July 4: The ‘Riots’ and the unreported demo at Faslane
Don’t believe what you read. There were actually two demonstrations in Scotland yesterday. One was a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protest that involved 1,000 people blockading the nuclear base at Faslane. Tommy Sheridan, of the Scottish Socialist Party spoke at the demo. “Let’s disarm, let’s spend the money on food, and not arms. It’s vital to keep up the pressure to get rid of these weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
The other demonstration involved a few hundred people taking part in a Carnival For Full Enjoyment. This protest was mostly light-hearted with the Rebel Insurgent Clown Army parading the streets. There, a small number of scuffles took place with police, who had hemmed the protestors in for hours.
Saw hundreds of riot police, with batons, shields, horses and portable 6 foot high barriers going around the streets stopping people. Shouting at them and pushing them around. This was clearly an attempt to intimidate and to raise the tension. But the small number of incidents at this protest was splashed across the media as “G8 riots”. Some riots! The same few photographs of a clash between protesters and police were repeated over and over on Sky News, BBC and in the print media.
Been down this road before. The same happened at protests against the EU Summit in Ireland last year – a few incidents used to portray an almost entirely peaceful protest as an orgy of violence. It suits Blair and the G8 to have these images beamed across the world. Meanwhile, the Faslane protest had raised an important issue about the hypocrisy of Blair and Brown masquerading as being concerned about poverty while they spend billions on weapons of death and are responsible for the slaughter of 100,000 in Iraq. But this was ignored. The truth in the media? Dream on.
Images of violence are also designed to heighten tension and intimidate people from attending the protest march to Gleneagles. I was there throughout the Carnival protest and witnessed the police upping the ante. Thousands of riot police blocked streets, hemming protestors (and shoppers) in for hours, denying people their democratic right to walk the streets. Farcical. “I am ashamed of the police’s actions,” an elderly onlooker from Liverpool, who had travelled up for the Saturday protest, said. “I’m ashamed of Tony Blair. I am a socialist and I came here out of concern for the poor. The Make Poverty History campaign should have included the war in its table of demands because war contributes massively to suffering and poverty”.

Wednesday July 6: the democracy of Bush and Blair
As we prepared to march, Gordon Brown admitted that the G8 summit would disappoint Bono, Geldof and the Make Poverty History campaign. “I know that you will say that what we can achieve is perhaps not good enough, you will tell us that we’ve got more to do,” he said. Too right. Also George Bush threw any notion of real change for Africa out the window when he stated clearly that he would only act in the interests of America.
We resolved to bring this message to Gleneagles: that the G8 cannot solve the problems of the world’s poor, because their policies are the cause of global poverty.
There was early morning radio news of riots in Sterling, Perth and Autherarder (towns beside the Summit). The motorway was reported as being blocked. The papers promised: “Police are ready for all eventualities”.
The strategy of hyping tension and mounting intimidation continued throughout the day. We had our tickets for the G8 Alernatives buses to Gleneagles. Up at 7am, we got the train into the centre of Edinburgh. When we arrived, we met some other Irish anti-war activists. Three buses were gradually being filled. Out of the blue, ten police vans arrived and trapped the buses. The bus drivers were instructed that they could not leave because the roads were not ‘safe’.
Laughter might be the best response. But this was just the first of numerous lies told by the police throughout the day, to try to prevent protestors from getting to Gleneagles.
Three riot police began to film everyone on the buses. Wave at the cameras! The police then claimed that the protests in Gleneagles had been cancelled. You wouldn’t believe this shit unless you heard it. The G8 Alternatives organisers got on the phone and were told that people had already arrived at Gleneagles – and that the protests were going ahead. All the roads had been cleared.
It was now 11.30am. There were about 1,000 of us waiting to leave. Someone suggested that we sit down on the road and demand that the police allow three buses to leave. Good idea. So we hunkered down and refused to get up until the buses were given the green light. After half an hour or so, the police backed down.
More shit. Three bus-fulls gone, the police wouldn’t allow the remaining buses through to collect the rest of us. We decided to march along the streets of Edinburgh to assert our ‘democratic right to protest’. As we marched, the police tried to block us. We successfully made it to Princess St, where the buses were. We managed to board the buses but 100s of riot police trapped us again, until 2.30pm. Pointless bullying. In the meantime, they forcefully snatched and arrested one of the main organisers and three others.
We had waited peacefully for over five hours before we were allowed to leave. When we reached the town of Autherarder, just outside Gleneagles, the police again stopped us and told us the protests were over. The frustration was incredible. We had travelled hundreds of miles to be there and our right to express our political views had been thwarted by Tony Blair and his goons. Eventually, we were allowed to march up the town and we met the protestors on their way back from the fence. The locals stood applauding and smiling and holding posters of support. On the way back we got the tastiest chips from the local chipper, drenched in salt and vinegar. Our reward!

Thursday July 7: What now? Bombs in London.
The phone calls began. Did you know people over in London? Everyone I know seems ok. It’s shocking, watching the horror unfold on TV. Thankfully, casualties don’t seem as high as in Madrid. My brother rings. “You must feel so disappointed now? All the attention will go back to the war on terror,” he says.
Not the way I see it. The bombing of London underlines the importance of our struggle against war.
George Galloway put it well: “We extend our condolences to the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives today and our heartfelt sympathy to all those who have been injured by the bombs in London.No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives. We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.
"We urge the government to remove people in this country from harms way, as the Spanish government acted to remove its people from harm, by ending the occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the Middle East. Only then will the innocents here and abroad be able to enjoy a life free of the threat of needless violence.”
Those of us who have been involved in the global justice movement since Seattle and Genoa were there again at Gleneagles, saying loud and clear that until the G8 are history, poverty and war will remain with us. This movement is growing and gathering popular momentum. Bono and Geldof did well to help the mobilisation and to get new people involved – but now is the time to put what the G8 stand for on trial.
The G8 are not on your side or mine – nor are they on the side of the millions crushed by the weight of poverty in Africa. This growing global movement is about building a new power that can force the G8 aside and begin to create a different world, in which the focus truly is on eliminating war, poverty, privatisation – an important consideration – and racism.
Figure this. The US will spend $200bn on the war in Iraq by the end of this year. This is equal to three times the total global aid budget. If the G8 stopped dropping bombs and spent that money on debt cancellation and aid, they could solve global poverty overnight – and still have lots of chump change to spare.
This too. Tying conditions of privatisation and free markets to debt relief and aid concolidates the very policies that are causing poverty. The medicine being prescribed by the G8 nations for poor countries involves the very poison that is killing them.

Friday July 8: Looking forward
Live 8, Bono, Geldof and Make Poverty History coalition have pleaded with the G8 leaders to take action. Due to the pressure built up by the campaign, they offered some debt relief. But we know now that Bush and Blair lied about Iraq. Why should we trust them on this?
The people that really have the potential to make poverty history were on the streets of Dublin and Edinburgh. They were on the streets in Africa. They are the workers, fighting privatisation of our public services, the peasants occupying land in Brazil, the Bolivians fighting the nationalisation of their resources, the French who voted no to the EU constitution.
Our movement will not end after Wednesday. The protests in Gleneagles represent just one more important and potentially historic step towards bringing about a world where people and the environment come before the profits of western multinationals. To all of those who marched on Make Poverty History events, I say: stay involved.
On September 9th we will be surrounding the Dail, seeking action on aid. On September 24th we will be in Shannon, protesting against complicity with the illegal war in Iraq. The fight for global justice goes on.
Don’t stop till you get enough. See you there.

Rory Hearne is on the steering committee of the Irish Anti-War Movement.