15th November 2005

Four months on and what happened to Make Poverty History? Many of us got the impression that Live 8 and the G8 Summit made huge progress. The painful truth is now coming out: Geldof, Blair and Bono let us down.

The World Development Movement described the agreement as "a disaster for the world's poor" while others went further. The MPH campaign knew that the G8's announcements were not only grossly inadequate to help poor countries reach the UN's development goals by 2015 but they were also bogus. Much of it wasn't new money but an amalgam of old pledges, future aid budgets and debt relief.

Geldoff and Bono were briefed by MPH but still gave 10 out of 10 on aid and 8 out of 10 on debt. Similarly while the G8 agreed that "poor countries should be free to determine their own economic policies", we now learn, despite Geldoff saying to the contrary, that most of the aid and debt relief is tied to free market reforms and in the case of the US explicitly ties aid to co-operation in the US's 'war on terror'. As one writer put it: "More like G8, Africa nil (i)."

There are now new trade talks and Oxfam say the deal on the table if passed will end up making Africa poorer (ii). As Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas said Blair’s enthusiasm for forcing open developing economies to international competition will "make poverty inevitable."

The struggle for justice is as urgent as ever. Some 10 million people supported MPH in Britain. We must keep up the pressure on Blair and other leaders and not let them get away with spinning us another yarn.

Philip Booth, Press Officer, Stroud District Green Party.

Read Glos Green party report

Notes:

(i) See: "G8 – Africa nil" - Stuart Hodkinson at:
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/
See also:
"By hailing the failure of this summer's G8 summit as a success, Bob Geldof has betrayed the poor of Africa" - George Monbiot at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1563360,00.html
The speech to the UN general assembly by the Venezuelan President - Chavez at the UN:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=8756

(ii) See Oxfam:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/africa_wto141105.htm