Drop the debt, not bombs, G8 leaders urged
We marched to demand debt cancellation (18 countries are not enough), more and better aid and trade justice, not free trade.
We in the Irish Anti-War Movement demanded that G8 leaders drop the debt instead of bombs on Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.
We are demanding action now from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the G8 leaders. Old age pensioners, nuns, families, children in buggies, NGOs, anti-war activists, anti-capitalists and socialists together created a sea of white around Edinburgh.
This is a truly global movement. They came from all over Britain, Italy, France, Portugal, Africa and, of course, from Ireland.
Bono, Geldof and the MPH campaign have done a fantastic job to build this historic mobilisation and stage the concerts that put the spotlight directly on the G8 leaders.
It is the G8 and their global, neo-liberal economic system of war and profit for the few that is the cause of global poverty. The US will spend $200 billion on the Iraq war by the end of this year. This is equal to three times the global aid budget.
If the G8 stopped dropping bombs and spent that money on debt cancellation and aid, they could solve global poverty overnight
The conditions of privatisation and free markets tied to debt relief and aid are the very policies that are causing poverty.
The medicine being prescribed by the G8 for poor countries is the very poison that is killing them.
The global justice movement has been growing since Genoa 2001. It is demanding action now.
As Mandela said, “the world is hungry for action, not words.”
Our movement will not end after today.
These protests are just one more important step towards bringing about a world without war, where people and the environment come before the profits of western multinationals. We appeal to all those who marched in MPH events to remain involved and also to support the struggles for justice at home.
British Chancellor Gordon Brown has said that ending poverty will take a lifetime. We cannot wait that long.
Rory Hearne
16 Drumcondra Park
Dublin 3
