Make the G8 History

Bono and Geldof have only served to legitimise Blair and Brown in their quest to free up the African market, not to the mythical 'free trade', but to foreign investment, the influx of private tyrannies and the destruction of the independent farmer.

Lennon and McCartney have now got the mandate to 'wipe' debt under any pretense, therefore African countries will be forced to adhere to strict and unfair economic conditions to recieve debt relief.

As we continue to sell arms fueling wars in Africa, as we continue to support the exploitation of Africas resources through western corporations, as we continue to let children in Iraq waste away, as we continue to pat politicians on the head instead of giving them the preverbal 'kick up the ass', we keep the poor poor. In Live 8 we have convinced ourselves that we are doing something. Which is very honourable indeed.

The actual comedy of doublespeak in the event should be enough for anyone to see the lie. Celebrities given picnic space at the front of the stage (with the hords behind), thousand pound gift bags for the special ones, African groups relagated to the 'other' stage, record sales rising, Gordon Brown playing to a sell out crowd.

We should be telling them, not asking them, "This is our country and we no longer want the blood of Africans on our hands."


Africa's new best friends

The US and Britain are putting the multinational corporations that created poverty in charge of its relief

George Monbiot
Tuesday July 5, 2005
The Guardian

I began to realise how much trouble we were in when Hilary Benn, the secretary of state for international development, announced that he would be joining the Make Poverty History march on Saturday. What would he be chanting, I wondered? "Down with me and all I stand for"?

Benn is the man in charge of using British aid to persuade African countries to privatise public services; wasn't the march supposed to be a protest against policies like his? But its aims were either expressed or interpreted so loosely that anyone could join. This was its strength and its weakness. The Daily Mail ran pictures of Gordon Brown and Bob Geldof on its front page, with the headline "Let's Roll", showing that nothing either Live 8 or Make Poverty History has done so far represents a threat to power.

The G8 leaders and the business interests their summit promotes can absorb our demands for aid, debt, even slightly fairer terms of trade, and lose nothing. They can wear our colours, speak our language, claim to support our aims, and discover in our agitation not new constraints but new opportunities for manufacturing consent. Justice, this consensus says, can be achieved without confronting power.

continued... George Monbiot

Increased record sales for Live 8 performers, compared with sales last Sunday, were good news for "iconic acts" including Pink Floyd, according to HMV's Gennaro Castald

continued... BBC