INTERNATIONAL
SOCIALIST Resistance (ISR) members have just returned from a
week of protests at the G8 talks.
180 ISR members
were at a week-long camp. The ISR and CWI contingent dressed
in red, waving red flags and chanting political slogans got a
lot of attention from passers-by and the media.
ISR national
organiser SARAH SACHS-ELDRIDGE draws up a balance sheet on
those events.
More ...
Fight for a socialist future
A
QUARTER of a million marching in Edinburgh. 200,000 at Live 8
in Hyde Park, London. One million in Philadelphia, USA and 2
billion watching around the globe.
The campaign to make poverty history has touched,
moved and mobilised millions. But this is only the beginning. More
...
Millions
demand an end to poverty
"We
need to change the system"
Climate
change: Big business writes agenda for Bush
Down with the G8 - Fight for a socialist future
From the International
Socialist 30 June - 6 July
Workers
& poor rise up against poverty
Tsunami:
struggle for survival & justice
Pakistan:
Capitalism means poverty and exploitation
CWI
- who we are - what we fight for
Iraq:
Deeper in the quagmire
How
can we change the world?
Make
poverty history: Fight for a socialist plan
Socialism
2005
ISR -
Youth on the march
Is the
threat of nuclear war growing?
Global
Warming: G8 can't save the planet
The
struggle for socialism in Scotland
Make
Homophobia & Capitalism History!
Take to the streets!
Join
the g8 protests
From The
Socialist 23 - 29 June 2005:
Take
to the streets! Join the G8 protests
International
youth camp
G8
forces occupy Sheffield
Summit
rows intensify EU crisis
Crisis
in Africa: How imperialism condemns millions to poverty
G8
debt deal won't end poverty
G8:
join young socialists from all over Europe
Capitalism
unbound
Climate
change: Is nuclear power the solution?
Make poverty
history
Make capitalism history
The
millions of people who were moved by a sense of international
solidarity to give money to the tsunami appeal are acting
again.
This time, however, they are not only donating money - they
are demonstrating.
Hannah Sell
Already three million have pledged support for Make Poverty
History and it is expected that a quarter of a million or more
of them will demonstrate on the eve of the G8 meeting in
Edinburgh on 2 July.
Many will stay to participate in demonstrations throughout
the week.
Everyone is supporting Make Poverty History - celebrities,
churches, charities, national newspapers, school and colleges;
politicians from Gordon Brown to Michael Howard. Of course, in
reality New Labour and the Tories before them have failed to
even increase aid to the UN target of 0.7% of national income.
Big business politicians
Both parties champion the policies of privatisation that
are driving millions into poverty worldwide. But it is not the
empty phrases of the big business politicians that is most
significant about this campaign for socialists - it is the
fact that they believe pledging to abolish world poverty will
make them popular.
The mainstream politicians are being forced to respond to a
deeply felt mood - shown by the anti-war movement and the
tsunami appeal. Working-class people in Britain today are more
internationalist than ever before.
It is crucial that the Socialist Party mobilise for this
demonstration. In doing so we will meet tens of thousands of
trade unionists, students and school students who have pledged
to make poverty history and are looking for a means to achieve
their goal. The ideas they are looking for are the ideas of
socialism - we have to make sure they find them.
International Socialist resistance
International youth camp
We
have booked a 4-star campsite in Strathclyde National Park
with toilets, hot showers and cooking facilities. A coach will
transport us to the various locations of the meetings and
protests. Breakfast and dinner included in the price (see
below).
We will hold a briefing meeting each morning where we can
discuss the plans for the day and assess the activities of the
previous day.
Transport
Please note the change of time - the London coach will now
depart at 10.30pm from York Way, Kings Cross (not midnight as
previously advertised).
For those from the north and west of the country please
ring us for details ofp local transport on 020 8558 7947.
Other areas should look at getting student unions to
organise transport but also where possible cars and minibuses
driven by members will be very useful for the duration of the
camp.
There will be transport back to London on 7 July for those
who stay for the camp and on 2 July for those who can't.
Saturday 2 July
Make Poverty History demo
Ring 07946320777 for the ISR meeting place on the demo.
International rally for socialism
6pm, Cafe Royal Bistro Bar, West Register Street (behind
Burger King at east end off Princes Street).
Speakers include: Joe Higgins Socialist Party TD
(MP) in Ireland, Peter Taaffe, general secretary of the
Socialist Party in England and Wales and international
speakers from around Europe
Sunday 3 July
G8 alternatives forum
The attacks of globalisation on young people and how we
can organise to fight back and build an alternative
2.30 to 4.15pm, Adam House G. Co-organised by International
Socialist Resistance, PCS Youth, SSY Youth and other youth
organisations.
Make capitalism history - the case for socialism.
4.45 - 6.30pm. Adam House G. Speakers include: Joe Higgins,
Socialist Party MP in Ireland South
Organised by the Committee for a Workers' International,
ISR and LFI.
Monday 4 July
Faslane Nuclear Base blockade
Tuesday 5 July
Dungavel Detention Centre
Mass action at Dungavel to demand equal rights and an end
to detention and deportation of asylum seekers.
Wednesday 6 July
March against the G8
Gleneagles Hotel, Gleneagles, Perthshire or alternative
venue.
Transport from London - £35 unwaged, £55 waged.
Transport and camp - £85 unwaged, £105 waged. We need a £20
deposit immediately, full amount by 29 June. Make cheques
payable to ISR.
Book your place now
The turn-out is growing! We now have gone over our initial
target for getting people to the protests and the camp. Three
people phoned us about the camp just on Saturday morning,
having seen the leaflet and many more are contacting us over
the web.
We have the potential to get even more young people to the
G8 protests and we are having enormous impact on our street
activities with many people giving donations to help others to
go.
Young people are going to Scotland to protest against what
the G8 leaders stand for and some will be looking for answers
to this rotten system - they are against capitalism and many
want to know about socialist ideas. Every member should do
their best to encourage young people we come across to join
our socialist (and sociable!) camp.
Tel 020 8558 7947, www.anticapitalism.org.uk
For more information:
ISR: www.anticapitalism.org.uk,
020 8558 7947, PO Box 858, London E11 1YG.
International Socialists : www.cwiscotland.org
cwiscotland@yahoo.co.uk
Committee for a Workers' International:
www.socialistworld.net
cwi@worldsoc.co.uk
Join
the G8 protests
G8
justice ministers' meeting: Stop taking liberties!
G8:
Brown spins but won't end debt
Fight
for the right to organise
G8
news
Choking the world
More than 10,000 square miles, an area the size of Belgium,
of the Brazilian rainforest was cut down last year to feed the
demands for soya bean from Europe and China. 'The lungs of the
world' are being destroyed for cattle feed and to enrich the
millionaire farmer and governor of Mato Grosso, Blairo Maggi,
and giant US grains business, Cargill.
The Brazilian president, Luis Inacio "Lula" da
Silva, was elected in 2002 as a champion of the environment
but now he is in power he has failed to challenge big
business, the multi-nationals and the neo-liberal policies of
the imperialist institutions, the IMF and the World Bank.
Neoliberalism kills
THE NEW Labour government is responsible for the deaths of
over 4,000 Indian farmers according to a shocking study by an
international charity.
The government's Department for International Development (DfID)
gave £1.65 million to Adam Smith International to promote
neo-liberal policies in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Between 1999 and 2004 farmers there were persuaded to
abandon subsistence farming, eg rice production, and switch to
cash crops such as cotton and sugar cane. Subsidies for
fertilisers and tools and cheap government loans were slashed,
forcing the farmers to obtain high-interest loans.
The value of these cash crops then became virtually
worthless, leaving the farmers with unpayable debts. The
result has been a wave of suicides by ruined poor farmers.
Privatising the poorest countries
A BRITISH water company, Biwater, is to sue the
impoverished African government of Tanzania after it
terminated the firm's contract to supply water and sanitation
to the country's biggest city, Dar-es-Salaam.
Tanzania is one of the world's poorest countries, its debts
of $6.8 billion are way above its annual budget of $1.38
billion. Tanzania was forced to privatise its water industry
to qualify for international debt relief.
For all their talk of being friendly to Africa, Blair and
Brown's governments have spent millions of pounds paying
advisers such as the Adam Smith Institute to produce videos to
"persuade" governments that they should follow
crippling privatisation schemes.
The Gleneagles demonstration this July needs to make it
crystal clear. We support the people of the 'third world'
against the Biwaters, the Cargills, the millionaires and the
Gordon Browns and Tony Blairs of the world. We have no trust
in capitalist politicians or their policies of privatisation
and deregulation.
Protest at the G8 summit
Make capitalism history - make
socialism our future!
THIS JULY, the G8 - the bosses' club - will meet in
Scotland, under the presidency of the British government. We
call on you to join the counter-demonstrations in Edinburgh
and Gleneagles.
Zena Awad, International Socialist Resistance (ISR)
The
leaders of the G8 nations support the occupation of Iraq.
Millions have demonstrated against the war and occupation but
the leaders of the richest nations on the planet are only
interested in backing big business and its hunger for oil.
The African continent has been devastated over decades by
the capitalists. Their imperialist policies have robbed Africa
of its resources and impoverished the majority of the
population. We believe only a struggle by the African working
class and poor for democratic control of their resources
offers a way out.
Millions of young people in Britain and Europe want to do
something about the plight of the workers and poor in Africa
and throughout the world. The response to the tsunami appeal
put the G8 leaders to shame. The spontaneous outpouring of
solidarity by people in Western Europe and the USA surpassed
their miserly offerings.
Events organised against the G8, like in Genoa or in Evian,
have seen mass demonstrations against the capitalist system
and its hypocritical leaders. Gleneagles won't be an
exception. Join us to demonstrate, to show that another world
is needed.
We demand:
-
Immediate
write-off of the debt burden without conditions.
-
For an
immediate increase in aid. For democratic control of aid
and its distribution by elected committees representing
the working class, trade unions and the poor.
-
Bring into
public ownership the 500 major multinationals that
dominate the world economy, under democratic working-class
control and management.
-
Support for
the working class and poor in their struggle to overthrow
the corrupt pro-capitalist governments of the neo-colonial
world.
-
Make
capitalism history. For the building of a socialist
planned economy internationally to abolish poverty, hunger
and disease.
Join the protests
International Socialist Resistance, an international
organisation of socialists, will take part in the G8 summit
demonstrations, putting forward socialist ideas.
We're co-organising an international youth camp with the
International Socialists, the Scottish affiliate to the
Committee for Workers' International (CWI).
The CWI is an international socialist organisation with
members in nearly 40 countries around the world, including the
International Socialists in Scotland and the Socialist Party
in England and Wales.
We will organise a coach going from the camp each day to
take people to the protests and meetings which are planned for
the counter-summit. There will be an opportunity to
participate in political discussions with socialists from all
over Europe.
