G8 Summit:

Debt Repayment kills millions

LEADERS OF the world’s seven richest nations feast on caviar, lobster and duck at a gala banquet while 13 children in the world’s poorest 40 countries die every minute, as money is diverted from social services to debt repayment, according to Jubilee 2000, the debt relief protest group.

Manny Thain

The Japanese government spent $750 million (£500 million) hosting the Okinawa summit of the G8 countries – the US, Canada, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Russia. This is more than Japan contributed to cancelling the debt of the world’s poorest countries since the grand gestures made at the Cologne summit last year.

It’s obscene. The neo-colonial world is being held to ransom by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, backed up by the governments of the industrialised capitalist countries.

Working-class and oppressed peoples the world over are outraged at the cynical measures adopted by the capitalist system. Tony Blair received 250,000 postcards from drop-the-debt supporters and 27,000 peace campaigners ringed the Okinawa talks centre, many protesting against the presence of US forces on the island – the biggest concentration of US troops outside the US.

James Wolfensohn, head of the World Bank, complained: “There are people camping out calling for debt relief, but it is simply unfair to be screaming that nothing is being done – there has been a lot of progress.”

But in reality, there has been little progress, if any. Millions still die because of capitalism’s profit-driven exploitation of the underdeveloped world.