If you believed the hype, you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are committed to eradicating world poverty.

They have signed up to the Make Poverty History campaign (MPH), committed to the three key demands of trade justice, drop the debt and more and fairer trade. But their presence as signatories and supporters together with such egotistical aspiring messiahs as Bono and Bob Geldof should make you suspicious.

MPH's demands, while supportable, are extremely utopian and ignore the reality of capitalist exploitation. They are based on a wish that the so-called "Third World" can develop into a "First World" on a capitalist basis. This is absolutely impossible. There are a small number of powerful imperialist nations, grouped together in organisations like the G8, which together with big business make a literal killing out of these countries, because they are able to exploit their massive raw resources and cheap labour. They have a vested interest in ensuring that these countries never develop.

Nor will they ever engage in serious debt cancellation, which operates as a ball and chain hanging around the necks of ordinary people in the under-developed countries (Indonesia spends $17 billion per year on debt repayments - equivalent to 25% of its total exports). The much-hyped proposal of Gordon Brown only means the cancellation of a certain amount of debt that was never going to be paid anyway, to allow the capitalist leaders to bask in humanitarian glory, dampen anger in under-developed countries and allow more profitable loans to be made later.

Not only does MPH's demands obviously ignore the reality of a world dominated by profit and a few capitalist powers, their "campaigning" strategy does the same. The extent of MPH campaigning extends to selling white bands (ironically produced in Chinese sweatshops) and tame protests designed to plead with world leaders and bankers to throw a few crumbs in the direction of the world's poor.

In a sense, Tony Blair exposed the real intentions of many of those who claim to support MPH when he said "It would be very odd if people came to protest against this G8, as we're focusing on poverty in Africa and climate change." By paying lipservice to the idea of tackling the world's massive problems of inequality, they intend to reduce opposition to the institutions of global capitalism, and prevent people from reaching the inevitable conclusion - capitalism is incapable of providing a decent standard of living for the majority of people around the globe.

We need to organise, not to pressurise institutions like the G8, but to smash them and replace the whole capitalist system with a democratic socialist society, which by planning the world's economy on the basis of people's needs not profit, would provide for everyone.

Faced with the growth of "anti-social behaviour", the government in the South, supported by the main opposition parties, aims to resolve this problem through repressive legislation, rather than address the causes of this behaviour.

The introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill and more specifically, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) will only serve to further demonise and criminalise young people from working class backgrounds.

Under the new laws, ASBOs can be issued in a wide range of circumstances, allowing police to prevent people from entering certain areas or stop young people from hanging around with particular friends if they've been involved in anti-social behaviour. In reality, what constitutes anti-social behaviour is so vague, a judge can issue an ASBO in almost any situation where someone is deemed a nuisance, even on the basis of hearsay evidence. A breach of an ASBO can result in a jail sentence, effectively criminalising, non-criminal behaviour. They also have political connotations and ASBOs could be issued against political demonstrators, dispersing their protests.

While the government tries to portray ASBOs as their attempt to get tough on crime, figures from Britain, where ASBOs are already introduced, show no real impact on anti-social behaviour and upwards of half of all orders are breached. In reality, ASBOs are their response to the inabilities of capitalism to provide a decent education and life for working class youth. Anti-social behaviour is not an abstract occurrence but a product of social deprivation, and its impact on families and a lack of options and facilities for young people. Years of under-funding, have left little or no youth centres or initiatives in this country and modern facilities like skate parks are non-existent. The inadequate funding and resourcing of the education system results in many young people leaving school with literacy problems or simply not equipped with the skills and qualification to get a decent job.

There are virtually no resources or facilities to deal with the problems of drug and alcohol abuse amongst young people. These factors also play a significant role in the high rates of mental health illness and suicide among young people today.

Where youth initiatives to tackle these problems have been introduced in parts of Britain, youth crime has gone down 40% but capitalism cannot offer these resources to all of our young people.

Anti-social behaviour plaques many working class communities and makes people's lives a misery. Michael McDowell's ASBOs may be good sound bite politics, but it will not solve the problem. Anti-social behaviour will only be seriously tackled when young people are nutured by society, have equal opportunities, and lives free from poverty, a decent education and the prospect of a well paid job and a decent future. McDowell, Ahern and their capitalist friends offer only repression because they can't offer youth this type of future.