The G8 Summit in Scotland attracted 250,000 people onto the streets of Edinburgh against the G8's policies of poverty and environmental destruction.

It was Scotland's largest ever demo. The organisers, Make Poverty History, believed this public support and the series of Live8 concerts would compel the G8 to tackle world poverty. But as the Socialist had warned, the G8 proved that it is incapable of solving the problems facing the world's poor.

In the days leading up to the G8 Summit, the capitalist media was joined by "Saint" Bob Geldof and Bono in hyping up Gleneagles 2005 as the moment when the representatives of world capitalism would transform into world saviours. According to Bono, it was a moment when "The world spoke out and the politicians listened." Sir Bob hailed the G8 as "A great day, a great justice has been done." He also rated the summit with "10 out of 10 on aid; 8 out of 10 on debt".

But they were the only people who remained as optimistic and upbeat in the aftermath of the summit. A more accurate and sober analysis, shared by the majority of people who protested on the streets, was summed up by John Hilary, Director of Campaigns and Policy at War on Want, "The paltry deal on the table at Gleneagles is an insult to poor people the world over. G8 governments have failed to listen to the 225,000 protestors who came out onto the streets of Edinburgh to call for a response to the crisis of global poverty. If this is the best they can come up with, the G8 clearly has nothing to offer the world's poor."

G8 failure

As chair of the summit, Tony Blair was quick to announce that the deal made on aid was "an amazing achievement". Using typical New Labour spin, the G8 claimed they had doubled aid to poor countries by securing a $50 billion aid deal. But on closer examination, this deal represents very little. In fact most of this money, an estimated $30 - 35 billion, had already been pledged in existing aid budgets. Only $15 - $20 billion is new money and this will not be released until 2010.

The G8 has come nowhere near meeting the moderate demands of Make Poverty History in relation to aid. MPH had a target, originally set by the UN 35 years ago, of all rich countries paying 0.7% of GDP in aid by 2010. Across the G8 countries, only 0.21% is spent on aid. To reach 0.7% by 2010, the G8 would have to spend an extra $125 billion (without factoring in growth in GDP for the next 5 years). The new money pledged by the G8 is less than 20% of what is needed even to reach this minimum target. It is estimated 55 million children's lives could be saved if MPH's target on aid had been met. But this is based on the premise that the aid would be delivered to where it is needed and not stolen by corrupt government officials, charities and criminals. To prevent this, aid must be under the democratic control of elected committees representing the working class, trade unions and the poor if it is to be distributed properly.

The G8 also announced the cancellation of debt for 18 countries. But these are only debts to the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank, not private debts. The majority of poor countries' debt, $220 billion, is to private companies. Debts owed by four countries in Latin America to the Inter-American Bank are not included in the deal. The deal only accounts for less than $1 billion this year - the equivalent of less than a dollar per person in the 18 countries combined. MPH claims its demand of $10 billion a year of debt cancellation would eradicate "extreme poverty". The G8's debt deal is less than 10% of what MPH demanded.

For the 18 countries identified, they must "qualify" for debt cancellation by going through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) process. The HIPC process is in reality a neo-liberal assault on the people of these countries through de-regulation, privatisation and cutbacks in social services. By "qualifying" for debt cancellation, the masses of these countries will face even more attacks on their living standards, while multinational companies will be able to take over public services and plunder these countries' natural resources.

A major issue the G8 claimed it would work to resolve is climate change/global warming. Up to the G8 Summit meeting, the Bush administration had even refused to recognise the term "global warming", let alone acknowledge its dire consequences. Most of the G8 leaders have recognised that global warming is a scientific fact, but have refused to act. While most of the G8 leaders have signed the Kyoto Protocol, which is well short of seriously tackling global warming, none of them have reduced greenhouse emissions. In fact they have increased by 1.1% over the last year.

Climate change

The G8's conclusions and position on climate change after the summit however are actually worse than the already watered-down Kyoto Protocol. The G8 agreed to recognise that climate change was - not an urgent crisis facing humanity - but "a serious long-term challenge". The climate change communique states that the G8 would only act to stop and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions as "science justifies".

The Bush administration have used this type of language in the past to avoid signing up to the Kyoto Protocol, as it believes global-warming is not a process influenced by human activity. Because the scientific community internationally and within the US supports the view that greenhouse gas emissions are directly responsible for global warming, Bush has appointed his own scientific quango to advise him on these matters. For example, Bush recently appointed Philip Cooney, a lawyer with no scientific training, into the White House from the American Petroleum Institute to control the presentation of climate science. His role along with others is to suppress scientific material that points to global warming. He even succeeded in sacking the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who disagreed with the White House's position on climate change.

George Monbiot, writing in The Guardian, states "Faced with the greatest crisis humanity has ever encountered, the most powerful men in the world have meekly resolved to "promote" better practice and to "encourage" companies to do better. The R-word is half-mentioned twice: they will "improve regulatory... frameworks". This could mean anything: most of the G8 governments define regulation as less regulation." He goes on to state "Unless there is regulation to reduce the amount of fossil fuel we use, alternative technologies are a waste of time and money."

At least Monbiot recognises the unwillingness of the capitalist G8 to do anything to reverse global warming. But he also displays a belief that by simply regulating capitalism, the environment can be protected. As long as the world's resources are in the hands of a tiny rich elite, it is impossible to guarantee protection of the environment. You can't control what you don't own. The only way of really regulating production is if industry is publicly owned and democratically run by the working class and poor under a socialist plan of production.

Make capitalism history

A large section of people who marched in Edinburgh may have had some illusions that the G8 would deliver for the world's poor. But many will be angry at the failure of the G8. As capitalism attempts to take more from workers in the advanced capitalist countries and intensifies its exploitation of the neo-colonial world, those illusions will be shattered. More and more workers and youth will be forced into battle with the system and will see the need for an alternative.

This is the mistake Make Poverty History makes. Instead of lobbying and pleading with the leaders of capitalism, workers and youth in the advanced capitalist countries need to organise themselves and build solidarity with workers in the neo-colonial world in a joint struggle against capitalism and imperialism. The only way of putting the needs of people before the greed of a few is to overthrow the capitalist system and replace it with a socialist world. A world socialist confederation would allow humanity to use the plentiful resources and technology available to cater for people's needs and attempt to undo the severe damage capitalism is causing to our environment.

CWI flies the banner of socialism at G8

In the first week of July, Socialist Youth and Socialist Party members from Ireland along with other members of International Socialist Resistance (ISR) and the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) from 11 European countries participated in the various demonstrations at the G8 summit. Our aim on the demonstrations was to explain to young people the need for a socialist society in order to truly "make poverty history".

On Saturday 2 July we participated on the 250,000 strong Edinburgh demonstration that was organised by the Make Poverty History (MPH) group. The organisers of the event encouraged everyone to wear white. This reflected the attempt by MPH to be politically neutral.

300 people were part of the ISR/CWI contingent. This was by far the liveliest contingent on the march. We wore red T-shirts and had red flags and banners. We also sold red wristbands which had "Make Capitalism History" written on them. During the course of the day we received a lot of coverage in the media in Britain and Ireland.

The following day we attended the G8 Alternatives summit. Again our members energetically and confidently made the arguments for the need for a clear socialist programme in order to make poverty and capitalism history. These were arguments that other left groups chose not to mention in their contributions. We also held a workshop on an introduction to socialist ideas, attended by 300 people, where Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins spoke.

As well attending other protests at the nuclear base in Faslane and the refugee detention centre in Dungaven Socialist Youth members had the opportunity to have political discussions and share experiences with other members at the ISR camp in Strathclyde National Park. The tiring but enjoyable week of marching culminated in the demonstration against the G8 in Gleneagles, the hotel where the eight G8 leaders were staying. The go-ahead for the march was only given a few days before it took place. The police also announced that they would only allow 5,000 people to participate on it. On the day of the demonstration they blocked all of the main roads leading to Gleneagles. ISR and the CWI again had an impressive contingent resulting in us getting more press coverage as we marched through the village near to the hotel.

Throughout the week it was very inspiring to work along with other young socialists in raising the banner of socialism. In the long run it is these ideas of struggle and socialism and not making appeals to the G8 leaders for more crumbs for Africa that will be shown to be correct.

Quotes from the G8 protests

"The week for me showed how internationalism is the best way to fight for socialism and showed that all across Europe there is a growing support for those ideas. At the ISR camp I saw how young people across Europe are affected by the same issues as young people in Northern Ireland such as low pay and bad working conditions." - Gerard, Portadown

"I thought the Make Poverty history march on the Saturday was the highlight of the week. Although it was difficult to get through to some people, I think there were others who were open to socialist ideas."- Kevin, Omagh

"I thought that the CWI and ISR contingent on the Make Poverty History march was very impressive. We clearly stood out on the demonstration. It gave you a real boost marching with other young socialists from across Europe" - Aidan, Dublin

"I think we really made an impact on the Make Poverty History march. I found the G8 alternatives summit very informative. It was good to hear the ideas of Socialist Youth at it. All in all, the weekend certainly furthered my interest in socialist ideas" - Emma, Strabane