ON Saturday, leaders of the capitalist world, from the Pope and his Cardinals to various Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings and not a few Chancellors – along with their courts of aging pop stars, called for an end to poverty in Africa.
It was a plea led by the great and the good of the bourgeoisie, with multi-billionaire computer king Bill Gates the main speaker at the Hyde Park pop concert, while Gordon Brown addressed a Church of Scotland rally in Edinburgh
Gates was introduced by Sir Bob Geldof, the establishment’s chief ex-pop star. He said Gates was the man who created the modern world and who had given more money to the poor, $5 billion, than any other person.
Worship of the bourgeoisie and giving to the poor was the theme – definitely not overthrowing capitalism and the poor seizing back what had been stolen from them.
The call that was made to end poverty was made in the same spirit as the call that is made periodically by vicars and politicians to put an end to war – it was made for effect and to appease the masses of people. Behind the phrases, the conviction remains that wars will continue as will poverty.
In fact, the appeal that was made to end poverty was being made to the G8 chiefs of the capitalist system, and their hanger-on Putin. These are the authors of worldwide poverty. It was made clear by the Live 8 organisers that the G8 leaders were the ‘real stars’, and that they held the fate of the world in their grasp. It was they who would decide everything, and not the masses of the people.
It was this orientation – on your knees to capitalism and capitalists – along with the line that Blair and Brown ‘were on our side’ and that Bush could be persuaded to be, that endeared the Live 8 happenings to the bourgeois media, with the big bourgeois papers giving it dozens of pages of coverage.
These were the same newspapers that hardly noticed the two million strong marches against the war in Iraq. Of course, those marches were for bringing down Blair; Sir Bob and Co are for propping him and Bush up.
The goal, in fact, of the G8 giving more aid to the poor, is just another version of ‘carrying the white man’s burden’ in Africa.
In fact, black African musicians and groups were relegated to a concert in Cornwall, attended by 5,000 people, where presumably they could do no damage with ‘irresponsible’ calls against Bush, Blair and imperialism.
Sir Bob Geldof says he is confident world leaders at next week’s G8 summit will listen to the call for more action to tackle global poverty.
Gordon Brown has already made public what the G8 position will be. He told the BBC that lifting children out of poverty could take a ‘lifetime’ and it will take more than one G8 meeting to determine Africa’s long-term future.
He said: ‘It is a lifetime’s work where we empower the people of Africa and the developing countries to make decisions for themselves.’
Brown says that Africans are incapable, unless ‘we empower’ them ‘to make decisions for themselves’. His views on Africa and the capacity of Africans are no different from his 19th century predecessor Doctor Livingstone.
The world’s capitalists’ plan is to recolonise Africa and loot it. Their policy for Africa is no different from their policy for Iraq.
That is, regime changes and then mass privatisations. Turning on the aid tap a little and attaching conditions to aid will allow the removal of ‘corrupt regimes and dictatorships’ to be replaced by even more corrupt and dictatorial puppet regimes.
The only way out of poverty in Africa, Asia and South America is through socialist revolutions to destroy capitalism and imperialism.
The way for workers in the West to give real aid to Africa, is to expropriate the bosses in their own countries in order to go forward to world socialism. Making capitalism history will end world poverty.
