Really make poverty history – drop the Third World Debt and introduce fair trade
The original Band Aid song “Do they know it’s Christmas?” was released in 1984,
but little has changed since and tens of millions of people are predicted to
die in Africa in the next few decades, as pointed out by Oxfam (if world
capitalism continues).
Blair claims to be trying to “make poverty history”, but debt reduction measures put forward by capitalist governments would be full of strings, such as privatisation. The stock markets force the prices of raw commodities down while Western products are expensive. Fair trade is impossible under capitalism – world socialism is essential!
Stop the scandal of unlabelled Genetically Modified food/drink in Britain
Genetically modified (GM) foods have been
dubbed “Frankenstein foods” because we don’t know what they will do to us.
Despite the fact that virtually nobody would want to eat them, due to the
potential harm to our health, New Labour has conducted trials. The idea that all GM foods will be deemed “safe” because one particular way of
modifying one particular crop is of course ludicrous! There is a
virtually infinite number of ways that genetic modification can be done, and we
correctly do not trust corporations. In fact, Steve believes that GM foods
could be used as a form of mass mind control (see the back page for more on
this issue).
Direct action activists discovered that all supermarkets, except for the Co-op and M&S, were selling dairy products from cows fed partly GM feed. They blockaded all Sainsbury’s depots early one morning and “natural” Cravendale milk is now available there and in other supermarkets.
Save the environment – stop climate change and decimation of the rainforests
In the second live TV debate with Senator John Kerry, George W Bush said that he didn’t sign the Kyoto treaty on climate change because it would have cost 1.3 million jobs in the US. Compared to the population size, that is tiny, and Kerry revealed that Bush gave tax incentives for companies to invest overseas causing mass unemployment!
Kyoto was forced on governments through pressure from ordinary people and would only slow down global warming, not stop it. Because the Green Party limits itself to demands for reforms under capitalism, it underestimates the effects of climate change, saying that it will take decades for a one or two percent increase in global warming, making it a very middle class organisation. Repeated huge storms in the Caribbean and Florida (completely different from before, when they had not returned to the same Caribbean country) and the tsunami indicate that serious climate change is a reality now. Steve believes that those events, coupled with the fact that a single village in Cornwall (Boscatle) had a huge amount of flooding, at a time last year when nowhere else had any at all, indicates that big business controlled the weather! He believes that the tsunami and more recent earthquake near Aceh in Indonesia, were to create moods of national unity cutting across movements for independence in Aceh and by Tamils in Sri Lanka – the two countries hit most by the tsunami were Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Rainforest destruction has been mainly for hardwoods (boycott mahogany!), for grazing land for beef to be sold on Western markets, and to produce paper. [But it is more economical for big business to grow trees neatly in rows and plant new ones when others have been chopped down – nevertheless, I use 100% recycled paper if convenient; it is scandalous that is more expensive and hard to get hold of, and that a lot of paper is put in landfill sites.]
Oppose capitalism – demonstrate in Scotland against the G8 in July
Many anti-capitalist demonstrations have taken place in recent years. These are often called “anti-globalisation” protests by the media, but it is big business and the governments and institutions that support global capitalism that we oppose, and globalisation of culture should be welcomed. Steve Wallis took these photos in Genoa.
The G8 is a group of the leaders of eight big countries (all capitalist). In the past, important capitalist meetings took place in major cities, but due to our strength, they now occur in small places that are difficult (if not impossible) to get to. The next G8 meeting is at Gleneagles in July, so most events will take place in the nearest city – Edinburgh.
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