G8 rally – the World Can’t Wait

Edmund Woodfield reports back on his day at the pre-G8 rally in London on 2 June.

Edmund Woodfield reports back on his day at the pre-G8 rally. Whilst this deafening noise rang through the air, a boat bearing the slogan “Your voices against poverty” arrived to chants of “G8, the world can’t wait” from the crowd. The rally was held to send Tony Blair off to the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, North Germany, with a mission: ensuring that the leaders of the richest countries keep their promises. At 2.30 pm we “rang the alarm” against poverty with anything we had to hand, including clocks, whistles, bells, mobile phones and some rather groovy African drums.

Thousands of poverty campaigners were treated to a day of fun, workshops and making lots of noise in the sunshine of central London this Saturday.

The rally was held to send Tony Blair off to the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, North Germany, with a mission: ensuring that the leaders of the richest countries keep their promises. There are growing fears that countries are abandoning pledges they made in 2005 following the Make Poverty History campaign.

Events kicked off at around 11.00 am with stalls and workshops in several locations around London, including Archbishop’s Park, where visitors could have a go at the “unfairground”, which illustrated the difficulties faced by poor countries, or even the “poopla”, where brave people threw fake poo into toilets to learn about the necessity of clean water in developing countries.

Just before 2.00 pm, the crowds moved around the Thames near the Houses of Parliament to form a white band, and at 2.30 pm we “rang the alarm” against poverty with anything we had to hand, including clocks, whistles, bells, mobile phones and some rather groovy African drums. Whilst this deafening noise rang through the air, a boat bearing the slogan “Your voices against poverty” arrived to chants of “G8, the world can’t wait” from the crowd.

After a few minutes together around the Thames, the crowds dispersed to the various activities in the area, the highlight for me being the exciting game of “Debt or no Debt?” run by Jubilee Debt Campaign: 22 identical sealed boxes and 22 countries’ debts. Displaying creative flair, the team explained the problems still faced by poor countries due to debt, while the lucky competitor managed to find the lowest debt on the board, having rejected the offers of the World Banker, who wanted to impose unfair conditions on debt cancellation.

Campaigners went home happy that the event had gone well without a cloud in the sky, but not forgetting that they will need to continue to keep pressure on the G8 countries to ensure that we move forward in the fight against poverty.