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G8 Gleneagles summit 2005

15 July 2005

The 2005 edition of the Group of eight (G8) Summit that took place in Gleneagles, Scotland 6-8 July gathered leaders of the eight most powerful countries - the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Russia. This year's meeting was marked by the decision made by host Britain to build the meeting on two basic pillars: poverty in Africa and climate change.

Campaigners and NGOs around the globe effectively set poverty reduction as the main agenda for the G8 meeting uniting around the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), a world-wide alliance aimed at forcing world leaders to live up to their promises of reducing poverty. The "Make Poverty History" campaign - the UK version of GCAP- was too eager to use the political muscle of pop stars such as Bob Geldof, who led massive concerts (Live 8) around the world, with the aim of increasing political pressure on world leaders. Live 8 called for international aid, debt relief and trade justice but focusing exclusively on Africa.

Furthermore, British Prime Minister Tony Blair soon posed himself as the leader in the fight against African poverty, a move that many found to be a paradox since the G8 policies and its corporate liaisons are no doubt responsible for Africa's poverty and looting of its resources.

On the second day of the meeting, July 7, a series of bombs exploded on London underground and a bus while two of the leaders engaged in the 'war on terror' were meeting a few miles away in Gleneagles. The G8, aided by the mainstream media, failed to link the London episode with the war on Iraq, seizing the occasion to implement harsher measures against the 'threat of terrorism' instead.

Climate change was the other issue at the top of the agenda, but this turned out to be the biggest disappointment as US President George Bush thwarted Blair’s efforts to set firm targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. The final document on climate change contains no targets, timetables or committed funding to address the challenge of climate change.

The most publicized outcome of the G8 Summit was the $50 billion aid package for Africa and up to $9 billion in additional support for the Palestinians over the next three years. However, the G8 pushed the privatisation principle strongly in its communiqué (pdf document) in spite of several reports that documented how unfettered privatisation had ruined the economies of several strong and struggling nations alike. Not a word was mentioned about the agricultural subsidies in the European Union and the United States that make competition so tough they are crippling African farmers and their produce in their own land.

"A great justice has been done," Bob Geldof said after the G8's announcement of doubling the aid package for Africa to 50 billion dollars a year by 2010. However, others like GCAP's chair Kumi Naidoo ventured to disagree: “the people have roared but the G8 has whispered”. Groups campaigning for greater G8 commitments were far from ecstatic; and there were no reports of jubilation in Africa either. A closer look at the G8 offer would suggest that those not celebrating had far more reason on their side.