Delegates condemn free trade

Published in the Morning Star

(Thursday 21 April 2005)

by MALCOLM BURNS in Dundee

THE STUC congress condemned the system of unfair "free trade," deregulation and globalisation that conspires to keep most of the world in grinding poverty yesterday.

Delegates pledged to support the Make Poverty History demonstration in Edinburgh in July plus a peaceful mass protest at Gleneagles during this summer's G8 summit.

Congress called on the G8 countries to cancel all debt incurred by the developing world.

Amicus UNIFI delegate Marie Kiernan said that poverty prevents countries and people from realising their full potential, reminding delegates that it takes somebody's life every three seconds.

"We must fight for the three objectives of Make Poverty History - trade justice, drop the debt, plus more and better aid," she insisted.

Ms Kiernan pointed out that the G7 countries - the G8 minus China - hold half of the votes in the World Bank and the IMF, thus giving them the power to cancel debt.

"However, the IMF and the World Bank have forced developing countries to deregulate and privatise," she noted.

"Three out of four plates of rice eaten in Haiti come from the US. That's good news for rich farmers in the US, but disastrous for Haiti."

Ms Kiernan, who is expecting a baby, said: "We need trade justice, not self interest. Two decades after Live Aid, our generation has an unprecedented opportunity to end world poverty."

She concluded: "When my unborn child is five, I don't want to have to answer why millions are starving. I want to be able to say that in 2005 we changed it."

Community delegate Willie Paterson stressed that the thousands of deaths due to poverty are preventable.

"We could bring the problem of HIV and Aids in sub-Saharan Africa down to manageable proportions if they had drugs which are routinely available in Scotland," he pointed out.

Musicians Union delegate Shaun Dillon urged the cancellation of debt, saying: "Third world nations are kept in a kind of slavery by having this huge debt on their shoulders."

Alf Mackay of teaching union SSTA conceded that it is easy to feel cynical, but he insisted: "If we want to do something about the Third World, pressure has to come from the bottom rather than the top."

Subscribe to the Morning Star online

www.morningstaronline.co.uk

For peace and socialism - the only socialist daily paper in the English language