The G-8, as the body is known, is comprised of the imperialist governments of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, along with Moscow.

UK chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown announced June 3 that London would propose to the summit meeting debt relief and a doubling of aid to African countries, and extended support to the July 2 march. Earlier this year Brown conducted a tour of Africa seeking to rekindle this modern-day “white man’s burden.” In Tanzania he said “the days of Britain having to apologize for our history are over…. We should celebrate much of our past rather than apologize for it.”

Support for the pro-British imperialist march was a central theme at a May 2 meeting for seven candidates for Parliament in Edinburgh hosted by Making Poverty History. Navraj Singh, Labour candidate for Edinburgh East, said the July 2 march “will be important for persuading our global partners to respond.” Iain Whyte, the Conservative leader on Edinburgh city council, raised that “aid should be used to promote good government.” Catriona Grant, Scottish Socialist Party candidate for Edinburgh East, said that by being “in partnership with Making Poverty History we can make capitalism history.”

Peter Clifford, Communist League candidate for Edinburgh East, was the only one on the platform who didn’t back the July 2 march. “Everyone here has talked of what ‘we’ should do, but there is no common British interest around which working people can join with the rulers of this country—there are differing class interests here and around the world,” he said. “Suggesting that London and the other G-8 nations can be pressured to be more ‘humane’ shows this march is a dead end for those who want to overturn capitalism.”  
 
 
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