REPORT OF `MAKE POVERTY HISTORY` DAY

EDINBURGH SATURDAY 2nd JULY 2005

Saturday 2nd July saw the much hyped `Make poverty history` march in
Scotland�s capital Edinburgh. Over 200,000 people came from all over
Britain and indeed all over the world. The weather was mostly fine and
despite the huge crowds there was only one arrest. Here are two reports;
one from the BBC website and a more in depth analysis as seen by veteran
American journalist and independent film maker Danny Schechter who was
in Edinburgh to promote his new film `WMD weapons of mass deception`.
12 labelled photos are attached.


BBC WEBSITE REPORT

Thousands of protesters have taken part in a Make Poverty History march
in Edinburgh, as musicians performed in Live 8 concerts around the globe.
Organisers, police and city council officials put the estimate for the
number of people involved at approximately 225,000.

The marchers heard speeches from political and religious leaders as well
as celebrities who back the cause.

They called for the G8 leaders meeting at Gleneagles next week to take
action.
Saturday's march was one of a number of events planned in the run-up to
Wednesday's G8 summit, when campaigners hope world leaders will make a
commitment to tackle poverty in Africa.
It coincided with the series of Live 8 concerts in cities around the
world, including London.

About 200,000 people were in Hyde Park to see performers including U2,
Pink Floyd, Madonna, REM and Coldplay.
The concerts spanned nearly 24 hours, with the first starting in Tokyo
at 0600 BST on Saturday.
Organised by Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, they called for more aid for
Africa, debt cancellation and fairer trade.


Organisers' reaction

Referring to the Edinburgh turnout, a spokesman said: "Make Poverty
History are absolutely delighted with this, to see so many people come
to show that they really care."
Lothian and Borders Police said they arrested just one person at the
event in connection with drug-related offences.
Assistant Chief Constable Ian Dickinson, who led the policing operation,
said: "I want to pay tribute to the crowd of 225,000 who came and
co-operated with the police to make this a successful and memorable
occasion.
"I also want to pay tribute to the organisers of the march who have
achieved their objectives through meticulous planning and co-operation."
Edinburgh City Council said the success of the march had exceeded their
expectations. A spokesman described the crowd as "extremely good-natured".



DANNY SCHECHTER�S VIEW OF THE DAY

It was a weekend of politics and pop and protest around the world on the
eve of the G8 meetings that bring world leaders to Scotland. News
Dissector Danny Schechter was there and raises questions ignored in most
of the media.


THE LIMITS OF �LIVE 8� AND THE G8 IN MAKING POVERTY HISTORY

By Danny Schechter
News Dissector, Mediachannel.org

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, JULY 2: I am watching telly as they say here,
tuning into Live 8, live from London�s Hyde Park, with Robbie Williams
once more rocking us as we flash back and flash forward with another
mega-rock show for a big cause.

Many thought that singer Bob Geldof�s time came and went, but now, 20
years later, it�s back again as billions tune into a string of concerts
attended by over a million and a half being held in ten cities on four
continents described as THE LONG WALK TO JUSTICE. The big bands are back
singing for Africa but this time as only one part of a larger campaign,
and not just a charitable one, demanding a real change in the world.
There are also other players this time around but the pop concert drew
far more detailed attention than the political activists did.

There were leading NGOs and lobbyists advocating for fairer trade, debt
reduction and more aid. They have come up with policy proposals that
already seem be embraced by some G-8 governments. Using celebrities and
media campaigns and protests called MAKE POVERTY HISTORY; they have
mobilized hundreds of thousands to take to the streets as they did here
in Edinburgh Saturday.

They came by train and by car and by literally hundreds of coaches,
older church people and swarms of students and young activists eager to
send a message to the world leaders descending on Gleneagles early next
week. Some in the anarchist �black block� wrapped in bandanas and
chanting revolutionary slogans were blocked by cops from joining the
march. Most poured into the streets peacefully with signs and good
cheer. There was even a battalion of young costumed circus-liked
characters in camouflage get-up organized as the �CLANDESTINE INSURGENT
REBEL CLOWN ARMY.� (True!)

The demo paraded around town in waves for hours, 18 people across.
Through blocked off main streets and then back to a meadow where
activists groups set up tents to sell their wares and stages to talk
politics and play political songs. I heard Billy Bragg, saw Bianca
Jagger and chatted with economist-writer Noreena Hertz about how great
it is that people are finally marching for global economic justice and
not just against the policies or wars they hate. There was a sense of
heady optimism in the air as in �we are putting the issues of the poor
on the public agenda and forcing powerful governments from the rich
world to respond.�

And as I write these words, back on the TV, the WHO punctuate the point
by declaring �we won�t be fooled again� as the lucky fans who scored
tickets raise their fists in the air like they did when they first heard
the song. Throughout the world artists endorsed calls for action on the
issue. Speaking to a concert in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela said it
would be a crime against humanity if governments ignored the demands of
the public. �Do not look the other way,� he demanded. �We want action.�
His was the only real political statement I heard in two hours of
prime-time programming that kept calling it �the day that changed the
world.�

But there is something else going on here that the BBC is not drawing
attention too�its presenters are more into sappy and banal rock star
adoration like asking the likes of George Michael if he is going to tour
again than exploring the larger meaning and mission of the show. Artists
and TV presenters saying �what a great day� was a diversion from the
objective. A Christ-like Bono proclaimed they were there not for charity
but for �justice� but little detail was offered about what that means in
the songs or from the stage where entertainment was dominant and
edification virtually non-existent.

At the same time, the visibility that TV stations have given the issue
inspired 26 Million people to access the Live 8 website and add their
names to a list of supporters. How many of those supporters will become
activists remains to be seen. Will they heed Geldof�s earlier call to
�converge� on the G-8 or just go home agreeing with his later post show
pronouncement of �JOB DONE�? As far as I can tell, those plans for a
million to march on the summit are not as detailed as the logistics that
made the concert so successful. Rock stars are showmen who organize
events, not revolutions.

The more relevant question is: have the rock stars been seduced by Tony
Blair who is desperate to recast an image battered by his association
with Bush and bloodshed in Basra? Have they been deceived by politicians
used to making pledges that they don�t honour (as in the case of the
Tsunami) while thinking they have persuaded the politicians to new
levels of caring and commitment? Geldof was part of an Africa Commission
chaired by Blair, which calls for change but in a free market-pro
private sector direction.

Is this campaign serious about transforming power relations and
redistributing wealth and resources or is it content to wrest symbolic
concessions that look good but in real terms are not very significant?

These questions were raised by a third force in this movement�the
popular stop the war campaign. The Make Poverty History wouldn�t allow
them to march with their own banners in the big parade or speak at their
rally inviting suspicion that the Blairites were stage-managing the
protests from the shadows. (The British government actually funded some
of the organizing undertaken by Oxfam, which now has former staffers
advising Blair�s people while ex-government functionaries now work with
the charity.) Tony Blair Chancellor Gordon Brown supported the protests.
Was there a deal here between the popsters and the pols that we don�t
know about?

The Stop the War coalitions suggests there was. They want to make both
war and poverty history and argue that the former contributes to the
latter pointing to all the money spent on the world�s militaries and the
destruction of Iraq and the growing impoverishment of its people.

They say that the G-8 is not the solution but the problem and the rich
nations are rich by keeping the poor nations poor. �Tony Blair has
forged a false consensus promoting the idea that we have a shared view
of what�s wrong and how to make it right,� argued George Monbiot, the
brilliant Guardian columnist who contends that the people protesting and
the people in power are enemies with different world views and needs. He
says that the Bushes and the Blairs are promoting an illusion that they
care as deeply as the people pressing them to act. The former are
promoting the neo-liberal agenda that the protesters are resisting.

The high point of their rally was a fiery address by Member of
Parliament George Galloway who now runs the RESPECT Party
(www.respectcoalition.org ) and
devastated US Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) who accused him of
profiting from the UN�s Oil for Food Program. Galloway made mincemeat of
his accusation and today was one of the few speakers to challenge Sir
Bob Geldof and what he mocked as � Sir Bono, because he soon will be�
for playing up to and lobbying Bush and Blair rather than confronting
and denouncing them as war criminals. They were critical of how Blair is
posing as Africa�s champion while deflecting debate about the ongoing
war that is eating up resources and lives. Their slogan is �It takes
Respect to Get Respect.� And Blair is not someone they respect.

�We are here to spoil the party and bust its illusions,� he said to on
their feet activists who cheered him wildly. RESPECT insists that the
debt relief that has been announced is only a quarter of the amount of
money spent in invading Iraq. They note that the amount pledged by the
US is less than the amount spent annually on cat and dog food, and that
Britain is selling arms to many of the poorest countries in the world.

In other words, while the music was often sensational and the passion
strong, there are powerful interests in conflict so that making poverty
history will require a far more fundamental transformation than most of
the marchers and the musicians seem to realize. This concern was ignored
and downplayed in most of the feel good media outlets I saw as
conservative newspapers like the Daily Mail fashionably praised
demonstrators who they usually dismiss. All the newfound concern for
Africa has driven the bloodshed in Iraq off the airwaves and the G-8
agenda. (The Sunday OBSERVER brought Iraq back with a report that
Britain is helping to subsidize horrendous torture and human rights
abuse in Iraq that sounds like it came from Saddam�s playbook.)

Live 8 ended with a nostalgic grand finale sing-along of �Hey Jude,� a
song that Sir Paul McCartney wrote for John Lennon�s son Julian after
his father was killed. No one reminded viewers that it was McCartney who
organized a pro-patriotic post 911 concert in New York that jeered those
who called for peace. His own song urged a �fight for freedom,� a slogan
the Bush Administration adopted as the battle cry of its GWOT (Global
War on Terror.)

And yet at the same time, these forces that are now debating ending
poverty in the parks, and in alternative summits are raising issues that
have been relatively invisible in our politics and the media.
Expectations for change are high, as is hope that the G8 will rise to
the moment. That�s asking a lot from politicians who have on the whole
done so little for so long to help so many even as more debt will be
cancelled and aid increased. Note also that G8 is not a representative
body even of economic power-China and Brazil are excluded.

Its now up to the media to track what happens now, to separate the
heroes from the hypocrites, to assess the political impact and follow-up
on whether the poor of the world will be, as many expect, disappointed
and forgotten again. What is needed writes one columnist in Britain is
more rage, not rock.

More militant protests are coming. All Eyes on Scotland.

News Dissector Danny Schechter edits Mediachannel.org and directed WMD
(Weapons of Mass Deception) a film on the media coverage of the war in
Iraq that was shown at the Alternative Summit in Edinburgh.