This was completely unrealistic given that the G8’s business is to try and agree measures globally to generate more wealth for the tiny elite that controls the world economy, i.e. the bankers, financiers, industrialists, traders etc. of the 200 multinational corporations that predominate. These policies create the grinding poverty we see not just in the South but also in the North. Policies of privatisation, deregulation and free trade throw people out of work, separate people from the means of making a living and rob people of the basic necessities for survival.

Instead of agreeing to cancel the illegitimate debts of the South, already paid many times over, instead of revoking unjust trade rules that allow the rich industrialised countries to subsidise and protect their industries while enforcing the removal of protections and subsidies for poor countries and instead of agreeing to a Marshall-type plan for aiding development in the South - the G8 leaders offered meaningless crumbs which amounts to too little too late. This is reminiscent of the apartheid government’s reform agenda that, when under pressure from the liberation struggle and the mass anti-apartheid movement, enacted a series of reforms to try and recapture their lost legitimacy. The announcements on debt, trade and aid by the G8 are attempts at diverting attention from the violence of the system they run and manage.

It is in this sense that we cannot say that the G8 outcomes amount to some small step forward. What the leaders of the G8 have done is to preserve the essentials of the global system, ensuring the reproduction of wealth for the elite and misery for the vast majority.

The outcome of the G8 summit forces all of us concerned with social justice to re-examine our strategies lest we become unintended co-optees of those seeking to give globalisation a human face while diverting attention from war and militarisation - the other side of the globalisation coin. We need to strengthen our efforts at de-legitimising the G8 and the institutions they direct such as the World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund and World Bank while challenging our own governments as they impose neo-liberal policies in-sync with the G8 big boys. Unfortunately the dominant thrust of the Make Poverty History Campaign turned its back on these strategies that have seen the spectacular growth of the anti-globalisation movement, the World Social Forum and mass social movements in all corners of the globe. Celebrities, business leaders and consultants cannot substitute for activism, organisation and resistance. We hope that the lesson has been learnt.