16.03.1995

Managing poverty

THE UNITED NATIONS Social Development Summit in Copenhagen - a week long jamboree whose cost has been estimated at something between £20m and £40m - ended on Sunday.

The great and the good signed a 90-page, non-binding (what else?) declaration which loftily proclaimed, “For the first time in history ... we gather ... to recognise the significance of social development and human well-being for all “.

The entire summit was dominated by the very same forces that are responsible for world poverty - imperialism and international capital. The charities and non-governmental organisations spent their time pleading with the World Bank and IMF to be ‘nicer’ to the ‘wretched of the earth’, who are the object of liberal sentimentalist pity.

Therefore, when the IMF and World Bank agreed to take “social factors” into account for drawing up future programmes, Oxfam announced that the summit had been “worthwhile” after all!

The only way to eradicate poverty is to eradicate the economic system that feeds off the misery of the masses on a daily basis.

Eddie Ford