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Marching to the beat of drums
On Thursday 14 September, campaigners gathered to tell the UK government to stop paying for poverty. The UK government has just agreed to withhold £50 million of its funding to the World Bank.
Daleep Mukarji, Director of Christian Aid, told the assembled crowd, "This is excellent news… but only a first step." The IMF and World Bank continue to impose damaging economic conditions on their loans.
More than 3,000 people, including six from Bloomsbury, marched from Kennington to the Treasury. Drummers led the way with the beat going back in waves toward the end of the march. Many carried a placard with the photo and story of a person whose life have been damaged by the IMF and World Bank. Here is one example.
Máxima Cari
When the World Bank insisted that the Bolivian government privatise the water service in 1997, Máxima Cari could not afford the $445 connection fee charged by the foreign firm that won the contract. That's hardly surprising – the fee is around half the annual minimum wage in Bolivia. Now she draws dirty water from a well eight feet deep and her children have become sick.
"We don't have steady work, so we can't afford to pay for water. We use guttering and barrels to collect rain water which we use to wash our clothes," Máxima said. "I wash my children weekly. Sometimes there's only enough water to wash their hands and faces not their whole body."
"We also dig holes to use as toilets that contaminate the water in our wells. Sometimes we have to drink water and my children get diarrhoea. Sometimes I have to take them to hospital and they have to stay there. It's not nice to have a life like this" (Pressureworks, 2006).
A minute's silence
The marchers in central London paused for a minute's silence outside Downing Street as a petition with 25,066 signatures and a drum were delivered to Gordon Brown in 11 Downing Street. The silence was followed by a roar from the crowd and a loud beating of drums.
Jackie Somerville
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