second opinion
WORKERS, JULY 2003 ISSUE
The G8 circus at Evian, with its equally ritual anarchist demonstrations, cost an estimated £144 million, money that could have been far better spent, on, say, getting clean water to Ethiopia's people. But the G8's leaders had nothing to say about improving water supplies, nothing to say about reducing the exorbitant costs of generic drugs.
Before the G8 meeting, a London branch of the National Union of Teachers sensibly asked its members whether they wanted to use union money to send a few members to the demonstration against the G8. To the consternation of the few, members voted to keep their funds to support their union's own work.
Who is doing more to hurt capitalism - teachers organising in their union to save teachers' jobs, cut class sizes and improve education in the real world, or anarchists having a sponsored trip to an overseas circus?