Groups Hold G-8 Alternative

Scathing attacks on the wealthy Group of 8 nations drew wild applause Sunday from hundreds of liberal activists who filled theaters around this historic capital for their own G8 Alternatives Summit.

The G-8 summit of leading industrialized nations begins Wednesday in Gleneagles, about 40 miles northwest of Edinburgh. Host British Prime Minister Tony Blair has raised the issues of African poverty and global warming, yet one liberal critic after another painted Blair as insincere and President Bush as inhumane.

“The leaders of the G-8 say they will do something about poverty, but we have our doubts, and that’s why we’re here,” said Ken Wiwa, whose father, author and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, campaigned against oil exploitation and was executed by Nigeria’s then-military regime in 1995.

African countries are “held hostage” by profiteering corporations, Wiwa said, while activists risk their lives in campaigning for control of what lies beneath their soil.

Bianca Jagger, a human rights campaigner, called for a “separation of oil and state.” She implored the crowd to make the G-8 leaders “understand that a life in the developing world is worth the same as yours or mine or anyone else’s.”

Environmentalists made dire predictions about how global warming would intensify Africa’s suffering, as droughts become more frequent. A coalition of environmental and aid groups, including Greenpeace and Oxfam, has warned the G-8 leaders that any new African aid will be useless if global warming continues.

“There’s a way to end all this, and it’s stopping our use of fossil fuels,” said columnist George Monbiot.

On another subject, human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar said the Bush administration’s war on terrorism had eroded civil rights in Britain. Tough antiterrorism statutes created after the Sept. 11 attacks and Blair’s push for national ID cards are creating a “police state” that preys on minorities, he said.

A day after the Make Poverty History march and rally here drew more than 200,000 peaceful demonstrators, hopes ran high that more African nations would see their debts canceled.

But the concept of debt relief was attacked by George Galloway, an independent member of the British Parliament, who got a standing ovation after he said poor nations should “tear up their debts.”

Africans have been exploited by the West, he said. “They should say, ‘We’ve already paid, we have no debts to you -- as a matter of fact, it’s you who owes us money.’ ”

The audience cheered and stomped its feet in approval.

In the evening, hundreds of boisterous antiwar marchers wove through the historic Old Town. Italians sang a song mocking Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Polish protesters carried a banner reading “Stop Wojnie,” or “Stop War.”