Charity

• Support working class relief November 3 2005
  Ted Crawford takes another look at progressive and working class organisations working in Pakistan after the devastating earthquake
• Organising from below October 27 2005
  Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan, responds to our request for information on the relief efforts of the left, and comments on the religious charity, Islamic Relief, favoured by the Socialist Workers Party

   

  • The CPGB also received responses from two other organisations, amongst them the Socialist Workers Party's Pakistani section, which warns that socialists should not support Islamic Relief (for which the SWP is collecting money, as reported by the Weekly Worker last week)
  • Workers of the world, unite! (except in Pakistan - and indeed anywhere else)
    Ted Crawford of the Revolutionary History editorial board highlights the shameful duplication of socialist effort in the race to aid earthquake victims
• Like sending money to George Bush October 20 2005
  SWP members in Respect are involved in collecting money for the bourgeois religious charity, Islamic Relief. But socialists should be supporting left and democratic organisations in Pakistan, who are not only struggling in the aftermath of an earthquake, but are also engaged in a battle against general Musharraf’s military dictatorship, says Tina Becker
• Mission accomplished July 8 2005
  Thanks to their front men Bob Geldof and Bono, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown managed to capture or neutralise the Make Poverty History bandwagon. But there remains deep disenchantment, argues Eddie Ford
• Solidarity, not charity - June 30 2005
  In order to make poverty history, we need to make capitalism history, says Tina Becker
• The poverty of fair trade - June 30 2005
  Mark Fischer argues that Proudhon is the unacknowledged theoretical daddy of many of today’s campaigners who want to see the end of poverty and international justice through ‘fair trade’
• Political economy of aid - June 30 2005
  What lies behind the establishment’s ‘campaign for Africa’? Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique, looks beneath the hype

• Behind the smokescreen - June 30 2005
  Does the World Bank aid the development of poor countries? José López examines its workings

• Historic con trick June 16 2005
  The G7’s ‘historic deal’ to cancel the debt of some of the poorest countries is a fine example of what happens when genuine mass sentiment is taken over by the ruling elite - and turned into its opposite. Tina Becker says that communists must reject the politics of charity

  • Aid, debt and fair trade
    The three demands of Make Poverty History (parroted by Gordon Brown) do not even come close to challenging the structures that keep Africa - and much of the rest of the world - in poverty, says Tina Becker
• Six months after the tsunami
  Michelle Euston examines why millions of the victims of the tsunami still live in temporary camps - and looks at where all the money has gone
• What's wrong with Live8?
  How can you not shudder at the thought of a bunch of pampered multi-millionaire airheads like Kate Moss and Mariah Carey lecturing us about the plight of the poor, asks Kelly Scott
• What's wrong with Make Poverty History?
  Tina Becker looks at the reasons as to why the charity-based MPH campaign has been completely incorporated by the government
• Solidarity, not charity! March 31 2005
  Genuine Marxists want to make charity history, not constitute its left wing.Mark Fischer explains why
• SWP tails red nose establishment March 10 2005
  Much of the left buys into charity-mongering, crticises Eddie Ford

• Tsunami appeal

  click here for a list of workers, women and peasant organisations for which we urged supported after the tsunami disaster

  Make charity history January 13 2005
  Millions, shocked and horrified by the damage done by the Asian tsunami, have dug deep these last few weeks. It would be very wrong for socialists and communists to sneer at this effort, says Tina Becker. But communists also have a duty today to show that in reality most aid is channelled through government-sponsored charities and is very likely to reinforce the power structures that keep much of the world’s population in dismal poverty
  • Charity mongering
    Tina Becker criticises the SWP's response to the Asian tsunami disaster
• Solidarity, not charity January 6 2005
  Eddie Ford examines the tsunami crisis in Indonesia
• 'Thank god it's them...' December 16 2004
  Bob Geldof's charity-mongering is back this Christmas. Nathaniel Mehr looks behind the hype