The Make Poverty History campaign is more about attitude than simple solutions, its supporters tell Carl O'Brien
Laura Burke is sick of being labelled as disinterested in politics. "We keep hearing that. But the big political parties don't deal with the big issues. They ignore them," says the 16-year-old student, in rapid bursts. "Politics is all about who gets nominated for something. We're written off as not caring. But why isn't Bertie Ahern or Mary Harney involved in this?"
Laura, and her three friends from Clondalkin, who are part of the Make Poverty History campaign, nod in agreement.
It's a point made repeatedly by groups of young people taking part in Thursday night's rally. Some are involved in NGOs, others are involved in left-leaning political parties. A sizeable number decided to join in after watching Bono's Croke Park appeal for people to come out in force. But all feel isolated from mainstream politics.
So many young people find the Make Poverty History campaign invigorating because so much else in consensus-driven politics seems passionless and purposeless to them.
"If politicians did more to focus on these issues and support these marches, maybe more of us would listen to them," adds Sarah Price (17), a classmate of Laura's in Coláiste Bríd, Clondalkin.
HUNDREDS OF YOUNG Irish people, seasoned campaigners and older missionaries are making their way to Edinburgh for today's Make Poverty History rally, the centrepiece of the campaign, which is expected to attract anything between 100,000 and 250,000 people.
A further million people are expected to attend Live8 concerts around the world today.
The campaign, which focuses on trade justice, debt cancellation and better aid, sees next week's G8 summit as a major opportunity to build the political momentum needed to secure progress on those issues.
It doesn't stop there. The bandwagon will roll on to other events, including the UN's millennium summit in September, and a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in December.
It has already scored some successes. Finance ministers from the richest countries have backed broad plans to write off up to 100 per cent of the debts of some of the world's poorest countries.
And while the world waits to see if there will be a breakthrough on wider issues at the G8 summit at Gleneagles, politicians and world leaders are at least learning a new grammar, of trade injustice, poverty and debt relief.
There are still many, however, who haven't bought into the campaign. The immeasurable vastness of Third World problems means it hasn't caught on as a mass movement in the same way as, say, the Iraq war protests.
While the Dublin protest on Thursday night attracted a healthy 20,000 people, some 100,000 took part in the anti-war march in February 2003. Similarly, the hundreds of thousands expected in Edinburgh are unlikely to compare to the estimated one-million-strong peace march in London before the Iraq war.
Some grumble that the campaign doesn't deal with huge issues such as conflict, corruption or Aids. More radical groupings feel uncomfortable with what they see as sanctimonious millionaire pop stars cosying up with Mafia-Don type politicians.
Waiting to board a bus to Edinburgh yesterday, Seán Ó Murchú (20) says he feels uncomfortable with aspects of the Make Poverty History campaign because it legitimises the power of the G8. He is a member of Dissent Ireland, which describes itself as a network of resistance against the G8 summit. "They [ the Make Poverty History campaign] have a flawed analysis. The G8's power is based on inequality. Asking them to reform the trade system is like asking them to cut off their own arm."
WHILE THERE ARE detractors, Nessa Ní Chasaide, one of the co-ordinators of the Irish branch of the Make Poverty History campaign, says there is widespread support from across dozens of NGOs, trade unions and lobby groups on its three key aims.
"It is unprecedented to have such a broad coalition around development issues," she says. "In terms of ideology or whatever, our manifesto clearly states what we want to achieve. We may have different backgrounds, but there is a coherence and unity in our aims." She is not under any illusions as to what will come out of the protests. The causes of poverty won't be made history overnight. But, she says with steely determination, there is a chance to elevate these issues to a level where change can begin to take place.
"Like Nelson Mandela said earlier this year, 'sometimes it falls on a generation to be great - you can be that generation'. That's what all this is about. We know that suffering, injustice and poverty are something which will go on for generations," she says.
"But the aim is to create a mindshift . . . to the point where there is a shift in the public consciousness that massive inequality just isn't acceptable any more."
Carl O'Brien reports from Edinburgh in Monday's Irish Times