The Beat Goes On in London

Christian Aid's 'Stop paying for poverty' march to the treasury last Thursday was particularly well-timed; not only did it kick off the Global Month of Action with a bang, the mood was particularly buoyant as everyone was told about Hilary Benn's announcement, that the UK was withholding £50 million from the World Bank in protest over the conditions attached to international aid. (Of course, you could have read that story hours earlier, here on the blog, but anyway). As protesters gathered in the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park in Lambeth, we heard from Christian Aid's director, Dr Daleep Mukarji, and Christian Aid trade justice ambassadors, including Adjoa Andoh and Ibrahim Akalbila from the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) in Ghana, and singer Ronan Keating, who spoke about a visit there. Banners and placards showing the faces of people affected by World Bank and IMF decisions were displayed and distributed as the crowd got ready to move off.

At the front of the group were the drummers, who taught the drummers in the crowd a Ghanaian message beat, and the speakers with a banner.

Following behind were about three thousand supporters, with placards, drums and banners, including representatives from groups such as Islamic Relief, Make Poverty History Jewish Coalition and Jubilee Debt Campaign. We walked from the park to Lambeth Bridge, and then made our way north towards the Houses of Parliament, the sound of the drums bringing many people out of their office buildings or to the windows to watch us pass.

After a minute's silence outside Downing Street, where a drum (symbolising the message being relayed by us from Ghana) and a petition with 25,000 signatures were delivered to Number 11, we moved on into Whitehall Place, where the rally ended with short speeches urging us to continue campaigning, and to take the stories we had heard back to our own groups and communities. The speaker from Senegal made the following sobering statement: "Over the last twenty years in Senegal, the IMF and the World Bank have done more harm than good. The IMF has stopped my government from helping me." A lot has been achieved, but we cannot stop now. The beat will go on...