Poverty is structural.
This is the foundation premise of the entire progressive/liberal movement. This is the centre around which everything else gathers, and the base on which much else builds.
Poverty is structural. The massive suffering and deprivation in Africa (the focus of the G8) and in many other places is not handed down by God or mandated by nature. It is an artifact of the systems we have in place to govern the ownership and usage of resources.
We in the rich world benefit from a system rigged in our favour. We who benefit from it are also the only ones in a position to change it.
That is why we gather in Edinburgh next week. The mass action is designed to achieve one goal above all others: to give our elected representatives permission and instruction to spend our money on fixing this, instead of perpetuating it.
Because if poverty is structural, then the structure can be changed.
Another world is possible.