Inspiring the world's anger

As ever, their gathering will be the focus for mass demonstrations by those who are opposed to the disasters that have ensued from their domination of the planet.

This book is a quick canter around the issues and problems that are facing the world today, all of them the responsibility of the class interests that the G8 leaders serve - war, poverty, the stifling of democracy, debt, privatisation and more.

A range of contributors address these issues in bite-sized chapters.

They include Lindsey German and Salma Yaqoob from the anti-war movement, Noam Chomsky, the Greens' Caroline Lucas, trade and debt campaigner Susan George and writer George Monbiot.

Inevitably, in a work of this sort, the quality of the chapters is variable and some of the information is slightly dated.

However, there is a wealth of useful information for activists and a lot of angry arguments.

Probably the best chapter - and certainly one of the most substantial - is a wide-ranging look at privatisation and workers' rights by RMT leader Bob Crow.

He has a more explicit class-struggle perspective than some other contributors and is one of the few that puts the labour movement centre-stage in the struggle against G8 policies.

Of course, that is a weakness of the "anti-globalisation" movement and not just this book.

There is sometimes a lack of understanding of the central role of the organised working class in any successful challenge to monopoly capital and a shortage of ideas as to how the mass anti-G8 mobilisations can be converted into a deep-rooted and continuing fighting force.

The closing chapter, entitled Where Do We Go From Here" is disappointing - just another round-up of different voices, none of them saying anything especially challenging.

One further political criticism. The authors almost all assume that the G8 constitutes an unproblematic unity, as, against the mass of impoverished humanity, they may do.

But the contradictions and rivalries between the national centres of capitalism should not be overlooked. Rather, they need to be exploited when possible.

These weaknesses should, however, be set against the tremendous galvanising impetus that the "anti-globalisation movement" has had on the left, at a time when the power of imperialism is, according to every ruling class or social democratic prophet and pundit, unchallengeable.

It is also one of the tributaries that has flowed into the mighty river of the anti-war movement in Britain.

Certainly, the G8 bosses are more on the defensive and are more uncertain of their strategies and their support today than they were five years ago.

That spirit of struggle against globalisation, in all its militancy and diversity, is caught in this book, which is a credit to the editors.

Tens of thousands will march in Edinburgh against the G8. They will march to make poverty history and to oppose imperialist war - the two inextricably linked great evils of our day.

This book is a useful introduction as to why the world's political leaders inspire such revulsion and anger.

ANDREW MURRAY