The G20 is in process as we go to print. Yet we can already make predictions as to the outcome of the talks. The poor will gain nothing from the summit.

As the leaders of the ‘free world’ at the G20 summit sit down to champagne, caviar and the grand task of ‘solving the economic crisis’, the last thing likely to be on their minds are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two shattered countries with no infrastructure and over one million dead and they tell us that 'the objectives have nearly been achieved'!

Today, April 1st 2009, leaders of the G20 nations meet in London. The G20 covers two thirds of the world’s population, 80% of all trade and collectively produces 90% of the world’s income. Their leaders will dine well, enjoy fine wines and strut the public stage. They are here to discuss the world economic crisis and how to solve it. We confidently predict they will achieve nothing.

We are told that there is not enough food for everyone, that there are too many human beings on the planet and therefore we must all reduce consumption - a handy idea in the hands of the bourgeois propagandists. The real facts and figures reveal that the world produces enough food. So where does the problem lie?

"Neoliberalism", sometimes called "market fundamentalism", i.e. the policy of non-intervention by the state in the economy, has been the dominant ideology of the bourgeoisie for close to three decades, involving widespread privatisation and all the other policies that go with it. The present economic meltdown, however, is forcing governments to intervene, regulate, and even nationalise firms because they have no choice. So is "neoliberalism" dead?

Last week comrades of the IMT from several countries intervened very successfully at the European Social Forum in Malmö, Sweden, finding an audience for their ideas and making contacts with new layers of activists.