Patrick Bond, Denis Brutus and Virginia Shetshedi on NGO co-option

The heart of the problem is that the large mainstream NGOs ­ and here we do not mean War on Want, the World Development Movement and Christian Aid - are not putting serious pressure on the G8. For example, when anti-poverty campaigners call for"cancellation of poor countries' unpayable debts", this leaves undefined what, exactly, is 'unpayable' (quite a weasel word) and concedes that the vast populations of lower-middle income countries will suffer under indefinite debt peonage. NGO and rock star endorsements of the partial debt relief gimmick announced by Gordon Brown and the G8 finance ministers on June 11 illustrate the confusion.

The rest is worth reading.