We
take a look back at the month of action events in Scotland
and around the UK when people joined millions of others
around the world in standing up against poverty.
Hilary
Benn witholds £50 million on eve of World Bank
meetings On the
eve of the World Bank and IMF meetings in Singapore,
Hilary Benn announced that the UK would be withholding
£50 million of its budget to the World Bank
until he saw evidence that the bank had changed its
conditions attached to loans and grants. While this
was not new money that was being withheld, it was
recognition for campaigners who have been fighting
for the UK to put more pressure on the way that the
World Bank and IMF impose harmful economic policies
onto poor countries.
The challenge
now is to get recognition that the conditions that are
inherent in the HIPC debt relief process are in need
of the same overhaul. read
more
GCAP
Scotland Launch the month of action 15th September GCP Scotland
began the month of action with the launch of the postcard
campaign to put pressure on the German Chancellor
Angela Merkel to put poverty high on the agenda of
the G8 Summit next year.
Members of the public have been sending thousands
of petition cards to the German embassy in Edinburgh
and have been emailing Tony Blair to press Merkel
for a commitment on poverty.
And the pressure paid off.
The German agenda was announced on October 18th
giving a priority to the twin goals of fighting
poverty and climate change. The goal now is
for Germany to take leadership on the issue.
Kumi
Naidoo of GCAP said
"Chancellor Merkel has made a crititcal
statement today by putting Africa at the heart
of the G8 agenda. As an activist and African,
I call on her to come here and experience the
issues confronting us first hand."
Cut
the Strings lobby and trip to Westminster Campaigners
were encouraged during the month to take their signed
cut the strings petition cards to their MPs and use
the month of action to put concerted pressure on the
government. The lobby culminated with a group of campaigners
going down to Westminster on October 12 to meet with
Hilary Benn and deliver the unequivocal message that
Scotland demands the government to cut the strings
attahced to debt relief. Here are some pictures of
the petition handovers.
15-16th October Stand Up Against
Poverty - Record Breakers
The
culmination of the month of action was a world record
attempt to get millions of people all over the world
to stand up against poverty. In the end 23.5 million
people stood up and sent the strongest message to
the world leaders - that the people of the world will
not stop until poverty is ended in our time
