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DEVELOPMENT: Standing Up for Rights

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Oct 16 2008 (IPS) - Millions are being called to quite literally stand up for their rights in a global day of action against poverty Friday this week. The organisers are hoping that this simultaneous protest will be a step to collective power.

The standing up, which will mean groups of people around the world make an issue of standing up together, comes at the behest of the Global Call for Action Against Poverty (GCAP), an alliance of about 100 social movements, non-government organisations and community and faith groups. The call on anti-poverty day (Oct. 17) last year had about 43 million people standing up, organisers say. This year they have indications it will be 67 million over events through the weekend, one in every hundred people in the world.

Inevitably, a campaign like this runs into scepticism that it is no more than a gimmick, and really quite inconsequential. “But this is not a gimmick in the slightest,” Ben Margolis, GCAP mobilisation and outreach coordinator told IPS. “In South Asia the campaign has brought together a diverse range of civil society activists…Dalits, women’s groups, trade unions, faith groups.” And that has contributed to pressure that led the Indian government to setting up an all-parliamentary group to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are met or exceeded, he said.

But while poverty is the broadly common theme, groups will stand up over particular issues in their countries. “In Nigeria it will be to uphold the freedom of information act, considered vital to fighting corruption and other damaging practices,” Margolis said. “In Indonesia it is leading to an agreement among the shopping centres of Jakarta on zero use of plastic bags.”

“From Friday to Sunday, in rich and poor countries, at concerts and sporting events, in universities and in houses of worship, millions of people will show that they will not remain seated in the face of poverty and broken promises to end it,” Salil Shetty, director of the UN Millennium Campaign said in a statement.

And this year people say they will stand up to remind leaders that the financial crisis is nothing to the crisis of people without finance.

“This mass mobilisation will demonstrate to world leaders that citizens do not consider the global financial crisis to be an excuse for breaking promises, and they must commit to concrete plans of action now in order to eradicate extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015,” Shetty said. “The global financial crisis once again shows the urgent need for a radical re-thinking of the international financial architecture to make it more equitable and relevant to today’s world.”

The financial crisis in fact presents a new opportunity, says Margolis. The damage has been done by practices such as privatisation of essential services “that we have been saying year after year should be changed. And now suddenly, a political space has opened up for them to be changed.”

“It is scandalous that we are not hearing our voices in the debate on the financial crisis,” says Sylvia Borren, GCAP co-chair who is in New York this week for Stand up. “We are the majority who want to see a different wealth distribution system. We are the ones who call for that which has been given to those in the minority at the top of the social ‘pyramid’ to be given to the millions at the bottom. Then you will see real change.”

During the Stand Up campaign, citizens of poor countries will demand that their governments:

– Make the Millennium Development Goals the highest priority in budget allocation.

– Put in place clear plans to achieve the Millennium Development Goals at the national, sub-national and local levels, adapted to local realities.

– Aggressively fight corruption and set up mechanisms to end impunity.

Citizens of rich countries will demand that their governments:

– Establish targets to deliver on existing aid volume commitments.

– Commit to debt relief beyond existing aid commitments and ensure that it reaches the poorest countries without delay.

– Announce concrete plans to complete the Doha Trade Round with an outcome that will help poor countries and the poorest people achieve the Millennium Development Goals, through the elimination of trade distorting agricultural subsidies, capping of domestic subsidies on products of importance to poor countries, and genuine market access to poor countries.

At the heart of the campaign is the push to get governments of the richer countries to stand by their pledge to put aside at least 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) for development aid. “Year after year we see that that is not met,” said Margolis. “Yet we have seen that governments are able to work together and raise resources very quickly.” About two trillion dollars (a trillion is a million million) have been raised to deal with the financial crisis, he said. “A fraction of that would help meet the MDGs.”

And just meeting the 0.7 percent commitment will raise 250 billion dollars, more than enough for the MDGs, Margolis said. What has come instead is a pledge for 50 billion dollars, and even that has not been delivered. For some millions of people to stand up to say essentially that should be at the least a quite visible reminder.