Stand Up: If Only Every Day was Like This

What force can two percent of people living in our complex, and often troubled, earth change with their rallies, marches, meetings, concerts and prayers? How will the trees they planted, the letters they delivered to their leaders, their e mails and texts, the time they gave, change the injustices that motivated them to take action in the first place?  

For starters, they show that there is power in numbers. By getting out there and registering their events, they were able to do something that so many movements in the past have failed to do - they could be counted. In the three years since the beginning of the Stand Up campaign, the movement of people who want to see poverty eradicated has grown from 23 to 43 million in the first two years, and now to a staggering 116.99 million.   

This is a reflection on both the popularity of this simple concept, and the work of the grassroots mobilisers who are reaching out to people who had never heard of the Millennium Goals. I am heartened that this awareness raising has happened, and I believe that the changes we see as a result of civil society’s efforts will be threefold.  

Firstly, the new connections made between students, women’s groups, local government, trade unions, churches and mosques and youth centres – that had previously no reason to act together - will be permanent. The movement away from single-issue mobilisation to collective, local action with a common purpose is very powerful wherever you live. Whether you stand for decent work or women’s rights, you share the common goal of wanting to eradicate poverty so that people can access their fundamental rights. The development of this new network is extremely exciting.  

Secondly, the policy demands that so many people who took part in Stand Up Take Action campaign developed beforehand will be the framework for government lobbying and advocacy throughout the year. The demands on education and health policy, particularly in the South, will be reiterated at budget time, at key policy decision moments, and during face-to-face meetings with many of the Ministers and Heads of State who were happy to be part of  Stand Up over the weekend of October 17^th. They will not be allowed to step away from this demonstration of solidarity. This has worked in several countries in the past two years, and will again. People will use their actions and the 116.99 million figure to leverage the pressure they need at these critical decision-making moments.  

Finally, a vital change I foresee more immediately is in the global response to the current financial crisis. As heads of the 20 most powerful nations on earth prepare to meet as guests of George Bush in Washington next month, the voices of the 116.99 million will be heard. Civil society is asking about global-level double standards. If it is considered acceptable to cancel the debts of financial institutions when they get themselves into trouble, why can the debts of countries not be written off overnight with equal immediacy and lack of conditions? As GCAP , we will ensure that amid the talk of protecting the status quo, there will also be talk of changing the global financial architecture to include the needs of the one billion people who are hungry due to exorbitant food costs, as well as the many more who are sick due to lack of access to medicines and poor because they cannot work.

The mobilisation of last weekend represented the birth of a new phenomenon. It is just the beginning of the next 8 years’ work to hold our leaders accountable for meeting and, why not exceeding, the Millennium Development Goals. It shows the local can influence the global. Men, women and children who live in poverty are Standing Up for their rights, and those who are more privileged are Standing Up with them. If the changes are allowed to happen then everyday really could be like this.