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THE UK CAMPAIGN and English .]] The Make Poverty History campaign (which is written as '''MAKE'''POVERTY'''HISTORY''') was a British and Irish coalition of Charities , Religious groups, Trade Unions , campaigning groups and Celebrities who mobilized around the UK's prominence in world politics in 2005 to increase awareness and pressure governments into taking actions towards relieving Absolute Poverty . The symbol of the campaign was a White Wristband made of cotton or silicone. A 'virtual' white band was also available to be displayed on websites. TV Ads ran for many months, urging people to speak to their representatives about stopping poverty. However the UK Office Of Communications (Ofcom) banned the ads, deciding that the ads were "wholly or mainly political" in nature, since they aimed to "achieve important changes". The campaign said it was "disappointed" in the decision. {Link without Title} The three demands of the campaign were:
It should be noted that none of these aims were new (there have been many attempts over the last few decades to promote them), but the scale of the 2005 campaign dwarfed previous efforts. On January 31 2006, the majority of the members of the campaign passed a resolution to disband the organisation, arguing that the UK coalition had only agreed to come together formally for a limited lifespan, to correspond with the UK holding the presidency of the EU and G8 . Around forty groups had argued against the dissolution. Some have been critical of the ending of the coalition the Left-wing activist Alex Callinicos wrote that "disbanding of MPH has a lot to do with the interests of the big NGOs that dominated it" and that "scrapping MPH was an utterly shameful decision. It can only promote the belief that those who currently dominate the world are benevolent figures who will, with a few pushes from below, continue to take “small steady steps forwards”. But this is a lie that helps to kill millions every year." {Link without Title} Events Make Poverty History set out a timescale revolving around the 31st G8 Summit in Gleneagles , Scotland on July 6 , 2005 . The campaign was given a high profile launch on British television on New Year's Day 2005 in a special edition of '' The Vicar Of Dibley '', written by Richard Curtis , who pledged support for the campaign during 2005 . The same issues were highlighted in Curtis' television drama '' The Girl In The Café '', in an episode broadcast on June 25 on the BBC One channel in the UK and the HBO channel in the US.
Member organisations The UK campaign had over 530 member organisations including many Faith Groups , Trade Unions and Charities . See Member Organisations Of Make Poverty History (UK) . Whilst the anti-war group CND was a member, the Stop The War Coalition (StWC) requested to join but was refused. There was speculation that this was because the organisers wanted to minimise criticism of the Labour Government over the Iraq War . The Make Poverty History's governing body, the coordination team, cited the substantial political party affiliations of the governing body of StWC as the primary reason. They also gave the grounds that the issues of economic justice are separate from those of war, and STWC participation in Edinburgh on 2 July would confuse the message. In a highly critical article in the Red Pepper magazine Stuart Hodkinson claimed that this was ironic since Oxfam a member of the coordination team "is currently leading a global campaign for an international arms treaty on the basis that uncontrolled arms fuels poverty and suffering." {Link without Title} StW independently organised for people to join the July 2nd demo in Edinburgh, with many local groups working together, and managed to negotiate the right to have a stage in a corner of the park at where the rally at its end was held, though this was not formally part of the MPH event. THE CANADIAN CAMPAIGN The Canadian Make Poverty History campaign was launched in February of 2005 by a coalition coordinated by Gerry Barr , President and CEO of the Canadian Council For International Co-operation . The campaign is supported by a coalition of charities, trade unions, faith groups, students, academics, literary, artistic and sports leaders such as actor Mary Walsh , musician Tom Cochrane , Canadian Olympian Anna Van Der Kamp , and United Nations special envoy Stephen Lewis . Make Poverty History has four main objectives in Canada:
THE US "ONE" CAMPAIGN See Also: ONE Campaign In April 2005 , a commercial began airing in the United States with several celebrities in black and white stating the pledge of the American ONE Campaign , their version of Make Poverty History. The commercial featured 33 celebrities and personalities; names as diverse as religious leaders Pat Robertson and Frank Griswold ; Singer s including Bono , P. Diddy , Mos Def and Jewel ; and various Actor s including Brad Pitt , Susan Sarandon , Al Pacino and Antonio Banderas . At the end, Tom Hanks states, "We're not asking for your money. We're asking for your voice." The general goals of the ONE campaign in the United States are to end extreme poverty, hunger and AIDS. A more specific goal is to get President George W. Bush to commit at least 0.3% of the national budget, around US$ 30 billion, to foreign aid, and increase it further to the UN goal of 0.7% of GDP , around US$73 billion As Of 2004 , over the next several years. In 2004 , the United States Government spent US$7 billion on foreign aid. The founding sponsors of ONE are Bread For The World , CARE , DATA , International Medical Corps , International Rescue Committee , Mercy Corps , Oxfam America , Plan USA , Save The Children US, World Concern , and World Vision . They have strong ties with the NBA , MTV 's Rock The Vote , and the Millennium Campaign . THE NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN The Norwegian campaign was started by Kirkens Nødhjelp on Thursday 9. June. Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince Of Norway and Kjell Magne Bondevik are some of the celeberities in Norway that wear a white Make Poverty History band. The three demands of the Norwegian campaign are:
The shops in Norway that sell Make Poverty history bands are Cubus and Dressman, two Norwegian clothing shops. THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN These national campaign groups work under the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) coalition. GCAP is a worldwide alliance committed to making world leaders live up to their promises, and to making a breakthrough on poverty in 2005. It is an alliance between a range of actors around the common cause of ending poverty: existing coalitions, community groups, trade unions, individuals, religious and faith groups, campaigners and more. CRITICISM Critics of the campaign see Debt Relief as counter-productive and have referred to it as "Make Poverty Permanent", as they do not trust the criteria used to select non-corrupt governments for debt relief. In past cases other third world governments have invested aid money in military spending and other projects that help the rich and not the poor in these countries. Thus, these critics allege that debt relief and aid are used to fund lavish lifestyles for the ruling class {Link without Title} (although efforts are made to exclude these countries from the G8 debt relief). The campaign has also received criticisms in that it is said to resemble a notion put forward during the 1980's which put countries such as Africa in debt to companies and governments because of such aid being used irresponsively or incorrectly. Fears are that for their initial stake, countries wish to pursue further interests in the country after such debts are free - some even arguing of hegemony of the United States wishing to export its culture elsewhere for profit. Critics also argue that the countries receiving aid cannot control how it is used. Aid may be structured to help the first world governments giving the aid more than the countries in receipt of it, while the power to change things in these societies is given to western educated people who may not know about the countries they are meddling in, and often instigate inappropriate ideas that tend to increase rather than decrease levels of suffering. The campaign has also been criticised for accepting some tenets of " aim of the campaign is a counter-productive form of Protectionism , which will harm the poor more than help them. In Britain some critics, including those in the left of the Labour Party , have criticised the campaign for not being critical enough of the UK government, as they see Tony Blair and Gordon Brown 's support for the campaign as a cynical ploy to move away from criticism of the Iraq War and its protectionist policies. Finally, ending poverty is seen as a slogan used by politicians and other groups in order to promote themselves and their alleged superior Morality , with no evidence that the political ideas behind these slogans will make any difference to levels of poverty in Africa or elsewhere. A number of items of merchandise against the campaign have been produced, with tongue-in-cheek slogans such as "MAKEBONOHISTORY". SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS Official
Unofficial Coverage
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