End Poverty Now forum - what next?

Anti-poverty campaigners gathered in Central London on Saturday for a forum to discuss what today's global crises (the financial crisis, the food and fuel crisis, and climate change) mean for campaigners against poverty. Were you there? If so what did you think?

Photo: Benedict Parsons/BOND

Unsurprisingly the financial crisis dominated, and speakers and activists talked about using it as an opportunity to explain how the overwhelming power of the financial system has been the cause of so much poverty and inequality in recent decades. There was a call for urgent regulation which would hold the financial sector accountable to democratic institutions across the world.

Tony Juniper (former head of Friends of the Earth), Celine Tan (the Third World Network) and Nick Hildyard (the Cornerhouse) showed the inter-connectedness of the crises the world is now facing and spoke of the necessity of going well beyond a single issue approach to campaigning. The anti-poverty movement needs to understand and convey the connectedness of the crises we’re facing – allowing ordinary people to understand how our actions or failure to act can impact on the developing world for better or worse.

A series of papers discuss these links in more depth:

• Tony Juniper and others, A Green New Deal report, July 2008
• Nick Hildyard, A (Crumbling) Wall of Money: Financial Bricolage, Derivatives andPower, 9 October 2008
• Jubilee Debt Campaign, The debt crisis and the credit crunch, October 2008
  

The afternoon was dominated by a discussion of whether current anti-poverty campaigning was up to the task of combating the crises faced by the world. Speakers from Make Poverty History North East, Leeds University and the Climate Camp argued for better working together by activists at a national and local level across a range of different issues, including better provision of educational resources and other means of empowering local activists.

There was widespread agreement that we must join the growing call for a radically restructured financial system, and ensure that any reformed system will place people and the planet at its core. We couldn’t afford to wait for months or years to join this call – immediate action is necessary.

The conference described itself as a starting point – to allow us to start conversations and actions which will strengthen the anti-poverty movement. It achieved that but real progress depends on others getting involved to reinvigorate and broaden the anti-poverty movement.

The networks who organised and supported the day include: The Global Call to Action against Poverty, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Trade Justice Movement, Stop Aids Campaign, Stamp Out Poverty, and Stop Climate Chaos.