General

	ASU staff and members stand up outside the Carlton South building

ASU stands up and speaks out with a record 43.7 million others worldwide

A new Guinness World Record has been set for the most people gathering in the name of a single cause. Worldwide over 43.7 million people participated in "Stand Up and Speak Out against poverty" on 17 October 2007 and the ASU was part of that record.

Comprehensively breaking last year's record of 23.5 million, each one of the 43.7 million people who participated can be justifiably proud in continuing to draw attention to this critical issue. To find out what happened around the world, you can read the official media release here:

http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/en/press/release/oct-18-2007

At the ASU, we once again gathered in front of the Carlton South office building in Melbourne, collecting additional photos for the Face Up photo petition and making a special ASU pledge. You can watch and listen to us taking the pledge here:

The ASU inclusion in the standard pledge is as follows:

"To the leaders of all countries: we ask you to ensure that the dignity of all workers is protected and that the working conditions they have are fair and equitable and decent."

As proud trade unionists, we understand the important role of decent and dignified work in the poverty equation. It is up to governments to ensure they have legislation in place which enshrines the rights of workers. Poverty will not go away with full employment unless exploitation and inequities are fiercely weeded out of our societies.

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty is the umbrella under which MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY and thousands of other coalition members campaign to eradicate poverty and inequality. This is not a fund raising campaign - it is all about consciousness raising so that we can tell our political leaders to act.

Please visit the ASU MPH campaign page to find out more: http://www.asu.asn.au/campaigns/makepovertyhistory.html

How is Australia performing on poverty eradication?

For details about Australia's progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), please see the publication produced by MPH Australia entitled "Millennium Development Goal 8 Review":

http://www.makepovertyhistory.com.au/pdfs/Goal_8_Report2007.pdf

Unfortunately, it reports that Australia lags behind most developed countries in the amount of overseas aid it gives and has failed to fully implement more than half of its commitments to the global blueprint to combat poverty.

What this means for us is that we need to keep telling our political representatives that this is an important issue and that we demand that they address it. They have the power - we need to tell them it is what we want them to do.

Poverty eradication policies and the federal election

MPH Australia has also prepared a report card to help you assess the poverty eradication (and related) policies of the major political parties in the lead up to the 2007 federal election:

http://www.makepovertyhistory.com.au/policy_report_card.aspx

And just a few more things…

We encourage you to participate in the Face Up petition. Full details, along with a slideshow of ASU people who have already joined in, can be found on our campaign website here: http://www.asu.asn.au/campaigns/makepovertyhistory.html

As an active supporter of the MPH campaign, the ASU has been added to the official list: http://www.makepovertyhistory.com.au/ngo_members.aspx

Union Aid Abroad APHEDA is the overseas aid agency of the ACTU. They have a current campaign called "Make Life Fair Everywhere" which addresses many of the issues between work and poverty in the developing world. You can read about and join their campaign here: http://www.apheda.org.au/