PRESS RELEASE 
26 October 2005

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY MASS LOBBY OF PARLIAMENT 
TO BE BIGGEST OF 2005

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY today announced that next week's mass lobby of parliament will be the largest lobby of MPs this year - on any issue. Thousands of campaigners from all over the country are coming to London to lobby hundreds of MPs, calling for trade justice not free trade.

The aim of the lobby, which takes place at 12.00pm on Wednesday 2 November, is to increase pressure on the UK Government as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial approaches. 

Campaigners are demanding that the UK Government and its partners in the European Union (EU) stop forcing free trade on poor countries by pushing them to open their economies through world trade talks. They are also calling on the UK and EU to respect the right of poor countries to decide on the trade policies that will help end poverty and protect their environment. This means allowing the freedom to choose the best policies for poor people in services such as water, health and education and policies that will protect vulnerable farm sectors and promote national industries.

The UK Government's 2005 election manifesto included an important new policy, which states that poor countries should not be forced to open their markets. Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alan Johnson has recently assured that this policy is his priority for the WTO. Campaigners welcome the new 'no forced liberalisation' policy but are urging for evidence of it in practice.

Glen Tarman of the Trade Justice Movement, a core network within MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY, said: "The UK and the EU will remain obstacles to trade justice unless they make urgent changes to their position on non-agricultural goods and services and the aggressive stance of our trading bloc in WTO negotiations. Campaigners are coming to London to meet their MPs face to face in the biggest lobby of 2005. If we are to make poverty history through trade justice, the Government must respond and act now to stop free trade being pushed on any poor country." 

This lobby is part of an unparalleled mobilisation of hundreds of millions of ordinary people around the world who are demanding Tony Blair and other world leaders make radical changes to the way world trade is currently managed so it benefits poor people and the environment and not just the rich and powerful.

The call of campaigners at the London lobby will be echoed by civil society across Europe as national governments are lobbied for trade justice including a European wide lobby in Brussels on 21 November. This mobilisation is timed to put pressure on Trade Ministers from the 25 EU nations meeting for the last time to finalise the EU's negotiating position for the crucial trade talks at the WTO in Hong Kong December. 

Despite unprecedented public pressure around the G8, world leaders failed to deliver the urgent action required for a just world trade system. Campaigners, however, remain determined to push for change. Over 600,000 people in the UK have already added their support to the Vote for Trade Justice, a special ballot calling on the Government to urgently deliver a just trade deal for the world's poor. 

The mass lobby is supported by The Co-operative Bank as part of its ongoing commitment to the campaign for trade justice.

For more information visit or www.makepovertyhistory.org. 

ENDS

Media contact:
Catherine Cullen, Media Co-ordinator, MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY: , .  

To download a press pack visit www.makepovertyhistory.org/media 

Notes for Editors:
The Trade Justice Movement

• The Trade Justice Movement (www.tjm.org.uk) is a coalition of more than 70 UK organisations, including campaign groups, trade unions, faith groups and environmental and development organisations, with a combined membership of over 9 million people. The Trade Justice Movement is one of the networks at the core of Make Poverty History (www.makepovertyhistory.org) - an unprecedented coalition of more than 500 organisations calling for trade justice, drop the debt and more and better aid. 

• The Trade Justice Movement's Mass Lobby of Parliament in June 2002 was the largest-ever such event with 346 MPs lobbied. This was followed in 2003 by the biggest national lobby of MPs when more than 500 parliamentarians were lobbied in their constituencies ahead of the last WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, when talks collapsed. In April 2005 the coalition staged the biggest mass protest of the UK election campaign when over 25,000 people filled Whitehall at an all-night vigil. 

• The World Trade Organisation (WTO) holds its sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China from 13 to 18 December 2005. The EU represents the UK at the WTO as a trading bloc with a common trade policy. European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson negotiates on behalf of European member states.

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY

• MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is a unique UK alliance of over 500 charities, trade unions and campaigning groups supported by leading public figures and celebrities who are all mobilising around key opportunities in 2005 to drive forward the struggle against poverty and injustice working in partnership with the Global Call to Action against Poverty.

• The campaign was launched on 1 January 2005 and will run until the end of the year.

• 2005 is particularly important as the UK chaired the G8 meeting of powerful countries from 6-8 July and holds the 6-month presidency of the European Union. 

• MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY challenges the government to deliver trade justice, drop the debt and deliver more and better aid in order to eradicate global poverty.

• 1 July was the first international 'White Band Day'. Millions of people wore the white band and iconic buildings in each continent were wrapped in the symbol of the global campaign to make poverty history. White Band Day 2 took place on 10 September around the world and White Band Day 3 will take place on 10 December just ahead of the WTO meeting.

• 250,000 people attended the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY rally in Edinburgh on 2 July forming a huge white band around the city centre. 

• For further information; photography; copies of our 'Make History' report on global poverty; a full list of coalition members; and for details of our key challenges to government visit the media section of the website: www.makepovertyhistory.org/media.