Celebrities at World Social Forum publicly support Global Call to Action Against Poverty

(Porto Alegre, Brazil, 29 Jan 2005) At the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre today, a group of celebrities publicly voiced their support for the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) initiative. They include Nobel Literature Prize laureate Jose Saramago, former General Director of UNESCO Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former Prime Minister of Denmark and current President of the Socialist Group at the European Parliament Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, President of IPS Executive Committee Roberto Savio, Brazilian Chief Minister of the Secretary of Presidency Luis Dulci, Director of Le Monde Diplomatique, Ignacio Ramonet, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

They join a group of leading political and civil society actors including Bono, UK Chancellor Gordon Brown, Oxfam International President Mary Robinson, President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions Sharan Burrow and French Finance Minister Herve Gaymard, who yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos also publicly aired their support for the Global Call.

At todays presentation to show this support during the World Social Forum, Roberto Bissio, from Uruguay´s Third World Institute speaking on behalf of GCAP said, “It is vital that high profile people make a public declaration like this to support the movement and motivate others to get involved in 2005. This is a crucial year for holding the world´s leaders to account for their promises to eradicate poverty. They have been let away with too much for too long, we have to say enough is enough.”

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty is a worldwide alliance of hundreds of organisations. These comprise grassroots movements, trade unions, women’s groups, non-governmental organizations, human right advocates, international civil society and faith groups. The campaign is calling on world leaders to fulfill their commitments on trade justice, more and better aid and full debt cancellation. It is also demanding that national efforts to eliminate poverty and reach the Millennium Goal are developed and implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent and accountable to citizens.

During 2005 millions of people are expected to demand that world leaders fulfill their promises at three key “White Band Days”: the G8 summit in July in UK, at the UN General Assembly in September and in December at the WTO Ministerial meeting in HK. The white band is a symbol of the united call to end poverty once and for all.