Dear Avaaz community,
Across the planet, millions of people young and old are flooding the
streets and mobilising online to reject corruption and injustice and
speak of a more beautiful world.
A new Twitter hashtag in Brazil tells the story: #OGiganteAcordou. Translation: “The sleeping giant has awoken".
And
Avaaz - now nearly 25 million strong! - is there almost
everywhere it's happening. In one example, the Brazilian Senate
repeatedly cited our community last week when they voted to give any
500,000 citizen petition the power to directly introduce measures to the
government.
We're growing by well over 1 million people per month, and it's
accelerating. As more citizens shake off the slumber we are realising
that the world really is ours and, while we face great challenges, what
happens next, depends on all of us.
Because when we come together, and stay together, we win.
Scroll down for victories and updates, just from the last several weeks:
Brazil says NO to Corruption, YES to 21st Century Democracy!
 Delivering our 1.6 million voices to Brazil's Senate
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Brazilians are saying enough is enough to rampant corruption. First it
was the hugely successful Clean Record Law campaign, to bar politicians
convicted of crimes from running for office -- which studies have shown
Avaaz played a key role in winning. Now an Avaaz member has created the biggest online petition in Brazilian history -- with over 1.6 million voices
demanding that Senators kick out the Senate President, a disgraced
politician under a cloud of corruption allegations. He’s still there for
now, but we’re close to ending the secret voting process which allowed
him to get the Senate top spot.
Even better, the Senate just voted to make it easier and faster for citizens to force politicians to take action. Avaaz was repeatedly cited during the Senate debate,
in which they agreed to halve how many people need to sign popular
initiative petitions, and they determined that online signatures can
count! Now we’re going all out to get the lower house on board.
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Bangladesh: Hope from the Rubble
 A Swedish paper splashes our banned H&M ad
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When a Bangladeshi garment factory collapsed, killing over a thousand,
Avaaz joined forces with labour organisations and targeted two massive
retail giants. The aim: to get them to sign an enforceable worker safety
plan that could be a model for the world.
Avaaz members blanketed the H&M and GAP Facebook pages. And when our ad targeting H&M’s boss was turned down by a leading newspaper in Sweden a huge debate kicked off
there, in the media and online. Senior H&M executives got right on
the phone with Avaaz, and 3 days later embraced the agreement, prompting
more than 75 other brands to follow in their footsteps! GAP and WalMart aren’t on the list yet, but we’re working on them.
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A Victory for Bees in Europe!
 Wind, rain or snow, we kept up the fight for our bees
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After more than two years of tireless campaigning, we played a key role
in getting Europe to ban bee-killing pesticides, at least until 2015!
This victory came from two years of flooding ministers with messages, launching a massive petition with over 2.6 million signatures,
organising media-grabbing protests with beekeepers and a 5-metre high
inflatable bee, funding opinion polls, and much, much more.
It’s been a long haul to take on mighty mega-corporations like Bayer,
and it wouldn't have been possible without the collaboration of many
scientists, specialists, sympathetic officials, beekeepers and
environmental groups. According to Friends of the Earth: "Avaaz's
massive petition and creative campaigning helped push this over the
edge."
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Stopping the Mass Maasai Evictions
 1.7 million Avaazers back the Massai's right to live in their ancestral lands
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The Tanzanian government wanted to kick thousands of families off their
lands, reportedly so wealthy tourists could shoot lions and leopards! But 1.7 million of us joined them to say “no”, alerting CNN and Al Jazeera
to cover the story, then running hard-hitting adverts calling out the
government in local papers -- and encouraging aid donors to ask
questions. President Kikwete wanted there to be nothing but silence, but
the Maasai have continued to persevere. Finally, when the Maasai
descended on the Parliament demanding their right to live in their
ancestral lands, the Prime Minister signed a letter pledging to seek a
permanent solution to this conflict with community participation. We've so far succeeded in stalling the evictions, but we'll continue to fight until the President calls it off for good.
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Moving Beyond the Failed War on Drugs
Guatemalan President Pérez Molina says YES to ending the failed war on drugs
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The voices of hundreds of thousands of Avaazers across the Americas
called on leaders to embrace more humane drug policies. The result was a historic declaration by the Organisation of American States to move beyond prohibition and tackle drugs as a public health priority, not a military mission.
Our petition was crucial. We delivered it directly, in front of the
media, to Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina. And the President
explained our exact strategy in his own words: "We thank Avaaz for
this petition because it gives us as leaders of the continent the
strength to debate this issue without it being seen as taboo."
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Ending the War on Women
 Avaaz's pink bus tours New Delhi with 'PM Singh' on board to call for public education against rape
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In India, a 23-year-old student was brutally raped on a bus, then died
from her injuries. In the Maldives, a 15 year-old girl was sentenced to
flogging for having sex outside marriage. In Somalia, a young woman was
brutally gang-raped by the security forces that were supposed to
protect her.
In each case Avaaz members have helped turn horror into hope, amplifying
millions of our voices in the media to pressure governments to pass
stronger laws to protect women. In the Maldives, our campaign
threatening tourism got us an open door to top political leaders, who
said the girl would not be flogged for now, and a poll commissioned
by Avaaz hit the front pages showing citizens wanted the laws changed.
In India, a big pink bus with a larger than life fake PM Singh touting
our message was driven through the streets of Delhi, and there is now
growing interest in our call for a massive public education campaign
challenging out of date attitudes towards women. These are just the tips
of the iceberg in our fight to end misogyny.
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Saving Fin Whales from Butchery
 Delivering our call to save the fin whales to the Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs
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When an Icelandic tycoon launched his brutal summer hunt to turn
endangered fin whales into dog food, Avaaz launched a campaign to stop
him shipping the bloody carcasses to Japan. Over 1.1 million of us convinced Dutch politicians to commit to closing Dutch ports. Then we showed up again in Germany
when he tried to reroute his shipments through Hamburg. The German
Environment Ministry responded to Avaazers' messages right away on
Twitter and -- working closely with Greenpeace, together we created the pressure that got the whale meat put right back on a ship to Iceland!
The German government has now asked the port to refuse all future whale
meat shipments, 200,000 Avaaz members in Germany are now asking the
nation's biggest supermarket to stop selling products linked to the
whaling company and we're chasing down the whaler's other routes to
profit until he realises he has to stop killing fin whales.
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Stopping the Global Tax Scam
 Avaazers in action urging PM Harper to take action on tax
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Each year, greedy companies and wealthy individuals use tricky schemes
to hide away an estimated $1 trillion, depriving governments of tax they
need to fix our services and our countries. This year we spotted an
opportunity to go after the missing money, built a massive petition and
linked up with famous singer Baaba Maal and worked closely with Save the
Children, ActionAid and other campaign groups to deliver our voices to
David Cameron, G8 summit chair.
Our
letter signed by 21,000 business representatives helped position this
as a pro-business, pro-citizen issue, and to shift the positions of
Germany and Canada, resulting in an historic agreement that can get
governments to work together to stop tax evasion. The 'Lough Erne
Declaration' was short on specifics, but gives us huge leverage in
chasing governments to block shady tax schemes.
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