When Lee Rhiannon was a young activist, she remembers seeing the anti-Vietnam War movement grow from a handful of people gathered in Sydney’s Martin Place to a mass movement of hundreds of thousands of people. This was Lee’s first experience of the power of global solidarity.

As the Secretary of the Australian Western Sahara Association, Lesley Osborn has been calling on the Australian people to put their solidarity into action for the past fifteen years. Asked what drives her activism, Lesley told us: “Solidarity is unity and joining with others to make change."

Joining Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA was a no-brainer for Clare: “I’m an internationalist,” she explains.

“By standing together across borders, we can make a better world” - that was the message that celebrated human rights activist Naw K’nyaw Paw delivered to Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA members and supporters in the 2019 Annual Dinner. Here, we present an excerpt from her keynote speech, in which she calls us to “work together to make a difference.”

Mary Waterford has spent her whole life fighting for justice and equality. In her social work, unionism, and in her fundraising for international solidarity, Mary has been committed to helping disadvantaged people secure the rights that they others deny them.

When Elisabeth de Arajujo meets with domestic workers in the Timorese capital of Dili, she tells them: “you are a worker as me, I am also a worker – all of us are in the same position, so we have to come together to fight for better conditions.”