Jubilee 2000: Hope for the Poor

The Campaign to Cut the World Debt

The millennium will be marked with fireworks, monuments and multinational marketers jostling to capture advertising opportunities. But for the majority of the world's people there will be no celebrations. In the year 2000, more than 1.5 billion people will be living in abject poverty and 40 percent of children in the developing world will suffer stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Debt is a fundamental cause of this deepening poverty. Africa spends twice as much on debt repayments as on health care. In response, a worldwide debt-relief campaign has been launched. Jubilee 2000 was inspired by the Biblical text in Leviticus (25:10): "You shall hallow the fiftieth year, proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you."

The campaign calls for a one-time cancellation of the unpayable debt owed by the world's poorest countries. People in more than 60 countries have organized local and national forgive-the-debt campaigns.

Last summer, almost a million people took to the streets to demand debt cancellation. On June 12, 10,000 Scots formed a human chain around Edinburgh Castle in pouring rain. On June 13, 50,000 Londoners lined the Thames as a 49-foot-tall "Drop the Debt" Bottle bobbed downstream. Finally, on June 19, people from all over made their way to Germany to form a human chain around the G-8 leaders' summit in Köln. (The Group of Eight industrial nations includes France, Germany, Canada, Britain, Japan, Italy, the USA, and Russia.) The crowd included celebrities like U2's Bono, Live Aid's Bob Geldof, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Edge's Perry Farrell and Senegal's Youssou N'Dour. A petition bearing 17 million signatures was handed to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, calling on the G-8 to cancel the unpayable debts of at least 52 countries by New Year's Eve, 1999.

The G-8 leaders responded to the cries of global concern by granting $45 billion in added debt relief, a big advance beyond the $25 billion offered at the 1998 summit in Birmingham. England.

Unfortunately, the cancelled debt leaves many countries with no real reduction in debt-service payments. The Köln Agreement actually tightens the chains of bondage of indebted nations to Western creditors, by denying them autonomy in economic decision-making. The G-8 agreement offered little comfort to those in indebted nations who resent the way that Western creditors finance local elites. The agreement brings no greater accountability from these elites; there will be no strengthening of democratic institutions.

"Sixteen countries will have their debt payments significantly reduced, but many other poor countries gain nothing," noted Ann Pettifor, director of the Jubilee 2000 UK coalition.

Carole Collins, national coordinator of Jubilee 2000 USA, said: "Most poor countries will still pay more on debt service than on health or education."

Jurgen Kaiser, the coordinator of Germany's Erlessjahr 2000 campaign, pointed out that the agreement means "that the poorest countries will still pay more than three times as much as Germany had to pay after its debt relief in 1953. Indeed, this agreement seems to increase creditors' already overwhelming power."

The Jubilee also is a call to forgiveness and justice within prisons. On July 9, 2000, Pope John Paul II plans to celebrate the Jubilee Year by visiting a prison in the Diocese of Rome. The Pope has asked the world's Catholic bishops to make similar visits and reports on the conditions of jails and prisons in their respective dioceses. The Jubilee is a call to forgiveness, reconciliation, emancipation and justice. The Jubilee call is addressed not only to creditors and debtors, but to prisoners, guards, judges, district attorneys, chaplains and everyone involved in the criminal justice system.

On September 29, President Bill Clinton stunned the world economic community by declaring that the US would forgive all Third World debt and called on other leading lenders to do the same.

A few parting admonitions from Leviticus (25:35-37, New International Version): "If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.

"Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit."

What You Can Do: Thank the White House for taking the initiative on cancelling Third World debt. For more information, contact: Jubilee 2000 USA [222 E. Capitol St. NE, Washington, DC 20003-1036, (202) 783-3566, www.j2000.org:] Jubilee 2000 [www.jubilee 2000uk.org], In the Spirit of Jubilee [www.lights.com/jubilee] and Jubilee Year 2000 [www.veritas.org.sg/ jubilee_2000].