Movement 107

jubilee 2000
An idea whose fime has come
THE JUBILEE 2000 campaign is drawing to
a close at the end of the Jubilee year. We
who make up the international Jubilee
200O movement have much to celebrate.
Rich countries have promised to write off
$11obn of debt; and by the end of the year
20 countries are expected to have received
some debt relief. Many, creditors and
debtors alike, would support the assertion
that this has happened largely because of
Jubilee 200O's camPai$nin$'
The number of children attending primary school in
Uganda has doubled, thanks to its $1bn debt cancellation.
Bolivia will get $1.3bn of relief and is directing
resources released to the poorest municipalities;
while Mozambique has had a $67m reduction in its
debt repayments, allowing it to divert funds to
hospitals and housing.
Encouraged by the international Jubilee 20OO
movement, UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan' is
leading the call for independent and fair mediation
between debtor nations and their international
creditors, a call which is backed by many southern
governments.
The campaign has become global' and is now
recognised, respected, supported and understood by
millions of people around the world; by the international
media; by leading academics and by governments
and financial institutions. ln Britain' a recent
opinion poll showed that more than twcthirds of the
public support the goals of the campaign'
ln just four years, since our 1996 launch, we have
forced third world debt to the top of the international
political agenda and have helped bring the plight of
the poorest countries to the fore of economic debate'
So we have already changed the world.
However, we have not nearly achieved all we set out
to do. Too much of the unpayable debt has not yet
been written off.The debt relief so far agreed will only
provide an average 30% cut in repayments for the
countries concerned. What's on offer is not fast or
deep enough, nor available to all the countries which
urgently need it. Furthermore this debt "relief" has
been accompanied by more and more stringent IMF
conditionality. Despite much rhetoric about poverty
reduction, countries like Honduras are still denied
"relief" because they cannot fulfil IMF conditions, for
example to privatise their telephone industry. Zambia
is about to receive "relief" but as a result, will be
paying $70 million a more each year in debt service
payments.
The blame for the failure to comprehensively cancel
debts and release debtor nations from IMF control
must be laid at the door of the leaders of the richest
countries. We in Jubilee 2000 have done all we can to
harness public opinion in support of debt cancellation.
We have raised our voices. We have demonstrated
- peacefully. We have lobbied. We have
excelled at advocacy. We have effectively defeated
arguments by those opposed to relief. Millions of
people have made clear demands of their elected
politicians: that the unpayable debts of the poorest
countries should be cancelled by the Jubilee year
under a fair and transparent process. The world's
decision-makers have failed to act.
They failed to deliver the debt cancellation that
Archbishop Ndungane suggested would, in the millennium
year, be "an act of immeasurable power and
grace"; they failed "to grasp the nettle and reshape
the world's economy".
The campaign has become global and is
and supported by millions of people aro
But we have not nearly achieved all we
ln Britain we have little to remember this year by -
except the Dome. The bulk of the unpayable debts are
still in place. The unjust international financial system
is still in the hands of creditors, keen to discipline
debtors, but not subject to discipline themselves.
So there is still much to do. We have powerful,
unjust structures and vested interests to transform
and change. We, the global citizens behind Jubilee
2000, have to break down inequities and end what
people of faith call "structural sin"' We have yet to
achieve real justice for a billion people.
But you ask, if there is so much still to do; if
creditors can still not be trusted to deliver meaningful
debt cancellation, why has the campaign come to a
close?
The reason is straightforward. This campaign was
carefully designed to be a shortlife, timelimited
campaign, with a very clear focus and deadline' That
deadline is passin$. The effectiveness of the
campaign has been almost entirely due to this careful
and clear, well thoughtout strategy and purpose. The
deadline also helped harness extraordinaryforces, as
everyone looked hopefully towards the millennium for
a new big gesture, an "idea big enough to fill this
space" to quote Bono.
The pressure of the deadline intensified the
12 lmovement