The Jubilee 2000/USA Campaign

Vol. 1, No. 1

January, 1998

In April 1997, the Religious Working Group on the World Bank and IMF (RWG) launched the Jubilee 2000/USA Campaign. The Campaign, started three years ago in Great Britain, is part of a worldwide movement to cancel the crushing international debt of impoverished countries by the new millennium. Called Jubilee 2000, the movement also spread to Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. The Jubilee 2000 movement is based on the Old Testament text in Leviticus 25: 8-12 which calls for proclamation of liberty to all enslaved debtors and cancellation of all public and private debts.

The 50 Years Is Enough Network is a founding supporter and steering committee member of the Jubilee 2000/USA Campaign, whose Platform call for definitive cancellation of crushing international debts:

in situations where countries burdened with high levels of human need and environmental distress are unable to meet the basic needs of their people or achieve a level of sustainable development that ensures a decent quality of life;

that benefits ordinary people and facilitates their participation in the process of determining the scope, timing and conditions of debt relief as well as the future direction and priorities of their national and local economies; and

that is not conditioned on policy reforms that perpetuate or deepen poverty or environmental degradation.

The Platform also calls for: an acknowledgement of responsibility by both lenders and borrowers; action to recover resources that were diverted to corrupt regimes, institutions, and individuals; and the establishment of a transparent and participatory process to develop mechanisms to monitor international monetary flows and prevent recurring destructive cycles of indebtedness.

The Jubilee 2000/USA Campaign recognizes the pivotal role played by the United States in both policy determination at the World Bank and the IMF and as a creditor for many nations. As such, it is working to build a grassroots movement — based on a moral perspective — that will pressure policymakers to do the right thing and cancel crushing debt by the year 2000. The Campaign is developing an education initiative that provides a moral and ethical framework for understanding and assessing the complex issues of international debt, including its history. The materials will also highlight the impact of debt on millions of people struggling for survival as they are being made to repay a debt they didn't incur and which, far from providing any benefit, served to further impoverish their nations.

Educational/organizing packets will be available (for a small fee) as of February 15, 1998. For more information contact Jubilee 2000/USA Campaign, P.O. Box 29550, Washington, DC 20017; phone: 202/783-3566; or email coord@j2000usa.org.

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