The world will never be the same again ...
because of Jubilee 2000

Ann Pettifor, Director, Jubilee 2000 Coalition UK

As the year 2000 draws to a close, and our millennium campaign comes to an end, we who make up the international Jubilee 2000 movement have much to celebrate.

Rich countries have promised to write off $110bn 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 2000's campaigning.

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 2000 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. In Britain, a recent opinion poll showed that more than two-thirds of the public support the goals of the campaign.

In just four years, since our launch in 1996, 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 per cent 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 debt cancellation because they cannot fulfil IMF conditions to privatise their telephone industry, for example.

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”.

In 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 yet to break down inequalities and end what people of faith call `structural sin'. We have yet to achieve real justice for a billion people.

But our four-year campaign has made an extraordinary impact. Thanks to Jubilee 2000, the world will never be the same again.

Empowering the people

When we began this campaign, there was widespread scepticism that we could educate and brief a mass campaign on the complexities of debt – and maintain accuracy and integrity. There was doubt that we could alert people to the way in which poor countries are forced to divert precious scarce resources from clean water, health and sanitation, and into debt repayment to rich creditors. And how this kills millions of people – and destroys any hope of a future for many millions more. Back in 1996, many of the policy experts who had worked long in this field declared the Jubilee 2000 project impossible. Elites in Washington smugly assumed that they could remain cocooned in their own exclusive (and dogmatic) intellectual club – and never be challenged. But they were wrong.

One of my lasting memories is of the Treasury official who complained to me about the number of letters he received from Jubilee 2000 supporters. They were well informed, he said, “too damn well informed!” People wrote about poor countries' debt-to-export ratios; about their pre-cut-off-date debt; about whether it was correct to base predictions on the net present value as opposed to the nominal value of the debt. This official was particularly struck by a letter challenging the Treasury's assertion that Uganda had had massive debt relief from her last Paris Club re-scheduling – and pointing out that only Uganda's pre-cut-off date debt had been included. “The letter,” he said, “was written on pink notepaper, with a little posy of roses in the corner! Who are these people?”

In Uganda, Jubilee 2000 coordinator Zie Gariyo received a complaint from a local village council official. “There's a man in my office,” said the official, “with dust on his feet from the fields, complaining about the Ugandan government's debt – and arguing we spend more on debt than on the school in our village! He says you told him all this. I say it is none of his business; this is a matter for the government, and you should not be causing trouble in this way.” Zie was obliged to visit the village, to reassure (and recruit) the official, to support the farmer and make the peace.

Jubilee 2000 has had supreme confidence in people, believing that all can understand and grapple with supposedly complex financial matters. Greater knowledge and understanding means greater people power – to challenge powerful and secretive elites. This empowerment of millions of people is one of Jubilee 2000's greatest achievements. It was only possible because hundreds and thousands of supporters were prepared to translate briefings into accessible language; churn out leaflets; write letters; call, organise and address meetings. They were willing to go to enormous and expensive trouble to hire halls, prepare lunches, organise teas and run teach-ins – for students, clerics, trades unionists, women and schoolchildren.

They were prepared to stand in a bus or supermarket queue and chat to their neighbours about international finance!

Challenging corruption

Knowledge and understanding provide a powerful antidote to corruption. As US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said in a meeting with Jubilee 2000, “sunshine is the best detergent”. Jubilee 2000 supporters have been able to challenge corruption in both the North and South. Our work with the Nigerian campaign has helped to expose the way in which corrupt Nigerians borrowed recklessly from equally irresponsible western lenders (including the British government) and then promptly banked that money in British, Jersey and Swiss banks. While Nigerian dictators continued to oppress their people, often with western weapons, British and European banks kept quiet about the loot they were hiding and profiting from.

We raised these issues here in Britain, and the evangelical, trade union, media and other supporters of Jubilee 2000 Nigeria raised the issues there. Today there is a democratic government in Nigeria, grappling to restore stability, but shackled by the burden of debts imposed by elites in both London and Lagos. Jubilee 2000 campaigners in both Nigeria and Britain have played, and continue to play, a vital role in challenging the corruption endemic to international lending and borrowing. The solidarity between the campaigns in both countries has enriched us all.

Thanks to them the world will never be the same again.

Confronting the powerful

Jubilee 2000 supporters were the first to raise a mass challenge to the world's most powerful leaders at their annual meetings. We surrounded them with human chains of tens of thousands of people; we followed them from Birmingham to Washington, Paris, Cologne, Seattle, Tokyo, Okinawa, Prague and New York. The Japanese government spent more than £500m trying to avoid us in Okinawa – all in vain. Around the world campaigners from Madras to Madrid, from Osaka to Oslo, from Durban to Denver formed human chains, and shone a light on their meetings. By linking campaigns at a local, regional, national and international level – and by bold and innovative use of the internet's powers of communication – Jubilee 2000 supporters worldwide were able to create massive pressure on world leaders.

Through Jubilee 2000 new global citizens have come forward; citizens willing to take action and responsibility for our dangerously polarised world.

Southern campaigners, who have struggled against the debt for decades, were simultaneously applying pressure on their governments for more transparency and accountability. The Bolivian Jubilee 2000 campaign organised a massive consultation with civil society – calling for debt relief to be used for social development. The Ugandan Jubilee 2000 campaign challenged new loans made to the indebted Ugandan government, advising parliamentarians to reject unproductive borrowing. The Peruvian campaign raised the issue in every region of the country, from the desert, to the mountains and to the jungle. The Mozambican parliament held heated debates on debt issues, challenging IMF conditionalities. The Zambian campaign demanded arbitration, declaring Zambia's debt to be unjust. In India tens of thousands of women marched in support of Jubilee 2000 from Madras to Kanniyakumari. Across Africa, campaigners armed themselves with the facts of their country's indebtedness, briefing journalists and challenging their governments, often at risk of arrest. In Haiti, education of the people was conducted through music and festivals; in Guyana government and opposition parties combined within Jubilee 2000 to unite against the debt.

At the same time Southern leaders were gaining in confidence, thanks largely to the leadership of President Obasanjo of Nigeria, chair of the Group of 77 nations, and Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN. Leaders like President Bharatt Jagdeo of Guyana, President Chavez of Venezuela, Archbishop Ndungane of Cape Town, South Africa, President Preval of Haiti and Archbishop Rodriguez of Tegucigalpa in Honduras publicly challenged the big powers. President Obasanjo led a delegation of African leaders to confront the G7 in Tokyo on the eve of their summit in July 2000.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has championed Jubilee 2000's call for a fair and transparent process for debt cancellation. In a report submitted to the UN General Assembly in September 2000, he called for an “objective and comprehensive assessment by an independent panel of experts not unduly influenced by creditor interests.”

He went on to argue that “such an assessment should not be restricted to HIPC countries, but should also encompass other debt-distressed low-income and middle-income countries. ...There should also be a commitment on the part of creditors to implementing fully and swiftly any recommendation of this panel regarding the writing-off of unpayable debt.”

Jubilee 2000's demand for justice is now supported by the most representative global institution, the UN; and by leaders of developing nations.

As a result, the world will never be the same again.

Fighting fire with fire

Around the world Jubilee 2000 supporters confronted the well-oiled bureaucratic, political and publicity machines of the richest nations – with the facts. We prepared high quality reports; we shared information gained from experts in the World Bank, the IMF, the finance ministries of indebted nations and also creditor nations; reports from Oxfam, Christian Aid, Eurodad, WDM and other agencies. We challenged IMF and World Bank propaganda with our own interpretation of the facts.

We armed journalists with accurate information, analyses and data. They in turn challenged the spin doctors of the IMF, the World Bank, the G7 governments. Amongst those journalists are many champions whose names I won't mention; but who have played a noble role in this struggle, alongside Jubilee 2000 grass roots campaigners.

At first we found it difficult to get our story across to journalists in the international mass media, engrossed as they are by the fashionable and ephemeral. Fortunately we found many well-known celebrities and international figures were willing to offer tangible support. Some, like Bono, directly lobbied lawmakers; but also made good use of their fan bases to promote Jubilee 2000. Anthony Minghella produced a beautiful film for us – which has gone round the world several times over. Muhammad Ali brought a powerful message to the heart of Afro-Caribbean Britain on his visit to Brixton. Youssou N'Dour spoke passionately to Africans – and electrified the French! Bob Geldof wrote trenchant articles in the big circulation media – and gave us solid advice. Thom Yorke mobilised young people – most remarkably in Japan. We worked carefully with all of them to promote our messages to millions of people through the most unlikely high circulation outlets – from Hello magazine to the Financial Times; from the Wall St. Journal to Wired; from the Nikkei Shimbun to Marie Claire; from the New York Times to Dazed and Confused.

Thanks to them all, the world will never be the same again.

WE BUILT A BIG TENT

“When you get this many people from this many different backgrounds pointing in the same direction, you can be pretty sure it's the right direction,” said President Clinton of Jubilee 2000.

The building of what Clinton called a `big tent' – broad coalitions at local, regional, national and international level – was another of Jubilee 2000's achievements. Coalitions that invited everyone to join in, on one condition, and one condition only: that they supported the principle of cancellation of the unpayable debts of the poorest countries by the year 2000, under a fair and transparent process. We made no political judgements about allies; we simply asked for their disciplined support for our principled position.

It is this principled, highly focused and disciplined alliance that has mobilised and harnessed the energies of such massive numbers of people; often from widely different and apparently discordant backgrounds. An alliance that has embraced people of all faiths – Jews, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists – and people of no faith; academics and pop stars; trade unionists and businessmen; boxers and artists; young and old; black and white. A Coalition that brought together unlikely alliances like Puff Daddy and the Pope; Jesse Helms and Bono; the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the Spice Girls.

The purpose of coalition-building was simple: to harness the broadest possible social forces to challenge the much more powerful forces of the international financial institutions and governments. And to do so to defend the human rights of people in the poorest nations.

At times it was hard for all these people and organisations to work together in the same big tent. Some felt eclipsed by the breadth of the Coalition, and some felt their identity was subsumed under Jubilee 2000's `branding'. Not everyone felt comfortable all the time. But there can be no doubt the Coalition's leadership and the commitment of all to the same goals has created real unity. As a result Jubilee 2000 has posed an unprecedented challenge to the world's most powerful financial institutions and governments – and given real strength and support to people in the poorest nations.

A unique aspect of all the coalitions in the international movement was that they were not held together, or controlled, by bureaucratic means. While there were centres, they were always, as in the case of the London, Washington, Ugandan or Nigerian offices, small and thinly staffed. The national and international movement was held together by a clear mandate (the Jubilee 2000 petition), trust, co-operation, experience and solidarity. The informality of the more or less autonomous local, national and international coalitions could have been a weakness. But in the end it gave room for creative and spontaneous action and great flexibility – within the principled objectives we all signed up to.

As a result of this grand Coalition, the world will never be the same again.

Structural injustice remains

International creditors make loans (often bad ones), set conditions, decide whether or not to re-schedule or cancel debt – and under what conditions. They are not subject to the discipline of market forces, because they are regularly bailed out by creditors, and because the World Bank and IMF are effectively state-protected banks. They are also not subject to the discipline of democratic accountability. Because of this injustice, because the whole process is dominated by creditors – it has not been possible in four years to achieve the cancellation of the unpayable debts of the poorest countries. The poorest countries in the world are still transferring their limited, precious resources to the richest. They still spend more on paying debt to the rich than on health, clean water and sanitation for their own people.

The liabilities, the burden, the chains – all these are still borne by only one party to the debt – the poorest debtor nations. The rich creditor financial institutions and governments, equally culpable for the debt, still shirk their share of the liabilities and responsibilities.

People still die – unnecessarily. The reality is that the creditors have not delivered sufficient debt cancellation; and have only offered relief under stringent IMF `austerity' conditions – which benefit the rich nations, and hurt the most indebted.

One of the most profound lessons from the Jubilee 2000 campaign is this: the unpayable debt will not be cancelled in full until we have changed the process whereby debt cancellation is agreed. Future campaigns, therefore, will have to tackle the deep structural injustices of international financial relationships.

Despite the disappointments, we must not fail to recognise what we have achieved. We have secured significant debt reduction – more than would ever have been achieved without the campaign. We have laid the groundwork for more radical action. And there are clear signs that leaders of highly indebted nations, supported by public opinion, are now refusing to be bullied by their international creditors. We must be determined to support people of debtor nations, their leaders and the United Nations in the continuing struggle for justice in international financial arrangements and freedom from debt slavery.

We cannot allow western governments to deflect us from this task; and to distract us from the role that international financial injustice plays in impoverishing and destroying the lives of millions of people – young and old alike. We are now at a point of renewal. We must take the energy that has been generated by this campaign, and consolidate it.

The repercussions of Jubilee 2000's campaign will echo down the new century. Our millions of supporters have achieved profound change in just four years, and this report shows how they did it. They have set the stage to make further changes possible.

Because of what they have done, the world must never be the same again.