Gordon Brown calls debt the 'great moral issue of our day' at St Paul's Cathedral

Poor country debt “is the great moral issue of our day and this decade” declared the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. Debt is “the greatest single cause of poverty and injustice across the earth and potentially one of the greatest threats to peace.”

“We must cut the debt, and do so now,” said Mr Brown.

He was addressing a Jubilee 2000 rally in St Paul's Cathedral, London, on Sunday evening 7 March. In addition to the capacity 2,500 people inside, more than 1000 were standing outside in the cold rain to listen.

In his speech, Mr Brown declared his personal support for Jubilee 2000. He said: “I say to the churches and to all who support Jubilee 2000 - as I do – for your work, from the Human Chain that enveloped Birmingham last year, to the missionary work and sacrifice in the farthest corners of the globe every year, we thank you”.

The speech also broke precedent, because by tradition the Chancellor does not give any public statements in the days before the budget (Tuesday 9 March). But Mr Brown made a personal decision to give this speech to promote his new initiative on debt.

Mr Brown's proposal calls for:

• the cancellation of $50 billion in poor country debt before the end of the year 2000,
• the sale of $1 billion in IMF gold to pay part of the costs,
• a reversal in the decline in global aid and return to the 1992 level of $60 billion per year, and
• encouraging British people to give $1 billion to development charities.

But Jubilee 2000 director Ann Pettifor drew a standing ovation from the crowd when she told the Chancellor that $50 billion was not enough. “$50 billion is just 6% of the total debt owed by countries the World Bank has defined as `severely indebted'.”

“$50 billion is a welcome start. Like the referee at a pole-vaulting competition, the Chancellor is ratcheting up the jump that creditors will have to make. But it is not high enough, Chancellor. This is not gold medal level yet,” Ms Pettifor said.

She also noted that the $50 billion proposed by the Chancellor “is the debt these countries are not repaying -- and will never repay. So writing if off costs nothing to lenders, because the money would not be paid anyway. And it releases no new money for the poor” because poor countries are already not paying this money.

But Ms Pettifor drew the biggest cheer of the evening when she turned to the issue of corruption and put the spotlight on rich country support for corruption. She said “we want Swiss banks to open their vaults and return African gold to the people of Africa -- the African gold that has been stashed away by Africa's corrupt leaders.”

Mr Brown's speech was unexpectedly emotional. He thanked Jubilee 2000 for “the sweep of your achievements so far and, yes, the scale of your ambitions that we are summoned to meet. ... Your vision is of a new climate of justice across the world, a new climate of justice that will liberate nations from unsustainable debt.”

Debt relief is not just an economic issue, he said. “Debt relief is also a moral issue. Unsustainable debt is a burden imposed from the past on the present, which is depriving millions of their chance of a future,” the Chancellor continued. “We, all of us here, dare to believe that all people should have food every day. ... We dare to believe that all children everywhere in the world have the right education.”

Mr Brown talked of his own Christian faith and the belief that “when some are poor, our whole society is impoverished.” It is, he said, “a sin that so many millions should be denied even the most basic of elementary schooling” because of debt.”

Mr Brown also called for three major changes in the present Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative of the World Bank and IMF.

• Debt relief must be speeded up, because the requirement that countries wait an extra three years after a decision has been taken only means “three more years of misery”.
• “So many commodity prices have been cut in half” that there is need to change export and fiscal criteria which have become “a barrier to help”.
• “It is time to ensure that countries escaping from conflicts, weighed down by the double burden of debt and the economic consequences of war, have special post conflict assistance.”

“Now, as never before, we in this generation have within our grasp the means to eliminate abject poverty once and for all. This is our call to action. ... I say now, join us on a journey out of the shadow of the mountains of debt,” Mr Brown concluded.

Note to international readers: In Britain, the “chancellor” is the most senior finance minister.