Thousands of lives lost in struggle for economic independence and liberation. The new campaign handbook Breaking the Chains reveals all.

Many of those who call for a solution to the problem of poor country debt are all too aware of the cost of the debt burden for the people of highly indebted nations. Debt repayments take money away from social services such as education, health and clean water and sanitation.

But a story that is often not told is of the lives that are lost in the struggles in the south against secret lending and the imposition of structural adjustment programmes. The new Jubilee 2000 Campaign Handbook Breaking the Chains describes these struggles and the efforts that are being made in demanding accountable government.

The handbook tells of one of the most bloody IMF riots that took place in 1984 in the Dominican Republic when the price of basic foodstuffs doubled and the price of medicines went up fourfold. Four days of rioting left 112 dead and 500 wounded. Brutal state repression is the price people pay for demonstrating against debt and international economic adjustment policies.

Breaking the Chains also answers essential questions such as:

• Will debt relief bankrupt the West?
• Is it the lenders or borrowers who are to blame for the current predicament?
• Why does Nicaragua's debt servicing continue to absorb more than twice the combined health and education budgets?

Breaking the Chains explains how the mistakes of the past have left approximately 52 countries unable to repay their external debt. Placing the current crisis in its historical context, the book outlines the social, economic and environmental cost of onerous debts and provides irrefutable evidence that debt is responsible for the loss of between six or seven million lives a year.

• To order a copy (£4.50) please go to the Jubilee 2000 resources page