Rejoicing in Hope for debt cancellation at the World Council of Churches. Jubilee 2000 Coalition

 

Marlene Barrett, Campaigns Officer for Jubilee 2000 Coalition reports from Harare:

Debt and Jubilee 2000 were on everyone's lips. The issue was impossible to ignore. Hundreds of delegates and visitors at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Harare participated in meetings, theatre, public statements, an extraordinary human chain and endless discussions over dinner about the issue. But debt was also unavoidable because the effects could be seen all around.

Zimbabwe's high levels of debt, and the resulting economic degradation, confronted Assembly participants every day of their stay. The university – where the Assembly was held – has been closed to students since May because of cuts in government subsidies. Just before the WCC arrived, the kitchen staff were dismissed, and the contract for feeding 4,000 delegates was given to the local Sheraton Hotel. Days before the Assembly opened, kitchens were being refitted at huge cost.

In the meantime the value of the Zimbabwean dollar has collapsed. A shopping expedition for toilet paper, soap, a toothbrush and cough syrup cost just over 70 pence in English currency. This devaluation has increased the cost of foreign goods, and in particular of the repayment of Zimbabwe's foreign debt – which must be serviced in US dollars. This has intensified pressure on the country's already fragile economic system. Unemployment stands at over 50 per cent, and despite rich natural resources, Zimbabwe has to import a staple food, maize, as farmers turn to export crops like tobacco and coffee- because these raise foreign currency to repay foreign debts and pay for imported goods. But now the devaluation of the currency has meant that the price of imported maize has rocketed, and there are rumours of shortages.

Each day we read grim news in the local Zimbabwe Herald. An estimated 700 people die each week of AIDS-related diseases, tragic road accidents are all too frequent and 1000 people each month are given paupers' burials. The last statistic is a cause of great concern in Zimbabwe, not only for what it says about the economic degradation of the country; but also because of the damage done to tradition, ritual and the social fabric, by the failure to bury friends and family with dignity.

The World Council of Churches was formed after the devastation of the Second World War, as a way of promoting peace and reconciliation. Its Jubilee 50th anniversary Assembly has been held at the heart of another, more silent, but equally devastating war – the economic war against the poor people of Africa. This silent economic war is enriching a few, particularly in the West, and inflicting death and suffering on huge numbers of people in Africa. In Zimbabwe, life expectancy is 49; most ordinary people will never celebrate their own personal Jubilee.

This message was brought home strongly to Assembly participants by the Jubilee 2000 Coalition, as well as coalition members like Christian Aid and the many other organisations active on the fringe of the Assembly - in the Padare.

Padare is a Shona word for meeting place and deliberation. Jubilee 2000 had invited Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's popular trade union leader who led a recent “stay away” by workers in the country, to address a Padare meeting. He told a packed, mainly African audience that it is workers who pay heavily when it comes to debt repayment. “The IMF says cut this, cut that... at the end of the day, the country loses its sovereignty, and when a people lose their sovereignty they lose their dignity”. Mr Tsvangirai called for lenders to accept liability for the situation created by their loans, and for transparency in the lending and borrowing process: “The government is secretive, the IMF and the World Bank are secretive, and governments won't reveal what loans they have signed even if they have signed their country into perpetual debt”. In another meeting a representative of the Jubilee 2000 campaign in Jamaica, made the comparison between debt and slavery: “the chains have been moved from the ankle to the pocket.”

The inspirational nature of the Padare meetings only served to deepen the disappointment of many participants that the WCC leadership refused to promote the need for urgent debt cancellation for Africa and Latin America.

The WCC's theme for the Assembly is “Turn to God. Rejoice in Hope.” Ann Pettifor, Director of Jubilee 2000 Coalition, told the Assembly's Debt Hearing that “the concept of Jubilee is more than just a celebration. It first requires the fulfillment of the Jubilee mandate - to periodically correct injustice and restore stability, by carrying out the mandate to cancel debts, free slaves and restore the land to its rightful owners. The WCC, by emphasising only the celebratory aspect, is ignoring the key mandate of Jubilee, which must be implemented before countries in Africa can turn to God and rejoice in hope.”

A key WCC committee voted against making a call for debt cancellation one of the major public issue statements from its Assembly. This disappointment was felt especially strongly by young people at the Assembly – who had been moved and angered by a stunning play dramatising the death of the Zimbabwean currency, and performed by a local theatre group. Youth delegates began to place pressure on the Assembly, and were instrumental in getting a strong statement on debt passed by the various policy making bodies of the WCC – not the huge public call they had hoped for, but a strong call to the churches and to the G8 leaders nonetheless.

The statement calls on member churches to work for debt cancellation and to give support to debtor countries should they be unable to service their debts. It calls on the G8 leaders to cancel debts and establish an independent arbitration process to negotiate equitably between debtors and creditors – so that countries may have a fresh start in the new millennium.

The youth contingent at the Assembly also recognised the best way to campaign on the issue here – was to call on delegates from all over the world to link up and form a human chain around the Great Hall, where plenary sessions were held. Over 300 people, both young and old, joined in, marching in their chain around the Hall and shouting “Cancel the debt!” Alison Wilkins, a youth delegate from the Methodist church in Britain, said “As young people we cannot just sit down and do nothing – we must speak out and make a difference”.

So in various ways, the WCC took to heart the call of the Jubilee 2000 exhibition at the Padare: “Let us enter the next Millennium as one world, an unbroken chain of humanity, breaking the chains of debt”.


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