'World March of Women' and 'Cry of the Excluded' to demand debt cancellation in meetings with UN, IMF and World Bank Jubilee 2000 Coalition

Two global movements are to join forces this month to demand debt cancellation in meetings with the IMF, World Bank and UN as part of their calls for an end to growing poverty and inequality. The World March of Women which started on March 8th (International Women's Day) culminates on October 17 when women representing every participating country will meet with Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the UN to present its proposals which includes supporting the Jubilee 2000 campaign on debt. It will be joined at the United Nations by another global movement, Cry of the Excluded, a popular Latin American initiative fighting against poverty and social exclusion which held a referendum on debt in September.

Prior to the meeting with the UN, the World March of Women will raise the issue of debt at meetings with President Wolfensohn of the World Bank and Horst Koehler, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund on October 16 in Washington. The World March of Women was launched in Quebec in 1995 and has always made an unequivocal demand for debt cancellation, pointing to the adverse effects of debt on women. The World March of Women currently links 5,000 groups from 157 countries with an overall objective of eradicating poverty and violence against women. It has held thousands of events across the world.

The World-wide March of Women will be working closely with its fellow global movement The Cry of the Excluded in organising diverse activities on the South American continent on 12 October 2000. The Cry of the Excluded, as a member of Jubilee 2000, held a "National Plebiscite on the Foreign Debt" in Brazil at the beginning of September, in which five million Brazilians voted against foreign debt payments and IMF policies. The Cry of the Excluded is a growing popular movement in Latin America that organises under the theme "For Work, Justice and Peace." The movement denounces all forms of social exclusion and points to possible solutions and alternatives, which has included a strong call for debt cancellation.

 


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