Annual conference 2006

The Jubilee Debt Campaign held its annual conference on 8th April. The theme was Debt and Power: challenging debt not only as a creator of extreme poverty, but also as a tool of control.

About 200 people came, first, to hear Susan George (author of many books including A Fate Worse than Debt and The Debt Boomerang) and Lidy Nacpil (Co-ordinator of Jubilee South). (Lidy's presentation is downloadable using the link to the right.) The speakers reminded us that many debts are illegitimate and also effect a wide range of damage. They reminded us, too, that countries with extreme poverty are having to spend vast sums on debt servicing – sometimes more than on health or education – and that the promise of debt relief is used to impose harmful economic policies on them.

There were workshops before and after lunch to help campaigners develop their knowledge and skills to take the work forward in their communities. These were on: the basics of the debt crisis; the harmful conditions often attached to debt cancellation; the international financial systems and their structures of power; issues of good governance and the transparent use of funds from debt relief; the effects of debt and debt cancellation on health and education; using debt campaigning as a vehicle for global citizenship education; illegitimate debt; ideas for street actions for campaigners.

At lunch time, campaigners could visit stalls to find out information, gather material, join petitions and sign on to shirts (to stop Gordon Brown 'taking the shirt off Nigeria's back' in the huge debt repayment – of $3 billion – the UK is currently demanding from Nigeria, one of the 20 poorest countries in the world!).

The day ended with a lively panel discussion in which Lidy Nacpil, Susan George and Jubilee Debt Campaign's Caroline Pearce were joined by Mark Plant from the International Monetary Fund to debate questions put to them by the audience.

The last year has seen substantial progress in debt cancellation – but still only about a tenth of what is needed. More countries need to be helped; more debts need to be addressed; harmful and undemocratic economic policy conditions of debt relief must be removed.

We want your feedback! If you attended the conference and did not fill in an evaluation form, please download one using the link on the right. You can return completed forms to us by post (address on the form) or email (events@jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk). Many thanks.