Debt campaigners hold Global Week of Action

Jubilee campaigners in more than 60 countries have taken part in a global week of action against debt – and the financial institutions harming the world’s poor.

In the UK, activities ranged from sermons at Sunday services to public meetings, film screenings, Stand Up and Speak Out events, and vigils.

The week started with an international people’s tribunal on the World Bank in the Hague in the Netherlands. WORLD vs BANK heard the effects of World Bank conditions on cotton farmers in Mali, electricity supplies in Nicaragua, and food security in Malawi, as well as the Bank’s continued financing of fossil fuel projects.

In the course of the week campaigners marked anniversaries of two African leaders who have inspired social movements in the South to challenge the injustice and legitimacy of poor country debts – Thomas Sankara, the former president of Burkina Faso, and Julius Nyerere, the founding president of Tanzania. Both opposed World Bank and IMF conditions on their countries and urged the people of the South to repudiate illegal debts.

A public meeting at the London School of Economics on the 20th anniversary of Sankara’s assassination discussed the possibility of African countries simply refusing to pay back their debts if they are not cancelled. African diaspora activists at the meeting argued that international debt should be seen in the context of colonialism and the need for reparations.

In the middle of the week Jubilee Schools and Congregations were among millions of people around the world taking part in the Stand Up and Speak Out world record attempt. A total of 43 million people took action against poverty and inequality, setting a new world record. In London, campaigners spread a giant white band in front of City Hall by Tower Bridge.

Towards the end of the week UK campaigners visited their MPs in their constituencies to ask for their support for the campaign to Lift the Lid on illegitimate debts. Meanwhile, as delegations and campaigners gathered in Washington DC for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings, it was the culmination of Jubilee USA’s Cancel Debt Fast, during which thousands of people fasted for at least a day to draw attention to the continuing debt crisis.

Further reports on activities in Debt Week, as well as what happened at the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF, are on the Jubilee Debt blog: www.jubileedebt.blogspot.com

For more about the WORLD vs BANK tribunal, see: www.worldbankcampaigneurope.org