THIS IS NEW AGE NEW WORLD ORDER PROPAGANDA - BEWARE!

(used as explanation for 
Israel Bibile Study Unit 7)

Jubilee 2000 Campaign

"If you would like to join Jubilee 2000's campaign, please e-mail or send the form. See below if you would like more information about Jubilee 2000's campaign.

The Latest News:

Jubilee 2000 Campaign takes off around the world

Earlier this year, Austria and Germany officially launched Jubilee 2000. In Austria, the campaign will build on the wonderful work of the Debt Relief Initiative. In Germany, Jubilee 2000 has been launched with the support of the German Debt Crisis Network, Misereor (the Catholic Aid agency), the Lutheran Church, Bread for the World and other NGOs

A powerful group of organisations and churches met in Washington in late April to launch Jubilee 2000 in the US. They include Bread for the World, Friends of the Earth,the Fifty Years Is Enough campaign, the Sojourners, Witness for Peace, the Methodists, Mennonite and Presbyterian Churches, and the Catholic Bishops Conference. Plans are well advanced to set up and staff an office in Washinton, to become the engine of the US campaign.

In Sweden in April, the Church of Sweden (97% of all Swedes are members) hosted a meeting of civic and community organisations to launch Jubilee 2000 in Uppsala. In Spain the launch of Jubilee 2000 is being co-ordinated by an IPPNW branch, in co-operation with Spanish NGOs.

There has been further news of Jubilee 2000 campaigns progressing in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Portugal, Ghana, Zambia and Norway. 

There is no doubt now. Jubilee 2000 has moved from being a campaign, and is becoming an international movement. 

"Write off odious debts" say Trade Unions, Medics and Bishops

In April 1997, as the World Bank announced that debts of developing countries had risen by 7.2% over the year - powerful voices swung behind Jubilee 2000's campaign. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, representing 124 million workers in 137 countries put its full weight behind the Jubilee 2000 Charter. In a letter to Ann Pettifor, ICFTU President, Bill Jordan wrote: "The Jubilee 2000 proposals are well-devised and realistic. The cost of the debt relief represents an attainable target and one which should be well within the capabilities of the major creditor countries." 

This support was echoed by the International Union of Physicians (IPPNW) - a powerful international body of leading Professors of Medicine - who wrote to affiliate and endorse the Jubilee 2000 campaign - "an imaginative initiative to relieve the onerous debt burdens of the world's poorest countries."

Cape Town Archbishop backs Jubilee 2000 In a widely-reported speech in Southwark Cathedral in May, Archbishop Ndungane, successor to Desmond Tutu, archbishop of Cape Town, called for the third millennium to "be a Jubilee celebration". "The opportunity to start anew must be seized" he said. "Through an act of immeasurable power and grace, let us grasp the nettle and reshape the world's economy." 

In a speech reproduced in the Financial Times, he pointed out that South Africa's debts are "odious debts" - loans provided to the apartheid regime, often for the purpose of "strengthening a despotic regime". Now they are being repaid by the black people who were victims of that despotism. South Africa labours under a $70 billion debt, and interest repayment alone on these debts make up the second highest expenditure after education in the current budget. In his speech Archbishop Ndungane called for the establishment of a "Mediation Council" - along the lines of Jubilee 2000's proposal for an independent and transparent procedure for negotiating debt relief. 

In subsequent meetings with officers of the Jubilee 2000 Campaign, Archbishop Ndungane agreed to represent the movement at forthcoming meetings of the G7. In the meantime a branch of Jubilee 2000 is being launched in South Africa. 

Major Faiths back Jubilee 2000 

The Reform Synagogues of Great Britain (RSGB), representing 25,000 adult members in Britain has written to our founder Martin Dent, to back Jubilee 2000. In the same month, the Annual General Assembly of the Baptist Church overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution supporting the campaign, as did the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF). 

1000 days to go prompts National launch


On April 6th Jubilee 2000 decided to take on the Centre of Time itself when it challenged Greenwich over the timing of its countdown to the Millennium. Jubilee 2000 at the launch of its Millennium Clock claimed Sunday 6th as the thousandth day to the Millennium in contrast to Greenwich's launch on Saturday 5th. The Independent in an article "Why 2000 may come too soon for Greenwich" cited the support of the Parisian Mayor for Jubilee 2000's position. 

However Jubilee 2000 was keen to point beyond an argument over a few hours. The Clock has been set up in the heart of London to draw attention to the urgent need for a one-off slashing of third world debt by the year 2000. The Neon Clock, which has been cited at a prime spot above the famous commercial signs has a large flashing Jubilee 2000 logo with a clock counting down the days to the Millennium. It will become a focus of the growing movement of support for Jubilee 2000's campaign. 

Ian Henderson, Director of Land Securities, which donated the site expressed support: "We are pleased to support the message of the countdown clock which is important to people of all nations." It is expected that by the year 2000, the clock will have be seen by nearly 500 million people.

Around the country, people took imaginative actions to highlight the need for radical debt relief. In Glastonbury, five church ministers chained themselves to railings for five hours to shame the Financial Institutions into taking action. In Bolton, a World Development Movement Group persuaded their local paper to print a full-page article on Jubilee 2000 which has created a great deal of interest locally. In Nottingham, the Asian Christian Fellowship gained considerable media coverage with a mass street canvassing of the public to sign the Jubilee 2000 petition. Throughout the country, churches marked the occasion by focusing on debt and jubilee and collecting signatures for the petition. 

April 6th was an exciting public launch of the Campaign. But time is now visibly ticking away. We need to ensure that the momentum is kept up.

500 gather in Tamil Nadu to garland debt map

In Southern India, a progressive women's organisation in the Chennai and Chengai districts symbolically garlanded the World Map with 1000 black bangles representing the chains of debt that need to be broken. The bangles are everyday objects, worn by most women in India and represented each of the 1000 days to the new millennium. 

Dr Krishnasamy addressed the gathering calling for an end to the debt trap affecting many developing countries. Although India was in a better position than many of its Asian neighbours it was unacceptable than in the year of its fiftieth anniversary of Independence, each unborn child inherits a debt of 2000 rupees (£33). 

The meeting then lit a 1000 candles and gathered signitures for the Jubilee 2000 petition. Dr Krishnasamy refered to the candles saying that the debt burden was like a forest fire and needed to be tackled urgently.

A Tamil translation of the Jubilee 2000 Petition is now being circulated throughout South India. 

The Campaign so far

Jubilee 2000 was started by a number of individuals who believed radical action was needed to address the devastating impact of debt. Recently it focused around the year 2000 as a useful focus for a campaign calling for a one-off remission of debt along the lines of the Jubilee year described in Leviticus. 

The Campaign started in 1990 in Keele University. Inspired by the idea of Jubilee, Martin Dent proposed a new campaign on debt enlisting the support of students and later linking up with Bill Peters, a former diplomat and Isabel Carter of Tear Fund. In April 1996 Jubilee 2000 was launched with the support of the Church aid agencies: Christian Aid, CAFOD and Tearfund. Since then it has been endorsed by the Church of England Synod, the URC, the Methodist Council and is in the process of being endorsed by all the other major denominations. It has also established strong links with refugee and anti-racist groups and is linking up with many other national, trade union women and community organisations. 

Jubilee 2000 Campaigns are being launched worldwide. There are currently campaigns in Ireland, Austria, Germany, Ghana and Kenya and we are supported by groups in USA, Canada, France, Tanzania, New Zealand, Australia and many other countries. New groups/contacts are made every week. At the same time, there has been a great deal of lobbying of influential decision makers in various governments, the international financial institutions and other important bodies. As a result we have established an important network of supporters who share our objectives. 

We are actively seeking out supporters. However many of our contacts are a result of individuals contacting us about getting their local church, trade union, community group to support Jubilee 2000. So if you are involved in an organisation which may support us, do get in touch. Only a truly mass movement will succeed in the vital objective of a debt-free start for the world's poor. 

Our Images action at the moment is collecting signatures for a global Jubilee 2000 Petition (which we hope will be the world's largest). We intend to collect millions of signatures and submit them to the 1999 G7 Summit which will be held in Germany. In the UK we are putting pressure on new MPs and new government to make a debt relief a priority. However we are also planning more events later this year to give ourselves a high public profile. We will have more details later. 

In the UK the following organisations have endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign:
1990 Trust/National Black Alliance
CAFOD
CCBI
Christian Aid
Church of England
Churches Together in England
Evangelical Christians For Racial Justice
MEDACT
Methodist Church
Mothers Union
SCIAF
Tear Fund
United Reformed Church
UNA
USPG
World Development Movement
World Vision
Many other organisations are currently discussing their future involvement and new members of the coalition join weekly.
 

International
Organisations in the following countries are running, or are in the process of setting up Jubilee 2000 campaigns:
Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Ghana, Germany, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, USA, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Following in the footsteps of the slave trade abolitionists

Throughout the centuries, when people have joined forces to change society they have often, against all odds, succeeded. One of the closest parallels to the debt crisis is the Atlantic slavetrade. It, too, was a system of international oppression accepted forcenturies as a normal and necessary part of trade and life. And it, too, resulted in the West benefiting from the resources of the southern hemisphere while southern countries, and particularly sub-Saharan Africa, were devastated. 

But in 1833 the slave trade was abolished in all British possessions. It was not because of one powerful individual or institution, but because of the concerted effort of thousands of people who had become convinced by the uprisings and leadership of slaves and by the passion of individuals like William Wilberforce that the status quo was wrong and could be changed. Powerful people in Parliament, like Wilberforce, took up the cause, but it needed the agreement and support of thousands of ordinary people to ensure the destruction of the slave trade. 

In the same way, the oppression of Third World debt could be ended by the year 2000. Then the world could begin the new millennium with new hope for the poor, and a new start for international relations. 

One major hindrance to the abolition of slavery was the powerful plantation owners in the West Indies whose interests were best served by preserving the slave trade. It gave them pervasive power in the nations from which slaves came; it gave them trading advantages and ensured that they could produce good crops and receive good prices for them. 

In the same way now it is in the short-term interest of many Western nations to Imagestain strong influence over the poorer countries of the world. Justice demands that richer countries give up unfair privileges, held at the expense of the poor. If creditors agree to remission of debts, the removal of a restraint on growth could allow poor countries to compete on fairer terms and reduce their dependence on the rich parts of the world.

There are people in positions of power in both North and South eager to see a fairer world with debts cancelled and the balance of power between creditors and debtors altered. But the support of thousands of people in the North is needed to pressurise decision-makers in creditor governments into carrying through such a fundamental change. 

Join the Jubilee 2000 campaign


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