JDC Rappers and Geralk Kaufmann MP
World Debt Day, May 16th, celebrates the day in 1998 when 70,000 campaigners surrounded the G8 meeting in Birmingham demanding that the unpayable debts of the poorest countries should be cancelled. Although that ultimately led to a historic promise to cancel $100bn of debt, progress has failed to meet the desperate needs to these countries. World Debt Day is celebrated to remind leading politicians of their failure to keep their promises and to demand that meeting the Millennium Development Goals takes precedence over debt re-payments.
For this year's anniversary, Manchester Jubilee Debt Campaign staged an event in Piccadilly gardens. Whilst the highlight of the event was the JDC Rappers telling the saga of the destructive policies forced on countries by the World Bank and IMF, the rappers got their own back by hurling wet sponges at IMF Bankers in the pillory (below right). Gerald Kaufman came to lend his support and he underlined the importance of sustaining the campaign and supporting the Government's efforts to secure more commitments from other members of the G8 (who alone dictate IMF policies).
Campaigning does eventually yield success, as witness in April when, after sustained political lobbying, America eventually relented and approved the debt cancellations for Ethiopia and Niger including their 'Top-Up' relief worth a further $1bn, (which would take a long time to collect in charity collection tins!). However there is still a long way to go, poor countries still pay $23bn every year in debt repayments, which would make a substantial contribution towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal to halve poverty by 2015.
Info: Dave Pearce, Manchester Jubilee Debt Campaign (0161 428 9929, [email protected])
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