Campaign journey
Aim:
To understand the role people played in the campaign for debt relief.
You will need:
Copies of list of events below (1 per group).
Duration:
30 minutes
This activity looks at the history of the 'debt' campaign and is best done after some other work around campaigning or debt.
Print out enough sheets (one for three people) and cut them into strips. Split participants into groups of 3 and ask them to order the pieces. (Keep an original print out so you can remember the order).
Together, ask people to call out the stages one by one to see if everyone has agreed on the same order. Talk about some of the main points from the campaign:
- It had a partnership between North and South.
- It developed over time. Bringing about change often takes time.
- Rich countries often have 'favourite' countries they support, which fit in with current 'politics'.
- It was not the rich countries who drew attention to the debt problem. We, as responsible citizens, often need to be the eyes for injustices.
Stages to print and cut up for each group:
- An international movement against debts had its origins way back in the resistance to colonialism; and in opposition and resistance to 'structural adjustment programmes'.
- Campaigners in the South had long demanded debt cancellation.
- In 1953, Germany was offered levels of debt cancellation that were beyond the wildest dreams of today's poor countries.
- In the early 1970s, President Suharto of Indonesia, seen as good because he was against communism, was offered a generous deal despite being a tyrant.
- 'Debt crisis' took hold from the 1980s onwards.
- When Mexico could not pay debts in 1982 there was a crisis and campaigners in the north responded to appeals made by campaigners in Mexico for solidarity.
- The only response to the Mexican crisis was to offer half-hearted debt rescheduling. Rich nations made tiny concessions but none came anywhere near to the massive scale of debt cancellation needed.
- Debts continued to mount. Total debt owed by developing countries more than doubled.
- Some individuals and organisations begin arguing for debt cancellation but it remained on a small scale.
- Debts shot up by half as much again. None was cancelled except for a handful of 'lucky' middle-income countries in South America. It was clear the debt problem was not being solved.
- The Debt Crisis Network, a small network formed in the late 80s, launched a tour round Britain with African leaders to put the case for debt cancellation. The campaign gained momentum and started to involve politicians. The IMF agreed to have talks with the World Bank about debt relief.
- Jubilee Debt Campaign 'Human Chain' demonstration. Thousands of demonstrators gathered around the G8 building in Birmingham and around the Thames River in London.
- Jubilee Debt Campaign came into being in March 2001, succeeding the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which had tried to get debt cancellation by the new millennium.
- Debt cancellation to Iraq agreed in one day - of $30 billion.