Blog the Debt

A Present Day Victory for the Future of Debt Relief and Development

By: Mary Donahue

Celebration is in order after a huge victory for the principles of responsible lending and borrowing was won in Doha, Qatar at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meetings held in the end of April. This round of UNCTAD meetings was crucial to the future vision and responsibilities of UNCTAD - and subsequently debt relief - as financial ministers and representatives from the around the world met to discuss the conference’s mandate, and thus set the course for its future work. UNCTAD has long been a leading forum for consensus building on debt relief initiatives, like HIPC and MDRI that have led to hundreds of billions of dollars in debt relief.  But leading into the meetings, it was leaked that there were secret talks of eliminating debt and financial reform from the mandate, and it was clear that the battle to keep debt relief and principles of responsible lending and borrowing a priority would be hard fought.

Jubilee USA has been acting as an expert to UNCTAD since the body launched the Project to Promote Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing in 2009.  The Project seeks to develop internationally recognized principles to promote and reinforce responsible lending and borrowing and is a prime example of the truly global consensus work that UNCTAD has come to be known for. These principles, which Jubilee USA promotes both here in the US and internationally and which we released in our latest report the Responsible Lending and Borrowing Imperative, would help establish real solutions to the international debt crisis and would come from both the Global North and Global South. Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA, was hosted by UNCTAD to attend the Doha meetings as a civil society representative and to moderate a panel featuring 11 financial ministers and treasury heads from around the globe to speak in support of UNCTAD’s principles of responsible lending and borrowing.

Justice at the G8 and G20: The need for an international debt court

By: Jeremy Weyl

As millions continue to live in extreme poverty, global summits meet to discuss and plan solutions.  The G8 and G20 global economic summits have come to represent spaces of great political and economic power as well as grassroots resisistance to injustices in the global economy.  Representatives of the largest and most elite economies will make decisions that impact the entire world – this is the time to mobilize diverse communities and call for a moral and sustainable economy.

This year, the G8 will be meeting in the United States at Camp David in May, and the G20 will be meeting in Mexico the following month.  Jubilee USA Network and other civil society groups and communities are taking action to push for policies and mechanisms to be discussed at these crucial meetings that can support the creation of a more just economy. 

Egypt: Change Doesn’t Come Without Challenges

By: Allison Renton

February 2011 was monumental for the Egyptian people as an eighteen-day protest against decades of rule by a brutal regime ended in the announcement of President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation.  The spotlight was on Egypt and the world was excited to see where this new path would lead.  Unfortunately, one year after Mubarak resigned, the Egyptian people had returned to the streets demanding that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) step down. SCAF was given power by Mubarak until a legitimate government could be formed; however, many claim that SCAF has failed to act in the people’s best interest. The country is still plagued with stunted economic growth and widespread unemployment. Last spring’s optimism has been replaced with the reality that change doesn’t come without challenges.

Jubilee Shabbat: Communities responding to injustice

By: Jeremy Weyl

The call to seek justice is shared across many diverse faiths around the country.  Jewish communities across the United States engage in global citizenship by continuing to act towards tikkun olam, or transforming our world. 

One way to transform the world is by cancelling third-world debts. For more than a decade, Jubilee USA Network has worked to cancel unjust debt in the developing world to help eradicate poverty, successfully gaining over $100 billion in debt relief for developing nations. The inspiration for debt cancellation and a modern Jubilee was inspired by the parsha Behar-Bechokotai in Leviticus.

The Leviticus passage called for every 50th year to be a “Jubilee Year,” during which all land was to be returned to its original owner, slaves were to be freed and liberty to be proclaimed throughout the land. In contemporary times, the Jubilee concept means that instead of third-world governments paying back debts to banks in the developed world — debts that have paid many times already — money and resources should go towards hospitals, school, and other citizen-first projects.

Zimbabwean Activists Travel to the US for End the Debt Crisis Tour

By: Jeremy Weyl

Jubilee USA Network draws its strength from many different places: connections to human rights, labor, and environmental organizations, as well as from our dedicated faith communities and Jubilee Congregations across the United States. 

But some of our greatest strength comes from our partners in the Global South who continue to lead and inspire our efforts towards debt cancellation and the transformation of the international financial system to one that is moral and just. So when Jubilee USA Network has the opportunity to bring our global partners and activists from around the world to meet with local communities, we are greatly honored. Not only do we get to hear the stories about the burdensome realities of debt, strengthening our knowledge and understanding of these complex issues, we also get to build global relationships. 

These global connections are at the heart of a true Jubilee, in which relationships are restored between nations and community.  

On the Eve of St. Patrick’s Day, Leprechauns Descend on Irish Embassy Calling for Irish Debt Relief

March 16th, 2012 – Washington, DC

On Friday afternoon, two leprechauns fought over a pot of gold outside the Irish Embassy in Washington, D.C. The first leprechaun, named Anglo-Irish Bank, frowned as she lost the battle for the gold, and the other, the European Central Bank, gleefully counted his winnings. The pot of gold, however, belonged to neither, but was pilfered from the Irish citizens. Around the leprechauns, a crowd, holding signs supporting Irish debt relief efforts and jeering at the thieving leprechauns, had gathered to deliver a letter signed by faith and civil society organizations to the Embassy. The letter urged the Irish government to end an unjust repayment plan that diverts taxpayers’ money away from those who need it- the citizens of Ireland.

Jubilee USA Network, who hosted the action, was calling attention to the “Anglo: Not Our Debt Campaign” started by Irish debt groups earlier this year. Anglo-Irish Bank (Anglo) financed some of Ireland’s largest development projects, from golf courses to shopping malls, lending recklessly and helping to create the economic downturn Ireland is experiencing. Rather than allowing Anglo to fail, the Irish government guaranteed that debts owed by Anglo to its creditors would be repaid in full, but by 2010, it was clear that Anglo was unable to continue. If Anglo failed, all of the bank’s debt would fall back onto the Irish State.

The World’s Youngest Nation: South Sudan

By: Samantha Retrosi

Happy Independence Day!

July 9th, 2011 marked South Sudan’s birthday: day one in the existence of the world’s newest nation!  In January 2011, the South took to the polls, in which an overwhelming majority (99%) voted to split from Sudan.  South Sudanese freedom is the final outcome of a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that put an end to Africa’s lengthiest civil war. Marked by the death of 1.5 million people and the displacement of 4 million more, this date concluded nearly 22 years of conflict.  

South Sudan will start its own history accompanied by an unexpected birthday gift: freedom from the $38 billion debt carried by a formerly unified Sudan.  In the past, other nations such as Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and South Africa have not been so lucky and inherited unjust debts from past regimes.  Starting off debt free is nothing less than momentous for the new nation but this does not come without its own unique difficulties, especially for the new southern state.  The trouble is: how can South Sudan stay debt free?  

End Tax Haven Secrecy

By Stephanie Cook

Tax injustice has become a serious international issue that requires serious action and attention.  Jubilee USA is extending its focus from debt relief to solving the root causes of unsustainable debt.  This new wave in the Jubilee USA movement involves an active focus on Tax Justice and the damaging effects that unfair tax practices by multinational corporations have on the world’s poorest countries. 

Large multinational corporations commit tax injustice when they store taxable funds in geographic
areas with low to no taxation. 
These areas are called tax havens. Multinational corporations make use of these little treasure islands because it allows them to keep large amounts of profit, yet in doing so they rob the countries in which they operate of much needed tax revenues.   

Taxation is vital in both low-income and high-income countries as it enables governments to provide basic infrastructure and services such as healthcare and education, which not only improve quality of life but also promote economic stability.  It is estimated that the annual loss of taxable revenue caused by corporations using tax havens is $250 billion (Tax Justice Network, 2005).  This figure is shocking when considering:

• It would cost $10 billion per year to achieve universal primary education.
• It would cost approximately $3.6 billion per year to provide anti-retroviral medication to the population of sub-Sahara Africa suffering from HIV/AIDs.
• It would cost an estimated $6 billion per year to battle malaria in African nations.

Stop Commodity Speculation and Help Hunger

By Kimberly Bien

In recent years, the media has focused on global food riots that have resulted from increasing food prices. For example, rioting over high food costs in Algeria earlier in 2011 can be seen here.  The rising violence of the food riots in Algeria and Tunisia demonstrate how quickly both individual’s lives and how society operates when people are unable to feed themselves.  The global food crisis has forced the poorest people in the world to give up important social expenditures, like health and education, to be able to buy basic commodities like corn and sugar, and face the real risk of hunger and malnutrition. In fact, from June 2010 to January 2011 corn and sugar prices had increased an astounding 73%

The Stop Tax-Breaks for Oil Profiteering and Commodity Speculation Act (STOP Commodity Speculation Act) would close a loophole that gives financial speculators tax incentives to gamble on the commodity market, which has been linked to the rising food prices.  Senator Wyden’s (D-OR) legislation, and would likely bring an end to uncontrollable rising commodity prices, allowing the poorest to buy basic commodities and social investments.

15 Years Later: The Jubilee Movement

By Mac Krzyzewski 

In his most recent  “Poverty Matters” blog post for The Guardian, Jonathan Glennie writes about the “extraordinary successes” of the Jubilee Movement since its creation in 1996. The movement’s popularity stems from successful protests in the late 1990’s, including one in Cologne, Germany where a 24 million signature petition was handed to the G8. 

“There are many reasons why the Jubilee movement is so special for so many of us. First, it worked. For many years the economists of the World Bank and the British treasury had told us that debt simply could not be cancelled. It was a moral hazard. There were rules. But they hadn't reckoned on the moral power of the human chain around the Birmingham G8 in 1998, chanting for debt cancellation – famously audible to the negotiators in their conference rooms. When debt cancellation finally became a reality for some countries, it led to increased spending on health and education, saving and improving millions of lives.”