Chain Breaking On The 10th Anniversary of Jubilee

By Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA National Coordinator

May 18, 2008, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND—I am writing from Birmingham, England, where I am for the 10th Anniversary celebration of the G-8 Summit held in this city. 

More than 70,000 Jubilee campaigners formed a human chain around the Birmingham Convention Center on May 16, 1998, foisting the global debt crisis onto the agenda of world leaders in a serious way. Today, I had the privilege to relive that moment and to demand further action on the unfinished agenda on debt with about 1,500 Jubilee UK supporters from all over the UK.

The day began, appropriately, in church. About a dozen churches across town held special Jubilee services this morning. I attended services at the Birmingham Christian Centre, a lively, big congregation in the Pentecostal tradition. More than 500 people were there — a beautiful multicultural mélange of people.

After about 30 minutes of joyous singing, praise, and prayer, the service started with Pastor Barry Killick reminding us all of the reason we were there this morning. “You can’t get nearer to the heart of God than when you are reaching out to those in need.” He then turned it over to Stephen Rand, our friend and the co-chair of Jubilee Debt Campaign UK, himself a Baptist preacher.

Stephen delivered a brilliant guest sermon on Jubilee. He reminded us that in the Bible, lending was meant to benefit the borrower, not the lender. He reflected on the themes of ownership, trust, fair dealing, redemption, new start, and freedom of Leviticus 25. He reminded us of the victories of the past decade: Thanks to debt relief, more than 9 million children are in school, who weren’t before. He also told us that with expanded debt cancellation, 3 million more children could live past their fifth birthday.

Coming out of that lively service, I was nearly filled up with Jubilee spirit. But there was much more to come.

We headed over to site of the day’s main event at the Birmingham International Convention Center. First was a lunch hosted by the Birmingham City Council – held in the exact room of the international convention center where the G-8 had their meeting back in 2000.

Following this, I spent most of the day wandering through the stalls and throngs of Jubilee UK supporters with some friends from the international Jubilee movement in town for the events as well: Lidy Nacpil from Jubilee South; Muyatwa Sitali from Jubilee Zambia; Given Lubinda, a member of the Zambian Parliament working on responsible borrowing; LaToya Richards from CaPRI in Jamaica. At around 2:30 pm, we joined about 1,200 other Jubilee supporters and streamed into the auditorium for the main event of the day: the Journey to Justice program.

The program began in the darkened auditorium with the sounding of the shofars, or a ram’s horn, of the Biblical call to Jubilee. Jubilee Debt Campaign UK had prepared an incredible program — featuring some great video clips, talk show style interviews, speakers, musicians, and even drama. It was an inspiring and moving variety show chronicling the achievements of the Jubilee campaign while highlighting the real challenges that we are fighting on about now.

A few highlights include a great film by Anthony Minghella. Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf also shared a message by video, urging “rather than servicing unjust debts, governments should focus on programs to ready for and prevent the economic assault that is now anticipated.”

There were Tory, Labor, and Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament; faith leaders from the Hindu, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities; and Jubilee campaigners from across the globe.

Archbishop Ndungane of Cape Town, South Africa delivered a rousing keynote address where he highlighted the fact that much debt is odious and illegitimate, and that the debt crisis is as much the responsibility of the lender as the borrower. He called for further scaling up of debt cancellation and more responsible lending in the future. He also highlighted the work of the African Monitor, an organization he founded which is building public pressure to push governments in Africa to be more responsive to their people.

Current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sent a video message celebrating the achievements of the debt campaign in which he stated “we know there is still more to do.” As a start, this week the British government announced a $20 million commitment to the Debt Reduction Facility, which aims to buy up private debt to prevent the actions of vulture funds. They also announced that the UK MDRI, which extends debt relief beyond HIPCs to 5 new countries.

But there is still much to do, and Stephen Rand reminded us that when you are climbing a mountain, you need to pause and look back to see how far you have come. But then you must keep climbing on to the top — that’s where the views are most spectacular. A fitting metaphor for the debt campaign at 10 years.

The program concluded with a video message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who reminded us: “We are a family. We are all bound together. Because of this today we are still called to pray, boycott, and protest about the scourge of international debt.”

Following that advice directly, we then streamed out of the convention center into Centenary Square, all 1,200 of us formed a giant circular pie chart made out of people and white chains each signed by a Jubilee supporter to symbolize the chains of debt! Twenty percent of the people sat down, while the remaining 80 percent stood standing, symbolizing the amount of unpayable debt that still remains to be canceled. 

A fitting visual and end to a brilliant day celebrating progress and rejuvenating ourselves for the campaigns ahead.

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