The Jubilee Blog

Stories From the Front Lines Part 2

The Meaning of Debt
“Debt means that countries can’t provide treatment to people who need to respond to AIDS.”

Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA national coordinator, used his personal observations, recalling the delegation he and Jubilee supporters took to Kenya and Zambia in January, to not only discuss Jubilee’s victories, but the continuing need for debt cancellation and an end to harmful economic policy conditions (such as privatization of natural resources) in order for impoverished nations around the world to meet the MDGS by 2015.

Stories From the Front Lines Part 1

A Right to the Tree of Life
“Everyone has a right to the tree of life.”

How does one really approach the daunting task of making a difference in the world through economic justice? But according to last night’s speakers, the most daunting of tasks isn’t the living. The living is easy, but it’s the actual doing that presents challenges.

As the G8 Closes...

On Climate Change, Commitment to Debt, and on to Kirchentag

Careening along on the train from Rostock where I’ve been for the past  week on my way to Cologne for the Kirchentag, I’d thought I put down some closing thoughts on the G8 and the movements here that have been challenging them.

On the penultimate day of the G8 Summit, with world leaders having progressed few decisions on the fate of Africa and the world’s poor, Oxfam’s ‘Big Heads’ have been cavorting away their time in Germany on the beach outside the G8 Summit highlighting this potentially wasted opportunity. Photo: Oxfam.

First, maybe most inspiring has been the creativity and dynamism of the organizations and movements here. From the clown brigades to the thousands of dedicated young people working for a better world in camps all around the summit, the colors and actions were impressive. After a very bad start on the weekend with violence, protestors have been overwhelmingly nonviolent but very effective in civil disobedience actions to challenge the G8 over the past week.

Thousands of anti-G8 protesters march through crop fields towards the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm June 6, 2007. Leaders from the world's major industrialised nations meet in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm on June 6-8 for a Group of Eight (G8) summit. Photo: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay (GERMANY)

And they’ve been really creative. Yesterday, I heard about a group of bikers who rode en masse – 1,000 of them along some of the roads that go to the G8 Summit. They rode very slowly, and every few minutes, they’d stop, get off their bikes, and do repairs and maintenance. The effect: very slow traffic of people making their way to the G-8 and an effectively blocked road to the summit.

Tuesday's campaign stunt by Oxfam, the day before the G8 leaders arrive in Rostock for 2007's G8 Summit, features the infamous 'Big Heads' dressed as Pinnochio - the puppet figure whose nose grew every time he told a lie. Photo: Craig Owen/Oxfam

The bigger, media savvy NGOs like Oxfam, MSF, and Greenpeace had their fun too. Oxfam was all over the place with their huge G-8 heads. My favorite was when they added long Pinocchio-noses to each G-8 leader to symbolize their broken promises on aid to Africa and HIV/AIDS. Greenpeace had four boaters out in the waters off the summit shoreline which led to a dramatic water-based cat and mouse style chase for the better part of an hour. Tragically, police boats ran over one of the Greenpeace boats in the midst of the chase and some were seriously injured.

I spent most of Tuesday through Thursday shuttling back and forth between Rostock, site of the alternative summit, and Kühlungsborn, the official G-8 media center where international press covering the summit were based. I received NGO press accreditation thanks to our friends ar erlassjahr.de. We coordinated as more than a dozen debt campaigns from across the globe to put out a press release highlighting the unfinished business of the G8 Summit on international debt on each day of the summit.

On Wednesday, we put out a release about the G8’s failure to defend its own debt cancellation initiative from vulture funds. I learned earlier this week that the Bush administration had actually fought proposals from the U.K. and Germans to address vulture funds ahead of the G8 Finance Ministers meeting a few weeks ago in Potsdam. 

The Bush administration’s argument? We might dissuade or worry financial markets if we do any kind of regulation. 

But were financial markets meant to be this cruel? Is it right for countries to create safehavens that enable ‘vulture’ investors to buy up debts, sue for them, and take millions away from desperately poor countries?

On Thursday, we focused on Liberia. Now eligible for debt cancellation in principle, Liberia STILL has not seen its arrears cleared and debts cancelled. The reason for this dates back to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. The G8 promised to help Liberia when it became eligible, but it didn’t provide the money.

The result? Liberia is still sending $100,000 a month to international financial institutions. 

Overall, it is clear that G8 are suffering a severe case of lack-of-follow-through (or amnesia) on debt. They announce a huge debt deal two years ago to great fanfare, applause, and media attention. Then two years later, nothing? 

In addition to the focus on vulture funds and Liberia, we also put out statements on the need for immediate debt cancellation for Haiti and climate debt.

The big issue on the agenda here has been climate change. Up until now, the Bush administration has been the biggest roadblock to further progress on this issue.  A few weeks ago, some environmental groups got a leaked copy of the section of the draft G8 Communique that deals with climate, and the U.S. delegation had crossed out all text on about 14 of 17 pages!

Photo: Danny Rimpl

Yesterday, it was exciting to be in the international media center when German Chancellor Merkel announced that an agreement had been reached among the G8 on climate. All countries – including the U.S. for the first time – agreed that solutions should come through the UN climate process (rather than a whole separate US-led process that president Bush suggested last week) and that the next round of climate negotiations will end by 2009. There was also language on a general agreement to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2050 but not concrete commitments on this. A step forward on a longroad ahead! Download the G8 Summit Declaration: Growth and Responsibility in the World Economy.

Just as this announcement was being made, I got word from Karen in the Jubilee office that Reps. Waters and Bachus had dropped the Jubilee Act in Congress! We worked up a press release: “As G8 Fails to Address the Unfinished Agenda on Debt, U.S. Congress Introduces Legislation That Will” I distributed it around the media center, though as the news came just after the climate breakthrough, it was bad timing…

We’re waiting to see the final communiqué on Africa to see if anything positive at all came out re. debt and vulture funds, but all signs are down for now. All the more important to focus our efforts on U.S. Congress to build overwhelming support so that it will become law.

Now off to the Kirchentag, a massive religious festival in Colgone, to meet up with Bill Harman (Jubilee San Diego) who has long been involved with this network, as well as friends from erlasjahr.de who are organizing events there!

More on Monday! - Neil

SAVE THE DATE!

The debt problem is not over. Despite all the promises and schemes offered by lending governments and international financial institutions.

Civil Society's Response to Violence During the G-8

Neil Watkins gave us a very detailed account of what happened during a mostly peaceful civil society march by an estimated 80,000 people during the G-8 Summit in Germany.

The reports from Jewels In the Jungle, Speigel (which has great photos) and other bloggers and news media have noted that the media focus on civil society during the G-8 has shifted to covering the violence, and not the other issues surrounding the summit, which begins Wednesday.

In the account was a disappointing incident of violence where less than 100 marchers clashed with police after one of the marches threw an object at law enforcement. Neil writes:

While the first few hours of the march were great and we were in high spirits, just as we were reaching the end of the march route at the port of Rostock, some violence broke out, which was very unfortunate to say the least.

Apparently, a group of protestors began to throw something at police, which led the police to respond very strongly. Soon, tensions were high. And as usual, attention — from the media — moved to focus on the interactions between about 100 protestors and police, rather than the message of the 80,000 peaceful demonstrators. Many of our friends in Jubilee Germany were disappointed in the outcome, because agreements had been made and broken about nonviolence and the media coverage portrayed the event as a riot rather than a big march for justice.

Today, civil society issued a statement responding to the the Sunday's clash. Download the official statement. What's interesting to note when you look at the photos is the obvious separation of the so-called "anarchists" or protestors who were physically antagonizing police and the marchers, some of whom look dumbfounded at what's happening and others who are watching the ensuing chaos.

ON THE FRONTLINES: REPORT BACK FROM THE G-8 SUMMIT

By Neil Watkins

Rostock, Germany, June 3, 2007 – I am writing today from the Northern German town of Rostock. Rostock is just about 10 miles away from Heiligendamm, the site of this year’s G-8 summit, which kicks off on Wednesday.

Yesterday, I joined an estimated 80,000 people in a colorful march demanding action from the G-8 countries on a wide range of critical issues from debt to climate change to fair trade and more.

We started out at the Marienkirche, an old church in the middle of town. This was the meeting point for members of erlassjahr.de, the German Jubilee campaign. The church was filled with huge red balloons with the message ‘Steichen illegitime schulden!” (Cancel Illegitimate Debt!) and signed by thousands of erlassjahr supporters across the country who couldn’t attend the summit. Marchers came into the church, grabbed a ballon, and headed to the march starting point.

Leaving the church, I met up with our friends from Jubilee South: Lidy, Claudette, and Malou from the Philippines; Vinod from India; Camille from Haiti; Beverly from Argentina; Njuki from Kenya; and Arjun from Nepal. Mark Harrison from Jubilee USA member organization the United Methodist Church made the trip as well. 

The Jubilee South delegation had made an excellent prop — eight large heads resembling the G-8 leaders and we carried them around with the message: “G8 Pay Back Your Debts to the South!”

We were quite a spectacle marching and drew the interest of lots of photographers and journalists along the way. We chanted: “G-8 Cancel the Debt-G-8 Pay Up!” and “Don't Owe, Won’t Pay.”

We marched with the G-8 heads behind several hundred erlassjahr members carrying the huge red balloons saying “Streichen Illegitime Schulden,” so debt campaigners were easy to pick out and had a clear and visible message…And a loud one, thanks to 500 whistles from our friend Graham Saul who had brought the whistles so we could “blow the whistle on oil aid.” It was a loud, bright, fun sight, even amid the cool temperatures and occasional rain.

While the first few hours of the march were great and we were in high spirits, just as we were reaching the end of the march route at the port of Rostock, some violence broke out, which was very unfortunate to say the least. 

Apparently, a group of protestors began to throw something at police, which led the police to respond very strongly. Soon, tensions were high. And as usual, attention — from the media — moved to focus on the interactions between about 100 protestors and police, rather than the message of the 80,000 peaceful demonstrators. Many of our friends in Jubilee Germany were disappointed in the outcome, because agreements had been made and broken about nonviolence and the media coverage portrayed the event as a riot rather than a big march for justice.

Today, Sunday, was a new day. It was the day of the international debt campaigners’ strategy meeting. Turnout was great with about 60 people from more than 30 countries present!

Discussion in the morning session focused on “where we are at” on international debt as the G-8 Summit begins. Jurgen Kaiser of Jubilee Germany told us that debt was not a significant issue for the G-8 this year. The main official issues that relate to debt are concerns about new lending (from countries like China), and in recent weeks the public outcry on vulture funds forced the Finance Ministers to talk about the vultures in their communiqué on May 22.

In terms of the key of the key issues identified by campaigners, we discussed:

• The need for a better and unified response to “new borrowing” that countries are now engaging in
• The need for a stronger campaign for an end to externally imposed conditions such as macroeconomic conditionality
• The need to define a bold vision of responsible lending as the G-20 are now preparing their own voluntary Charter of Responsible Lending

Some of the most interesting discussions came in the afternoon when we heard updates from what debt campaigners are doing across the globe to end debt domination. Perhaps the most exciting story was about positive moves by the government of Ecuador which is preparing to launch a comprehensive audit to determine the legitimacy or illegitimacy of its debts.

The Ecuador government has already committed to reduce amount of their budget spent on debt servicing from 38 percent to 12 percent of the budget and to increase social spending from 12 percent to 38 percent!

Ecuador will likely be quick to take decisions on debt. This year alone Ecuador already reimbursed $1 billion to lenders, and they still have to pay $2.8 billion in the rest of the year. Stay tuned! Finally, we focused on next steps together. Many countries — from Mali to Argentina to Brazil to Philippines and even a growing number of European countries — reported on audits they are taking to determine the illegitimacy of debt. We also finalized the call and solidified action plans for the upcoming Global Week of Action on Debt, to be held from October 14 to 21, 2007 across the globe.

This week comes at an exciting time for Jubilee USA as it is the end of our 40 day Cancel Debt Fast! So we will be joined in our actions at the conclusion of the fast by people across the globe participating in various different ways. We agreed to formally launch a global website www.debtweek.org on the week of action and it will be up by the end of June.

I am now on a train from Rostock on my way to Bonn for a meeting tomorrow with the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance — they are planning a Global Week of Action on Trade justice from October 14 to 21 and Beverly Keene from Jubilee South/Americas are going to the last day of their meeting so that we can coordinate activities among debt and trade activists during this global week so that we can work together and have an even greater impact.

Then I head back to Rostock from Tuesday to Friday. I’ll be presenting in a few sessions at the Alternative Summit but mostly focused on the G-8 Summit itself, working in the media center to get out our messages on debt two years at the G-8 debt deal was announced in Gleneagles. We’ll be explaining to journalists why debt is not done — highlighting problems with vulture funds, the cases of Haiti and Liberia, and calling on the G-8 to enact a bold new deal on debt and to accept co-responsibility for illegitimate and odious lending in the past. 

I’ll keep you posted on all the latest...more on Wednesday!

Peace.

Neil

Friday's Round-Up of Pundit Talk on the G-8, Debt Cancellation, and a Poem for Wolfowitz

• In "Mr. Hardball Goes to the World Bank" Sarah Anderson traces the path of Robert Zoellick, Wolfowitz's replacement.

  But is a tone-deaf, name-calling steely opportunist a good choice to lead the World Bank? The Bank’s official mission, after all, is to fight global poverty, not promote U.S. corporate interests. And after the Wolfowitz uproar, one might have expected the Bush administration to pick a more genteel and broad-minded successor to lead this global institution.

• Q&A with Noam Chomsky about poverty, debt, and the World Bank

  The charges against Wolfowitz are maybe corruption but pretty minor compared to his record. Forget his involvement in the Iraq war...He was the ambassador to Indonesia under Regan. He was one of the strongest supports of Suharto, who was one of the worst monstors in the modern period, comparable to Saddam Hussein. When Wolfowitz was appointed to the World Bank, Indonesian human rights and democracy activists were bitterly critical because he never lifted his finger to help them when he was ambassador.

• The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd waxes about Wolfowitz's future. What will he do now?

  Achievements: Paralyzed the international lending apparatus to the point where small countries had to max out their Visa cards to pay for malaria medicine. Learned the traditions of many cultures, including those of Turkey, where you apparently are not supposed to take off your shoes at mosques to reveal socks so full of holes that both big toes poke blasphemously through.

• Calvin Trillin's epitaph on Wolfowitz from The Nation

  The second paragraph will spell it out
  In chapter, Wolfie, and in sordid verse.
  Your lawyer worked in vain, and, by the way,
  The paragraph it follows will be worse.