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.”