[PEN-L:11604] Jubilee 2000 critique

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We need a serious critique of the Jubilee 2000 campaign. By that I mean one
that sees its positive aspects but also its limitations. (Thanks Patrick
for the AIDC tip - web address I think you meant: www.aidc.org.za)

The Pope has just made an alliance with Bono and Bob Geldorf to promote
this. The call is for the abolition of the debt of the 52 poorest nations
to mark the millenium. Bob Geldorf has emphasised that these nations will
never be able to pay and that new institutions are needed to help them.

The Pope's involvement is significant. He is possibly conscious of the
charge from the non-Christian world that the 2000th anniversary of the
birth of Jesus might emphasise the imperialist domination of the caucasian
imperial powers. The Pope appears to have turned to the christian
democratic tradition to give extra legitimacy to the Catholic Church's
leadership position. The christian democratic tradition, emphasising ideas
of solidarity between workers and capitalists under a framework of social
justice, was a reaction to the rising tide of social democratic ideas in
Europe at the end of the 19th century. It is in character largely social
democratic itself.

It is not as progressive as liberation theology, which this Pope has always
opposed, but it is more progressive than the sort of catholicism that
supported the dictatorships of Salazar and Franco.

The Jubilee 2000 call means that the global festivities on December 31st
will have a political component to them. The Pope will specifically make
the call in his speech. Bob Geldorf is presumably already planning ways to
repeat his success as a very minor British pop singer, to get lots of
better pop singers to sing "Feed the World" with him. Television
sponsorship will be considerable, as the companies scramble for the biggest
audience.

All this blather will not be of any concern of course to seriously macho
Marxists who can see through the capitalist, reformist, petty bourgeois
nature of the whole enterprise at a glance  and roll off a withering
polemical expose half an hour later, if they do not think an inspired
contemptuous joke about Geldorf's musical abilities is sufficient.

What is needed however is a more dialectical analysis of this movement. The
emotional message will be there and transmitted to billions on 31st
December. Capitalism will seek to assimilate it in numerous ways. BUT that
will also create a political space for more serious criticism of the
limitations of the whole effort. There will be air time and screen space
for effective critiques. Serious political campaigning organisations like
Oxfam and World Development Movement will have their spokespersons briefed.
The organisers of June 18th will also be looking for what they see as a
more incisive celebration of the millenium.

Marxists (genuine, dialectical marxists) can influence this agenda if the
work is begun now. It does not matter from what immediate initial stance
they  approach the Jubilee 2000 project so long as the emerging critique is
a marxist one: dialectical, analysing positive and negative features,
relating the campaign to an international balance of class forces, and
coming up with a higher synthesis which can help what is democratic in the
movement unfolding before our eyes.

Chris Burford

London