[PEN-L:11678] Re: Re: Re: Jubilee 2000 critique

["Patrick Bond" <pbond@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Forgive me for just another point. Not stated in the article below,
but now in motion in Washington at the 50YearsEnough
conference, is that J2000SA is also joining a couple of excellent
movements -- from Haiti and Focus on the Global South/Bangkok --
to defund, respectively, the World Bank and IMF. In the WB case,
you'll begin to hear of SA anti-apartheid-style "divestment" tactics,
aimed at getting sell-off of World Bank bonds from municipal,
pension and university portfolios. Join us, comrades!

> Africa: Jubilee 2000 campaign intensifies
>
> The Mail&Guardian (South Africa)    23. September 1999
>
> By Brian Ashley
>
> Johannesburg - As the "100 days to the millennium" approaches,
the anti-debt
> campaign, Jubilee 2000, has entered a period of intense activity.
A campaign
> to collect 100 000 signatures by the end of the year for its petition
> calling for the cancellation of apartheid debt has been launched.
>
> The Jubilee 2000 movement has become a source of irritation to
G7 leaders
> and officials of the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF).
> The campaign to cancel Third World debt has received major
attention,
> especially because of its ability to greet these leaders with mass
> demonstrations.
>
> In South Africa, Jubilee 2000's slogan --"Won't pay for apartheid
twice!
> Cancel the apartheid debt" -- sums up the basis of the campaign.
>
> Holocaust victims and people used as slave labour by major
German companies
> have had to wait more than 60 years for reparations and justice.
The victims
> of apartheid should not have to wait so long, says Jubilee 2000.
>
> It is also campaigning for the cancellation of apartheid-caused
debt in
> Southern Africa, and the debt burden of all Third World countries.
>
> The movement acknowledges that the South African government
is in a
> difficult position regarding the call to cancel the apartheid debt.
As the
> Jubilee 2000 publication Apartheid Debt: Questions and
Answers, released on
> September 10 1999, points out, the mere perception of such
support can be
> expected to have a negative effect on financial markets initially.
>
> However, the publication concludes "if our government's fears are
> well-founded, if it is the faceless financial markets, the selfish
> profit-seekers from abroad who ultimately tell our government
what to do,
> then the struggle for national liberation has still to be won".
>
> Jubilee 2000 media officer George Dor stresses the importance
of the
> booklet. "The booklet takes on the public debate and, in
particular, many of
> the statements by the Department of Finance; and articulates
our argument
> that debt cancellation will release significant resources for
development."
>
> International banks financially rescued the apartheid regime
during its debt
> moratorium crisis in the 1980s. At the time, states Jubilee 2000,
the
> African National Congress publicly condemned the banks' role in
rescheduling
> the debt as an act of inhumanity and said that "when the time
comes, the
> South African people will not be unmindful of the role of banks in
making
> profit out of the misery of our people".
>
> Recent research from Switzerland and Germany puts the total
apartheid
> foreign debt at about $26-billion. The campaign argues that this
is an
> odious debt and therefore repayment is not the responsibility of
the new
> democratic government. It is a call that has been taken up by
campaign
> groups in Europe and the United States who are targeting
apartheid's
> creditors. The campaigns call not only for the cancellation of the
debt, but
> also for reparations from those who supported the machinery of
apartheid.
>
> Jubilee 2000 estimates apartheid-caused destruction and
destabilisation (not
> taking account of human death and suffering) to have cost $115-
billion in
> Southern Africa, excluding South Africa.
>
> At the its national committee meeting in Johannesburg on
September 10,
> campaigners launched the scrapping petition.
>
> "Collecting signatures will go hand in hand with educating people
across the
> country on the debt issue and mobilising people to engage in
activities
> demanding debt cancellation," said Dor.
>
> The petition is directed at the South African government, G7
leaders, the
> World Bank, the IMF and the creditors of apartheid.
>
> The campaign is targeting 100 000 signatures in the 100 days
from September
> 23 to the end of the millennium. Jubilee 2000 has established
organisational
> structures in eight provinces, and will launch its Northern Province
> campaign on September 22. Key activities and dates to intensify
the campaign
> towards the end of the millennium were identified at the meeting.
>
> Jubilee 2000 announced plans to host a Jubilee south-south
summit in
> Johannesburg from November 18 to 21, involving activists from
Africa, Latin
> America and Asia.
>
> The summit will be held primarily to discuss conditions in
countries in the
> southern hemisphere and strategise the shift of the campaign
from lobbying
> the G7 leaders towards pressuring governments in the south not
to pay debts.
> It will also consider how the campaign will continue beyond 2000.
The summit
> will be strengthened by the participation of powerful social
movements in
> the south such as the Zapitistas from Mexico.
>
> It will be preceded by a meeting of civil society representatives
from
> across Africa. Part of this Jubilee 2000-inspired movement is to
build an
> "Africa Consensus" on development for the continent. This
contrasts with the
> widely discredited Washington Consensus-type model of
development imposed on
> Africa by the IMF and the World Bank.
>
> *************************END*******************************