[stop-imf] Jubilee Countdown Update: 8 Days to Debt Decision

[robert weissman]

From: Neil Watkins <neil@jubileeusa.org>


Greetings, Jubilee USA! As we countdown to October 1 and continue to
mount pressure on the US government and the G-7 to enact full debt
cancellation, today's update includes another reason to join us on
October 1st in Washington, and more news articles on debt!

1) Reason #8 to Join Us on October 1: Debt Disproportionately Affects Women
2) News Coverage:
* Op-Ed by Sister Amata Miller on Life and Debt in the Detroit Free-Press
* New York Times article which addressed the debate within the G7 now
* Inter Press Service: Richest Nations May Drop Debt of 33 Poorest
* Letter to the Editor from Marie Flom in the Westchester (NY) Journal News=
!

We still need letters, calls, letters to the editor and op-eds. For
ideas on how to take action, see:
http://www.jubileeusa.org/jubilee.cgi?path=3D/take_action&page=3Dtop_ten.ht=
ml

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1) Reason #8 you should come out for debt cancellation on Oct. 1st

Globally women spend 8 hours a day gathering water traveling up to 9
miles a day to secure clean water for their families. Structural
Adjustment Programs imposed on indebted countries by the World Bank and
IMF often include the privatization of water as a condition. When water
is privatized costs for the user go up. Access is also reduced as
companies focus on =93high value users=94 such as large agro businesses and
factories. Rural areas can see water access cut off completely. Women,
as the primary care givers from their families must spend more time
gathering water as a consequence of privatization. As a result of
spending more time collecting water women and girls lose out on
education, civic involvement and basic leisure time. Some women can not
find clean water and resort to using contaminated water increasing the
likelihood of illness within their families. Come out for debt
cancellation in this critical moment Friday October 1^st at Noon!
Location TBA. More info www.jubileeusa.org.

------------------------------------------

2) News coverage today

Detroit Free Press
September 22, 2004

LOCAL COMMENT: Eradicating poor nations' debt restores life, dignity

BY AMATA MILLER

The soul of our nation is at risk. We face the greatest global health
crisis of all time, in a time of economic insecurity and war. On the
brink of an election, our most fundamental values must not be exploited
at a podium but enshrined in action. President George W. Bush will have
an opportunity on Oct. 1 to choose rhetoric or reality. Will he choose
life or debt?

Finance ministers of the Group of Seven wealthiest nations will meet in
Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1 in advance of the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank annual meetings. International multilateral debt
will be on the agenda. Press reports indicated that the wealthy leaders
considered pushing the multilateral creditors to cancel 100 percent of
the debts of the most impoverished nations during the G8 Summit in June.
While they failed to act, the possibility of 100-percent debt
cancellation lingers in the air.

There is no time to waste for the 240,000 people whose lives could be
saved each month were debt service payments liberated to fight AIDS.
Initial debt relief has already had an extraordinary impact in Uganda,
where $1.3 million of debt service savings were invested in the national
HIV/AIDS plan, helping to reduce HIV infection rates by 40 percent.
African nations need an estimated $10-billion investment each year to
reverse this deadly pandemic. Africans pay almost $15 billion in annual
debt service.

Were the largest creditors, the IMF and World Bank, to cancel debt from
their own vast resources it would cost the U.S. taxpayer nothing but the
use of our power to guide institutions in which we have the largest
percentage of voting power. Yet it would be a generous step towards
building right relationships and protecting the dignity of the human
person. The institutions, however, are not likely to take this action on
their own. They need to hear a direct mandate from their largest
shareholders, especially the United States. It is our responsibility, as
American citizens, to let our president and administration know that we
no longer want debt service collected at the expense of health care and
education for the world's most impoverished people.

The IMF and World Bank cry poverty, yet it would cost the World Bank $13
billion and the IMF $5 billion to cancel the debts of the most indebted
impoverished countries. A recent study published by Debt and Development
Coalition Ireland illustrates how the financial institutions can afford
the cancellation from their own resources without limiting their ability
to lend to other impoverished or middle-income countries.

Debt is not only an economic issue; it is a life issue. Belief in the
inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic
social teaching. Human life is sacred, and the dignity of the human
person is the starting point for a moral vision for society. By nature,
we are in solidarity with all members of the human family, and so we are
co-responsible for one another's good.

We in the rich nations of the world run a huge deficit to the world's
poor nations and to the earth that we share. We use up resources of the
poorer nations, locate high-pollution industries and landfills there and
damage the global ecosystem on which all peoples depend for life.

America has the responsibility to put our core values of life into
practice by making life a priority in all elements of our foreign and
domestic economic policy. We who make the issue of life our first
priority must assert our power to push the IMF and World Bank to cancel
impoverished country debt.

What would happen if the 8,000 people who will die today of AIDS were
from Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Florida? Would our economic and
social priorities as a nation change? Would we face the heart-wrenching
reality that our liberation is connected to the liberation of the most
vulnerable throughout the world?

President Bush, will you join your voice with ours on Oct. 1 and demand
that the IMF and World Bank cancel 100 percent of the debts of
impoverished nations? If you are not able to help, at least get out of
the way, so those committed to demonstrate American values in our
economic and foreign policy might do so as a first step towards building
a better and safer world.

SISTER AMATA MILLER, IHM, is a member of the Sisters of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary community, which is based in Monroe, Mich. She is
currently professor of economics at St. Edward's University in Austin,
Texas. Write to her in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 600 W.
Fort St., Detroit, MI 48226.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The New York Times

Guess Who's Invited to Dinner
By ELIZABETH BECKER

Published: September 23, 2004

(See end of story for info. on debt)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - In recognition of its growing economic power,
China will
meet with the Group of 7 for the first time next week in what could be a
prelude to joining the elite club of wealthy industrialized nations.

John Taylor, the under secretary for international affairs at the
Department
of the Treasury, said the meeting would be a "historic first engagement"
and
was recognition of China's expanding role in the global economy.

"The engagement of China is very important,'' Mr. Taylor said.

Mr. Taylor added that "China is a large, growing economy.'' Already, the
economy of China is larger than Canada's and nearly as large as Italy's,
both
of which are members of the Group of 7.

The price of China's entry into the group could be the revamping of its
currency, making it more flexible and stronger against other currencies,
especially the dollar. The United States and Japan have been pushing
China to
end its practice of pegging its currency, the yuan, to the dollar and
let it
float or revalue upward.

Russia was invited to be part of a Group of 8 countries during the Clinton
administration because of its political power, not its economic prowess,
and
it continues to attend the annual summit meetings for heads of state and
top
officials.

An opening of the Group of 7 to China would be the first expansion of the
economic group. But China's first session with the ministers is only a
limited
affair, occurring at a dinner next week on the sidelines of the annual
meeting
of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

As the host country for the Group of 7 meeting, the United States has been
pushing for improved relations with China and forgiveness of some of Iraq's
estimated $120 billion debt.

But even giving China a small toehold into the group could anger many
American
manufacturing companies and unions which consider China more as a
commercial
enemy than an ally. They have accused China of flooding the United
States with
cheap exports, made even cheaper with its undervalued currency. This, they
claim, amounts to unfair trade.

In this election year, some of the loudest complaints have come from
manufacturing companies and labor unions in swing states. Two weeks ago, a
coalition of unions and industrial associations filed a petition with
the Bush
administration, asking it to sue China over its currency at the World Trade
Organization. The administration rejected the proposal.

At a news briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Taylor said the administration was
"very
positive" about the steps China has taken to prepare for making its
currency
flexible.

Mr. Taylor also said that he hoped that the meetings would push forward a
commitment from the world's wealthiest nations to forgive a sizeable
amount of
Iraq's debt before the end of the year.

But the United States has failed to get a firm consensus from its European
allies. The issue of Iraq's debt has become intertwined with a European
demand
that in return, the United States must support stepped-up relief for
African
nations and other poor countries as well as make a commitment that debt
relief
would not rule out an increase foreign aid.

"When the United States asked us for so much debt relief for Iraq, we
said the
answer was to also relieve the debt of the poorer nations,'' said a
European
diplomat who asked to be anonymous. "Now the Americans are trying to come
along with debt relief for the poor but we are afraid they will then dry up
the money for foreign aid that these poor countries deserve.''

Normally Iraq would not qualify for debt relief because its income is too
high. In response to the European demand, the United States came up with a
program to give relief to some 30 poor countries that do qualify.

When asked if this would mean less money for foreign aid, Mr. Taylor
said that
debt relief and other changes were necessary before aid could be effective.

James D. Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank, said in an
interview on
Wednesday that replenishing the coffers of the World Bank to ensure that it
could continue to give needed foreign aid and grants was a big concern.

"The United States initiative is absolutely correct,'' Mr. Wolfensohn
said. "Debt relief is critical but we also have to ask, 'How will you
fund the
future?' ''

The World Bank has already overseen $53 billion in debt relief for the
world's
poorest countries. In recent years, the cause of debt relief has been
adopted
by some prominent activists, like Bono, the Irish rock star. Charities and
other nongovernmental organization have lobbied Washington and European
capitals to come up with an expanded debt relief program during the annual
meetings next week.

Several groups, including Jubilee USA Network and Health GAP, which promote
help for countries fighting the AIDS epidemic, said on Wednesday that with
African nations spending $15 billion annually on debt repayment, it was
essential that their debts be forgiven.

But the disagreement between Washington and its Group of 7 partners over
debt
relief and foreign aid could quash hopes of a compromise.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Inter Press Service
DEVELOPMENT:
Richest Nations May Drop Debt of 33 Poorest
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep 22 (IPS) - Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that
have been campaigning for years to write off tens of billions of dollars
in debt owed by poor countries to international financial institutions
(IFIs) say their dream may soon be realised, perhaps as soon as just
nine days from now.

That's when the finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7), the
world's wealthiest governments, will meet to decide whether to back a
joint British-U.S. proposal to cancel all of the debt owed by 33 of the
world's poorest nations to the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), and regional multilateral development banks.

=94We are counting down to freedom from debt,=94 said Marie Clarke, nationa=
l
coordinator of Jubilee USA Network, at a rally across the street from
the U.S. Treasury Tuesday. =94We are encouraged by Treasury's apparent
support for full multilateral debt cancellation, but time is running
out. We need action, not more words, on Oct. 1 when the G-7 meets.=94

The NGOs, which include Africa Action, Oxfam, Physicians for Human
Rights (PHR), among many others, have been heartened by recent reports
that the George W. Bush administration, which is eager to get Iraq's
creditors to cancel over 100 billion dollars of debt, has lined up
solidly behind a debt-cancellation initiative that was first put forward
by British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the June Group of Eight (G-8)
Summit in Georgia.

The administration, which clearly believes that support for the British
proposal would give it more leverage in arguing for debt relief for
Iraq, is also eager to highlight Bush's =94compassionate conservatism=94
just five weeks before the November elections and sees debt relief --
particularly if it does incur direct costs to the U.S. taxpayer -- as a
well-timed vehicle for such a demonstration.

The plan is designed to replace the eight-year-old Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) initiative, created to reduce the debt of some 41
eligible countries to more manageable levels in exchange for their
implementation of far-reaching economic reform programmes designed to
make their economies more attractive to foreign investment.

So far, 27 countries that together owed the IFIs a total of about 100
billion dollars have seen their debt reduced by about 30 billion
dollars. That reduction translates into roughly a halving of their
annual debt service payments.

While that represents a substantial savings, most of HIPC's
beneficiaries continue to pay more in debt service each year than they
spend on health and education, a situation that debt campaigners argue
is morally indefensible, particularly because much of the original debt
was incurred by western-backed dictators who misspent or, in some cases,
embezzled the money.

Even some IFI officials now concede that the debt relief provided by
HIPC has been inadequate, particularly in light of the HIV/AIDS crisis
in sub-Saharan Africa, which has not only overwhelmed local health
systems, but has dragged down economic growth, in turn making it much
harder for countries to repay the debt they owe.

=94These debts are fundamentally illegitimate,=94 according to Salih Booker=
,
executive director of Africa Action, a grassroots group that led the
anti-apartheid campaign in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s. =94They
undermine African efforts to address HIV/AIDS and other challenges, and
they should have been canceled a long time ago.=94

=94There is an explicit and intimate linkage between debt and death (in
poor countries),=94 noted Holly Burkhalter, PHR's Washington director, who
released a letter from 150 doctors around the world calling for total
debt cancellation. She said the debt was wreaking havoc on already
overstretched health systems.

Despite the Bush administration's backing for the proposal, it is not
yet a done deal, according to the NGOs and administration officials. A
number of other G-7 members, which, besides the U.S. and Britain,
include Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan, have voiced objections.

They have argued that total debt cancellation could make it more
difficult or even impossible for countries to reestablish their
creditworthiness and that the administration's proposal for paying the
costs associated with cancellation -- through the Bank's own resources
and sales of gold held by the IMF -- could inflict long-term damage on
the lending ability of both institutions.

At the same time, however, Bush's backing for the initiative should give
it new momentum. His past insistence that other western governments
forgive a higher percentage of Iraq's debt than HIPC offered to much
poorer countries had irritated other western governments. French
President Jacques Chirac, in particular, had explicitly objected to
giving Iraq greater debt relief than far more needy countries.

Some activists said they feared that the cancellation initiative may
still get caught up in trans-Atlantic tensions resulting from the Iraq
invasion. =94We have a saying in Africa,=94 said Njoki Njoroge Njehu of the
'50 Years is Enough' campaign, a coalition of groups that oppose the
IFIs' structural adjustment programs (SAPs). =94When elephants fight, it's
the grass that gets hurt.=94

For that reason, the NGOs are backing the Anglo-U.S. proposal, although
many would go much further than what will be put on the table at the
Oct. 1 meeting.

Jubilee's Clarke said her group opposes any SAP-like conditions imposed
on beneficiary countries in exchange for debt cancellation. Many
development NGOs criticise SAPs because the burden of structural
adjustment has often fallen disproportionately on the poor and most
vulnerable sectors of the population. =94We are looking for 100 percent
debt cancellation without conditions,=94 she said.

She added that debts should be cancelled for more countries than the 33
that are targeted by the current proposal. Many other poor countries who
do not meet the technical requirements of HIPC are nonetheless paying
far too much in debt service, she noted.

The G-7 meeting is to take place on the eve of the annual meeting of the
boards of governors of both the World Bank and the IMF at their
headquarters in Washington. The G-7 and other western countries have
sufficient voting power on the boards of the two agencies that, once
they agree on an initiative, its adoption is virtually assured. (END/2004)


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Journal News (Westchester County, NY)
September 21, 2004 Tuesday

Impoverished nations need total debt relief

I urge my fellow New Yorkers to support 100 percent cancellation of
multilateral international debt (International Monetary Fund, World
Bank, regional development banks) for all impoverished nations (not just
those in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative). This action
should be taken without harmful economic policy conditions attached.
Debt cancellation is desperately needed. This year some 3 million people
in Africa will die due to the AIDS/HIV pandemic. Yet African countries
will still pay an estimated $15 billion in debt service to the IMF,
World Bank and wealthy creditor nations. This is only one example of the
huge damage being caused by international debt.

We can help correct this situation by contacting our congressional
representatives to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act (HR 4793), and by
contacting the president to encourage his full endorsement of total debt
cancellation at the Oct. 1 meeting of the G-7 finance ministers in
Washington.

Marie Flom

Yonkers


Neil Watkins
Outreach and Communications Coordinator
Jubilee USA Network
(202) 783-0129
www.jubileeusa.org

** Join Jubilee USA Network's once monthly news/action email list - go
to http://www.stfrancisa2.com/jubileesignup.htm to sign up! **