Mercy Global Concern - 2005

Mercy Global Concern: Briefing Paper Number 2, January 2005

18th January 2005 – International action to tell the G7 to drop the debt

Debt campaigners around the world will be targeting the embassies of G7 countries on Tuesday 18th January 2005, telling the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom that they must drop the debt.

A huge opportunity for debt cancellation

2005 offers the clearest opportunity ever for a full cancellation of multilateral debt for the world’s most impoverished countries. Years of vocal and determined campaigning around the world have brought the G7 governments which control the World Bank and IMF to admit that debt cancellation must go further, and even to develop their own proposals for 100% cancellation. The proposals differ: some only include HIPCs, some are open to all IDA-only countries; some include additional resources, whereas others seek to use the resources of the World Bank and IMF. Countries including Germany, France and the UK are either committed to or interested in using IMF gold to fund debt cancellation. While the picture is complex, it is clear that there is a strong desire for serious action on debt: 2005 therefore offers huge opportunities to move forward. The first of these is the G7 Finance Ministers’ meeting in early February 2005.

While this cancellation would still leave us demanding action on odious debt and a fundamental shift in power relations, debt campaigns around the world have stated their determination not to lose this opportunity to stop the daily payment of millions of dollars from impoverished countries to the rich world. We are therefore keen to work together to make the most of the opportunities in 2005, to exert maximum pressure on G7 governments, and to make it clear that civil society worldwide will not tolerate the rich world continuing to take money from the south.

Target the G7

At an international conference in the Netherlands in November 2004, campaigns from Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America nominated Tuesday 18th January as an International Day of Action on which campaigners will target the Canadian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, US and UK embassies in their countries. Those at the conference agreed to contact partners worldwide inviting them to participate in this action. You are encouraged to visit or protest outside G7 embassies in your country to demand debt cancellation, as well as inviting your contacts to do so also. Embassy visits are already being planned or discussed in countries including Bolivia, Nigeria, Peru, Tanzania and Zambia. Solidarity actions are also being planned in London, where the February G7 Finance Ministers’ meeting will take place, and possibly in other northern capitals.

Each campaign is making its own decisions about which embassies to visit and will present its own message on debt. Some are deciding to focus on those countries which seem most likely to broker a deal (Canada and France); others are targeting those most likely to block full debt cancellation (Germany and Japan); while others will visit those representatives with which they – or their governments – have the closest links.

Making the message as loud as possible

In order to exert the maximum pressure on G7 governments – and through them the World Bank and IMF – campaigners in G7 countries and elsewhere in the north will try to secure as much media attention as possible for these embassy actions and for the messages of southern debt campaigns. So please do pass on the details of any planned actions on or around 18th January. As the UK is hosting the 2005 G7 and G8 meetings, Jubilee Debt Campaign in the UK has offered to collate information on actions, and to circulate information among campaigners. Please contact Caroline Pearce, caroline@jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk to pass on details of your plans or for more information.

Meanwhile some campaigns will also be running postcard campaigns targeting G7 finance ministries, to demonstrate the level of public support in the north for calls for debt cancellation from the south. Any campaigns are willing to join in with these postcard actions, or support them online – again, please contact Caroline for details.