Jubilee Debt Campaign - July Update

Debt campaigners from around the world have called on G8 leaders to cancel the debts of countries most affected by the global food crisis, as the G8 meets in Japan this week.

They also warned against encouraging poor countries to run up new debts in trying to solve the problems of food price rises and climate change.

Both issues are high on the G8's agenda this week. But campaigners fear that world leaders may try to alleviate both challenges only by offering fresh loans. Instead, they say, the G8 should take responsibility for its role in creating these crises and provide debt cancellation and new grants to tackle them.

 

 

Last week debt campaigners formed a giant white band around Parliament Square to call on the UK to drop more debts, ahead of the G8 meeting in Japan and other crucial meetings this autumn.

A total of 10,969 paper chain links saying ‘Drop the Debt’ in English and Japanese were delivered to International Development Minister Gareth Thomas and to the Japanese Embassy.

 

www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/chains

 

As thousands of paper chains were collected and hundreds of campaigners converged on Birmingham, the Government used the tenth anniversary of the debt campaign to announce some small increases in UK debt cancellation.

 

On 12 June, the Paris Club of creditors agreed to cancel US$347 million of Togo's debt and impose a moratorium on remaining debt payments to themselves until 2011. The Club - an informal group of creditor rich country governments - cited the food crisis as the main reason why Togo had been granted the moratorium.

 

 

It wasn't just the mudless sunny days and the controversial choice of Jay Z as headline act that defined Glastonbury this year. The Drop the Debt Bus was the place to be for thousands of festivalgoers who pledged their support for our Pick Up the Pace campaign.