Campaigners took to the streets calling for international debt relief. Picture: Birmingham Post
International debt relief has brought benefits to millions of poor people, but we still need to pray for more debt cancellation.
16 May 1998. Birmingham city centre. As 70,000 people formed a human chain to protest against the gross injustice of international debt, a mass public movement against poverty was born.
Jubilee 2000 captured the attention of the media, the public and the government – never before had so many people turned out for such a cause. Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, said it ‘achieved more standing together for the needs of the poor … than all the isolated acts of individual governments could have achieved in a hundred years’.
It was built on the principle of Jubilee, lifted straight from the Bible. The demands of Leviticus 25 are clear – release slaves, return land to its original owners, cancel debt.
Fast forward several thousand years to 1998: the failure to cancel debt was crippling some of the world’s poorest countries.
Irresponsible lending, often to corrupt governments, had built up debts. Money that should have been invested in healthcare, education and infrastructure was being used to pay interest to rich governments, and the interest rates rocketed.
In 2000, the poorest countries’ annual repayments were a staggering 13 times higher than the amount received in aid. It was a scandal and still is today.
But Jubilee 2000 did have an impact. It was a long way from what was needed, but politicians listened, and promises were made.
For every one of the 24 million signatures on the petition more than £4,000 of debt was cancelled. This delivered tangible change on the ground in many countries, such as free primary education in Uganda and free inoculations in Mozambique.
The movement also triggered something extraordinary in the church. Sermons on social justice were regularly heard from the pulpit.
Congregations took to the streets to collect petition signatures. Thousands of Christians took action on poverty for the very first time.
Tearfund’s Ben Niblett remembers how he felt on the day: ‘One of the most memorable moments was in a Birmingham church. The speaker asked the hundreds gathered to raise their hand if this was their first experience of taking action on poverty. Over half of them did.’
The debt struggle is far from over. The voice of the church was raised once again in Make Poverty History, resulting in further debt write-off, but there is still so much more that needs cancelling.
One thing is certain: our voices do have an impact. If we look back ten years to see how far we have come, it must surely give us faith for the future.