Debt Actions

• Social Justice Committee submission to the International People's Tribunal on the Debt, Porto Alegre, Brazil 2–3 Feb. 2002
  
  Full text / Tribunal Verdict
  
  "What has become more apparent ever since Cologne is that for the IMF, the countries that run it, and the corporations that benefit from it, collecting debts is only a secondary concern.
  
  What is more important is that countries remain indebted. Indeed, the stated purpose of the World Bank and IMF–run HIPC Initiative debt reduction process is to get impoverished countries to a level of "debt sustainability" in which they continue to make payments to the full extent possible given their economic situation. And so long as they remain indebted, the creditors, whether they be countries or institutions, can interfere in their internal operations.
  
  This indebtedness of most of the world's nations has become a means by which the creditors can plunder their resources."
• Six years ago, impoverished countries were promised debt relief. They're still waiting. June 2002,

  Ads in major Canadian newspaper target G8, demand immediate cancellation of Third World debt. Almost 70 organizations and communities joined together in placing the ad in the Globe and Mail. [PDF format]

• Dec. 2001 SJC launches protest as IMF refuses to budge on Nicaragua, suspension of debt relief continues despite starvation and economic crisis.

• Response from Canadian Executive Director at IMF, rationalizing IMF decision.

• Jubilee song for economic justice and the cancellation of Third World debt is now available for listening via the internet. Click here to hear the music that brings us into the new year with a renewed call for justice and an end to poverty. Recorded in Montreal with a sharp band of young musicians who bring a rock/ska approach to the blues. External link; will open in new window.