Debt relief - Indentured servitude for the Third World

Race and Class

Volumn 43, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 45-56

  Sharma, Sohan ^a   Kumar, Surinder ^b  

^a CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b MAHARSHI DAYANAND UNIVERSITY   (India)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 25844472158     PISSN: 03063968     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0306396802043004525     Document Type: Review

References (62)

1. M. Michael, 'Food or debt: the Jubilee 2000 movement', Dollars and Sense (July/August 2000), p. 15.
2. The forty-one HIPCs owe about $200 billion to various governments, banks and multilateral institutions. But the market value of that debt is only $24 billion. See D. Moberg, 'The debt row', In These Times (31 October 1999), p. 4.
3. T. E. Ambrogi, 'Jubilee 2000 and the campaign for debt cancellation', Third World Resurgence (July 1999), p. 12.
4. In calculating debt, the WB/IMF do not take into account the way that debt has been contracted. Interest rates on the US dollar can be arbitrarily increased so that borrowing countries have to pay much more each year than they started out doing. And lowering the price of the commodities that underdeveloped countries need to export to developed countries to earn dollars means that the same quantity of exports brings in fewer dollars to the underdeveloped country with which to pay its debt. See Fidel Castro, 'A new Nuremberg needed to try globalization crimes', Third World Resurgence (May 2000), p. 29.
5. M. Lockwood, 'From Washington to Köln: the struggle for debt relief', Third World Resurgence (July 1999), p.7.
6. Moberg, op. cit.
7. Lockwood, op. cit.
8. C. Welch, 'A world in chains', Globalizing Poverty, special issue of The Ecologist (September 2000), p. 32.
9. In spite of the abject indebtedness and poverty of several Middle East and North African countries - essentially the Arabic speaking (Islamic) countries - no country from this region appears on the list. See R. Naiman, 'No Jubilee for the Middle East', Middle East Report (Winter 1999), pp. 13-15.
10. Sub-Saharan Africa's debt burden is more than twice as large as that of any other region, when measured as a proportion of its economic size. See Ambrogi, op. cit.
11. and 'Plunging prices', New Internationalist (August 2000), p. 18.
12. A. Zacharie, 'From Cologne to Okinawa: a hard look at debt relief, 10/21/00', see http://users.skynet.be/cadtm/angonika.htm
13. Bolivia was included in the HIPC list not only because of its poverty level, but because, according to the WB/IMF, the government has a history of 'religiously' meeting its debt payments, regardless of the social cost. See 'Debt for development', Latinamerica Press (22 May 2000), p. 5.
14. The concept of Jubilee comes from the Hebrew Scriptures. The book of Leviticus commands that, in the year of the Jubilee, social inequities must be rectified: slaves are to be set free, debts forgiven and property returned to its rightful owners. 'The Bible calls for Jubilee every 50 years, and debt relief every seven years . . . That's why Witness for Peace helped found the Jubilee 2000/USA coalition. [It] also helped found Jubilee 2000 in Central America.' See Witness for Peace, 'Stop the war against the poor'. (Year and place of publication not given); Ambrogi, op. cit.
15. and Michael, op. cit.
16. See Lockwood, op. cit.
17. and Ambrogi, op. cit.
18. J. Hanlon, 'Halt the double jeopardy of odious debt', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (September 1999), pp. 12, 14.
19. Ibid.
20. W. Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, MA, Common Courage Press, 2000), pp. 228-9
21. and J. Pilger, 'Vietnam: the final battle', Covert Action Quarterly (Spring 1998), pp. 54-65.
22. Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice, May 1999, p. 16;
23. 'Consensus Statement of the Jubilee 2000 International Conference', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (September 2000), p. 11.
24. B. Knight, 'Debt forgiveness a human response to globaloney', The Progressive Populist (15 July 2000), p. 7.
25. See G. Kolko, 'Ravaging the poor', Multinational Monitor (June 1998)
26. and R. Naiman and N. Watkins, 'A survey of the impact of IMF structural adjustment program in Africa: growth, social spending, and debt relief', http//www.preamble.org./IMFinAfrica.htm5/5/00
27. See Oxfam Internationa!, 'HIPC: too little, too late', Third World Resurgence (July 1999), pp. 22-4;
28. B. Brookes, 'The G7 debt deal - much more cash, but string still attached', Third World Resurgence (July 1999), pp. 28-9;
29. F. Rosen, 'Doing battle against the debt', NACLA (July/August, 1999), pp. 42-5;
30. K. Hansen-Kuhn and S. Hellinger, 'SAP's link sharpens relief debate: Cologne G-7 initiative a self-serving formula', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (September 1999), pp. 3, 9.
31. There are some reports that, under heavy criticism, the WB/IMF have agreed to suspend the second three-year requirement for a country to be on ESAF for 'debt relief', so, if a country satisfies the WB/IMF requirements for the first three years - rather than six as originally proposed - it will be granted debt relief. See Naiman and Watkins, op. cit.
32. Other conditions for obtaining 'debt relief' that were added were a strong link between debt relief and continued adjustment, improved governance and poverty alleviation. See 'Forgiving a dying man's debt isn't enough, says OAU chairman', Third World Resurgence (April 2000), pp. 26-8.
33. Ibid.
34. At the Geneva UN conference, Japan announced 100 per cent cancellation of debts linked to export credits, amounting to $1.4 billion. But only the debt prior to rescheduling was to be taken into account. Since the first rescheduling dates from the middle of the 1980s, it follows that only the debt incurred before that date is taken into account. Germany, Italy, and France also announced the same conditions for debt cancellation. See Zacharie, op.cit. At the same time, the 'Japanese government has fought such [debt] relief to countries where it has a high level of loan exposure, and even threatened to yank aid programs if their borrowers proceeded with HIPC program. As a result . . . both Ghana and Laos have announced they will drop out.'
35. See F. Rosen, 'Prague fall: gearing up for the next IMF/World Bank protests', In These Times (18 September 2000), pp. 3-5.
36. F. Rosen, 'Doing battle against the debt', op. cit.
37. Witness for Peace, op. cit.
38. 'Debt update: US Congress acts', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (December 1999/January 2000), pp. 16-17.
39. L. Atarah, 'Cologne debt initiative, a tiny drop in a mighty ocean', Third World Resurgence (July 1999), p. 31.
40. Ibid.
41. Moberg, op. cit.
42. J. Harris, 'US: The politics of globalisation', Race & Class (January-March 2000), pp. 59-72.
43. 'IMF/World Bank news briefs', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (August 2000), p. 19.
44. Z. Goldsmith, 'Beware politicians bearing gifts', The Ecologist (April 2000), p. 3.
45. G. Friemoth and D. Sorensen, 'Eyewitness Cologne, 50 Year's activists at the G-8 summit', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (September 1999), p. 8.
46. Some 15,000 policemen and women were mustered from all over the country to control the demonstrators - see O. D. Marcellus, 'People's Global Action: a brief history', Race & Class (April-June 2000), p. 96.
47. J. Hanlon, 'Making sense of the Köln debt initiative', Third World Resurgence (July 1999), p. 35.
48. S. Ambrose, 'Poverty reduction and growth: a new mask for structural adjustment', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (September 2000), pp. 4, 6.
49. S. Ambrose, 'Stiglitz, maverick World Bank economist, pushed out', 50 years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (December 1999/January 2000), p. 3.
50. G. Friemoth and D. Sorensen, 'Eyewitness Cologne: 50 Years' activists at the G-8 Summit', 50 Years Is Enough: Economic Justice News (September 2000), p. 8.
51. Ambrose, op. cit.
52. See Atarah, op. cit.;
53. Hanlon, op. cit;
54. D. Hellinger, 'IMF ventures into poverty-alleviation business', NACLA (November/December 1999), pp. 49-50
55. J. Piercy, 'Structural adjustment in Tanzania', attac. Weekly newsletter-64 - Wednesday 17 January 2001. (Sand in the wheels). http://attac.org
56. 'Britain to drop debt payments of 41 states', Guardian Weekly, (7-13 December 2000), p. 1.
57. 'Unraveling the Washington Consensus: an interview with Joseph Stiglitz', Multinational Monitor (April 2000), p. 13.
58. The additional $45 billion committed for debt relief for poor countries at the G8 meeting in Cologne will result in only sixteen countries making significantly smaller debt payments, as 'a large portion of the debt forgiveness would only apply to loans that have already been written off by lenders but that were still on the books as obligations of the poor country borrowers'. See Welch, op. cit.
59. Naiman, op. cit.
60. It should be noted that several NGOs and the leaders of Jubilee 2000 US do not discuss the role of the IMF/WB and the US Treasury in imposing structural adjustment economic policies as part of debt relief, proposals currently before the US Congress, and do not demand the abolition of the WB, the IMF and the WTO. Their argument is that if a 'human face' is put on these institutions, if there is transparency, and if these institutions include leaders from underdeveloped countries in their decision making, the debt and poverty problem can be solved.
61. See M. Chossudovsky, 'The IMF and the World Bank - two of several instruments of national destruction - part 1', http;//emperor-clothes. comarticles/chuss/instru.htm 4-16-00
62. S. Ellner, 'Venezuela's foreign policy', Z Magazine (November 2000), pp. 32-6.