Debt activists hold 'unhappy birthday' for IMF/WB

Salt shakers
May 2004

Debt activists hold 'unhappy birthday' for IMF/WB
Several hundred activists, students, and people of faith concerned about the impact of international debt on impoverished nations threw an "unhappy 60th birthday" party for the International Monetry Fund and the World Bank on April 21 in a park across from the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

The participants delivered more than 10,000 "unhappy birthday cards"—signed by citizens from 23 countries and more than 40 U.S. states—to a representative of the World Bank. The cards called on the institutions to enact full debt cancellation for impoverished nations without harmful conditions.

Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Director of the Washington office of the National Council of Churches, led the delegation of rally participants to the doors of the World Bank to deliver the cards. "We advocate for policies and funding that will help the poorest among us," said Girton-Mitchell. "Cancellation of the debt for many of these countries would have an immediate and positive impact.

"Our prayer is that that the IMF and World Bank cancel the debt and become a beacon of light for those living in the darkness caused by poverty, hunger, and lack of education."

Speakers at the event issued a clear call for 100 percent debt cancellation for impoverished nations. After eight years of its limited and conditional debt relief program, participants argued, the Heavily Indebted Poor County (HIPC) Initiative and the IMF/World Bank have failed to provide an effective end to the debt crisis facing countries of the Global South.

"The spread of the AIDS virus won't stop and wait for the IMF and World Bank to cancel the debt," said Jubilee USA Network National Coordinator Marie Clarke. "While the IMF/World Bank fiddle around with their Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), the AIDS pandemic claims 8,000 lives each day. African nations pay $15 billion each year to the IMF/World Bank and wealthy creditors instead of spending that money to fight AIDS. This tragedy cannot be allowed to continue."

Also at the event, a spokesperson for Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) stated that Waters will introduce a bill in Congress to push forward the call for 100 percent debt cancellation.

"I am planning to introduce a bill to require the IMF to cancel all of the debts owed by heavily indebted poor countries. My legislation, the Jubilee Act, will bring the biblical concepts of justice, understanding and equity to the IMF. The Jubilee Act will provide debt cancellation to all of the poor countries included in the IMF's debt relief program as well as Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa and several other poor countries that were excluded by the IMF," explained Waters in a written statement. "This year, the IMF celebrates its 60th birthday. The Jubilee Act is my birthday gift for the IMF!"

Speakers from Argentina, South Africa, and the Philippines addressed the crowd about the urgency of the debt crisis in their countries. "Sixty years of the IMF and World Bank has been sixty years of debt, death, and destruction," said Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of Jubilee South, the global network of debt and development groups from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. "We are here to call on the IMF and World Bank to cancel the debts of all South countries, put a stop to structural adjustment programs and economic conditionalities, and retire at sixty," said Nacpil, who also works with the Freedom from Debt Coalition in the Philippines.

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