----- Original Message ----- From: John Hermann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: John Hermann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, 2 November 1999 6:54 PM Subject: Time to End Debt Slavery > Economic Reform Australia > ERA EMAIL NETWORK > > Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 > > Time to End Debt Slavery > By Mark Weisbrot > > It has become a truism that "there are no easy answers" to the world's most > pressing economic and social problems. The phrase is often repeated by > academics, policy wonks, and others whose occupation immerses them in the > details of real or imagined solutions. It is worth remembering that the > abolitionists who fought against American slavery right up to the Civil War > were told the same thing by those who advocated a "go slow" approach, and > were long regarded as extremists for their uncompromising moral stance. > > Today's movement against the debt slavery of the world's poorest countries > faces similar obstacles. First and foremost is the enormous, entrenched > power of the slaveholding class-- represented by the International Monetary > Fund and its controller, the United States Treasury Department. > > > As the worldwide movement for debt cancellation has grown-- including a 17 > million-signature petition presented at the G-7 meeting in June-- the > overseers have offered a series of concessions designed to minimize debt > relief while maximizing their control over the subject countries. For the > most part they have proposed to cancel only a fraction of the "phantom" > debt-- the part that everyone knows cannot be repaid. Thus there will be no > significant reduction in the amount of money that is drained annually from > most of the world's poorest countries to service their debt. > > But it's even worse than that. The latest initiatives, including those > approved at the recent IMF/World Bank meetings, leave the IMF in control of > debt relief. This is like putting Kathie Lee Gifford in charge of enforcing > international labor rights. Before qualifying for even "phantom debt" > reduction, countries will have to complete at least three years of the IMF's > "structural adjustment" programs, which have caused so much poverty around > the globe. These programs ought to carry a warning label that reads > "Caution: This medicine has been shown to cause reduced growth, higher > unemployment and poverty, and lower levels of education and public health." > > Since the IMF and the World Bank began structurally adjusting Africa in the > early 1980s, income per person has actually fallen by about 20%. In Latin > America, it has basically stagnated. If that isn't enough to indicate a > failed experiment that has gone on way too long, just look at what these > same people have done to Asia, Russia, and Brazil in just the last two > years. > > The Fund's "structural adjustment" programs have become so discredited that > it is now proposing to change the name of its "Enhanced Structural > Adjustment Facility" to the "Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility." As in > George Orwell's "Ministry of Truth" and "Ministry of Love." Debt Slavery is > Freedom. > > There are other maneuvers taking place in the US Congress. One is an attempt > by the IMF to use some of its gold reserves to replenish its newly named > Facility. Such a move would only increase the power of this already > unaccountable institution, and should be defeated. > The other is a bill, put forward by House Banking Committee Chairman Jim > Leach (R-IA), which would cancel debt owed by 42 "Heavily Indebted Poor > Countries" to the US government. This would be fine, although it's a small > fraction of these countries' debt. But the bill unfortunately follows the > G-7/IMF lead by tying debt relief to the IMF's structural adjustment. > > No one should be fooled by President Clinton's announcement that the debt to > the US government will be cancelled. For all his fine language about "the > moral and economic urgency of the issue," he has offered nothing more than > the Leach bill, and would maintain the system of debt slavery. > > The case for unconditional and immediate cancellation of the poorer > countries' debt grows more compelling each day. Most of the countries up for > relief are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 22.5 million people are infected > with the AIDS virus. Who can justify forcing Zimbabwe to pay a quarter of > its export earnings to debt service, when 26 percent of the adult population > there has HIV/AIDS? Or squeezing a similar amount from Uganda, which has the > world's largest proportion of orphans?(1.7 million, mostly due to AIDS). Or > trying to collect on the $12.3 billion tab that the former dictator Mobutu > piled up in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo)? > > The great abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass had little > patience for the gradualists in the anti-slavery movement of his day, those > would delay the inevitable at the cost of enormous human suffering. > Responding to one, he said: "If the reverend gentleman had worked on the > plantations where I have been, he would have met overseers who would have > whipped him in five minutes out of his willingness to wait for liberty." > > Mark Weisbrot is research director of the Preamble Center, in Washington, > DC. > > Name: Mark Weisbrot > E-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Preamble Center 1737 21st Street NW Washington DC 20009 > (202) 265-3263, ext.279 (offc) > > ----ooOoo---- > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. 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