This report is a guide to the policies of UK political parties ahead of the UK general election to be held on 6 May 2010. It seeks to give a guide to the policies of Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens, Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru in key areas relating to international justice: trade justice; more and better aid; making the economy work for poor people and repaying our climate debt.
Third world debt
Use the following questions to help you engage with your candidates on key global justice issues. These are based on WDM campaigns and you can use these questions whenever you are in contact with a candidate, whether you are writing a letter, at a meeting or at a hustings event.
Cleaning up the banks
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is 84 per cent publicly owned yet it continues to invest in projects that exacerbate poverty and damage the environment. If elected, will you ensure that RBS phases out its destructive investments and instead becomes a ‘Royal Bank of Sustainability’ to finance low carbon projects?
Climate debt
Over two thirds of the UK’s money for tackling climate change in developing countries is in the form of loans which will increase unjust financial debts. If elected, will you ensure that UK climate change money is given as grants not loans?
Financial transaction tax
A financial transaction tax would limit the worst excesses of the financial system, whilst raising money for aid and tackling climate change. If elected, will you ensure that...
Update from WDM ally Jubilee Debt Campaign:
Jubilee Debt Campaign has welcomed the successful passage of the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill at its second reading in Parliament today, but the charity has expressed disappointment that the Conservative Party prevented the bill from taking a further step towards becoming law, by insisting it goes through full committee stage.
All parties expressed support for the second reading of the bill, proposed by Andrew Gwynne MP and introduced by Sally Keeble MP this morning, which would effectively prevent vulture funds making huge profits out of the poorest countries in the world.
But while Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs expressed unequivocal support, Conservative Treasury spokesman David Gauke admitted to outstanding concerns and said his party would not support the measure being rushed through the House. Campaigners fear this may mean the bill does not become law before the General Election. On being pushed by Liberal Democrat MP Andrew Stunell, Mr Gauke failed to give a commitment to tackling the issue should the Conservative Party form a government.
Nick Dearden, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign said:
“We are delighted that the vultures bill attracted cross-party support, and we understand...
Vote Global (pdf format) is a development manifesto that WDM and over 100 other development organisations have signed up to. It sets out the key political commitments that are necessary for the UK to play a leading role in tackling global poverty and injustice.
The manifesto covers five areas:
1. More and better aid and debt relief
2. Tackling climate change
3. Making the global economy work for the poor
4. Good governance and addressing corruption
5. Responding to conflict situations
WDM is specifically calling on parliamentary candidates in the upcoming election to take action on climate debt, cleaning up dirty investments by bailed-out banks and the financial transaction tax.
Use the following questions to help you engage with your candidates on key global justice issues. These are based on WDM campaigns and you can use these questions whenever you are in contact with a candidate, whether you are writing a letter, at a meeting or at a hustings event.
Cleaning up the banks
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is 84 per cent publicly owned yet it continues to invest in projects that exacerbate poverty and damage the environment. If elected, will you ensure that RBS phases out its destructive investments and instead becomes a ‘Royal Bank of Sustainability’ to finance low carbon projects?
Climate debt
Over two thirds of the UK’s money for tackling climate change in developing countries is in the form of loans which will increase unjust financial debts. If elected, will you ensure that UK climate change money is given as grants not loans?
Financial transaction tax
A financial transaction tax would limit the worst excesses of the financial system, whilst raising money for aid and tackling climate change. If elected, will you ensure that...
WDM are not happy about today's Royal Bank of Scotland's annual results and bonuses announcements.
As you may know, we are campaigning for RBS to phase out its investments in mining companies like Vedanta and projects, like oil extraction from tar sands that are linked with controversial human rights violations. We are arguing that the bonuses awarded for investments that hurt the lives of ordinary people and the publically owned bank should be benefitting society in the UK and around the world."What really annoys people is what these top bankers are being paid their bonuses for", said Julian Oram, head of policy. "Is it for investing public money into job-creating small businesses, better public transport systems or a greener economy that benefits society as a whole? No. It's for trying to make a quick buck out of dirty and destructive projects like tar sands that make bankers rich but everyone else worse off.
"Until the government directs RBS and the other bailed out banks to linking bonuses to 'doing good' rather than acting with the same callous disregard to fairness, or people and the planet that they have over recent years people will continue to get riled by issue of executive pay."...
The World Development Movement reacted angrily to today's Royal Bank of Scotland's annual results and bonuses announcements.
WDM is campaigning for RBS to phase out its investments in mining companies like Vedanta and projects, like oil extraction from tar sands that are linked with controversial human rights violations. They are arguing that the bonuses awarded for investments that hurt the lives of ordinary people and the publically owned bank should be benefitting society in the UK and around the world.
Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement said:
"What really annoys people is what these top bankers are being paid their bonuses for. Is it for investing public money into job-creating small businesses, better public transport systems or a greener economy that benefits society as a whole? No. It's for trying to make a quick buck out of dirty and destructive projects like tar sands that make bankers rich but everyone else worse off.
"Until the government directs RBS and the other bailed out banks to linking bonuses to 'doing good' rather than acting with the same callous disregard to fairness, or people and the planet that they have over recent years people will continue to get riled by issue of executive pay."
...
Ahead of the 2010 UK general election, WDM policy officer Tim Jones gives a snapshot of where the parties stand on issues that affect the world’s poorest people.
WDM and over 100 other organisations have challenged the major political parties to back a development manifesto, Vote Global. So how do the main parties stack up on key global poverty issues?
Trade justice
For the past thirty years imposition of free trade across much of the developing world has hindered economic growth and increased poverty and inequality. In contrast, countries that have been able to resist free trade have managed to cut poverty and increase employment. Since 1997, the Labour government has supported the EU, WTO, IMF and World Bank pushing free trade on developing countries.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also support free trade and the current unfair round of world trade negotiations. The Green Party is distinct in calling for “fair trade not free trade” and for committing to push for reform of aggressive EU trade policies. Plaid Cymru also recognise the injustices of current international trade.
More and better aid
Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP and Plaid Cymru all support spending 0.7 per cent of UK income on aid...
Anti-coal campaigners prepare to first foot the First Minister with 42% '2020' whisky and hundreds of postcards demanding no new coalpower stations.
Applying a fresh slant to the traditional first footing gifts,
anti-coal campaigners presented the First Minister with the
traditional bread and whisky but have replaced the lump of coal with a
box of postcards from Scots across the country urging the Government
to rule out new coal power stations in Scotland.
Research commissioned earlier in the year by WDM Scotland and Friends
of the Earth Scotland showed that homes can be heated and appliances
powered now and in the future without the need for dirty coal-fired
power stations, which are major contributers to greenhouse gas
emissions.
The research, 'The Power of Scotland Renewed', shows that Scotland can
meet up to 143% of predicted electricity demand with renewables alone
by 2020. Equally, in its world leading Climate Change Act, the
Scottish Government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
by 42% by 2020; a target which would be seriously jeopardised by new
coal-fired power stations.
Juliet Swann, Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland said:
"The highlight of the year for us was the...
Earlier today, WDM held a protest outside the Department for International Development to oppose the UK’s plans for how climate finance should be administered; plans that WDM are concerned would lock Bangladesh into further poverty.
Protest outside Dfid this morning - UK symbolically locking Bangladesh in chains
The protest, which bought together different groups, including Jubilee Debt Campaign and the Bangladeshi diaspora group, European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh, was held in solidarity with campaigners in Bangladesh who were simultaneously creating a human chain outside the Bangladesh Development Forum in Dhaka, which the UK government is attending. The UK’s Department for International Development has said it wants Bangladesh to make a decision on the proposed deal, called the Multi Donor Trust Fund, during this meeting. However, the deal in its current form is being strongly resisted by Bangladeshi civil society and government because of concerns about how the money would be administered.
The Department for International...
A politically embarrassing stand off is developing as Bangladesh is currently resisting the UK's offer of £60 million of climate finance.
Bangladesh is believed to be resisting the UK's climate finance offer of £60 million due to the UK's insistence that it must be channelled through the World Bank. The UK is pressurising the Bangladeshi government into accepting the finance whilst refusing to consider other managers of the funds, such as through a Bangladeshi fund, which has greater transparency and participation by civil society.
Campaigners from the European Action Group on Climate Change Bangladesh, the World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign, this morning held a protest outside the Department for International Development on Monday to tell DfID not to force the World Bank on to Bangladesh. At the same time, campaigners in Dhaka in Bangladesh held a mass rally and formed a human chain around the donor conference where the UK has imposed a deadline on the Bangladeshi government to accept their conditions.
The UK is further insisting that the Bangladeshi government provides its own money for the fund, likely to drive the country further into debt. Later in the year, the UK will be giving further money to Bangladesh through the World Bank to...
Bankers resisting plans to cut bonuses and reform the sector at the World Economic Forum have inspired anti-poverty campaigners to renew demands for a financial transaction tax to reduce global inequality.
The World Development Movement, one of the organisations backing the tax, says the additional revenue could finance a ‘green new deal’ in rich nations while providing money for poorer countries to develop low carbon economies and cope with the impact of climate change. The tax would also increase financial stability and dampen the risks of sudden food and oil price rises by deterring reckless speculation on debt, equity and commodity markets.
Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement said:
"The financial sector has grown way too big for its boots, to the extent that the whole global economy is vulnerable to the fortunes of bankers gambling on the markets.
“It's absurd for bankers to be up in arms about regulation given the damage they’ve caused, but it's encouraging us to campaign harder. This is an industry that generates $50 trillion worth of transactions a year. Taxing just a tiny fraction of this would slow down the financial roulette wheel and generate billions of dollars in public revenue that could be of huge benefit to...
The World Development Movement has been long critical of the government's pledges for climate finance and international development aid, and has been pressing the government for more information about the small print behind the announcements of cash.
In an email exchange with WDM yesterday that has been reported in the Guardian and BBC, the Department for International Development (DfID) admitted that the £1.5 billion pledged by Gordon Brown in Copenhagen would all be siphoned from the existing aid budget meant for anti-poverty programmes, like health, education and public water provision in the developing world.
WDM is calling for climate finance to be additional to aid money from the government as compensation for the climate damage that emissions from rich countries are causing developing countries.
Tim Jones, policy officer at the World Development Movement said:“The UK government has publicly said 90 per cent of money for tackling climate change should be additional to existing aid commitments. But all of the UK’s climate change money is being diverted from international aid. The UK has a...
Like many ‘natural disasters’, the earthquake in Haiti may have had a natural cause, but what has made it such a disaster was more political and economic than tectonic.
Cheaply constructed buildings, a lack of basic services and infrastructure, and a lack of the resources to deal with the aftermath are all the result of a deep poverty which rich countries bear a huge responsibility for.
Haiti was originally a French slave colony until an inspiring uprising by the slaves themselves kicked out the French and established a free republic there in 1804. Yet in 1825, in return for international recognition, Haiti agreed to pay France ‘reparations’ for the loss of the colony and its slaves. This debt, worth $21 billion in today’s money, was not finally paid off until 1947.
Haiti was occupied by the US between the wars, and afterwards suffered decades of dictatorship by the Duvalier family. ‘Papa Doc’ and his son ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier took huge international loans, part of which they stole for themselves, and which they also used to fund their death squads and repressive state. Like many dictatorships during the Cold War, the west supported them for their anti-Communism and turned a blind eye to their abuses.
After popular protest in 1986, democracy was...
After Tuesday’s earthquake, which has left up to 50,000 people dead, WDM has joined the Jubilee Debt Campaign in calling for an urgent cancellation of all of Haiti's remaining debt.
"The poverty that already exists in Haiti will be even more devastating as a result of this emergency and it clearly requires high levels of aid to combat it. This should also come with wholesale debt cancellation and the need to need to ensure that aid is given in the form of genuine grants as opposed to traditional IMF-backed loans, which would undoubtedly worsen an already dire situation", said Julian Oram, Head of Policy at WDM.
We welcome the cancellation of two thirds ($1.2 billion) of Haiti’s debt in 2009, but condemn the fact that the country still has $641 million in debt on its books and in 2010 is projected to pay around $10million to International Financial Institutions.
We also think that the International Monetary Fund’s proposed offer of $100 million in new lending to Haiti is completely inappropriate. Even though lent at very concessional rates of interest, the proposal contradicts the IMF’s own policy recommendations that Haiti should not borrow more money because, even after debt cancellation, its potential for debt distress remains high.
...
Kate Blagojevic, used to be Press Officer
The post-Copenhagen showdown has featured politicians, NGOs and commentators like George Monbiot and Mark Lynas slogging it out over whether to blame the US or China, for the lack of progress in Copenhagen. All reminiscent of our 2007 report; Blame it on China?
Yesterday it got a little more personal when Mark Lynas, in the New Statesman, suggested that it is wrong to call for climate justice. Mark accuses the World Development Movement of saying “anything calling into question the roles of developing countries must be a plot by the rich former colonial powers”. I have trawled our website and can't remember writing that. Perhaps he is referring to the fact that we were tough on Obama;...
Press release from WDM ally Jubilee Debt Campaign
The British government was told today to take some responsibility for the debt crisis which Iceland is facing. Jubilee Debt Campaign, which works for the cancellation of unpayable and unjust ‘Third World Debt’, called on the British government to support a neutral debt arbitration system to radically reform international lending.
The group said that Iceland’s President was correct to assert that states in debt have rights that trump the rights of creditors to bleed their economies dry, adding that Iceland's crisis mirrored the even more serious plight of many developing countries.
Jubilee Debt Campaign argues that the Icesave dispute highlights the way that the international lending system tends to turn a deficit into a crisis by laying the full responsibility for debt on the debtor. Together with the absence of insolvency procedures for sovereign states, this means that indebted countries have no protection from unpayable or unjust debts and can be forced to repay irresponsible loans, at high rates of interest, even if basic services to its citizens are neglected. In developing countries this has devastating effects.
...
Tim Jones, used to be policy officer
From Copenhagen
Last night I had my first decent sleep since Sunday. Having been stuck in the Bella Centre for most of the week, yesterday was the first time I had been out in daylight since last Monday.
I am one of the lucky ones; when final negotiations were happening on Saturday morning, Ed Miliband probably hadn't slept since Wednesday night.
It was into this tiredness that President Obama cast his judgement on the fate of millions of people. Late on Friday, he announced to the world's media that a consensus deal had been struck. With reports of a 'meaningful' deal on the front pages of a major news website, the propoganda war had begun.
But it soon became apparent that the President had lied to the world. The 'deal' was between just four countries . The EU couldn't decide what it thought. Most developing countries were in complete confusion about what was happening.
I joined queues of people at photocopiers in the Bella Centre trying to get their hands on 'the deal'. I thought I was out of the loop, until I saw many country negotiators behind me trying to find out what had been agreed in their name.
Last week we...
The UK based, anti poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement branded the Copenhagen talks as a ‘shameful and monumental failure.’
Tim Jones, climate policy officer at the World Development Movement said:
“This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish, culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that has condemned millions of people around the world to untold suffering. The leaders of rich countries have refused to lead. They have been captured by business interests at a time when people need leaders to put justice first."
“Rich countries have failed the poorest people in the world and history will judge them harshly. They have failed to offer the emissions cuts that science and justice requires. To say that this ‘deal’ is in any way historic or meaningful is to completely misrepresent the fact that this ‘deal’ is meaningless."
President Obama has presented a ‘deal’ in the form of a Copenhagen Accord. However, it was drafted with participation from just a small number of countries, the majority of them rich. Several developing countries have refused to sign, and it has not been adopted as a UN agreement.
"Countries have been right to resist the signing of the Accord. It would be better to...
Welcome to the January 2010 issue of Think Global and take our urgent action on climate finance in Bangladesh.
We are campaigning in solidarity with the Equity and Justice Working group in Bangladesh and are calling on the UK government to rethink money for climate change adaptation going through the World Bank. In addition we are demanding that this money is disbursed as grants, rather than as loans which will further add to Bangladesh's debt burden.
Download the template letter below and write to Douglas Alexander.
The issue of climate finance is a Copenhagen deal breaker for developing countries, and much has been made by Gordon Brown and yesterday, Hillary Clinton, on the need for climate finance.
Both have put forward figures to 'help' developing countries cope with the impact of climate change. But the World Development Movement’s analysis shows that the facts behind the figures add ‘insult to injury' for developing countries. Of the $100 billion 'announced' yesterday by Hillary Clinton, half or more would be financed by carbon trading and developing countries.
Tim Jones, climate policy expert at the World Development Movement said:
“The small print behind the head line grabbing figures adds insult to injury for developing countries. Money that is being announced here is diverted from existing aid budgets; given as loans not aid; and is being financed through a flaw ridden offset scheme. What we need to see is developed countries admitting their historic responsibility for the problem that has brought us all here and offer compensation to developing countries, not bribery, bullying and belligerence.”
The World Development Movement’s analysis reveals that:
Short term finance (2010-2012)
The EU and US are calling for $...
Yesterday afternoon the Guardian published a comment piece by WDM's policy officer Tim Jones and Nick Dearden from Jubilee Debt Campaign about what's going on in Copenhagen and the repression of activists outside who are demanding climate justice. A letter by a wider group of organisations including us was also published in the print newspaper today.
Copenhagen: the sound of silence
Denmark's reputation is being destroyed by police action outside the summit and the gagging of NGOs and poor nations inside
Nick Dearden and Tim Jones
The problem the Danish government faces gets bigger by the hour. Clearly the government is desperate for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to be seen as a success, regardless of whether the deal done is capable of slowing down climate change in a just way. But it is faced with an ever-swelling army of critics who believe this issue is too important for a stitched-up compromise, negotiated late at night between corporate lobbyists and rich-country governments in conference hotel rooms.
Read the full article on the Guardian's Comment is Free
Letter: Protest curtailed in Copenhagen
...
World Development Movement response to Prime Minister speech
Commenting on the speech by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at COP15, World Development Movement Policy Officer Tim Jones said:
“Gordon Brown was strong on rhetoric but weak on substance. The Prime Minister called for the strongest level of ambition, yet did not increase the UK’s current feeble target for reducing its own emissions. A call for money was made, but the Prime Minister failed to say the UK is giving just £500 million a year, much of which was first announced in 2007. Almost all of this is loans, further increasing the unjust debts of developing countries.
“Talks in Copenhagen are stalled because rich countries are failing to make serious commitments to reduce emissions. Offers of money are small amounts to try and secure an unjust deal, rather than the real reparations needed for countries affected by climate change. The Prime Minister failed to play his part in unblocking these talks.”
ENDS
Tim Jones is inside the Bella Centre and can be contacted on +44 7817 6281962
Just back from Copenhagen
As you walk out of the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, where the main talks are taking place, you’ll find yourself accosted by an absurd small group of protestors accusing the British government of genocide for believing in climate change, and pushing a political agreement on the rest of the world. I didn’t take their leaflet, as doing so would be giving them a level of legitimacy they certainly don’t deserve. No climate denier does, but this one was extreme.
But its not the extremists I’m worried about – it’s the leaders of countries, like ours, that are failing to take bold action that really will make a difference. Safely back home, and warmly wrapped in a duvet this morning against the bitter outside cold, I listened to the Bolivian representative on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Angélica Navarro, remind us of the urgency of the situation. While the developed world waxes and wanes over a two degree warming target (still considered overly ambitious by the richest countries) she stated that two degrees in the global north, is really four degrees in Africa and Latin America. Melting glaciers in Bolivia are already impacting people’s very means of survival. And to make matters worse, taking measures to limit us to two degrees still only...
Tim Jones, used to be policy officer, writes from Copenhagen
On Monday our climate debt invoice was confiscated inside the negotiations for being ‘too political’. This seemed odd; a politics Geiger counter would explode if it were in the Danish capital. We concluded it was less a case of ‘too political’ than too ‘the wrong kind of political’.
To be more in tune with those in power, we decided to get on message on Tuesday. As negotiators moved from room to room we offered them some World Development Movement carbon cake.
Our ‘carbon cake’ could only be eaten by those who had already consumed too much; rich countries. Meanwhile delegates from developing countries were turned away.
Kirsty’s voice echoed through the halls: “Roll up roll up, get your carbon cake here. The cake for those who’ve already had too much.” Delegates from North America and Europe scoffed themselves on our high-fat, high-sugar Danish treats. When they looked embarrassed at their good fortune we reassured them: “Don’t worry about the shame, give someone else the blame.”
Those from developing countries had a look of bafflement and anger when we refused to let them share in the cake treats. Telling them “If you don’t get justice inside the talks, you don’t get it outside the...
Rich countries blocking talks
Various sources are reporting that developing countries are blocking negotiations in Copenhagen. This is not true. The first task for negotiations in Copenhagen was for rich countries to make new commitments under the Kyoto protocol for reducing emissions. They are not doing so, they are killing the talks. We need you to take action now. Email Gordon Brown by clicking here and selecting ‘Contact the Prime Minister’. Copy and paste the bullet points below or write in your own words.
As one African negotiator has said: “We cannot, we can never accept the killing of the Kyoto protocol. It will mean the killing of Africa."
So far the EU has offered to cut its own emissions by just 10 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, and has hinted it wants Kyoto ended. Japan has refused to make any commitments under Kyoto. Australia and New Zealand are refusing to make any commitments until they get further loopholes involving tree planting. The US still refuses to join Kyoto, and its emission reduction offer allows emissions to be higher in 2020 than 1990.
At the same time, civil society is being shut out of the talks. Thousands are being denied access...
On Monday, WDM joined climate debt campaigners from across the world to call for the rich world to repay its climate debt. People from Nepal, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina, Ecuador and Nigeria gathered outside the Bella Centre, where the UN talks are being hosted. WDM South-west London and South Lakes also joined in.
The debt must be repaid in a way that doesn’t reinforce existing inequality, or go through undemocratic organisations like the World Bank. Climate debt is not only about reparations for the damage already done, but also about massive cuts in emissions, and sharing solutions instead of creating new markets of out the atmosphere. As one person said “The World Bank have already done too much wrong to the south, how can we trust them?”
The energy was amazing, “Pay up pay up pay up, pay up the climate debt” the crowd chanted, louder and louder, as the snow fell around Jubilee South’s giant masks that were representing the EU and the US, surrounded by a multitude of flags...
Tim Jones, former WDM policy officer, writes from Copenhagen
Along the streets of Copenhagen there are happily parked bikes with no locks. With my locked bike stolen a few weeks ago, I am jealous of the bike safety which permeates the Danish capital.
The main news in Copenhagen is from Brussels. Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy are making the headlines with ‘€2.4 billion [£1.5 billion] a year to help poor countries tackle climate change’.
If you read...
Kirsty Wright, WDM climate justice campaigner, writes from Copenhagen
Day three of the official negotiations and things are starting to heat up. The leaking of the Danish text yesterday – which exposes the paltry deal that rich countries were hoping to put on the table – has really shifted the tone in Copenhagen. Along with the outrage, there’s also some relief that, finally, the insulting deal that the rich countries are trying to impose on the negotiations has been exposed. To many in Copenhagen, particularly campaigners from the south who’ve spent years battling rich country governments through the WTO, it’s really no surprise at all. Outrage yes, surprise, no.
By signing up to the framework of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, the rich countries have in theory accepted their historical responsibility, agreeing to lead emissions reductions, to ensure technology transfer and to provide adequate finance for the irreversible damage that is already destroying people’s lives. Of course, what's happening is far from this. Rich country governments are not only completely shirking on their...
Kirsty Wright, WDM climate justice campaigner, writes from Copenhagen.
Last night I went to the first briefing of Climate Justice Now, a network of campaigners mainly from the global south who are focusing on a just outcome on climate change. The discussion focused on sharing information from around the world on key climate justice issues within the negotiations: climate debt, the World Bank, forests, carbon trading and rich country emission levels.
Having long campaigned for trade justice, the kinds of dirty tactics used by rich governments at international negotiation to twist the arms of the global south shouldn’t come as any surprise, but I still found myself outraged to hear some of the reports from around the world.
Developing countries are facing considerable pressure from rich countries. There’s a lot of confusion around the process, and in spite of requests for clarity, the secretariat are not providing which is massively frustrating for the G77, which have nowhere near the negotiation capacity of rich countries. Rich countries are playing at politics of divide and rule, playing countries off against each other. Recently, the UK stated that rich countries...
We left Paris for Lille on Sunday morning, having been hosted by the Confederation Paysanne overnight. No sooner had we set off on the bus than Olivier, who has been one of the main organisers of the caravan, announced that we had an emergency on our hands...
One of the climate caravan participants, José Goyes, is part of a movement in Colombia called the Resguardo de Honduras Cauca. He lives in a fertile area in the south of the country, which is rich in vegetation, but also in mineral resources such as gold. This area has recently become the sight of a bitter struggle by the indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on this land, and the multinational corporations who are intent on exploiting it, apparently at any cost.
As I write, Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.
Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo...
Kirsty Wright, WDM’s climate campaigner reports back on a tour around G77 embassies on her way to Copenhagen.
I write this as the train is pulling out of Cologne station. I’m on route to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. It’s late, and I’m tired, filled with anticipation about what’s to come, and if I’m honest, also exhausted and slightly overwhelmed by the past few weeks.
In the run up to Copenhagen WDM have been working with the Jubilee Debt Campaign and activists all around the UK to make sure the government hears our demand for climate justice. In the process of becoming wealthy through a high carbon development model, the UK along with the rest of the rich world has built up an historic responsibility for causing climate change, and has left little space for the rest of the world to develop in the same way. This means we now owe a massive climate debt to the rest of the world. Over the past few weeks, thousands of people have joined us in sending climate debt invoices to Gordon Brown, along with messages of support to the G77 countries (a group of 130 developing countries negotiating together for a fair outcome in the talks). Yesterday, we delivered these messages.
...
Tim Jones
In Trinidad on Friday Gordon Brown got some headline coverage for his latest announcement of billions of dollars for developing countries to tackle climate change.
The prime minister became as expert as a derivatives trader in repackaging, reselling and reannouncing money when he was chancellor. Unfortunately the latest ‘news’ was no exception.
Mr Brown said rich countries should be creating a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’ worth $10 billion (£6 billion) to help developing countries adapt to climate change and develop in a low carbon way from 2010 to 2012. Let’s not get hung up on that amount as he wasn’t actually saying the UK would write a cheque.
What Gordon Brown did say was that “the UK Government would contribute £800 million in total over three years, which has already been budgeted for”. In fact it was budgeted for in the budget in 2007. The prime minister should know; he was chancellor at the time.
The same £800 million has been reannounced so many times since it’s enough to make you dizzy.
The money cannot go into a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’, because all of it has already been pledged to the World Bank. Some cheques have already been sent, and the final ones are due in April.
The use of the World Bank for climate...
A year ago, the British public became the majority shareholder in the Royal Bank of Scotland and to make this inauspicious anniversary, this weekend 40 leading figures including environmental and anti poverty campaigners, faith groups, trade unions, academia, MPs and the author Iain Banks have written to Alistair Darling to call on him to transform RBS into a Royal Bank of Sustainability.
The group have asked the Treasury to ensure that it and other publicly-backed banks help pay for Britain's transition from a high-carbon economy with rising unemployment to a low carbon-society that provides millions of green jobs and better public services.
In the strongly worded letter, the group accused the Treasury of failing to stop taxpayers' money being used by RBS to finance climate change and human rights abuses that spans the globe from Wales to India to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The World Development Movement, People & Planet and PLATFORM have commissioned a report that sets out the business case for transforming the bank into the Royal Bank of Sustainability. The report argues that UKFI, the company set up to manage the government's shares in the bailed-out banks, should take an 'active...
Welcome to the December issue of Think Global. This month we give you updates on our campaign plans for 2010; alongside the latest developments on new coal, more on our climate debt campaign, and information about what's going on in the world of European trade.
Over the next month, WDM staff will be travelling both to Geneva to stand in solidarity with those protesting against the WTO, and to Copenhagen to demand a just deal for the world's poorest people at the crucial climate talks. Keep an eye on our website for up to the minute blogs from both these conventions.
We've had a twitter equivalent of STOP PRESS - apparently Ed Miliband definitely doesn't think it's serious to say 'UK's credibility at Copehnahgen will be shattered by his new coal plant plans.
Ed Miliband is of course at pains to say that we have the world's most environmentally stringent policy, so of course our credibility at Copenhagen will remain intact, pretty much what ever we do. But we, and many others, disagree strongly with that. We have got climate legislation, yes, but unfortunately within the Climate Act, there are loopholes the size of several coal power stations. And that's where our credibility will fall.
The government’s own committee on climate change has said: “there can be no role for conventional coal generation in the UK beyond the early 2020s”. But Ed Miliband’s statement yesterday allows hundreds of megawatts of new conventional coal to be built, and does nothing to ensure old conventional coal plants shut down in the early 2020s.
In our view, and the view of campaigners across the globe, it's just not serious enough to say we've got a tough climate law but we're...
Tim Jones
It's easy to deride twitter as superficial nonsense; yet its reach is staggering and important. WDM uses twitter to alert people to our latest reports, actions and titbits of gossip. But for anyone who saw the last episode of 'The thick of it', you will have seen that what starts in a tweeting tea cup can become much more.
We were pleased to see that the good people of One Climate had retweeted our email to Ed Miliband. The email expresses our disappointment that yesterday he missed the opportunity to rule out new coal and is urging him not to allow unproven carbon capture technology be used as a fig leaf to let in new coal power stations.
Our interested sharpened when we saw that Mr. Miliband himself (or DECC's Head of Twitter) has tweeted and responded saying that the reason he hadn't responded to our emails is because:
We set out most environmentally stringent coal policy of any country in world yesterday. Value serious...
In response to Ed Miliband's energy statement to parliament today, the World Development Movement reacted with disappointment and argued that the UK's credibility at Copenhagen has been 'shattered'.
Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:
"Ed Miliband today has shattered the UK's credibility at the Copenhagen summit by going ahead with disastrous plans for new coal. His decision to allow two new dirty coal power stations to be built will see increasing emissions long into the future. He has acknowledged that carbon capture technology may not work, but nonetheless hasn't introduced a safety net to protect the climate if this unproven technology fails.
"Furthermore, he's done nothing to shut down old coal plants which can continue to pollute for decades to come. This policy flies in the face of recommendations from the government's own climate advisors.
"This will continue to increase our climate debt to the world's poorest people. And in turn, this will lock in greater inequality and injustice faced by people, like those in the Philippines or El Salvador who are currently suffering from climate-change related weather disasters, such as flooding and typhoons."
The World Development Movement condemns rich countries at the Barcelona climate negotiations that ended today for ‘killing Kyoto and Copenhagen’.
The anti-poverty campaigners believe that rich countries are talking down the possibility of legally binding deal at Copenhagen, and at the same time are refusing to make the emissions cuts already agreed as part of the Kyoto protocol. They say that rich countries are taking the uncertainty over the Copenhagen deal as a cynical opportunity to abolish the Kyoto protocol.
Tim Jones, climate policy officer at the World Development Movement said: “The fact that rich countries are trying to wriggle out of their emissions reductions targets under the Kyoto agreement and have essentially quashed any hope for a legally binding and fair deal at Copenhagen is absolutely disgraceful.
"It looks as though they are trying to kill Kyoto and Copenhagen deals. Developing countries are absolutely right to be incredibly angry. Developed countries that have caused climate change are trying to push the burden of tackling and coping with it onto poorer countries. This is unbelievably immoral.
“The extent of the rich world’s climate debt to developing nations is staggering. And if rich countries continue to ignore and...
The UK government comes under fire today in a new report which reveals that the current climate finance proposals, likely to dominate the weekend’s G20 talks, are likely to increase third world debt, and will be 'grossly inadequate' to tackle the scale of the problem.
The report by anti-poverty groups the World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign calculates that the UK alone owes a 'climate debt' to developing countries of over £17 billion each year for its contribution to climate change – an amount that is significantly more than that pledged so far.
They issued a stark warning that the issue of climate debt will be a 'Copenhagen deal-breaker' for developing countries, and the hope of getting a fair deal hangs in the balance.
The report, 'The Climate Debt Crisis', heavily criticises the UK's current policy of channelling its 'climate aid' through the World Bank, and of promoting the World Bank as the main hub of climate finance. It condemns the World Bank for distributing climate finance as loans, not aid, and for allowing finance to be used for new coal power stations, not low carbon energy investment. The campaigners are...
The Climate Debt Crisis marks a major step in efforts to draw the links between the overuse of the world’s resources, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, and the unjust and economically harmful financial debt foisted upon the world’s poorest countries.
The report explains the concept of ‘climate debt’, and explores how redressing the balance between international ‘debtors’ and ‘creditors’ is an essential prerequisite for effective global action to combat both climate change and poverty. It demonstrates why current attempts to deal with global inequalities in emissions through carbon trading and offsetting are fatally flawed, and sets out concrete proposals to finance climate debt repayments.
This December 7-18 negotiations will take place in Copenhagen in an attempt to reach an international agreement to tackle climate change.
The World Development Movement, along with social movements and governments from the global south, has been calling for the UK and the rest of the rich world to repay its ‘climate debt’ at Copenhagen – the money the rich world owes to the world’s poorest people for causing climate change.
The World Development Movement will be in Copenhagen for the duration of the summit keeping an eye on the negotiations and taking part in events outside the conference centre. We’ll be blogging on this website to keep you updated.
On the 5th December we’ll also be at The Wave in London and Glasgow where tens of thousands of people will demonstrate their support for a safe climate future for all.
Repaying our climate debt at Copenhagen
The UK has grown rich on the back of burning fossil fuels, which has driven us to the point of climate catastrophe. The global south should not have to pay the price of a crisis it didn’t create.
However, rather than...
Late last night, EON confirmed that they had shelved plans for the controversial Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent. The news of the victory for the 'Stop Kingsnorth' campaigners was received by text at a coal event in Rochester hosted jointly by the World Development Movement and the local campaigning group, Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway, who have been working closely for nearly two years.
Kirsty Wright, climate campaigner at the World Development Movement said:"This is an huge victory for campaigners in Kent, across the UK and most of all for the world’s poorest people, whose lives would have been devastated by the proposed power station’s contribution to climate change. The new power station would have emitted more CO2than Tanzania, and could have caused 20,000 climate refugees and meant that 100, 000 more people losing their dry water season supply.
"It's not yet clear what the government's official reaction to this news will be, but UK's already massive climate debt to the developing world means that the UK must radically reduce its carbon emissions now. The UK government must rule out new coal in the UK straight away, ahead of crucial international talks at Copenhagen. We can’t rely on energy companies to do it because of concern about profits in the...
Late last night, EON confirmed that they had shelved plans for the controversial Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent. The news of the victory spread like wild fire, and the 'Stop Kingsnorth' campaigners received it via text at a coal debate in Rochester, hosted jointly by the World Development Movement and the local campaigning group, KingsnorthClimate Action Medway, who have been working closely for nearly two years.
The official line from E.ON was that the delay is as a result of the recession. But we have been arguing all along that we just don't need new coal power stations in the UK. The recession excuse aside, meeting renewable energy and energy efficiency targets must mean that the 'the lights will go off' rhetoric from E.ON and the government has always been nothing more than a public relations exercise to sell coal power to the public.
We have been campaigning to Stop Kingsnorth because the new power station would have emitted more CO2 than Tanzania, and could have caused 20,000 people to become homeless and meant that 100, 000 more people lost their dry water season supply...
Welcome to the October issue of Think Global. This month's newsletter contains a round-up of coal related activities over the past month, plus information about our work focusing on climate debt (including details of the climate justice speaker tour in November) and the latest on MEP lobbying around trade.
November also looks set to be a busy month stunt wise; we are encouraging our groups to hold both trade and climate justice and so the newsletter contains info for you to plan ahead.
We have produced a survey for our individual activists (which can be completed online via Survey Monkey - you will find the link below). We would be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete this, it will be very useful to us in improving our communications with activists, and the way in which we develop the WTO network.
Activist survey link
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PC3oE3pAY11tmPWliCsOJQ_3d_3d
At the conclusion of the G20 summit, world leaders heralded the birth of a new economic system. In reality, their plans were designed to prop up an international regime still grossly skewed towards their own economic clout and historical power.
Proposed reforms to the IMF will do little to change the balance of power in favour of the global south. Currently, twelve wealthy countries – out of 186 members – hold over half of the votes. As even Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF recognised, other countries “don’t trust it because it’s US and West Europe-dominated. That’s not fair.” However, the G20 called for as little as five per cent of votes to be transferred to emerging economies. Such a move is a minimal concession to shifting economic realities, let alone democratic global governance.
The IMF has been accorded a prominent role in the handling of the financial crisis. In April, the G20 decided to increase the Fund’s lending capacity by 50 per cent to $750 billion, of which $100 billion was to go to developing countries. Then at the latest summit, it was agreed that the IMF would oversee compliance with objectives set by G20 members each year to achieve a ‘balanced’ global economy. This is a sticking plaster to deal with the devastation of...
This year’s Camp for Climate Action pitched up their tents on Blackheath in London yesterday. There are around 1,000 people there already, with more expected as the weekend gets closer. Along with the workshops and demonstrations of sustainable living, there will also be non-violent direct action during the week, and some climate campers have kicked this off already with an action-cum-street theatre outside the Climate Exchange on Bishopsgate.
One of the key reasons for bringing the Climate Camp to London this year is to challenge the role of the City in creating the climate crisis. The fact that our society is geared towards endless economic growth has resulted in a headlong rush towards global warming. WDM has long argued that redistribution to tackle inequality is the key to ending poverty, rather than unsustainable growth which threatens the planet and fails to ‘lift up the poor’.
Moreover, the obsession with the free market, which has dominated official global politics for the last 30 years, means that politicians are looking to a ‘market mechanism’, carbon...
The World Development Movement is part of the Climate Justice Now! network, which is a southern-led coalition of around 150 organisations and movements campaigning for a globally just and effective solution to the climate crisis.
Climate Justice Now! principles
Communities in the global south as well as low-income communities in the industrialised north have borne the toxic burden of this fossil fuel extraction, transportation and production. Now these communities are facing the worst impacts of climate change - from food shortages to the inundation of whole island nations.
Inside the global climate negotiations, rich industrialised countries have put unjustifiable pressure on southern governments to commit to emissions reductions. At the same time, they have refused to live up to their own legal and moral obligations to radically cut emissions and support developing countries' efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.
Climate Justice Now! will work to expose the false solutions to the climate crisis promoted by these...
Even before the banking collapse, the world’s poor were suffering from a global economic system that produced rising hunger, inequality and the threat of climate chaos. Led by rich countries and powerful institutions such as World Bank and IMF, the world has followed an unjust and unsustainable financial model fuelled by ever-increasing financial debt and a global environmental overdraft.
Now that the bubble has burst, people around the world are losing their jobs, homes and livelihoods. Predictably though, it is the people living in some of the world’s poorest countries who have been hit the hardest – despite being the least to blame for causing the crisis.
The world’s poor are feeling the impact of the financial crisis in four main ways:
- First, as banks stop lending, investment flows into emerging economies have evaporated, leaving governments short of funds and local enterprises lacking vital capital. Many banks in developing countries have been exposed to the same toxic debts as our own banks too.
- Second, as the rich countries plunge into recession, demand for goods from the South has plummeted, leading to surging unemployment in countries that have geared their economies around exporting to Europe and North America. The IMF has warned that...
The World Development Movement is disappointed that a UN summit set up to discuss ‘profound reform’ of the global economic system has delivered ‘more of the same' because some rich countries rubbished more progressive ideas.
The World Development Movement's policy officer, Vicky Cann said:
"The upshot of this summit is that it has delivered more of the same. But the same isn't good enough. Rich countries including the UK have rubbished some of the progressive ideas put forward by leading experts before this conference, which could genuinely have delivered profound reform of the economic system. As a result, such proposals are nowhere to be seen. This simply demonstrates again rich countries’ determination to maintain the political and economic status quo.
"Most concerning is the summit's faith that free trade will deliver a route out of the crisis, when the evidence shows that free trade and deregulated markets have been one of the most important causes of the current crisis.
"The proposals for reform of the IMF, World Bank and WTO are too weak. These institutions reinforce the elitist, outdated power relations between rich and poor countries and their policy prescriptions over the past twenty years have proved disastrous for...
Campaigners today criticised Gordon Brown for refusing to send a cabinet minister to the United Nations summit on the economic crisis (1), but personally attending the 'outdated and elitist' G8 meeting in July.
Jubilee Debt Campaign, the World Development Movement and War on Want argue that as the vast majority of the world’s countries are not invited to the G20 or G8 meetings, the UN summit is vital in enabling those least responsible for the crisis to make fair and effective decisions on the future of the world economy.
A commission, chaired by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, has already devised a series of radical recommendations for global economic reform, but the UK and other western governments have been trying to water down proposals, including threats of boycott and public rubbishing of the summit. There are signs that the UK has been putting pressure on developing countries to downgrade their own support for the summit. UN diplomats have revealed that British government officials have been visiting developing country capitals in order to "persuade" them not to send high ranking officials to the UN conference.
Nick Dearden from Jubilee Debt Campaign said:
“If we’re ever going to see a more just economy, the Prime Minister and...
The World Development Movement has an honourable and proud record in leading the way - fighting for debt relief and the reduction of poverty around the world
Gordon Brown September 1998.
Something criminal is being done to the world's poorest countries. The World Development Movement's (WDM) debt campaign revealed evidence that leaders of rich countries collude to give developing countries an unfair deal. They force policies such as trade liberalisation, investment deregulation and privatisation onto the poor, in return for minuscule debt relief.
The debt campaign called for:
- an end to the unjust International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank economic conditions attached to debt relief
- the cancellation of all poor country debt under a fair, transparent and democratic process for obtaining debt relief
WDM debt campaign successes:
WDM has campaigned on debt for over 20 years. After Jubilee 2000 closed, most other agencies stopped debt campaigning. WDM however, decided more could be achieved, and so we became the most active group working on debt both individually and...
Today, UK based anti poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement revealed that over 30 organisations from the developing world have written to Ed Miliband to demand that he bans new coal power, and scraps the controversial plan for a new coal power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.
Murray Benham, head of campaigns at the World Development Movement said:
“Those on the receiving end of the UK’s carbon emissions are appalled at the prospect of new coal power stations being built in the UK. Any international credibility the UK has for putting climate change targets into law will be shot to pieces by another decision in favour of a carbon emitting monster. The World Development Movement has calculated that a new power station at Kingsnorth would by itself create 30,000 climate refugees across the world. Campaigners from the developing world are clear that this is unjust, and Ed Miliband cannot allow it to happen.”
Ricardo Navarro, campaigner from El Salvador said:
“The UK building coal power stations is like eating a slap-up meal and handing the bill to the world’s poor.”
The letter to Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has been signed by 34 influential organisations based in the...
A huge new platform of unions, development agencies, faith and environmental groups plans to tell world leaders attending the G20 summit in April that only just, fair and sustainable policies can lead the world out of recession.
The alliance, which includes the TUC, Oxfam, ActionAid, Friends of the Earth and CAFOD, is calling on people to join a major demonstration for jobs, justice and climate in London on Saturday 28 March, five days before the summit.
Under the banner "Put People First – March for Jobs, Justice and Climate", the groups will demand decent jobs and public services for all, an end to global poverty and inequality, and a green economy.
The march will assemble on the Embankment en route to Hyde Park for a rally to be addressed by speakers and celebrities from the UK and around the world.
The organisations backing "Put People First" say: "Recession must not be an excuse for putting off action for global justice or to stop climate chaos. The only sustainable way to rebuild the global economy is to create a fair distribution of wealth that provides decent jobs and public services for all, ends global inequality and builds a low carbon future."
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
"People are angry at the...
The world has changed. The International Monetary Fund (IMF, also referred to as the Fund) and World Bank (also referred to as the Bank) have not changed enough. There seems no end in sight to the cycle of debt, and the free market policies imposed on poor countries continue, albeit with new names. Increasingly obvious is the need not just for debt write-offs and changes to Bank and Fund conditionality but for a more fundamental change to the role, remit and functioning of the international financial institutions (IFIs). This report is WDM’s contribution to an ongoing debate over what kind of global institutions we need in order to improve everyone’s quality of life in a highly interconnected world. We argue that, in their current forms, the World Bank and IMF are part of the problem rather than part of the solution and need a radical overhaul.
Where were you in July 2005?
Whether you sent a postcard, lobbied your MP, joined the march in Edinburgh or sat at home and watched a pop concert, it was hard not to know that 8 of the World’s most powerful leaders were meeting in Gleneagles and the public was demanding action on poverty. And the Group of 8 – Russia, USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the UK – did respond. But was the response adequate and have these governments lived up to their promises?
The Make Poverty History (MPH) Campaign set a range of challenges to the G8 summit in Gleneagles on aid, debt and trade. Critically, the campaign was not confined to asking simply for more aid money to help the world’s poor but was challenging the economic agenda that keeps people poor; the free market and free trade policies that have crippled developing countries across the world.
What follows is an analysis of G8 commitments on the main MPH demands and a brief assessment of what has happened since. The conclusion we reach is that while the G8 summit produced a useful step on debt cancellation and small steps on aid, not only are these inadequate but also no action has been taken to change the economic policies that will undermine this aid provision in the long term.
In recent years the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank
have adopted new ways of working and new rhetoric on ‘country
ownership’ and ‘participation’. At the start of the 1980s, the two
institutions began to make their loans and aid conditional on
implementing ‘structural adjustment’ policies. The set of structural
adjustment conditions, commonly referred to as the ‘Washington
Consensus’, have been widely criticised both for undermining national
political processes and causing widespread social and economic
damage.
In response to such criticism, the Bank and Fund have adopted new
ways of working and new rhetoric on ‘country ownership’ of policies and
‘participation’ in the development process. The centrepieces of this
supposedly new approach are Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
(PRSPs); medium-term development plans which poor countries are now
required to produce in order to receive aid, loans and debt relief. PRSPs
are meant to be developed within a country through a participative
process, thereby meaning that the policies in the PRSP are ‘owned’ by
the country.
This briefing investigates how far PRSPs have really departed from
structural adjustment policies pushed by the Bank and Fund, and...
Despite the disadvantage of being land-locked, Zambia was once one of
the wealthiest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This began to change in
the early 1970s. After the oil crisis (increasing the price of imports) and
relative commodity price collapse (reducing the revenue from exports),
Zambia had to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World
Bank for assistance. So began some thirty years of Bank and Fund
intervention in the Zambian economy. In return for loans, Zambia was
required to implement Bank and Fund endorsed economic policies over
three decades. Unfortunately, this period is a sad story of increasing debt,
economic stagnation or collapse, and social crisis.
As a result of the oil crisis induced interest rate hike in the 1980s, inappropriate lending, conflict, corruption and unfair trading conditions, developing countries have been unable to pay off the loans they were encouraged to take on in the 1970s and have become increasingly indebted. These countries are still paying millions of pounds back to the West in interest payments each year. For example, the forty-one poorest, most indebted countries owe some US$213 billion. This is money that could have been spent on education, health care or development in the indebted poor countries, helping to tackle their high levels of illiteracy, mortality and poverty.
The World Development Movement (WDM), and its network of supporters and local groups, has been campaigning on debt for the last 16 years. In the run up to the new millennium, WDM joined with many other campaigners, to form the Jubilee 2000 campaign. Jubilee 2000 proclaimed that there should be a debt free start to the new millennium and succeeded in putting debt cancellation at the top of the international political agenda. WDM is now working with its successors in the UK, the Jubilee Debt Campaign, to keep up the pressure.
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