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“Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.”
Nehemiah 10:31
In the late 1990s, a broad network of people of faith and conscience came together under the banner of Jubilee 2000, challenging policy makers to address the international debt crisis. This mobilization brought the issue of debt to the world’s attention, but it did not end the debt crisis.
Seven years after the beginning of the new millennium, we live in a world that remains seriously out of balance. Seven years after the first Jubilee debt campaign, the global gap between rich and poor continues to expand. In 2007, the world will reach the halfway point to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — global commitments that would cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. Despite these commitments, we are nowhere near meeting the goals.
Some of the money needed to meet the MDGs can be generated from aid, but new infusions of aid cannot be effective until the drain of debt payments is stopped and the burden of structural adjustment policy conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank is lifted.
Pouring more aid into impoverished countries without debt cancellation and an end to harmful policy conditions is like trying to fill a bathtub with the drain open.
Inspired by the Jubilee vision of liberation and fullness of life for all, people of faith and conscience around the world are calling their political leaders to observe a Sabbath Year in 2007, seven years after Jubilee 2000.
Debt Cancellation FAST
The central event of the 2007 Sabbath Year will be a worldwide 40 day Rolling Fast calling for debt cancellation and an end to global poverty. The fast will take place from September 6 to October 15. In the United States, the Rolling Fast will be organized in tandem with a public ministry of prayer and fasting led by the Rev. David Duncombe in support of the debt cancellation that is necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
The Rev. Duncombe’s ministry will involve an open-ended fast, beginning on September 6, 2007. As he fasts, Rev. Duncombe will visit House and Senate offices key to the passage of debt cancellation legislation, talking specifically to the office staff and to the office holder whenever possible about how their own religious faith and spiritual practices relate to the objectives of debt cancellation and an end to global poverty and hunger.
Jubilee supporters are welcome to join with Rev. Duncombe in Washington, D.C. for part or all of the 40-day fast, but they can also offer support in their communities by committing to participate in a nationwide Rolling Fast for debt cancellation and an end to global poverty.
Individuals and local groups can participate in this Rolling Fast by publicly committing to fast for a day or more and on the same day to contact or meet with their Member of Congress, asking the congressperson to support the JUBILEE Act as well as just trade and poverty-focused development assistance to fight global poverty.
To register as a participant in the Rolling Fast, visit the Jubilee USA’s Rolling Fast website at www.canceldebtfast.org. The website will launch in early March 2007.
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:6
From the hunger strikes employed by suffragettes and activists for civil rights in the United States, South Africa and England to Mahatma Gandhi’s fasts as a leader in the struggle to end British colonialism to the fasts employed by the peace movement in opposition to repression in Latin America and war in Iraq, fasting has long joined people of many religious traditions with the resolutely secular in a powerful response to oppression and injustice. Indeed, fasting is a part of many of the world’s religious traditions. Moses fasted before receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert before beginning his public ministry. Observant Muslims fast every day during the month of Ramadan. Fasting accompanies many Hindu rituals and festivals.
“My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray."
Mahatma Gandhi
The power of fasting in the context of the worldwide struggle for debt cancellation and economic justice comes from its joining together of the political with the very personal. By fasting, we deepen our understanding of what it means to be hungry, not by choice, but by necessity.
Fasting and the experience of hunger provide an opportunity for reflection and exploration of how we in the global North might be in more genuine solidarity with those who suffer as a consequence of our affluence. Fasting is also a way for us to demonstrate to policy makers the depth of our commitment to see the people of the global South free from the chains of oppressive and unjust debts.
“When we fast in solidarity, we, in a sense, use our hunger as an engine for the desire for peace and justice for a particular group of people, whoever they may be. We are bringing the hunger of those for whom we fast into the body politic and we are calling for the body politic to respond.”
Father Simon Harak, S.J., Anti-Militarism Coordinator of the War Resisters League
A Global Week of Action for Debt Cancellation and Economic Justice
The 40-day Debt Cancellation Rolling Fast will conclude with a global week of action for Debt Cancellation and Economic Justice.
Jubilee USA urges people of faith and conscience from around the country to come to Washington during this time, especially for the lobby day and training on October 16 and 17, 2007.
Your presence is essential to create the public pressure necessary to achieve debt cancellation for every country that requires it to meet the Millennium Development Goals, without harmful policy conditions attached!
October 14
Global week of action to end the debt crisis begins.
October 15
Day 40 of the Rolling Fast for debt cancellation.
October 16
We will break the 40-day Rolling Fast to end global poverty with a prayer breakfast on Capitol Hill, led by religious and political leaders. The prayer breakfast will be followed by lobby training for grassroots debt cancellation advocates from across the United States, in preparation for Jubilee USA’s national lobby day.
October 17
Global White Band Day: An International Day of Action to Eradicate Global Poverty & Jubilee USA National Lobby Day for debt cancellation in WashingtonD.C. A special reception on Capitol Hill will end the day, bringing key Congressional supporters, U.S.-based grassroots supporters, and international debt campaigners together in a celebration of both White Band Day and the 10th anniversary of the Jubilee USA Network.
October 18
Jubilee USA Network Council Meeting
October 19-21
Annual Meetings of the IMF/World Bank present opportunities for protest, advocacy and networking with debt campaigners from around the world. Plans TBA
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