Hurricane crisis: Debt Relief

  

DEBT RELIEF FOR HURRICANE-HIT ISLANDS

Please ask lenders to suspend

  debt payments immediately 

ACT NOW

Several countries in the Caribbean have been devastated by hurricanes. Some of those countries are already heavily indebted, partly due to rebuilding efforts following previous disasters.

Please sign the petition asking all creditors, including the IMF and World Bank, to suspend debt repayments.

Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, has said: “We have lost all that money can buy and replace.” But tiny Dominica is due to make over $2 million of debt payments to the IMF and the World Bank in the next year.

With climate change, such devastating disasters are only likely to get worse, including in the Caribbean. And except for Haiti, Caribbean countries have been excluded from past debt relief initiatives.

Take action today.

Thank you for your support,

Sarah-Jayne Clifton

Director

Another lost generation?

The Minister for Employment speaks on a journey of no hope

Continually blaming the previous Government for the crisis the bankers left us in is wearing a bit thin so now it is the fault of the eurozone. Commenting on the unemployment figures, Chris Grayling the Employment Minister said, "These figures show just how much our economy is being affected by the crisis in the eurozone. Our European partners must take urgent action to stabilise the position."


His BBC2 'Newsnight' performance in front of a group of unemployed youngsters last night offered no encouragement. With the prospect of youth employment exceeding one million (realised in this morning's figures) an increase in apprenticeships was one crumb offered despite the scheme being discredited in a news story on Sunday. 


The most significant effect of cutting public sector employment so far has been to reduce the tax intake while increasing the amount needed for benefits plus letting into the country an unknown number of undesirables because of a shortage of immigration control staff to deal with lengthy queues. Gone is the rosy picture of the private sector mopping up people made redundant although for many that was always a puzzle when unemployment was already high.


With the Bank of England reducing growth forecasts the outlook for the young unemployed is dire and especially so for graduates who have left university with massive debts to repay - provided they ever earn enough to repay their loans. Without growth the outlook is grim with the prospect of another lost generation. It is no good simply waiting for others to provide a stimulus. An impotent Government serves none of us.

Jubilee Debt Campaign: Vulture Culture Bill - Update

On Friday, 26^th February I blogged on the Vulture funds which profiteer by buying up the debts of heavily indebted poor countries cheaply then seek to recover the full amounts, thus depriving the very poorest people in the world of the basic necessities of life while they wallow in the riches of their ill-gotten gains.

After slowing the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill in its Second Reading it failed to pass its Third reading in Parliament when a single Conservative MP objected:

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/ACTION%201:%20Who%20Killed%20the%20Vultures%20Bill%3F+5572.twl

Coming from a party in which it has been estimated that two-thirds of the shadow cabinet are millionaires this block looks more than insensitive. No understanding of poverty perhaps?

Jubilee Debt Campaign: Vulture Culture

Bankers are not alone in profiting on other people’s misery.

Vulture funds seek to profiteer by buying up the debts of heavily indebted poor countries at a cheap price, then trying to recover the full amount, often by suing through the courts. At least 54 companies, many based in tax havens, are known to have taken legal action against 12 of the world's poorest countries in recent years, for claims amounting to $1.5 billion. This means money released by debt relief is going into the pockets of wealthy investors, not spent on health and education. [Jubilee Debt Campaign]

Today the Vultures Bill passed its second reading, but the Tories slowed its progress. If you are not aware of the Jubilee Debt Campaign please check it out. It is worthy of support.

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/