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Britain: 50,000 people protest to G8 about debt issue

Posted on: May 22, 1998 12:52 PM
Related Categories: Birmingham, England, G8

(ACNS) More than 50,000 people from all over Britain and abroad arrived in Birmingham on Saturday 16th May to take part in a protest against Third World debt. The event was organised by Jubilee 2000, a coalition of 70 different agencies who are calling for the cancellation of unrepayable world debt by the year 2000. The event culminated in the formation of a massive human chain of linked hands around the city of Birmingham, where the G8 meeting was held. The chain stretched for seven miles and included 10 Anglican bishops and members from many different denominations, trade unions and other organisations campaigning for debt relief.

At three o'clock the people in the chain blew whistles and made as much noise as possible to signify to the G8 leaders their objection to the crippling debt repayments of many Third World countries. Clare Short, the international development secretary of the British Government, arrived at St Philip's Cathedral at the centre of the event to link hands with members of the coalition before receiving boxes of petitions containing 1.5 million signatures of people who had written their objection to Third World debt.

"I think what you are achieving today is more than putting pressure on the leadership of the G8 to cancel debt, however important that is," she told the crowd. "This is a declaration of the end of the selfishness and greed of the 1980s...Idealism is alive and well in politics."

Later in the day Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, met leaders of the Jubilee 2000 coalition. Although the G8 meeting was held in the centre of Birmingham the leaders had left the city for a country house retreat for Saturday. Coalition spokeswoman Anne Pettifor was delighted that Mr Blair returned to the city and had "finally acknowledged the extraordinary worldwide movement present in Birmingham today. We said all along that people in the streets of Birmingham were as important as eight men in a country house. "

The G8 Summit is a group of the world's most powerful governments, and includes the government leaders from the UK, USA, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Canada and Russia. The G8 directly influences international financial and trade institutions by virtue of its economic power. Despite the protest the G8 leaders rejected the demand for an end to debt although they agreed a package of much less ambitious objectives.