Jubilee 2000 South Africa Launched

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sun Nov 29 01:03:19 PST 1998


Interesting report:


>International Campaign against Apartheid Foreign Debt and
>Apartheid-caused Debt


>
>Research just completed indicates that the debt South Africa
>accumulated as Apartheid foreign debt is larger than previously
>thought and is well in excess of R100 billion [$18 bn].

I would have thought that figure was low. How was it calculated? I suppose there is no way of calculated the extraction of superprofits by US and British companies from the superexploitation of apartheid?

In addition,
>Apartheid destabilisation of the Southern Africa region has been
>estimated to have caused physical destruction to the amount of US$117
>billion

My recollection is that is similar to other figures.

Perhaps we ought to take away as the headline round figures 100 billion US dollars for regional reparations, 20 billion for South African debt cancellation.


>Kennedy raised the importance of locating the debt within the global
>financial crisis and the need to ensure that debt cancellation is not
>subject to conditions imposed by the international financial
>institutions, notably the World Bank and the IMF. Instead, she shared
>the Canadian call for the start of the next millenium as a new
>beginning in promoting sustainable economic and social development.

The involvement of the churches in this campaign is a good sign. They are now experienced in debt cancellation work, and regularly getting capitalist leaders to debate cancelling the debts of the poorest countries. But there is a considerable danger of reformism here and accepting some of the assumptions of the world capitalist system.

If that system is globally responding to the world crisis by printing money, by lowering interest rates, and easing credit in the capitalist countries, ie a little "Keynsian" (sorry Doug) deficit spending, why cannot the IMF print special drawing rights to cancel the apartheid debt along with that of the poorest nations? If this gets the economy moving it is less likely to be inflationary than some other types of deficit spending.

A 100 billion $ reconstruction budget for the region as a whole could provide a pool for bids for progressive development focussed on housing and other types of local employment.

I think there is no marxist reason or tactical reason why this campaign should not go for the biggest prize and win.

Chris Burford

London.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list