Remarks by AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
Jubilee 2000 National Mobilization
Washington, D.C.
April 9, 2000
Brothers and sisters, it is my privilege to come before you today and bring a message from the 40 million men, women and children living in union households in the United States. Our message is clear: today's unions and the working families of America want debt relief and we want DEBT RELIEF NOW.
It is also my privilege to bring you news from the World Congress of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which met last week in Durban, South Africa, from which I returned only yesterday. The ICFTU member unions from 145 countries voted unanimously to call for a far-reaching solution to the crushing burden of debt borne by developing countries. The news from Durban is clear: The ICFTU, and indeed the working families of the world, demand debt relief and we demand DEBT RELIEF NOW.
In South Africa, just as in Seattle, it was painfully clear from the stories I heard over and over again that we are bound by conscience and conviction to move on debt relief with great speed.
In Mozambique, one out of four children dies before reaching the age of five, because of infectious diseases that can be controlled. But the government of Mozambique is spending twice as much on servicing international debt as it spends on health and education combined.
In Ethiopia, more than 100,000 children die every year from diarrhea that can be treated and prevented. But the government of Ethiopia is spending four times as much on debt payments as on its public budget for health care.
And in Uganda, where one in five children also dies from a treatable, preventable disease before age five, the government is spending $17 per person on repaying its debt while spending only $3 per person on health care.
If nothing else, the debt burden of developing countries is killing hundreds of thousands of children every year, and that's why we can't wait until next year and that's why we are united in our mission and committed to the goal of DEBT RELIEF NOW.
Sadly, the crushing burden of worldwide debt is doing even more than killing children, it is also killing the hopes and dreams of working families from Managua to Milwaukee and from Karachi to Kansas City.
High debt levels force developing countries to lower labor standards and wages in order to attract corporate investment. That means American workers must compete for jobs with workers in other countries who are making 10 cents an hour—it pits worker against worker and nation against nation in a race to the bottom, and it's a race we must stop with DEBT RELIEF NOW.
Brothers and sisters, I believe if we work hard enough and march long enough and press our elected officials hard enough, we can persuade the United States government and our Congress to support worldwide debt relief for countries that are committed to democratic reforms and core workers' right. The amount of money it would cost this country is an incredibly small portion of our budget, yet the amount of help and leadership it would provide would be unbelievably large.
But debt relief alone won't make the global economy work for working families.
Rich countries, especially the United States, must provide more funds to poor countries for economic development—and we must make sure the money goes to creating more jobs, providing better health care, raising more food and building more schools, and not to building more palaces or buying more tanks.
Technologically advanced countries, especially the United States, must provide more assistance to developing nations, while insisting that the governments that receive our assistance respect basic human rights and workers' rights in their fields and factories.
And progressive, politically powerful countries—most especially the United States—must insist that international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank stop pressuring countries to reform their economies in the wrong direction and instead reform THEMSELVES.
As I told the delegates to the ICFTU Congress in Durban, we must demand a world economy that allows nations to follow different paths to development, even as it enforces standards and core values common to us all.
Together, people of faith and conscience can rescue the world economy from those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Together, we can build a world where children stretch their minds in classrooms, instead of straining their backs in factories...a world where every man and woman can live and work in dignity, where markets lift us up instead of driving us down.
That world begins with DEBT RELIEF .... DEBT RELIEF NOW. Thank you and God bless you all.... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com