Apologies if there are any cross-posts. I thought this worth forwarding - AF
-----Original Message-----
From: Jubilee 2000 [mailto:dropthedebt-owner@listbot.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 7:02 PM
To: List Member
Subject: Support Jubilee 2000's final push to drop the debt by the
millennium
7 September, 1999
Dear Friend,
I am writing to you as the Director of Jubilee 2000 Coalition in the UK.
Were on the brink of an historic achievement and I'm writing to ask your
help for the final push to the millennium.
We have achieved so much in the last few months. At the G8 Summit in
Cologne, we won up to $100 billion in debt cancellation for the poorest
countries. An IMF report in the spring credited us with mobilising world
public opinion in support of the poorest nations, at a time when the
people of these nations had been pushed to margins of the international
agenda. We have won plaudits from commentators around the world.
Journalist Polly Toynbee, in the UK Radio Times, said, Jubilee 2000 has
been one of the most brilliantly successful campaigns of our times.
But plaudits are worth little. Even the British Prime Minister admitted
the need to go further still on debt after Cologne. The reality is that
childrens lives are still lost seven million every year as countries
are forced to pay off foreign creditors before they spend on basic health,
clean water and primary education.
So now we find ourselves gearing up for a final short, but intense, round
of international public pressure on the worlds richest creditors
particularly the US, Japanese and French governments. All this has to be
done over the next few months if our goal of a debt free start by the
new millennium is to be achieved.
Like you, and like hundreds of thousands of Jubilee 2000 campaigners, I
have invested quite a lot of my life in this campaign. I am not going to
give up now. I had hoped the G7 would deliver in Cologne. They did take a
great step forward. But it is now clear that to achieve our goal will
require one more huge push starting this month.
We firstly need your action over the next few months. Signing petition,
writing a letter to a G7 leader, informing your friends about the issues.
Please regularly visit our web page - www.jubilee2000uk.org to find out
what action you can take. However as we approach our final year, we also
need finance for the campaign. So I am writing to ask you to consider
making a donation to Jubilee 2000. And to email your friends to ask them
to support the campaign too.
Here at the UK Coalitions hub, we have been thinking up new ways of
applying pressure on the G7. As always with Jubilee 2000, we have been
thinking big. But thinking big and maintaining credibility and influence,
requires high level research, skilled staff and quick responses to
unfolding global events. Were sending a team to the US to bolster
campaigning there. In the meantime the movement is growing stronger in the
South and were helping to channel resources to campaigns in Africa and
Latin America. We are working closely with internationally known
economists like Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard. And through new
technology, were communicating with millions through our pioneering web
site and other ground-breaking Internet initiatives. All this costs
money.
Were primarily not a fund-raising campaign. We want you, above all, to
continue taking action. But financial support is in itself a vital form
of action. Please give whatever you can. If you are able to give #250 or
more, please remember that in the UK you can make it go further by giving
it as Gift Aid. You can make a secure donation on Jubilee 2000's website -
<a href="http://www.jubilee2000uk.org">www.jubilee2000uk.org</a>
Alternatively, you can phone us at our London office with a credit card
donation on + (0)171 739 1000. Or you can send a cheque or international
money order payable to 'Jubilee 2000' to Jubilee 2000, 1 Rivington Street,
London EC2A 3DT, United Kingdom.
We would like finally to assure you that we do not intend to send other
fundraising appeals by email to you. We are a time-limited campaign and
this is likely to be our last appeal. We will be in touch in the next two
weeks with an exciting internet action directed to the G7 that we would
like you to help publicise.
We appreciate any support you can give - either in terms of time or
financial resources. Without this, we would not now be on the brink of an
historic achievement.
Yours sincerely,
Ann Pettifor
Director, Jubilee 2000 Coalition
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