Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition calling for cancellation of unpayable third world debt by the year 2000. The concept came from the biblical idea of the year of Jubilee, the 50th year. In the Jubilee Year as quoted in Leviticus, those enslaved because of debts are freed, lands lost because of debt are returned, and community torn by inequality is restored.
The movement seemed to reach a surprising critical mass in the UK with in 1998 G8 Summit when 70,000 people protested peacefully in the centre of Birmingham. At subsequent G8 meetings in Cologne, Okinawa and Genoa debt was very much on the agenda...
It was always intended that Jubilee 2000 would disband at the end of 2000 and this it did. However, offshoots such as the Jubilee Debt Campaign were formed from the ashes, campaigning for governments to make good on thier promises. The Debt issue is one of the targets of 2005's Make Povery History Campaign.
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