SPEAK Debt Justice Campaign
SPEAK has been supporting Debt Justice (Previously Jubilee Debt Campaign) since 1998 when the campaign was known as Jubilee 2000. We have supported debt campaigns in 4 main areas:
- Debts of the world’s poorest countries where it impacts human rights and social justice (1998-2003)
- UK poverty and debt (2020-2021)
- Student debt and poverty (2016-2019)
- Debt and the economic system how money is created and controlled and how that impacts social justice and human rights (2016-2024)
Our Debt Campaign Partners
We have had 3 main partners in this area and campaign groups we express solidarity to:
Debt Justice (formerly Jubilee Debt Campaign, Jubilee Debt Coalition and Drop The Debt) is a UK-based campaigning organisation that exists to end unjust developing countries’ debt and the poverty and inequality it perpetuates. The organization’s activities include campaigning, advocacy, community organizing and activism and aim to build collective power with people most affected by debt to demand a fair economy for all
https://debtjustice.org.uk/news/our-new-name-debt-justice
Positive Money UK is a not-for-profit advocacy group based in London and Brussels Positive Money’s mission is to promote various reforms of central banks and alternative monetary policy.
JustMoney Movement is an organisation for Christians and churches who want to connect faith, money, and justice. Aiming to educate, campaign, and advocate, resourcing a movement of Christians and churches to act differently with our own money and speak out about money.
Over the years debt justice has been a big theme in the actions on the SPEAK day of action and SPEAK week of actions and the campaign resource/ Pray and Posts we have produced.
We have also do arts campaigns, collecting poems owed ode to the banks with poets and musicians. This is ongoing and links to our work at music festivals with partner group Break The Code who take socially and spiritually conscious artists to music festivals
Pray and Post History
Pray and Post History on debt
Here are all the years we produced campaign resources and actions on debt justice. More of these resources will be linked up in more detail as we complete our online campaigns archiving process!
1998- Jubilee 2000 Debt campaign
1999- Jubilee 2000 Debt campaign
2000 Jubilee 2000 Debt campaign
2001 stamp out debt
2003 Trade and debt cycle
2005-2006- Make Poverty History including debt
2016-2018- Student debt
Note To Reader- NB There are lots more Pray and Posts on debt justice in the past. We are just in the process of online archiving and adding more to this list! Hallelujah we have done too much work to track easily! A network and community of very busy Bees determined to end debt injustice!
Debt Justice More Info
No one should be forced into debt just to put food on the table or to keep the lights on. Yet almost half of all adults in the UK are in debt or fear of falling into debt in the face of soaring living costs. As energy, food and housing costs surge, credit card borrowing is at record levels – an indication that households struggling to pay the bills are turning to expensive loans or credit cards to cope.
As the world is engulfed in multiple, intersecting crises, the fight for debt justice has never been more urgent. And so is the need to build powerful, diverse movements both here in the UK and in the global south to meet this challenge.
Debt Justice Beginnings
As part of the global Jubilee campaign, we won $130 billion of debt cancellation for lower income countries which led to significant improvements to public services such as healthcare and education. Though this was an important victory, the structural causes that keep debt crises happening again and again, remained in place and so we continue to campaign for systemic change.
We research global and UK debt issues, educate and campaign in solidarity with people in debt and countries facing debt crises. We work in partnership with allies in the UK and around the world to challenge governments and banks to cancel unjust debt, change policy and shift public attitudes. We also support the movements that connect with our cause — from tax justice and climate justice globally, to stronger rights here in the UK for labour, wages, housing, and migration.
The Jubilee Debt Coalition and Debt Justice, of which SPEAK is a very active member, helped to bring about some big changes, including:
- $130 billion of debt cancellation for developing countries between 2000 and 2015, as part of the global Jubilee campaign
- A UK Act of Parliament to protect 40 impoverished countries from being sued by vulture funds
- $1 billion of debt cancellation by the IMF, and $13 billion of debt payments suspended, during the Covid-19 pandemic
- £500 million support fund and £65 million vulnerable renters package announced to support people with the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic
- Credit Suisse fined for its role in a debt scandal in Mozambique and made to cancel debts
- Debt write–offs and financial support for Together Against Debtnetwork
- Cap on the cost of credit won for rent-to-own products
- A new set of UN principles for sovereign debt restructuring
- $100 million of debt cancellation for countries affected by the Ebola crisis
But there is a lot more do to. And we need your help. Please sign up to add your voice to the campaigns.
The Story of Debt Justice- The Wider Coalition Movement
On the 16th May 1998, 70,000 people took to the streets of Birmingham and formed a ‘human chain’ around the city which was then hosting a global summit with world leaders. Thousands of ordinary people filled the city centre calling for debt cancellation for lower income countries. This was a defining moment in our campaign for debt justice.
Standing on the shoulders of decades of debt justice activism in the global south, the late 1990s saw the issue of debt injustice – particularly that owed from the global south to the global north – become one of the most significant political issues of the era because of the Jubilee 2000 movement. Between 2000-2015 the global Jubilee campaign won $130 billion of debt cancellation for developing countries.
However, the scheme did not prevent debt crises recurring. The same structural causes that led to the crisis remain in place. The 2010’s also saw the debt crisis come to Europe in the wake of the financial crisis as the Greek government was forced to cut spending because of their debts, and debt began building again in lower income countries. Exacerbated by the global pandemic in recent years, 54 countries are now in debt crisis. In 2020 we launched a new campaign for debt cancellation, and have already won significant changes. Including the launch of a new international process for debt cancellation.
Here in the UK personal debt has reached new highs. Over half of UK adults are now in debt or worried about falling into debt. As an organisation that aims to stop debt from causing and exacerbating poverty, we began work on tackling the unjust build-up for personal debt here in the UK.
We continue to campaign for debt justice, working alongside our allies in lower income countries facing debt crises, such as Mozambique and Zambia, as
2019-2020 SPEAK UK Debt and Poverty Pray and Post
2016- SPEAK Student Debt Campaign Pray and Post
SPEAK For Debt Justice 2023-2024