What a day! Supporters came from the North, West, South and East of the country.
They came to make their presence count in a public way, outside the Stephens Green Shopping Centre.

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Government has not Followed Through on Debt....
>>PRESS STATEMENT HERE <<

Call on the government to fulfil EU Presidency Promises on Debt!
Follow up on March / April campaign - your assistance is required!

In March/April '04, we ran a letter campaign focused on Minister Brian Cowen, T.D. Minister for Foreign Affairs, inviting people to write and ask him to put the Debt Crisis on the agenda of the EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting on 26/27th April 2004.

Did you received a reply? If not we need you to take action!

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The following is an urgent matter - Mulima from Jubilee Zambia said on a recent visit to Ireland

"Debt is an ISSUE for you, it is a matter of LIFE or DEATH for US".

When we talk about a CRISIS can we imagine what that might be like? Certainly the news from Iraq over the last ten days raises issues of fundamental importance in how we treat and respect each other and especially the people who are 'different'.

For us here in Debt and Development Coalition our biggest question is, how do we keep people involved, energised, believing we can make a difference, in fighting for the end of the Debt Crisis?
Ah! Sure it's going on too long, we need something new.

I wonder can we even imagine what it must be like not to have access, really not to have access to health and education? Oh! It's there for some, the lucky ones, but not for the others. Why? Because the country is faced with a burden of debt to repay before it is allowed to address its peoples basic needs.

ACT NOW The Irish Government supports 100% debt cancellation for countries like Zambia.
Is our government doing all it can to support Zambia in this crisis?
Are they using 'every opportunity possible to raise the debt issue', during the Irish EU Presidency?

Zambia a country on bended knees!

A new report came in from Mr Jack Jones Zulu, Policy Analyst with Jubilee Zambia this week ('Leaning Against Economic Winds: Zambia's Problems with HIPC' ).

Leaning Against Economic Winds: Zambia's Problems with HIPC
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The Irish Government is the leading runner within the EU, as we are calling for 100% debt cancellation for the poorest countries in our world. We called on Minister McCreevy to take this 'gold cup' opportunity to encourage his EU colleagues to support Ireland 100% debt cancellation Debt Policy.

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Call on the government to fulfil EU Presidency Promises on Debt!!


ACT NOW The next target in our campaign on Debt and the Irish EU Presidency is the meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Ministers in Brussels 26/27 April '04. We include a briefing with the background information on this meeting. There is also a draft letter to Minister Cowen urging him to make debt an important issue on the agenda. Please send a letter to Mr. Cowen and get others to do the same.

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Debt Issuse at the Convergence Festival 2004

Earth Day to May Day
April 22nd - May 1st

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What impact has our campaign had to date?

Impacts

Euro Debt delegation Paper to European Parliment

Debt and Development Coalition Ireland organises cross European ‘Debt’ Delegation to the European Parliament

Together with colleagues from other European debt campaigns, we met with MEPs from across the political spectrum during a two-day ‘debt’ delegation to the European Parliament on 9/10 December. Our purpose was to brief MEPs on how they can work to strengthen the EU position for debt cancellation during the Irish Presidency and to gain their active support.

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Debt and Development Coalition New initiative - European wide 'Debt Delegation'

Following on the many meeting, briefings of Irish TDs and campaigns focused on Irish government to put Debt Cancellation as a priority for the Irish EU Presidency Agenda in January 2004, Debt and Development Coalition have widened their efforts by iniatiated a European wide 'Debt Delegation'.

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International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank must cancel the debts owed to them - NOW!

While claiming to fight poverty the IMF and World Bank are draining the lifeblood out of the poorest countries in debt payments. The IMF and World Bank are the most significant creditors of the poorest countries in our world.

Can Pay: Won't Pay?

Why won't the IMF and World Bank cancel the debt owed to them and free the poorest countries to prioritise their people's needs? The IMF and World Bank plead poverty. But research carried out by us last year found that in fact the IMF and World Bank are among the world's most prosperous financial institutions. The IMF alone has one of the biggest gold reserves in the world.

Debt cancellation for the Millennium Development Goals

At the start of the new millennium, the international community set a number of goals to be met by 2015.

The aim was to improve the lives of millions of people by tackling poverty.
The goals include:

• Halving extreme poverty; Achieving primary education for all; Cutting child mortality by two thirds

Breakthrough??

After years of opposition, 100% debt cancellation ended up being discussed at the June 2004 G8 meeting. The G8 (USA, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia)are major players in the IMF and World Bank. So this opens the door for campaigners to increase the pressure in the run up to the next major international event, the IMF and World Bank AGM in October 04.

This year the IMF / World Bank mark their 60th anniversary, what better way to mark this milestone than to cancel the debts owed to them by the poorest countries in our world.