In 1960 third world debt had stood at $18 billion. Bv 1970 it had shot up to $75 billion. At the beginning of the oil crisis it was $112 billion. These figures show that there has been a long term worsening of the overall position of the third world countries which has progressively worsened their debt situation.
In 1950 the share of world trade involving third world countries was 32 per cent. By 1970 it had, fallen to 17 per cent. High inflation in the advanced capitalist economies pushed up the costs ofimports to the semi-colonial world even further.
Banks
Between 1973 and 1982 there was a mass explosion of loans to the third world. As the recession deepened the debtor countries were forced to borrow the coming weeks.
AIDS
Millions of people worldwide die from preventable disease each year. The cholera epidemic now sweeping Latin America is not caused by an 'act of God'. It is caused by poor sanitation and lack of investment in local infrastructure and healthcare - all of which have been cut back because of IMF-imposed austerity programmes The AIDS crisis in many third work countries, and events like the diaster in Bangladesh, have the same roots in world poverty.
There is increasing concern that the debt will never be finally repaid. As a result, new and not-so-new methods are being employed to seize the assets of debtors. The secondary market in foreign debt is growing rapidly. This means that Saturday 13 Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park Rally atTrafalgar Square 2.30pm GR CANCELTHE DEBT No. 2 May 18, 1991
No these pictures aren't Abstract paintings, but computer produced images from the Mandelbrot Set _Culture world - shorelines, leaves, sea and chaotic behaviour? Mar-