but generally for 'prestige' projects, armaments or even salted away in private fortunes in Swiss bank accounts.
Butalthough the oil crisis gave the debt problem a special twist, in fact it had been accelerating since the 1960s.
Mexico in 1982, the IMF stepped in much harder to keep the semi-colonial world in line. Debts were rescheduled through IMF negotiations and debtor governments forced to adhere to a strict IMF 'stabilisation programme'. These adjustment policies are used to control the debts of more than 80 per cent of loans granted. Their effects are devastating for the peoples of the semi-colonial Governments are told to cut spending on welfare, subsidies on food and housing, cut wages, deflate and restrict credit, devalue the currency, and of course encourage 'free enterprise' and foreign investment. In order to force through these austerity measures state terrorism and repression are often used against workers and peasants who organise or who are suspected of organisng opposition to the onslaught The facts speak for themselves. In 1970 Africa fed itself. By 1984 140 million out of 531 million African people were being fed on imported grain. Today 29 million people in this continent face starvation in How can the third world break out of the debt crisis? For an individual country it is incredibly difficult to repudiate its debt. Repudiation of the debt would lead to an immediate cut off of credits, and the debtor country would be unable to gain loans and foreign currency to buy im ports. Trade sanctions by the UŠ and other Western countries would devastate the economy of a country which defaulted on its debt.
Repudiating the debt could only be realistically achieved by a series of major countries like Brazil and Mexico acting together. The main obstacle to that of course is that a full-scale confrontation with the imperialist powers is not in the interests of the capitalist leaders of most third world countries. Repudiating the debt is a task of revolutionary proportions which needs revolutionary answers in the third world. Meanwhile, it is an elementary duty for socialists in the West to demand that the debt be cancelled. now and then. Speakers are available from the campaign, as are leaflets for the demonstration and lists of people interested in your area.
ine campaign is attempuing to ensure that activity takes place in as many major cities as possible. As well as the separate Scottish campaign, groups are being launched in Manchester and Oxford and plans being laid in a number of other places. But time is short and action is urgently needed. • For unconditional cancellation of the • An end to the structural adjustment policies of the IMF and the World Bank • For a just and fair economic system to prevent the reappearance of the debt.
For further information contact: Cancel the Debt, clo 23 Bevenden St, London N1 6BT or phone 071 263 8289.
Cancel the Debt (Scotland) c/o Latin America Insitute, 60 Oakfield Ave, Glasgow.