JDC’s activist base Local activists are the lifeblood of JDC. Without our strong, national network of dedicated campaigners, it would be impossible for a small organisation to have the sort of impacts that we have had over the last ten years. A central element of our work at a local level focuses on education and raising public awareness of the injustices of debt and the importance of debt cancellation to wiping out poverty. Over 2009 and 2010 our activist work has gone from strength to strength.
Multifaith project Debt and poverty have always served to bring together people of different faiths, communities and backgrounds. In recent years we have built a national network of faith groups (Jubilee Congregations). During 2009 we set-up a multifaith committee to
Thousands of people took action on Vulture Funds at the Glastonbury Festival, June 2009 Steven Woodward / Jubilee Debt Campaign
oversee and develop this work. The project was launched in November 2009 and we held a national conference in March 2010. The project brings together representatives from six major faiths and many denominations. It aims to inform, educate and inspire action amongst campaigners, attending festivals and events, producing materials pulling on theological principles to explain why the injustice of developing country debt needs to be brought to an end.
6 Billion Ways In January 2009, we worked with City Circle, Friends of the Earth, People and Planet, War on Want and the World Development Movement to bring nearly 2,000 people to East London to discuss the connections between the global economy and
financial crisis, climate change and the environment, human rights, war and race. An extremely diverse audience enjoyed workshops, educational sessions, debates and a stunning range of speakers from across the world. Debt author Susan George, who was one of the speakers, said: ‘Six Billion Ways deserves six thousand words of praise, beginning with prescient, focused, creative, positive, lively, intellectually serious and fun. Politics were served, so was solidarity. I feel proud to have been asked to be part of it.’
Education work We are building a national network of schools committed to working on debt. Schools commit to raising awareness about debt and using numerous materials which employ the concept of debt to foster a greater understanding of economics, international relations, politics and history amongst other subjects. 11