JANUARY 13th – Jubilee USA is calling on the Obama administration to take 3 specific steps as part of its comprehensive response to the Haiti earthquake: (1) Provide massive assistance for relief and reconstruction in the form of grants, not loans; (2) Cancel the rest of Haiti’s debt; and(3) Provide Temporary Protective Status to Haitians living in the US. Use your voice for Haiti today. Please call the White House today at 202-456-1111 and ask President Obama to take these steps.

Here’s a sample script:

“Hi, My name is XXX, and I live in X town, Y state. I am calling to ask that President Obama do everything in his power to help the Haitian people in this time of crisis. As part of its emergency response, President Obama should ensure the US provides massive assistance for relief and reconstruction as grants not loans; advocate for the cancellation of all of Haiti’s remaining debts, and provide Temporary Protective Status for Haitians living in the United States. Thank you.”

*You may also wish to give to organizations that are providing emergency relief and humanitarian assistance in Haiti.

Here’s more information about the three asks:

1. Provide massive assistance for relief and reconstruction in the form of grants, not loans. It is becoming clear that the earthquake has caused unimaginable destruction in Haiti. Already impoverished and struggling, it will be nearly impossible for Haiti to get back on its feet without massive humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. This should come as grants, not loans, so that Haiti does not get again saddled with large debts to no fault of its own. Grant assistance should be provided without harmful economic policy conditionalities like requirements for privatization of services.

2. Cancel the Rest of Haiti’s Debt. While $1.2 billion was cancelled in June 2009 thanks to Jubilee supporters’ efforts, the country still has $891 million in debt on its books. Why? Because the debt relief agreements from the IMF and other creditors only covered debts acquired up until 2004. So, new loans Haiti has received since then have been adding to its debt. Half of this total of $891 million is owed to the InterAmerican Development Bank and the IMF with the other half owed to Venezuela and Taiwan. In 2010, Haiti is projected to pay more than $10 million to the IMF and IDB – and this is money Haiti simply can’t pay now that this tragic earthquake has hit.

The US has strong voting power on the Boards of both the IMF and the IDB and should use its influence to secure immediate cancellation of these debts. If cancellation cannot be agreed immediately, President Obama should call for an immediate moratorium on all debt payments (which means they don’t have to pay for a few years) from Haiti with no accured interest until cancellation can be agreed, just as was agreed for countries hit by the Tsunami in 2004. All of Haiti’s limited resources should be directed at recovery, not repayment. You can learn more about Haiti’s debt in Jubilee USA’s August 2009 policy update on Haiti’s debt situation here.

3. Provide Temporary Protective Status for Haitians Living in the US. Jubilee USA member organizations TransAfrica Forum and the Institute for Justice and Democracy and Haiti, along with other leading Haiti advocates, are calling on the U.S. to end the deportation of Haitian immigrants, release those currently held in detention centers pending deportation, and grant Temporary Protected Status for the 30,000 Haitians currently under threat of deportation.

As the New York Times wrote in an editorial this morning:

On Wednesday, the Obama administration said it was halting the pending deportation of up to 30,000 Haitians who have run afoul of the immigration agency. The government should now take the next step by granting these immigrants temporary protected status – as it has to survivors of Latin American earthquakes and other disasters – so that the Haitian diaspora in the United States will be allowed to work and send vitally needed money home.

Temporary protected status (TPS) is granted by the United States (Homeland Security Department) to eligible nationals of countries that cannot safely return to their homelands because of armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. Haiti clearly fits this description. For more information see TransAfrica Forum

Our long-anticipated moment has arrived! Late yesterday, the Jubilee Act (HR 4005) was introduced by Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), along with Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (R-AL), and seven more Republican and Democrat members of Congress. This encouraging bi-partisan effort by powerful leaders in Congress is a tremendous holiday gift for our sisters and brothers in the Global South.

The bill expands life-giving debt cancellation to 22 additional impoverished countries left out of previous debt relief deals and calls for an end to harmful economic conditions and an audit of past odious and illegitimate debts.

Please take thirty seconds to send a message to your Representative asking him/her to sign on as an early cosponsor to the Jubilee Act.

This past year has been tough for many people here at home and around the globe. The economic crisis pushed 100 million more people into extreme poverty this year and dozens of impoverished countries now face a new debt crisis.

This holiday season, the introduction of the Jubilee Act represents a beacon of hope in the midst of these challenges. To learn more about the Jubilee Act, click here.

We passed the Jubilee Act in the House last Congress. Now with powerful leaders from both sides of the aisle as original cosponsors, we are poised for victory once again, but we’ll need your help.

Please ask your Representative to cosponsor the Jubilee Act today.

Tell Congress: Stop Vulture Funds from Hurting Poor Countries!

It’s time to stop Vulture Funds from harming poor countries once and for all. Vulture Funds are predatory hedge funds that siphon off newly freed resources from debt cancellation. They profiteer off debt cancellation resources by buying up poor country debt in default at pennies on the dollar and then abusing US Courts to sue for the full amount of the debt plus exorbitant interest rates and court fees. Instead of US tax dollars going to poverty alleviation projects like building schools and treating HIV/AIDS, they go into the bank accounts of greedy Vultures.

Luckily, you can tell Congress to stop this behavior once and for all! Send a message to your House Representative telling him to co-sponsor the Stop Vulture Funds Act, which will prevent further misuse of our Courts in Vulture Fund cases against poor countries.

Now imagine 117 million people all around the world, on every continent, standing up at the same time. This weekend, that’s what’s going to happen.

More than one hundred million people are taking a stand this weekend against global poverty as part of the Stand Up and Take Action Days. While many of us work on poverty issues everyday, talk about it at home and in our communities, once a year we have the opportunity to literally stand in solidarity with people across the world at the same time – all people who care about ending poverty once and for all.

Almost 10 years ago, world leaders committed to a bold roadmap to end global poverty and its root causes – beginning with achieving the Millennium Development Goals which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, improving maternal health and ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015. This weekend we are all coming together because we know that despite the gains we’ve made, the global economic crisis is threatening our progress.

At Jubilee USA Network, our almost 100 Stand Up events across the country are focusing on one part of the poverty puzzle: debt cancellation and responsible lending. Without debt cancellation, we will not reach the Millennium Development Goals in time. Right now the world’s poorest countries pay rich creditors more than $100 million in debt payments everyday. Can you imagine if this money went toward shelter, education and health care?

We know that it is possible. Debt cancellation has already brought increased education, healthcare and vital social services for many countries in Africa and Latin America. But too many needy countries have been left out.

This weekend, churches, synagogues and community groups will by taking the Stand Up Pledge to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. They’ll also urging Congress to support the Jubilee Act, a bill which calls for expanded debt cancellation to help all the poor countries that need it to reach the MDGs.

This weekend, all over the world we are going to pledge our commitments to fighting global poverty. Let’s continue to work to break the chains of international debt.

To learn more about Stand Up and to find out how YOU can stand up, visit www.jubileeusa.org.

Destroying the earth is not a human right.

There I said it.

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is climate change. I thought about writing well reasoned pleas as to why we all need to be aware and care for the earth. I thought about addressing the Christians who even in their gnostic rejection the earth can find reason to care for people. But I’m tired and I’m fed up with self-centered excuses. So I’m just going to say that we need to get over ourselves. Our profit, our laziness, our pleasure are not sufficient reasons to do whatever the hell we want with the earth. Listening to Fox News and Christian radio give the minority opinion that climate change is a fable shouldn’t change anything. We either act like responsible mature human beings or we act like spoiled brats. We either clean up after ourselves, take care of what we have been given, and choose to respect the poor in our global community or we might just as well tattoo “It’s All About Me” on our foreheads (cuz that seems like a fairly appropriate mark of the beast imho).

Sure, we’ll struggle. Sure, we’ll stumble. Of course it’s going to be hard. That’s life. We just deal, pick ourselves up and move along. Our inability to be perfect should never become our excuse to be self-centered jerks.

I really don’t care if that is harsh. I don’t care if that is unpopular. That’s not the point. The point is to love God by stewarding his creation. And to love all people – including those that live next to refineries or smelting plants or whose islands are sinking or whose fishing economies have been destroyed. It’s not about what is easy or profitable. It’s about what is just and loving.

So let’s cut the crap and call it like it is – we can act out of selfishness or out of love. But we have to choose and we have to own our choice.

Kids across all 50 US States and Canada will urge nearly a quarter million households to shift purchasing to Fair Trade certified chocolate, coffee, etc by handing Fair Trade chocolate to adults.

A pleasant surprise will greet nearly a quarter million people distributing candy at their door, when youth reverse the Halloween tradition to hand adults a sample of vegan-friendly, Fair Trade dark chocolate.

The chocolate will be accompanied by a card informing recipients of poverty and child labor problems in the cocoa industry, affecting mainstream candy enjoyed at Halloween and around the year, and how Fair Trade certified chocolate provides a solution.

Parents of last year’s youngest participants raved about how Reverse Trick-or-Treating transformed Halloween into a meaningful event when youthful activists can give back to their neighbors and to cocoa growing communities.

The chocolate and cards are FREE! Thanks to generous donations by these Fair Trade chocolate companies:
· Equal Exchange
· Alter Eco
· Sweet Earth
· La Siembra

Participating lead nonprofit organizations:
· Africa Action
· Amherst Fair Trade Partnership
· Ballston Spa Fair Trade Coalition
· Fair Trade Federation
· Global Exchange
· Green America
· International Labor Rights Forum
· Jeannette Rankin Peace Center
· Oasis/Stop The Traffik
· San Diego Friends of Fair Trade
· Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
· United Methodist Church (UMCOR/GBCS)

Participating organizations include: Africa Faith and Justice Network, Americans for Informed Democracy, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Chicago Area Interfaith Council Peace and Justice Center, Durham Fair Trade Coalition, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Fair Trade LA, Fair Trade Portsmouth Coalition, Fair Trade Resource Network, Human Rights Action Service, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, NY State Labor-Religion Coalition, Organic Consumer Association, Washington Fair Trade Coalition

Reverse Trick-or-Treating is an initiative of Global Exchange’s Sweet Smarts network, with leadership from Equal Exchange and all of the organizations and companies listed above.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating is an initiative of Global Exchange’s Sweet Smarts network, with leadership from Equal Exchange and all of the organizations and companies listed above.

For more information visit globalexchange.org.

This year on Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C. and around the world, please join Habitat for Humanity in support of this global observance as we come together and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable.

According to the United Nations, more than 100 million people in the world today are homeless. Millions more face a severe housing problem living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security.

Worldwide, more than 2 million housing units per year are needed for the next 50 years to solve the present worldwide housing crisis. With our global population expanding, however, at the end of those 50 years, there would still be a need for another 1 billion houses. (UN-HABITAT: 2005)

Raising awareness and advocating for change are the first steps toward transforming systems that perpetuate the global plague of poverty housing. World Habitat Day serves as an important reminder that everyone must unite to ensure that everyone has a safe, decent place to call home.

The U.N. further states that both developed and developing countries, cities and towns are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, resource depletion, food insecurity, population growth and economic instability.

Rapid rates of urbanization cause serious negative consequences – overcrowding, poverty, slums with many poorly equipped to meet the service demands of ever growing urban populations.

With over half of the world’s population currently living in urban areas the U.N. believes there is no doubt that the “urban agenda” will increasingly become a priority for governments, local authorities and their non-governmental partners everywhere.

On this day, we reaffirm that adequate shelter is a basic human right, and we focus on the housing conditions of cities and towns around the world. We also use this day to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

On October 5, 2009, please join us in support of World Habitat Day, as we raise our voices and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable.

What can you do for World Habitat Day 2009?

Educate yourself and your friends and family.

* Read Habitat’s World Habitat Day handbook to learn more about the importance of secure tenure and neighborhood revitalization.
* Take a virtual tour of the Capotillo informal settlement in the Dominican Republic.
* Read statistics and research about poverty housing in the U.S. and around the world.
* Link to our World Habitat Day 2009 resources page on your social media pages, personal Web site or blog.

Advocate for decent housing for all.

* Submit a photo of yourself holding a sign that says “It all starts at home” and submit it to Habitat’s photo petition on Flickr.com.
* Send a message to your members of Congress on World Habitat Day.
* Tell your friends and family to take action too!

Join a World Habitat Day event in your community.
Visit World Habitat Day events.

Donate to support Habitat’s efforts.
Donate online today.

In 2007, a case of crucifixes purchased by St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York was traced back to a factory in China where girls as young as 15 were forced to work up to 19-hour days, seven days a week. Today, Christian items from bible covers to t-shirts are being made in factorys which abuse and traffic workers. And some Christians are standing up and refusing to stand for slavery.

The Just Holy Hardware Campaign has launched this week as part of a movement to end slavery, especially slavery of children, in the production of religious items. The initiative, based in Australia, aims to provide religious organizations with paraphernalia made under fair labor conditions, with a “no-slavery” guarantee. Sr. Pauline Coll, a representative on the national executive of Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH), has been particularly outspoken on the issue, saying the massive U.S.-based Association for Christian Retail,

“was found to lack basic codes of conduct and a factory-monitoring program. There was little to reassure American Christians that the religious products they buy to celebrate their faith were not made under inhumane conditions.”

In Australia, a team of NGOs have drafted a Christian Good Standard, which they hope organizations will adhere to when purchasing Christian items. Organizations in Australia are currently adopting it.

The U.S. is a huge market for Christian goods, and if the Association for Christian Retail (a very large organization) agreed to adopt a set of standards similar to the one adopted in Australia, it would make a huge impact on the lives of the slaves who are right now suffering in silence while making religious artifacts. Please, ask the Association for Christian Retail to adopt a set of anti-slavery standards for the production of Christian goods.

Christian or not, slavery is wrong. And slave-made items are tainted by this injustice, whether they are shoes or crucifixes. We need all people, regardless of faith to come together and take action so that we can end slavery in the production of religious artifacts.

Jubilee USA can celebrate some real victories over the past few months:

o Following a 3 year campaign by Jubilee USA, the Obama Administration announced in April that it would provide $20 million to cover Haiti’s debt service payments to the World Bank. This means that Haiti will not make any more debt service payments for at least the next year, freeing up millions for desperately needed investments in health, education, and basic services in Haiti; and
o Just last week, working with a coalition of member organizations, we secured the re-introduction of the Stop VULTURES Act in the US House of Representatives. The bill enjoys bi-partisan support and would prohibit profiteering by vulture funds on countries that have benefited from debt cancellation.

We are making progress.

But at the same time the international financial crisis is devastating poor countries, threatening to undo some of the victories won by the global Jubilee movement over the past 12 years. Together we must prevent this from happening, redouble our efforts, and ensure even bigger and more meaningful victories for global economic justice in the future. Your continued support is essential!

That’s why we’re getting ready to launch a new campaign – called “Change, Not Chains” — to win both expanded debt cancellation and structural change for a more just global economy.

To launch this campaign, we’ve set an ambitious fundraising goal – we need to raise $4,000 over the next two weeks. Will you give $35, $50, $100, or $250 today to sustain the important work of Jubilee in this critical time and help us launch our new campaign?

As the Congressional Quarterly pointed out on May 18th:

The forgiveness of foreign debt in the developing world has long been a celebrity cause, with figures such as U2 front man Bono leading the charge. But more recently it has evolved into a mainstream economic and foreign assistance strategy by the world’s wealthy countries, including the United States. And with credit difficulties assailing economies across the globe, the plight of debt-ridden developing nations has taken on renewed urgency.

Renewed urgency is right. The economic crisis has slammed into the poorest countries with all the force and impact of the most devastating storm imaginable. Hurricane Katrina left 10,000 homeless in New Orleans. Oxfam predicts 100 million people will be forced into extreme poverty by the crisis – that’s 100 million additional people without adequate food, shelter, healthcare or education. Imagine 10,000 Katrinas striking simultaneously all around the world. Poverty goals – such as the vital Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — will be set back for years if we don’t act now.

In a few weeks, Jubilee USA will launch an exciting new campaign to win both expanded debt cancellation and structural change in the global economy. We’re calling it Change, Not Chains. To goal of the Change, Not Chains campaign is to pass the soon to be re-introduced Jubilee Act in both houses of Congress and have it signed into law by the President.

But we need your help to get the campaign off the ground. We need to print postcards, design fliers, set up a website, and get the word out!

In short, we need to raise $4,000 in the next two weeks. Will you give $35, $50, $100, or $250 to help launch our Change not Chains campaign?

Please consider a gift today.