I started Thanksgiving week (November 21-27) at the Jubilee South-South Summit on Debt in Johannesburg, South Africa and finished it in Seattle at the beginning of the NGO activities in the lead-up to the (World Trade Organization) WTO Ministerial Conference. As successful as I feel the "No Debt, No Sweat" conference was, September feels like a lifetime ago now. This issue of Economic Justice News contains an unusually large amount of news about our activities and significant events affecting our work. From the "No Debt, No Sweat" conference to our participation in the events in Johannesburg and Seattle (not to mention South Korea), to the news of the IMFâs attempt to reform its notorious Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) and the resignation of its longtime Managing Director Michel Camdessus, this newsletter chronicles a very busy time indeed.

  It was a great honor to have been asked to participate in the Jubilee South-convened South-South Summit on Debt. The idea for a South-South Summit was hatched at the Network's 1998 conference "SadoMonetarism: The Other Capital Punishment" and announced there by Professor Dennis Brutus. At the South-South Summit, there was a great deal of interest in developments on the debt relief machinations of the U.S. Congress; I was able to provide the Network's analysis on debt proposals and developments since the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. From South Africa I contacted colleagues in three Network member organizations and was able to get accurate and up-to-date information on the deliberations in the U.S. Congress and the Treasury. It was the Network at its best - a large coalition of committed activists who stay informed about many issues and are a source of critical information and analysis.

  Participating in the South-South Summit was a remarkable experience; I cannot adequately describe how joyous, empowering, and important it was for me to be part of what I believe to be a watershed event in terms of campaigning for debt cancellation within and outside the Jubilee 2000 movement.

  In the course of the Summit I had the opportunity to put into motion the creation of the 50 Years Is Enough Network South Council ˆ a body of respected and connected Southern activists who will advise us on the positions and needs of Southern activists for economic justice. In Johannesburg we received commitments from organizations and individuals in Cameroon, South Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania to serve on the South Council. We are already recruiting others, particularly partners in Latin America, the Caribbean, and South Asia.

  I went from Johannesburg – via a brief stop in Kenya where I participated and made a presentation on debt issues to participants in a two-week pan-African seminar on social, environmental, and economic justice issues – to Seattle in the same week. It was an amazing transition where the expression of international solidarity, on broad issues, reached the highest heights in this generation. At the South-South Summit, 150 activists from 40 African, Asia-Pacific, and Latin American countries and a week later and a couple of oceans away in Seattle, tens of thousands of activists in the streets and teach-in sessions coming together to demand our full human rights and with dignity for all life. I believe Seattle and Johannesburg separately and together represent turning points in the struggles for global economic justice. Certainly, Seattle represents great strides in putting the issues of economic and social justice, gender and environmental rights, labor and indigenous peoplesâ rights and the global economy squarely in front of the U.S. public.

  In Seattle there were many key events which received little or no national media coverage; one I was involved in was the Jubilee 2000 Northwest-organized human chain calling for debt cancellation for impoverished countries by the new millennium on Monday, November 29th, the eve of the labor rally and police crackdown. On that night the streets belonged to Jubilee 2000. A huge crowd, estimated at up to 30,000, took to the streets in a driving Seattle rain and surrounded the Exhibition Hall where WTO delegates had been invited for the first major social event of the conference. From all reports, the elegant reception was plagued by a gloomy mood ˆ 5,000 delegates were expected, 1,500 showed up; the thoroughly soaked Jubilee 2000 demonstrators outside had a much better time.

  Chanting "We're here, We're wet, Cancel the Debts!" the human chain that surrounded the Exhibition Hall – modeled after those that have formed at the last two G-7 Summits (in Cologne, Germany and Birmingham, UK) – was led by prominent personalities including John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, Representative Maxine Waters (D-California), members of the Greater Seattle Council of Churches, Hannah Petros of Jubilee 2000 Northwest, Ann Pettifor of Jubilee 2000 U.K. . . . and me! I was surprised and deeply honored to be invited by Jubilee 2000 Northwest to be one of the "dignitaries" who went through security clearance with the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and Seattle Police in preparation for being allowed inside the venue's security perimeter in order to complete the chain.

  The preceding opening rally, at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Seattle was in itself a moving and impressive event. It featured powerful speeches from Waters, Sweeney, and many others. And it included a performance by members of the renowned a cappella singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock (my all-time favorites!). But most impressive was the series of invocations from eight different faith traditions, invocations that went far beyond the customary opening prayer. The first invocation came from a Native American with a traditional drum and a speech of unusual intimacy and warmth, followed by a rabbi who blew a shofar (ramâs horn) to signify atonement and the celebration of jubilee before delivering an impassioned speech on the logic and need for social justice. They and all of the others – representing Islam, Hinduism, Bah'ai, Unitarianism, Christianity, and Buddhism – received enthusiastic ovations as the spirit of unity and moral power of the call for jubilee justice grew. We emerged from the First United Methodist Church to find thousands singing and dancing in the freezing rain and ready to form the human chain.

  The event was by far the biggest demonstration of the power of the Jubilee 2000 movement in the U.S. A quantum leap for the movement was achieved with the massive outpouring of support from U.S. labor. Not only did Sweeney speak at the opening rally and help lead the march through Seattle streets, but he was joined by over 1400 members of the United Steelworkers of America, who voiced their enthusiastic support for debt cancellation.

  There were, of course, many other important events during that week in Seattle, such as the December 1st sessions focusing on Women, Democracy/Sovereignty, and Development, punctuated by a noontime single-file march and the declaration "Women have been silenced for too long and too often!" We marched with tape over our mouths into the newly-declared "No Protest Zone." Other significant events included the CISPES-organized "Voices from the South" Forum; the overnight vigil at the King County jail by hundreds of activists demanding release of the "Seattle 600"; Friday's community-organized "Take Back Our Streets" rally and march; and countless other acts of resistance and civil disobedience throughout the week.

  The power of the events and victories in Seattle must not fade. Within days of leaving Seattle, activists were looking and suggesting ways in which to use the momentum. Consensus has emerged around the week of April 9 through April 16, 2000. On April 9, thousands will gather in Washington, DC debt cancellation mobilization by Jubilee 2000/USA. During the week following that event, organizations involved in the Seattle mobilizations will be hold trainings and events in Washington, culminating in a demonstration of people power outside the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank on Sunday, April 16. Come to Washington, DC and join other activists at the IMF headquarters to let the world‚s finance ministers know that secretive negotiations in support of the oppressive global economic systems will not go unnoticed anywhere in the U.S.!

  So our struggles continue, and in the words of my favorite chant in Seattle: Ain't no power like the people's power 'cuz the people's power don't stop!