Brazil: No to Foreign Debt

The National Plebiscite on the Foreign Debt in Brazil
Jubilee 2000 Campaign, for a millennium without debt

The Plebiscite confirms: Life over debt!

More than five million Brazilians participated in the National Plebiscite on
the Foreign Debt.

This was an initiative unique in our history: a voluntarily attended
plebiscite, organized by civil society, carried out smoothly and transparently
in all the constituencies of the Federation, and involving nearly 100,000
volunteers from churches, social movements, political parties, professional
organizations and public authorities.

Only a few times in our history have such diverse entities united around a
common cause like this one. It happened with the "Petroleum is Ours" campaign
in the 1950s. It happened with the Basic Reforms campaign in the 1960s. It
happened with the Amnesty campaign in the 1970s. It happened with the Direct
Elections campaign in the 1980s. It happened with the campaign for the
removal of ex?president Collor in the 1990s.

And now it is happening with the National Plebiscite on the Foreign Debt,
which solicited the popular opinion on three issues:

Should the Brazilian government maintain its present agreement with the
International Monetary Fund?

Should Brazil continue paying the foreign debt without holding a public audit
of the debt, as stipulated in the Constitution of 1988?

Should the federal, state, and municipal governments continue using a large
part of the public budget to pay the internal debts of speculators?

More than 90% of the voters answered "no" to each of these questions.

The success of the Plebiscite transcends the number of voters who expressly
participated. We have achieved four major goals:

The theme of the debts, which had been covered up, became once again part of
the national debate.

We accomplished an important act of political education.

Millions of people were shown two of the causes of the serious economic and
social crisis affecting the country: the politics of indebtedness and the
agreement with the IMF.

We contributed to the world campaign of questioning the mechanisms and
entities of the international financial system, and to the solidarity with
highly indebted nations.

The Plebiscite achieved its objectives, despite the stance of most of the
media.

The federal government, for its part, issued gross attacks on the initiative,
putting pressure on the sponsoring organizations and deceiving society with
incorrect information, encouraged by an obscurantist prejudice against any
idea out of tune with the official ideology.

This attitude reveals an increasingly evident characteristic of the economic
model now implanted in Brazil: with all its disciples in the media, the
business and financial world, and among the so-called "opinion makers", the
model does not support controversy within an open space for exchanging ideas.

For a decade, the country has been adopting this economic orientation, based
on external dependence and indebtedness and playing on the fear that an
interruption in the flow of capital will produce a collapse.

Called upon to express their opinion on the debts and the IMF agreement, a
significant part of the population took a position on topics, which the
Government prefers to have treated only by its specialists.

The Plebiscite demonstrated that indebtedness is not a technical affair, to be
debated only by economic and financial theoreticians.

The Plebiscite also made clear that a just cause, capable of mobilizing
popular organizations and, most importantly, millions of ordinary citizens,
does not require enormous financial resources.

We staged a campaign, which was modest in material terms, without the
necessary volume of publicity tools for an initiative of this magnitude.

But what we lacked in apparatus was compensated for by tens of millions of
volunteers who, spontaneously and enthusiastically, and even in remote
regions, promoted debates, produced their own publicity materials, printed
voting cards, and provided ballot boxes.

The Plebiscite is not limited to saying "no" to the debt, "no" to speculation,
and "no" to the IMF agreement.

The Plebiscite also represented a "yes" to another economic model, which holds
the promotion of life as one of its fundamental values.

Our mobilization continues, now around an Audit of the Debt, an Official
Plebiscite, the formulation of an alternative economic and social development
model, and in Brazil's participation in the international Jubilee South
campaign.

The most important aspect of the National Plebiscite on the External Debt -
which took place symbolically during the week commemorating Brazil's
independence - is that it constitutes a condemnation of the exploitation in
which the greater part of our people are submerged.

May this cry be heard in every corner of our country and of the world, and may
its energy be multiplied in the continuing struggle for a Brazil of equality,
democracy, and life.

Life Over Debt!
Brasilia, September 13, 2000

The promoting bodies of the National Plebiscite on the Foreign Debt.

(Abridged version: see the complete text in Spanish or Portuguese).