Powerful people in Parliament, like Wilberforce, took up the cause, but it needed the agreement and support of thousands of ordinary people to ensure the destruction of the slave trade. In the same way, the oppression of the debts of the poorest countries could be ended by the year 2000. Then the world could begin the new millennium with new hope for the poor, and a new start for international relations. One major hindrance to the abolition of slavery was the powerful plantation owners in the West Indies whose interests were best served by preserving the slave trade. In the same way now it is in the short-term interest of many Western nations to maintain strong influence over the poorer countries of the world.
Justice demands that richer countries give up unfair privileges, held at the expense of the poor.
If creditors agree to remission of debts, the removal of a restraint on growth could allow poor countries to compete on fairer terms and reduce their dependence on the rich parts of the world. There are people in positions of power in both North and South eager to see a fairer world with debts cancelled and the balance of power between creditors and debtors altered. But the support of thousands of people in the South and North is needed to pressurise decision-makers in creditor and debtor governments into carrying through such a fundamental change. You can be one of them.