All the articles
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Bolkestein returns: EU Commission power grab over services
18 December 2018 - by Corporate Europe Observatory
As early as 2004, the CADTM and other social movements resisted the adoption of the Bolkestein Directive which, in line with the EU’s free trade approach, aimed to define a framework that gives private corporations full and unimpeded access to services, which are thus turned into marketable commodities . Although the extent of the mobilization (...) -
South Africa searches for a financial parachute, now that a $170 billion foreign debt cliff looms
18 December 2018 - by Patrick Bond
Johannesburg – This week’s hush-hush visit by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde to Pretoria (between stops in Ghana and Angola) is mysterious. In contrast to last week’s IMF press briefing claim – “Madame Lagarde will hold meetings with the authorities, as well as fairly extensive meetings with the private sector, (...) -
With its controversial pension reforms, Russia is looking after its rich
17 December 2018 - by Karine Clément
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced a drastic reform of Russia’s pension system this June, just as the World Cup began: the retirement age would be increased from 55 to 63 for women and from 60 to 65 for men. Although President Vladimir Putin tried to stay out of the debate, the announcement caused his approval rating to plummet from 80 (...) -
How do the dominant media manipulate the debt issue?
15 December 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, The Medium
Eric Toussaint talks to The Medium -
Puerto Rico: Successful Campaign against Illegitimate Debt
15 December 2018 - by Eric Toussaint
Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. Its inhabitants, although they have US citizenship, cannot vote for the president of the United States. Puerto Ricans elect a single representative to the US Congress, but this representative has no voting rights. The inhabitants of Puerto Rico do not have the right to elect anyone to the Senate, (...) -
Puerto Rico: Economic reconstruction, debt cancellation, and self-determination
13 December 2018 - by Rafael Bernabe
Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States since the Spanish-American War of 1898. Its trajectory has been exceptional. Along with Cuba, it was one of the last colonies of Spain in the Americas. After 1898 it became a colony of a power, the United States, which historically preferred noncolonial forms of domination. It remains a (...) -
Macron’s Announcements: Smoking to preserve tax injustice and gifts to the rich
13 December 2018 - by Attac France
While the whole country has a strong desire for more social and fiscal justice, Emmanuel Macron has finally spoken out, after three weeks of silence, but refuses to change course. Behind some “social” measures that hide a weakening of social protection and the refusal of a general increase in wages, Emmanuel Macron mainly confirmed the very (...) -
Against the repression of social movements in Greece – an international call
11 December 2018 - by Collective
One of the myths spread by the Greek government and its supporters abroad is that, unlike its predecessors, it does not resort to repression in the face of opposition and resistance to its policies. It is true that the Syriza government has never had to deal with mass mobilizations comparable in scale and duration to those that marked Greece (...) -
Gilets jaunes (yellow vests): learning from history and acting now
11 December 2018 - by Eric Toussaint
Some consider that if you are involved in a movement against a tax (supposed, in theory at least, to redistribute wealth) rather than for higher wages, say (in the broad sense, including social security), you are part of a right-wing movement. This is not so: many revolutionary movements started because the burden of unfair taxes had become (...) -
Vulture funds and governments seek profit from Sudan debt relief
11 December 2018 - by Tim Jones
Today (6 dec 2018) the Financial Times has reported that a group of vulture funds have hired lawyer Lee Buchheit to argue for debt relief for Sudan. They hope that if the North African country gets debt relief from governments and multilateral institutions through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, it will enable the vulture funds (...) -
Behind Puerto Rico’s Debt, Corporations That Drain Profits from the Island
10 December 2018 - by César J. Ayala
The Phenomenal Drain of Profits Beginning in the 1970s, Puerto Rico’s economy began to suffer a drain of profits, to the point where the measure of total income produced in the island, the Gross Domestic Product, began to separate dramatically from the measure of income that residents own, the Gross National Product or GNP. This divergence (...) -
Big Shift Global coalition reacts to the World Bank Group’s post-2020 climate goals announcement
5 December 2018 - by Big Shift Global coalition
On Monday, the World Bank Group released a new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, through which it aims to provide and mobilize $200 billion in support of countries’ climate action over this period. According to the Bank’s press release, it will provide $133 billion in direct finance, and leverage $67 billion in private sector investment as (...) -
Debt & Democracy in Newham: A Citizen audit of LOBO loans
4 December 2018 - by Research For Action
Executive Summary A dramatic withdrawal of central government funding in the last decade has exposed the crisis in local government. Austerity measures are forcing closures of youth centres and libraries, reducing bin collection and increasing council tax; the cuts are also forcing homeless people onto the streets and into crammed, (...) -
Who Owns Puerto Rico’s Debt, Exactly? We’ve Tracked Down 10 of the Biggest Vulture Firms
3 December 2018 - by Joel Cintrón Arbasetti, Carla Minet, Alex V. Hernandez, Jessica Stites, CPIPR, In These Times
Financial firms are still fighting to get billions out of the bankrupt island as it tries to rebuild. Ever since Hurricane Maria and Irma devastated Puerto Rico, a looming question has been what will happen to the island’s $74.8 billion in debt, which had crippled its economy even before the storms hit. Protesters in major U.S. cities on (...) -
Puerto Rico
The COFINA Agreement, Part 2: Profits for the Few
3 December 2018 - by Abner Dennis, Kevin Connor
This is the second installment of a two-part series on the COFINA debt restructuring agreement for Puerto Rico. If the COFINA agreement represents the continuous ruin of their country for the large majority of Puerto Ricans who are working people, for the bondholders, it constitutes a guarantee of immense profits on their investments. The (...) -
Puerto Rico
The COFINA Agreement, Part 1: The First 40 Year Plan
3 December 2018 - by Abner Dennis, Kevin Connor
This is the first installment of a two-part series on the COFINA debt restructuring agreement for Puerto Rico. A major deal around the restructuring of the largest portion of Puerto Rico’s debt cleared an important legislative hurdle this month. As it stands, the deal will bestow massive profits on vulture funds at the direct expense of (...) -
Is Pakistan on the way to living without the IMF?
1 December 2018 - by Abdul Khaliq
Pakistan is perhaps the only country in South Asia with a history of repeated engagements with the IMF – 21 loan agreements since 1959. The last one was concluded in September 2016. Despite that, Pakistan’s economic woes have not been resolved. Its economy is still in bad shape, with soaring debt, a widening current-account deficit and foreign (...) -
Climate scheme hands $105 million profit to global insurance industry
27 November 2018 - by Jubilee Debt Campaign
Caribbean disaster insurance scheme receives $293 million in premium payments and grants, pays out $131 million in claims, with $105 million going as profit to global insurers Figures released ahead of climate change negotiations in Poland show that for the most economically damaging disasters in the 21st Century, in over 80% of cases (...) -
Democracy not for sale
23 November 2018 - by FIAN, Transnational Institute, Agroecopolis
This Report examines the impacts of austerity in Greece on the right to food. It concludes that the Greek State and the Eurozone Member States violated the Greek people’s right to food as a result of the austerity measures required by three Memorandums of Understanding (2010, 2012 and 2015). In other words, the austerity packages imposed on (...) -
Facing the left-wing challenge in the European Union
22 November 2018 - by Eric Toussaint
It is shocking to see that the right-wing government in power in Italy since Summer 2018 refuses to reduce the budgetary deficit while so-called left-wing governments bow to the constraints of austerity. It is now, when the peoples of the Eurozone are ever more disgusted by the policies imposed by European leaders and big capital, that the (...)
CADTM
COMMITTEE FOR THE ABOLITION OF ILLEGITIMATE DEBT
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