All the articles
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Part 12: Centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Repudiation of Debt
Reasserting debt repudiation ends with success
20 September 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
Before the Genoa conference, Soviet Russia had managed to sign bilateral treaties with Poland, the Baltic Republics, Turkey and Persia. More importantly, it had managed to sign a trade agreement with the UK. Signed in 1921, this agreement had sanctioned the Soviet laws of nationalization before UK courts and this meant that companies that (...) -
Portugal’s Debt Repudiation in 1837
19 September 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
After an armed struggle for succession that lasted from 1831 to 1834, Queen Maria of Portugal repudiated a loan issued in 1833 by the self-proclaimed king, Dom Miguel. She justified the repudiation by saying that bankers should not have lent money to a usurper. The loan had been issued in Paris in 1833 through the bankers Outrequin and Jauche (...) -
Yanis Varoufakis’s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination
How Tsípras, with Varoufakis’s aid, turned his back on Syriza’s platform
18 September 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
Yanis Varoufakis traces his collaboration with Alexis Tsípras and his alter ego, Nikos Pappas, back to 2011. That collaboration gradually broadened, starting with 2013, to include Yanis Dragasakis (who became vice-Prime Minister in 2015). There is a constant in the relations between Varoufakis and Tsípras: Yanis Varoufakis constantly argues for (...) -
As tensions increase with North Korea, the South Korean miracle is exposed
17 September 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
To understand the current tensions with North Korea, you need to be familiar with the history of the two Koreas after the Second World War and the Korean War and the roles played by Japan and the United States in the area, and to analyze the reasons behind the economic success of South Korea. We include here a paper by Eric Toussaint on the (...) -
IMF Ukraine programme’s impact on women’s rights criticised at Human Rights Council
SUMMARY * WILPF submitted statement to HRC criticising IMF Ukraine programme * Statement argued programme’s harsh conditionalities hurt women * Called for human rights based approach to macro policy making In May the Geneva-based Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) submitted a written statement to the UN Human Rights (...) -
Part 11: Series: Centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Repudiation of Debt
Debt— Lloyd George blames the Soviets
11 September 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
In the final plenary conference, Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, made a revealing reply: "There is a real sympathy for Russia’s condition. If Russia is to get help, Russia must not outrage the sentiments — if they like, let them call them the prejudices — of the world. (…) what are these prejudices? I will just name one or two, because (...) -
First as tragedy, now as farce: lessons from 12 August 1982
11 September 2017 - by Mark Perera
As the saying goes, history repeats itself because no one was listening the first time. This month marks the 35th anniversary of an event that sparked a debt crisis across the developing world. It was a crisis triggered by low interest rates in the Global North, a reckless boom in lending and borrowing to Southern countries over-reliant on (...) -
A People’s Forum on OBOR and BRICS meets in Hong Kong
6 September 2017 - by Robin Lee
Over the weekend (2nd-3rd September) more than 100 participants met in Hong Kong for a People’s Forum on One Belt, One Road (OBOR) and BRICS. As BRICS leaders begin to meet for their 9th BRICS summit in Xiamen this week and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council prepares to host its second Belt and Road summit in Hong Kong aiming to attract (...) -
Mozambique’s illegitimate hidden debt
6 September 2017 - by Claude Quémar
The report on the audit on Mozambique’s “hidden” debt (2 billion dollars) made at the request of the Attorney General of Mozambique, began to circulate in late June 2017, several months behind schedule. Only the findings are currently available. They are clear: beyond the limits specified by the US cabinet Kroll: a large part of these loans are (...) -
The Road to the Greek Hell is Paved with False EU and IMF Statistics
5 September 2017 - by Leonidas Vatikiotis
A new blatant intervention of the European Commission was triggered by the decision of the third Court of Appeal of Athens on August 1st, on the hearing of the former President of ELSTAT (Hellenic Statistical Authority), Andreas Georgiou, for repeated breach of duty. The provocative intervention of the European Commission (indication of their (...) -
Series: Centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Repudiation of Debt
Genoa (1922): proposals and, counter-proposals on the Tsarist debt
4 September 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
On 20 April 1922, Chicherin announced the Soviet response to the Western powers’ proposals of 15 April. It indicated that: “The Russian delegation are still of the opinion that the present economic condition of Russia and the circumstances which are responsible for it should fully justify the complete release of Russia from all her liabilities (...) -
Yanis Varoufakis’s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination
Varoufakis’s questionable account of the origins of the Greek crisis and his surprising relations with the political class
1 September 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
In his latest book Adults in the Room, Yanis Varoufakis gives us his version of the reasons behind the Tsipras government’s shameful capitulation in July 2015. It essentially analyses the period 2009-2015, though it makes incursions into earlier periods. In my first article on the subject of this book, I analysed critically the proposals made (...) -
BRICS Xiamen summit doomed by centrifugal economics
30 August 2017 - by Patrick Bond
The Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa summit in Xiamen from September 3-5 is already inscribed with high tension thanks to Sino-Indian border conflicts. But regardless of a welcome new peace deal, centrifugal forces within the fast-whirling world economy threaten to divide the BRICS. South Africa, which plays host to the BRICS in 2018, is (...) -
Judge Declares World Bank Immunity Cases “Wrongly Decided”; Indian Plaintiffs Ask D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to Review “Absolute Immunity” Doctrine
30 August 2017 - by EarthRights International
After a federal judge declared that cases giving the World Bank Group “absolute immunity” from lawsuits were “wrongly decided,” communities represented by EarthRights International (ERI) have filed a petition asking the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit its immunity doctrine. In June, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled that (...) -
Part 9 of the Series: Centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Repudiation of Debt
The Soviet counter-attack: the Treaty of Rapallo, 1922
28 August 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
The London report presented in the previous chapter was such a deliberate provocation on the part of Western powers that the Soviet delegation immediately got in touch with the German delegation, which Paris and London had somehow prevented from fully attending the Genoa Conference. France and Britain were hoping that they could coax the (...) -
Yanis Varoufakis’s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination — Part One: Proposals Doomed to Fail
24 August 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
In his latest book, Adults in the Room (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...), Yanis Varoufakis gives us his version of the events that led to the Tsipras government’s shameful capitulation in July 2015. It essentially analyses the period 2009-2015, though it makes incursions into earlier periods. With this voluminous work (550 pages), Yanis (...) -
Part 8 of the Series: Centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Repudiation of Debt
In 1922 creditor powers again attempt to subjugate the Soviets
22 August 2017 - by Eric Toussaint
Western governments presented a full list of demands aimed at solving in their favour the litigation over debt repudiation and expropriations decreed by the Soviet government. Those demands were presented in Genoa on 15 April 1922, five days into the conference, in a document entitled “London Experts’ Report on the Russian issue.” Western demands (...) -
Colonialism’s new clothes: The EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa
22 August 2017 - by GRAIN
Since 2002, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have negotiated a reciprocal free trade agreement known as the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU). While it was marketed as the magic bullet towards the ACP countries’ industrialisation and development, it is in fact an unfair agreement that is anchored in (...) -
Debtors can exercise power when they join together
22 August 2017 - by Ann Larson, Laura Hanna, Patrick Saurin
Interview of Ann Larson and Laura Hanna (Debt Collective), by Patrick Saurin (CADTM) The Debt Collective, Strike Debt, and the Rolling Jubilee: How were these movements born and how are they related? The Debt Collective is a culmination of organizing and activist work that grew out of Occupy Wall Street in 2011. Many of us who had participated (...) -
Falling BRICS endanger their citizens’ health, starting with South Africa’s Jacob Zuma
21 August 2017 - by Patrick Bond
As he launched the African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank (NDB) in Johannesburg on Thursday, nearly 18 months behind schedule, South African President Jacob Zuma must have had mixed feelings. Strife-riven Brazil, Russia, India and China are more risky allies than Zuma reckoned when in 2010 he accepted Beijing’s invitation to join (...)
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