France

Thomas Piketty and public debt

14 January 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

Thomas Piketty recently published an opinion in the newspaper Le Monde, “1789-2019, the return of debt”, (in french) which deserves to be read. We republish an article by Éric Toussaint on the positions of Thomas Piketty and that of CADTM on public debt. This text remains largely relevant (...)
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 (...)
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 (...)
Egypt: a repression made in France

9 July 2018 - by FIDH

A new report reveals today how the French State and several French companies have participated in the bloody Egyptian repression of the past five years by supplying Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime with military and surveillance equipment. By supplying Egyptian security services and law enforcement (...)
Cameroon: He testified against Bolloré: “Of course I’m worried”

20 April 2018 - by Véronique Groussard, Emmanuel Elong

Emmanuel Elong, the farmer who came from Cameroon specifically for the lawsuit filed by the Bolloré group against France 2, tells of the psychological pressure you are under when you confront a major group in Africa. Emmanuel Elong is an independent grower in Cameroon. His village lies within (...)
No TAV: feeding the fire of resistance in northern Italy

18 January 2018 - by Frank Barat

The decades-old struggle of the No TAV movement in northern Italy is an inspiration to environmentalist and anti-capitalist movements worldwide. When I get to Turin airport, on a warm autumn day, the smell of smoke is overwhelming. The weather forecast on my phone shows me a big bright sun, (...)
Haiti: From trafficking to debt

11 November 2017 - by Jérôme Duval

This Caribbean country is not in debt, it is a creditor. It is France which owes it money. Explanation by Jerome Duval, of CADTM. Translated by Jenny Bright. Poverty in colonised countries has greatly increased due to a transfer of debt: the debts incurred by the colonial powers to the World (...)
France, Presidential Elections : Ten Proposals to Beat the European Union

18 April 2017 - by Eric Toussaint, Costas Lapavitsas, Stathis Kouvelakis, Olivier Besancenot, Zoe Konstantopoulou, Miguel Urbán Crespo, Marina Albiol, Teresa Rodríguez, Rommy Arce, Angela Klein

It is again clear from the current election campaign in France that a large proportion of the population wants left-wing radical solutions to exit the crisis. The impressive number of people attending Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s rallies and joining his movement La France Insoumise is evidence enough as (...)
When France Used the Public Debt to Colonise Morocco

17 February 2017 - by Adam Barbe

It is now widely recognised that the French protectorate over Morocco was acquired thanks to that country’s public debt. Guy de Maupassant in Bel Ami (1885) alludes to this possibility twenty years before the event! Yet still today many historians fantasise about secret financial and diplomatic (...)
Lagarde Trial: A business class get-out-of-jail free card

5 January 2017 - by CADTM France, CADTM Belgium

The committee for the abolition of illegitimate debts reacts to the French Court of Justice’s verdict, exempting the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On Monday 19th of December 2016, the French Court of Justice gave its verdict on the Tapie case: Nicolas Sarkozy’s (...)
The LuxLeaks and Lagarde trials: for how much longer will the judiciary protect financial delinquents?

20 December 2016 - by CADTM France, CADTM Switzerland , CADTM Belgium , Attac Luxembourg, CADTM Spain

LuxLeaks trial: the wrong ones are in the dock! On 12th December the trial of Antoine Deltour, Raphaël Halet and Edouard Perrin – the two whistleblowers and the journalist who brought the Luxleaks scandal out into the open— opened again in Luxembourg. In June 2016, Edouard Perrin was acquitted (...)
Gabon: France calls for calm after 50 years of support to the Bongo regime

8 September 2016 - by Survie

Voting for the presidential election in Gabon took place on Saturday 27th August. While Ali Bongo seems to have lost the election, according to results produced by the opposition at the exit polls, he decided, as in 2009, to impose himself by force. Since Wednesday evening, various events (...)
Let’s strike back! Towards a Global debout, against Loi Travail and neoliberal European labor reforms!

17 May 2016 - by Blockupy Frankfurt

Blockupy International supports the convergence of struggles that is currently taking place in France against the Labor Bill and its system and austerity policies which are creating a society of injustice, precarity and inequalities. The movement has continuously grown over the last two (...)
France’s Nuit Debout movement: Overturning a World

13 May 2016 - by Stathis Kouvelakis, Frédéric Lordon

France’s Nuit Debout movement has the potential to not just defeat a single law, but to move beyond defensive struggles. After a month of occupations, France’s Nuit Debout movement is beginning to confront crucial questions about its political goals and how to move forward. Among other issues, (...)
April 28^th: Blockupy goes Paris and Nuit Debout!

28 April 2016 - by Blockupy Frankfurt

Blockupy International Coordination sends a strong message of solidarity to all those who are fighting now against the labor bill imposed by the French government, a fight that is taken up by young and old, by industry and precarious workers, by migrants and students. It is contested not just (...)
International call by #NuitDebout

18 April 2016 - by NuitDebout

We call on peoples movements across the world to mobilise for justice and real democracy on the 15 of May, 2016 for a #GLOBALDEBOUT. We invite you to come to Paris for an International Gathering of movements at Place de la Republic on May 7 and 8. Today #46mars (April 15) is just two weeks (...)
Nuit Debout’s call, place de la République Paris, 8^th April 2016

Since 31 March, we are settled on Republic square (in Paris) and on many other places everywhere throughout France. Our mobilisation was initially aimed at protesting against the French Labour Law. This reform is not an isolated case, since it comes as a new piece in the austerity measures (...)
Thursday March 31^st 2016, After the demonstration don’t go home, let’s occupy the square !

The new draft of the Labour Law has mobilized so many people across France because, whilst pushing injustice ever further, it has now hit bearable limits. Our rulers are stuck in the obsession that perpetuates a collapsing system that demands increasingly backward ‘reforms’, and always submits to (...)
Are Climate Advocates not Welcome in France for COP21?

3 November 2015 - by Sophie Chapelle

The French government is set to reintroduce border controls for a month, over the period of the International Climate Conference in Paris. This exceptional measure is taken “where there is a serious threat to public policy or internal security”. It appears that civil society, which is planning on (...)
Mobilizing collectively against climate change throughout 2015

16 April 2015 - by Coalition Climat 21

To build the pressure needed for ambitious and just climate action, and transformational and sustainable public policies, close to 100 civil society organisations have collectively foundedthe French platform Coalition Climat 21. The fight for a safe climate for all neither begins nor ends (...)
Promising developments for a citizens’ debt audit in France

16 March 2012 - by Damien Millet

Third world countries have been facing a debt crisis and its consequences since the 1980s. The IMF and its creditors have imposed structural adjustment programmes on them, maintaining these economies in a state of subjection and causing social destruction, while opening up the floodgates of (...)
Poor People Can’t Be Engineers

Newsweek recently ran an article on money laundering in Latin America. It identified Nicaragua’s ex-President Arnoldo Aleman as one of a super-corrupt elite along with Mexico’s Carlos Salinas and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo. But, these individuals barely reach the ankles of their United States (...)