Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

While the world suffers from the COVID 19 pandemic,most governments' main concern is to protect the banks, the stock markets and above all big capital. In a series of articles Eric Toussaint unmasks the deceit that puts the onus of the stock market crisis on the pandemic. Indeed, the coronavirus is certainly not the cause but a fuse to ignite the financial markets which are again overloaded with explosive materials. We are hearing the usual lies from central bankers and governments about “aiding the economy” but the actions they take will be against the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population and generate new illegitimate public debts.

Decades of neo-liberal policies have left governments unprepared to face a health crisis of this scale. Moreover, few governments have shown the necessary degree of response in the first place. Jerome Duval takes the example of Europe's only oxygen canister factory which has been shut down and which the French President Macron refuses to nationalise despite calls by the workers to restart production.

The coronavirus pandemic thus reveals the catastrophic effects of the capitalist system and neo-liberal policies on the people. In spite of this, the World Bank and IMF continue to insist on policies that favour only creditors’ interests. However, the people of Ecuador could, as they did in 2007-2008 and 2019, confront their creditors. On March 23, the National Assembly adopted a resolution to mobilize all the State's resources to protect itself from the virus and called for the suspension of debt payments. The government still paid $325 million on March 24, but the story is not over. David Otieno exposes similar IMF manoeuvre in Kenya and explains why Kenya needs debt cancellation and not more loans which will only add fuel to the fire.

Also in this issue we look back at the Manifesto for a new popular internationalism in Europe and continue the series exposing the World Bank and the IMF with three articles: “Why the Marshall Plan?”, “Why the 1953 cancellation of German debt won’t be reproduced for Greece and Developing Countries” and “ Domination of the United States on the World Bank”.

We present several other articles on coronavirus, covering different facets of its impacts on the people of the world and possible solutions to help them tackle this dire situation. Other topics covered in this issue includes the Mozambique debt, BRICS, Algerian revolution, South African financial crisis, etc.

Developing the website in four languages (French, Spanish, English and Portuguese) and the electronic bulletins in three languages ( French, English, Spanish) are a couple, among the numerous projects of CADTM. A new site set up recently and we hope likewise to provide more articles for a possible maximum number of readers around the world. The members of the CADTM international network will actively participate in the research and production of articles so that we can provide you with better information.
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