EDITO
February 27, 1953, exactly seventy years ago, the world witnessed an unprecedented agreement. The London Debt Agreement was a landmark international agreement reached between West Germany and its creditors, including the US, the UK, and France in order to reduce the country's debt burden after World War II.The creditors cancelled 60% of Germany's external debt, extended the maturity of the remaining debt, and reduced the interest rates. The agreement also provided for further rescheduling of Germany's payments and established a mechanism for future negotiations in case of need. West Germany rebuilt its economy and became again one of Europe's major economic powers.
The same benefits, however, were denied to a slew of third-world countries strangled by debt. The dominant creditors have no intention of cancelling these debts and enabling true economic development in these countries. We are hopeful that powerful social mobilisation will emerge in indebted countries to force their governments to confront creditors by imposing unilateral debt cancellation. We'd also like to draw readers' attention to the similar silence that surrounded US President Franklin D. Roosevelt's unilateral debt repudiation in 1933.
In an interview with the Lebanese magazine Project Zero, Eric Toussaint aims to construct a common position about debts and their repayment. Abdul Khaliq explains Pakistan’s deep debt crisis and the IMF’s unclear relations with Pakistan.
The Carbon Inequality Report 2023 points out that the effects of warming are unequal, with low and middle-income nations being more exposed to and less equipped to deal with natural disasters like floods and fires than the wealthy countries that have a bigger historical responsibility for climate change. Sushovan Dhar discusses the report and emphasises the link between debt cancellation and climate justice.
David Malpass, President of the World Bank since April 2019, has announced his resignation on or before June 30, 2023. The CADTM thinks that his resignation will not create any new positive opportunities with the Bank. Indeed, we reaffirm the need to abolish the IMF and the World Bank and completely rethink the international financial architecture.
We are happy to present the recordings of the conference on debt, wars, climate change, and food crises in the Global South that took place at the European Parliament on February 9. CADTM, TNI, and many other organisations actively collaborated and participated in this conference.
Also read articles on the economic consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war, slavery justice, the pension struggles in France, the Dakar Declaration, the Santiago Declaration for Public Services, the Davos Forum, and others.
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