Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Due to the number of journalists present and the small size of the office, the conference took place in four sittings, starting at 10:15 and lasting until 12:30.

The following issues, among others, were discussed: what are CADTM international and CADTM AYNA (Latin America and Caribbean) networks and why meet in Haiti, the global capitalist crisis and the crisis in Europe, the necessity of a real Latin American and Caribbean integration, the consequences and alternatives to the United Nations military occupation of Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the current state of the global capitalist crisis.

A summary of the most important points raised and the replies

Eric Toussaint presented CADTM International, its history, its permanent support to international struggles and mobilisations, its contributions to analysis of political contradictions and crises as a working instrument for social movements. Eric Toussaint put special emphasis on the experience of the public debt audit in Ecuador in 2004 and gave an overview of the current capitalist crisis.

Camille Chambers presented his organisation, the PAPDA, its prospects and struggles, the strategies of struggle and resistance of the Haitian social movements in the present situation. Camille Chalmers welcomed the decision of the President of Uruguay to withdraw Uruguayan troops from Haiti.

María Elena Saludas pointed out the importance of building alternatives and of unifying the various social struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the need to analyse the global crisis and to seek ways of struggle that respect the environment and natural resources.

Claude Quemar analysed the crises of debt domination and of natural resources within the crisis of their capitalist framework, supported the restitution to Haiti of the historical debt France had exacted in 1825 and held that the debt system is a means of neocolonial domination.

Jorge Marchini described relations between CADTM and Haiti, denounced the way [that] official cooperation with Haiti had not taken on the promised form and the contradiction [that exists] between the solidarity of the Latin American peoples with Haiti and the decision of various governments to maintain their occupying troops in the country. Concerning the decision of the Uruguayan President to bring his 850 troops home, he asks that a country with such democratic traditions as Uruguay send in their place 850 teachers, educators, engineers and others to truly contribute to the fundamental necessities of the Haitian people while respecting their sovereign decisions.

Ramiro Chimuris claimed that the United Nations military occupation transgressed international law and the non intervention principle, and the self-determination of the Haitian people. Today’s capitalism is anthropophagic, predatory and destructive of natural resources. New models of alternative integration must be developed.

Translation : Mike Krolikowski and Christine Pagnoule