Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

The choice of location is deliberate and significant. Ballyhea and Charleville are the homes of the small but determined communities showing consistent opposition to Ireland’s illegitimate banking debt. Indeed, as part of this weekend’s events, campaigners will join the Ballyhea Says No campaign to march in their 141^st week of protest against the illegitimate payments of over €64 billion in socialised banking debt. We join with the Ballyhea campaign in saying that these debts are not the debts of the people of Ireland.
On our 20^th anniversary, Debt and Development Coalition calls for the non-payment of the nearly €30 billion in remaining Anglo bonds and for agreement on how the people of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe are to be compensated for the further billions already lost to our gambling banks.

Solutions must be based on international solidarity

But we don’t want compensation for Ireland at the cost of people in other countries, who have been living in debt crises for far longer than we have in Europe. Solutions must be based on international solidarity. This weekend campaigners will contextualize the Irish struggle for debt justice within the myriad and ongoing campaigns across all continents of the world. Our purpose is to highlight that we are not alone in this battle. And that unjustly indebted people, when united, are a powerful force.
Our involvement with the global debt cancellation movement has taught us this.
Through mass global protest over two decades, debt cancellation deals reached in 1996, 1999 and 2005 cancelled US$130 billion of World Bank World Bank
WB The World Bank was founded as part of the new international monetary system set up at Bretton Woods in 1944. Its capital is provided by member states’ contributions and loans on the international money markets. It financed public and private projects in Third World and East European countries.

It consists of several closely associated institutions, among which :

1. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 189 members in 2017), which provides loans in productive sectors such as farming or energy ;

2. The International Development Association (IDA, 159 members in 1997), which provides less advanced countries with long-term loans (35-40 years) at very low interest (1%) ;

3. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides both loan and equity finance for business ventures in developing countries.

As Third World Debt gets worse, the World Bank (along with the IMF) tends to adopt a macro-economic perspective. For instance, it enforces adjustment policies that are intended to balance heavily indebted countries’ payments. The World Bank advises those countries that have to undergo the IMF’s therapy on such matters as how to reduce budget deficits, round up savings, enduce foreign investors to settle within their borders, or free prices and exchange rates.

, IMF IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.

When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.

As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).

The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.

http://imf.org , African Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank loans to Africa, Asia and Latin America. But these outcomes have also taught us the costs that can come with negotiated settlements with creditors. This is because the cancellations were provided on condition of disastrous economic policies such as privatization and liberalization of domestic markets and enforced clearance of debt arrears.
These lessons teach us that indebted governments, through calling for multi-lateral negotiations or by taking direct action, must always seek to challenge the dominant role of the creditor. And we, the people, must apply consistent pressure to ensure our governments act in our interests.
The global debt justice movement draws on many inspiring examples of this in action.

Argentina and Grenada

In Latin America there is the much mis-represented Argentine debt default which forced the majority of creditors to accept 25-30 cent in the dollar on their loans. In Charleville this weekend, Dr Alan Cibils, chair of the Political Economy Department at the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento in Buenos Aires will re-balance Balance End of year statement of a company’s assets (what the company possesses) and liabilities (what it owes). In other words, the assets provide information about how the funds collected by the company have been used; and the liabilities, about the origins of those funds. the debate about Argentina’s decision. His work highlights the unavoidable necessity for governments to tackle unsustainable debt levels and outlines the benefits that arise from treating non-payment of unsustainable or unjust debt as an effective policy option for governments in crisis.
While the Irish Government appears to believe that there are no policy options beyond full debt repayment, the small plucky Caribbean island state of Grenada is taking a different route. Last March, Grenada was unable to pay its debts to its international creditors. In a ground breaking development last month, the Minister for Economic Development in Grenada announced that they are calling a debtor-creditor conference in order to negotiate debt cancellation with their creditors.
Indeed, Grenada is mirroring the precedent of the massive debt write down achieved by Germany in 1953, through the London Debt Accord, which comprehensively relieved Germany of about 50% of its sovereign, commercial and personal debts.

We are paying off debts that are not our own – but through consistent, popular resistance, our society can be free of this crisis, writes Nessa Ní Chasaide.

The people have the most power

Around the world, grassroots movements continue to call on their governments to act for justice. In 2012, in addition to mass protest, people in Portugal sang some of their national anthem “the people have the most power” wherever government ministers appeared. In El Salvador workers went on strike for nine months forcing their government to reverse a health privatization plan. In Greece, workers in Thessaloniki took control of their factory, abandoned by its owners. In Tunisia many hundreds of strikes have been held since 2011 under the banner ‘we don’t owe, we won’t pay’.
The events in Ballyhea and Charleville this weekend are a poignant moment for reflection on these global struggles. Instead of mourning the ongoing debt crises in the Global South and in Europe, this weekend we will focus on the international connectedness of people living with unjust debts. From Ballyhea to Buenos Aries and from Athens to Islamabad, people around the world are consistently opposing unjust sovereign debt Sovereign debt Government debts or debts guaranteed by the government. payments.
We celebrate our successes and learn from campaign setbacks, but above all we take the long view – that unjust debts should not be paid and it is through consistent people’s resistance that this may be achieved.

Nessa Ní Chasaide is coordinator of Debt and Development Coalition Ireland. She tweets from @Debt_Ireland.

The full programme for the events in Ballyhea/Charleville on Sat 9^th and Sun 10^th November can be found here.

Source: http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/readme/we-won%E2%80%99t-give-up-the-fight-for-international-debt-justice-1163708-Nov2013/