31 March 2015 by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
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The Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM) has been working tirelessly since 1990 to demonstrate the relationship between debt and the incapacity of the world economic system to ensure even the most basic rights for hundreds of millions of people in the world.
In the 1990s, the CADTM called attention to the need to build fair relationships between Northern and Southern countries through the abolition of debt. In particular, it stressed the harmful affects on the development of Southern countries of the mechanisms of indebtedness used by the multilateral financial institutions (the International Monetary Fund
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
and the 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.
), the governments of the North via the Paris Club
Paris Club
This group of lender States was founded in 1956 and specializes in dealing with non-payment by developing countries.
, and the major international financial groups.
Even though the CADTM’s priority, as its name indicates, is the abolition of debt in the ‘Third World’ countries, its more general goal is to demonstrate, through its studies and activism, how the ‘debt system’ subjugates people in developing countries and in industrialised countries in the same way. As stated in the Political Charter of the CADTM international network:
Both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, debt is a mechanism used to transfer wealth created by workers and small producers to the benefit of capitalists. Debt is used by lenders as an instrument of political and economic domination.
is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France.
He is the author of Greece 2015: there was an alternative. London: Resistance Books / IIRE / CADTM, 2020 , Debt System (Haymarket books, Chicago, 2019), Bankocracy (2015); The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man (2014); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012, etc.
See his bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Toussaint
He co-authored World debt figures 2015 with Pierre Gottiniaux, Daniel Munevar and Antonio Sanabria (2015); and with Damien Millet Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank: Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers, Monthly Review Books, New York, 2010. He was the scientific coordinator of the Greek Truth Commission on Public Debt from April 2015 to November 2015.
7 September, by Eric Toussaint , Roberto González Amador
1 September, by Eric Toussaint , Jorge Muracciole
10 August, by Eric Toussaint , Ashley Smith
15 July, by Eric Toussaint , Sushovan Dhar , Yuliya Yurchenko
13 July, by Eric Toussaint , Alberto Acosta , Pierre Salama , Joan Martínez Alier , Wilma Salgado , Rosa Sueiro , Aleida Azamar
3 July, by Eric Toussaint
22 June, by Eric Toussaint
20 June, by Eric Toussaint
14 June, by Eric Toussaint
28 May, by Eric Toussaint
23 May, by Eric Toussaint , Sushovan Dhar
20 May, by Eric Toussaint
12 May, by Eric Toussaint , Sushovan Dhar , Ashley Smith , Yuliya Yurchenko
6 April, by Eric Toussaint , Anaïs Carton
20 March, by Eric Toussaint
6 March, by Eric Toussaint
26 February, by Eric Toussaint
26 February, by Eric Toussaint , Anis Germany
11 January, by Eric Toussaint
10 January, by Eric Toussaint , Sushovan Dhar
is a post-Keynesian economist from Bogotá, Colombia. From March to July 2015, he worked as an assistant to former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, advising him on fiscal policy and debt sustainability.
Previously, he was an advisor to the Colombian Ministry of Finance. He has also worked at UNCTAD.
He is one of the leading figures in the study of public debt at the international level. He is a researcher at Eurodad.
22 January 2021, by Eurodad , Daniel Munevar
13 October 2020, by Daniel Munevar
5 June 2020, by Daniel Munevar
20 April 2020, by Daniel Munevar
2 April 2020, by Daniel Munevar
2 April 2020, by Daniel Munevar
27 March 2020, by Eurodad , Daniel Munevar
18 March 2020, by Daniel Munevar
1 April 2017, by Daniel Munevar
23 February 2017, by Daniel Munevar
13 February 2017, by Daniel Munevar
24 January 2017, by Daniel Munevar
3 November 2016, by Daniel Munevar , Renaud Vivien
7 September 2016, by Daniel Munevar
1 August 2016, by Daniel Munevar
25 July 2016, by Daniel Munevar , Sergi Cutillas
24 July 2016, by Daniel Munevar , Chiara Filoni
26 May 2016, by Daniel Munevar
9 May 2016, by Daniel Munevar
8 May 2016, by Daniel Munevar
21 July 2019, by Pierre Gottiniaux
3 December 2016, by Pierre Gottiniaux
27 June 2016, by Pierre Gottiniaux
4 April 2016, by Pierre Gottiniaux
30 December 2015, by Pierre Gottiniaux
30 November 2015, by Pierre Gottiniaux
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
23 February 2015, by Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar , Pierre Gottiniaux , Antonio Sanabria
5 May 2013, by Michel Husson , Ozlem Onaran , Francisco Louça , Nacho Álvarez Peralta , Stavros Tombazos , Bibiana Medialdea , Antonio Sanabria , Jorge Fonseca , Daniel Albarracín , Mariana Mortagua , Giorgos Galanis , Manolo Garí , Teresa Pérez del Río , Lidia Rekagorri Villar