2nd summer university of CADTM Europe

21 June 2011 by CADTM

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The 2nd summer university of CADTM Europe, the highlight of the year, was held from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd July at Wépion (Belgium) and was a great success with over 300 participants, including the sun.

This moment was important to look back upon past, and forward to coming, events as well as our responses and analyses, in a relaxed atmosphere.
The diversity of discussed issues (European crisis, environmental debt, neocolonialism, feminist struggles, etc.) and guest speakers met all expectations.



In our first summer university (2009) we had developed a collective analysis about the global crisis of capitalism and the resistances and alternatives which could be opposed. As in 2009, and even more so, the 2nd summer university of CADTM Europe gave us an opportunity to examine the development of the international crisis and build a much needed response against the debt and austerity measures at a European level. Indeed, with the help of the 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 and the European Commission, Capital and the leaders of European countries are determined to have the majority of workers and unemployed pay for their crisis.

More than 300 participants and 25 workshops analyzed the crisis that hits EU countries, the US, Japan, Iceland. Was also addressed the new forms of colonialism 50 years after declarations of independence in African countries, current developments in Asia (China, Thailand,…), alternatives implemented in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. We considered issues related to the defence of the environment, women’s struggles, human rights, the legal foundations for debt cancellation, current social struggles, and many others. Our summer university was also an opportunity to share Share A unit of ownership interest in a corporation or financial asset, representing one part of the total capital stock. Its owner (a shareholder) is entitled to receive an equal distribution of any profits distributed (a dividend) and to attend shareholder meetings. our pedagogical tools and practices.

You will soon find below, the reports of the workshops in various forms (slide shows, mp3, videos ...) and photos.

Interviews réalisées par Chris Den Hond au cours de l’université d’été

- Interview de Myriam Bourgy, secrétaire générale du CADTM Belgique
- Interview de Christine Vanden Daelen du CADTM Belgique
- Interview de Pauline Imbach du CADTM Belgique
- Interview de Yorgos Mitralias du Giorgos Mitralias, Comité grec contre la dette
- Interview de Darius Zalega, collaborateur de l’édition polonaise du Monde Diplomatique

 Friday 1st July

9.30-11.00 - Welcome of the participants
11.00-12.30 -Opening Plenary

With Eric Toussaint (president of CADTM Belgium), Sonia Mitralias (CADTM Greece)

Plénière d’ouverture
Lunch
14.30-16.30 : parallel workshops
Public debt in France and Belgium

With Pascal Franchet (CADTM France), Olivier Bonfond (CADTM Belgium)

La dette publique de la France et de la Belgique - P.Franchet et O.Bonfond
Ecological debt : global approach

With Eric De Ruest (CADTM Belgium), Jean Gadrey (ATTAC France)

Dette écologique Approche globale - J.Gadrey et É.De Ruest
Why should we still be feminist today?

With Céline Caudron, the group "Féminismes" of CADTM Belgium, Khadija Ounchif (Solidarity association with arab women), Laure Jouteaux (Osez le Féminisme, Belgique), Monika Karbowska (CADTM France)

 FR
Island, Ireland : from heaven to hell with the financial markets

With Yvette and Mike Krolikowski (CADTM France), Andy Storey (UCD Dublin), Jerome Duval (Patas Arriba/CADTM Spain)

Islande - Y&M.Krolikowski

Ireland debt - A.Storey
Which financing for which development ?

With CADTM, Gérard Karlhausen (CNCD, National Center for Cooperation to Developpement, Belgium), Virginie de Romanet (CADTM Belgique)

V.de Romanet
Break
17.00-18.30 : parallel workshops
Let us clip the wings of vulture funds Vulture funds
Vulture fund Investment funds who buy, on the secondary markets and at a significant discount, bonds once emitted by countries that are having repayment difficulties, from investors who prefer to cut their losses and take what price they can get in order to unload the risk from their books. The Vulture Funds then pursue the issuing country for the full amount of the debt they have purchased, not hesitating to seek decisions before, usually, British or US courts where the law is favourable to creditors. !

With Nick Dearden (Jubilee Debt Campaign, UK), Renaud Vivien (CADTM Belgium)

Fonds vautours - N.Dearden

Fonds vautours - R.Vivien
Alternatives implemented in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia

With Eric Toussaint (CADTM Belgium), Gonzalo Gomez (Aporrea.org, Marea Socialista), Manuel Sutherland (Asociación latinoamericana de Economistas Marxistas-ALEM, CADTM), Paulino Nunez (CADTM Venezuela)

 FR-ESP
China, big winner of the crisis ?

With Jean Sanuk and Danielle Sabai

La montée en puissance de la Chine - J.Sanuk
String game on debt

Pedagogical tool

 FR
The United States public debt

With Daniel Munevar (CADTM AYNA)

 FR-ENG-ESP
Lunch
20.00 : Discussion on arabs revolutions FR-ENG-ESP

 Saturday 2nd July

9.30-12.30 : parallel workshops
Debt crisis in Europe

With Pascal Franchet (CADTM France), Darius Zalega (journalist with Monde diplomatique, member of CADTM Poland), Giorgos Mitralias (CADTM Greece), Nick Dearden (Jubilee Debt Campaign, UK)

Crise dette Europe

Dette Pologne - D.Zalega
Asia (Bangladesh, Thailand, ...) and public debt of Japan

With Jean Sanuk, Danielle Sabai, Daniel Munevar (CADTM AYNA)

Sortir de la crise sans Le FMI L’exemple de l’Asie - J.Sanouk

La microfinance Mythes et réalité - D.Sabai

Dette publique du Japon - D.Munevar (Eng)

Asie - J.Sanouk

D.Sabai - La microfinance Mythes et réalité
Ill-gotten gains

With Claude Quémar (CADTM France), Thomas Borrel (SURVIE), André Rothenbühler (Action Place financière Suisse)

Biens mal acquis - T.Borrel

Biens mal acquis - A.Rothenbühler

Biens mal acquis - C.Quemar

Biens mal acquis - T.Borrel

Biens mal acquis - A.Rothenbühler
World Social Forum ? And after

With Olivier Bonfond (CADTM Belgium), Monica Karbowska, Josie Riffaud (Via Campesina))

 FR
Sudestan

Pedagogical tool on debt

 FR
Lunch
14.30-16.30 : parallel workshops
Alternatives to debt crisis in Europe

With Eric Toussaint (CADTM Belgium), Jean-Marie Harribey (ATTAC France)

E.Toussaint

J-M.Harribey
Lumumba and Sankara: revolutions in the past and social movement in the present

With Antoine Souef (SURVIE), Bruno Jaffré (author of a biography of Thomas Sankara), Pauline Imbach (CADTM Belgium/Collectif Mémoires coloniales)

 FR
Instrumentalisation and recuperation of the feminine and feminist Movements by the International institutions

With Stéphanie Treillet (Master of conference, IUFM-Paris XII Créteil, NPA), Group Féminismes of CADTM Belgium

 FR
Land grabbing and plundering exploitation of natural resources

Emmanuelle Breiner, Josie Riffaud (Via Campesina)

 FR-ESP
The need to file a suit against the WB 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.

 and the IMF!

With Renaud Vivien (CADTM Belgique), Jérôme Duval (Patas arriba/CADTM Espagne)

Comptes BM FMI - R.Vivien

Comptes BM FMI - J.Duval
17.00-18.30 : Plenary
Mobilizations against the debt and austerity measures in Europe

Jean-Marie Harribey (ATTAC France), Andrej Hunko (député Die Linke, Achen) Allemagne, Darius Zalega (Pologne), Esther Vivas (Gauche anticapitaliste, Catalogne), Giorgos Mitralias (CADTM Grèce), Giorgos Galanix (Coalition of Resistances, UK), Eric Toussaint (CADTM Belgique)

Plénière du samedi - Mobilisations contre la dette et l’austérité en Europe
Lunch
20.00 : Music! Party time

 Sunday 3rd July

9.30-12.30 : parallel workshops
Impact of austerity measures on women. Feminist alternatives to debt

With Monika Karbowska, Sonia Mitralias (CADTM Greece), Christine Vanden Daelen (CADTM Belgium), Judith Morva (economist, coordinator of Le Monde Diplomatique in Hungary)

C.Vanden Daelen

J.Morva
From independence to political sovereignty : ALBA, Bank of the South

With Daniel Munevar (CADTM AYNA), Franck Gaudichaud(France Amérique latine, co-author of Le Volcan latino-américain)

D.Munevar

F.Gaudichaud
Freedom of movement for people: a fundamental right, what European policies?

With France Arets (spokeperson of the Collective for Resistance to the Close Centers for Aliens - CRACPE), Olivier Stein (Progress Law), Benoit Vander Meerscheen

 FR
Legal arguments to cancel public debts

With Renaud Vivien (CADTM Belgique)

Annulation dettes - R.Vivien
World Bank and « green funds »

With Jérémie Cravatte (CADTM Belgium), Nicolas Sersiron (CADTM France), Eric De Ruest (CADTM Belgique-GDE)

N.Sersiron
Lunch
14.30-16.30 : Plenary
For a Europe based on solidarity

With Myriam Bourgy (CADTM Belgium), Samir Abi (ATTAC-CADTM Togo, member of the coordination of CADTM Africa network)

Plénière du dimanche - Pour une Europe solidaire

Agenda des mobilisations

 Thematic Axis

We propose you various thematic axis according to your wishes, expectations and centres of interest Interest An amount paid in remuneration of an investment or received by a lender. Interest is calculated on the amount of the capital invested or borrowed, the duration of the operation and the rate that has been set. ,..!

Axis « Debt and austerity in the North »



_ Friday

- Public debt in France and Belgium

- Island, Ireland : from heaven to hell with the financial markets

- The United States public debt

Saturday

- Debt crisis in Europe

- Alternatives to the debt crisis in Europe

- Mobilizations against the debt and austerity measures in Europe

Sunday

- Impact of austerity measures on women. Feminist alternatives to debt

Axis « Getting out of colonialism! »



_ Friday

- Which financing for which development ?

- Alternatives implemented in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia

Saturday

- Ill-gotten gains

- Lumumba and Sankara: revolutions in the past and social movement in the present

Sunday

- Latin America: From independence to political sovereignty (ALBA, Bank of the South, etc.)

Axis « Ecological debt »



_ Friday

- Ecological debt : global approach

Saturday

- World Bank and ‘green funds’

- Land grabbing and plundering exploitation of natural resources

Axis « International law, an instrument in our struggles »



_ Friday

- Let us clip the wings of vulture funds!

Saturday

- Ill-gotten gains

- The need to file a suit against the WB and the IMF

Sunday

- Legal arguments to cancel public debts

Axis « Feminist struggles »



_ Friday

- Why should we still be feminist today?

Saturday

- Instrumentalisation and recuperation of the feminine and feminist Movement by the International institutions

Sunday

- Impact of austerity measures on women. Feminist alternatives to debt

Author
CADTM

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