Alternatives

List of signatories of the Manifesto for a new popular internationalism in Europe

2 April 2020 - by ReCommons Europe

Today, 2nd of April 2020, we publish again the list of the 160 first signatories of the Manifesto for a new popular internationalism in Europe, which was publicly presented in March 2019. In the current context of the Covid-19 epidemic, we think it is more than ever important to push the (...)
In the times of the coronavirus, a look back to the Manifesto for a new popular internationalism in Europe

2 April 2020 - by Eric Toussaint, Esther Vivas , Catherine Samary, Costas Lapavitsas, Stathis Kouvelakis, Tijana Okic, Nathan Legrand, Alexis Cukier, Jeanne Chevalier, Yayo Herrero

The coronavirus pandemic is a serious public health problem and the human suffering caused by the spread of this virus will be enormous. If it massively affects countries of the Global South with very fragile public health systems that have been undermined by 40 years of neo-liberal policies, (...)
This Changes Everything

31 March 2020 - by Amandla Editorial

For many, the lockdown of 21 days will be a severe test. For some it will in effect be impossible. Imagine being under lock-down for 21 days in a one bedroom shack with six or seven others. Tensions and violence are bound to rise, and it is women who will bear the brunt. Great anger is brewing (...)
A debt moratorium for Low Income Economies

27 March 2020 - by Eurodad, Daniel Munevar

Eurodad cost assessment of a debt moratorium to tackle the COVID-19 crisis This briefing provides an assessment of the costs and implications of an immediate debt moratorium for 69 countries classified as Lower Income Economies. A moratorium on public external debt service could free up to (...)
A Debt Jubilee is the Only Way to Avoid a Depression

24 March 2020 - by Michael Hudson

Even before the novel coronavirus appeared, many American families were falling behind on student loans, auto loans, credit cards and other payments. America’s debt overhead was pricing its labor and industry out of world markets. A debt crisis was inevitable eventually, but covid-19 has made it (...)
March 8 – The World March of Women mobilizes and launches the 5^th International Action 2020

3 March 2020 - by World March of Women

We have few days left until March 8, when the World March of Women will be in the streets on the International Day of Women’s Struggle and will launch our 5th International Action. We resist to live, we march to transform! This is our slogan and with it we will take up demonstrations of our (...)
What is the Citizen Debt Audit ?

28 February 2020 - by Jawad Moustakbal

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Message from Juan Pablo Bohoslavski, the UN expert on Debt and Human Rights, to the 8^th CADTM South Asia meeting in Colombo

19 February 2020 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

Dear colleagues and friends, I am pleased to have the opportunity to share this message on the occasion of 8th South Asian CADTM Regional Meeting. The topics discussed during this meeting are indeed important ones and while sometimes simply perceived as financial or economic matters, we know (...)
International situation and Radical Alternatives

18 February 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

On 18 February 2020, in Colombo, 8th CADTM South Asian workshop We are facing a multidimensional crisis of the global capitalist system Economic crisis : Stagnation or recession in Europe; recession in Japan; slowdown in the US economy; slowdown in India and in China; deep crisis in the car (...)
Toward a New Universal Declaration of Human Rights

27 January 2020 - by Boaventura de Sousa Santos

Baruch de Spinoza, the great 17th century philosopher, wrote that the two basic human emotions (or “affections”, as he called them) are fear and hope, and he suggested that a balance needs to be struck between the two, because fear unmingled with hope leads to despair and hope unmingled with fear (...)
The Debt System - book review

17 December 2019 - by Phil Armstrong

The Debt System argues that international debt is a system of exploitation of poorer countries, which should be regarded as illegitimate, finds Phil Armstrong This book tells a story of exploitation and the use of indebtedness by western powers to enrich themselves at the expense of other (...)
“Historic process continues at the UN: This week states enter substantive negotiations of the text of a binding treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights”

18 October 2019 - by Stop corporate impunity

Historic process continues at the UN: This week states enter substantive negotiations of the text of a binding treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights 14 October 2019, Geneva: The United Nations (UN) Inter-governmental Working Group (...)
South African Special Economic Zones : History of Limited Successes

8 October 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Patrick Bond, Ishmael Lesufi, Lisa Thompson

Given both short- and longer-term trends in the world and South African economies, there is a danger of government and society placing inordinate hopes in what are variously termed Export Processing Zones, Industrial Development Zones and Special Economic Zones (SEZs), as sources of economic (...)
ReCommonsEurope: Manifesto for a New Popular Internationalism in Europe

26 May 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Esther Vivas , Catherine Samary, Costas Lapavitsas, Stathis Kouvelakis, Tijana Okic, Nathan Legrand, Alexis Cukier, Jeanne Chevalier, Yayo Herrero

This text is the short version of the “Manifesto for a New Popular Internationalism in Europe”, which was published on 21 March 21 2019 in English, French and Spanish. This Manifesto has been drawn up by a group of activists and researchers from a dozen or so countries in Europe who wish to (...)
Municipalities and citizens movement defeat anti-democratic EU directive

24 April 2019 - by CADTM, Collective, Corporate Europe Observatory, ACiDe

Trade unions and other social movements, city councilors, municipalities, regional councils and even some governments can now claim victory over a proposal tabled by the European Commission in January 2017. The proposed Notification Procedure directive would have given the Commission veto (...)
ReCommonsEurope Manifesto: a left-wing initiative in Europe

8 April 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

While the campaign for the European elections on 26 May 2019 draws very little interest, the initiative launched by ReCommonsEurope with its ‘In the times of the coronavirus, a look back to the Manifesto for a new popular internationalism in Europe’ is on to a promising start. The text was (...)
Venezuela: Suspend Debt Repayments and Create an Emergency Humanitarian Fund

11 March 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

There is no doubt that Donald Trump’s policies, those of the Lima group and the European powers who seek to impose the usurper Juan Guaidó as President of Venezuela and do not hesitate to interfere in order to succeed, must be opposed. As usual, Washington and its allies are announcing a (...)
Battling bankers: grassroots insights on financial power

14 February 2019 - by Transnational Institute

Three inspiring activists — from Spain, UK and Kenya — share their experiences of taking on bankers and the lessons and insights from their ongoing struggles. This essay is part of the Transnational Institute’s “State of Power 2019” report. Worldwide, countless activists are engaged in (...)
Gilets jaunes (yellow vests): learning from history and acting now

11 December 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

Some consider that if you are involved in a movement against a tax (supposed, in theory at least, to redistribute wealth) rather than for higher wages, say (in the broad sense, including social security), you are part of a right-wing movement. This is not so: many revolutionary movements (...)
Debt & Democracy in Newham: A Citizen audit of LOBO loans

4 December 2018 - by Research For Action

Executive Summary A dramatic withdrawal of central government funding in the last decade has exposed the crisis in local government. Austerity measures are forcing closures of youth centres and libraries, reducing bin collection and increasing council tax; the cuts are also forcing homeless (...)
Facing the left-wing challenge in the European Union

22 November 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

It is shocking to see that the right-wing government in power in Italy since Summer 2018 refuses to reduce the budgetary deficit while so-called left-wing governments bow to the constraints of austerity. It is now, when the peoples of the Eurozone are ever more disgusted by the policies imposed (...)
Summary of The Debt System A History of Sovereign Debts and their Repudiation

10 October 2018 - by Víctor Manuel Isidro Luna

The book The Debt System. A History of Sovereign Debts and their Repudiation will be published later in 2018 by Haymarket in Chicago https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1234-the-debt-system . The original French edition has been published in novembre 2017 in Paris (...)
The Challenges for the Left in Europe and the Eurozone

24 September 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

As from May 2010 the question of the debt became a central concern for Greece and for the rest of the Eurozone . The first programme imposed by the Troika provoked a brutal increase in Greek public debt. This was also the case in various forms in Ireland (2010), Portugal (2011), Spain (2012) (...)
Crisis after crisis: Why financial sector reform is not enough – A Post-Capitalist Alternative

18 September 2018 - by Walden Bello

It is now clear that financial crises are not discrete events but are linked phenomena that have been unleashed on the globe ever since the financial markets were liberalized during the Reagan-Thatcher era in the early 1980’s. To take just the three most prominent crashes, surplus capital that (...)
Once upon a time there was a popular government that wanted to do away with the export-oriented extractivist model

22 August 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, Damien Millet

Large popular mobilizations resulted in the creation of self-organized committees in the neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities and several higher education schools; this has led to the constitution of a people’s government. It has just held its first meeting. In this government, the women and (...)