Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Report prepared by Eric De Ruest, Pauline Imbach and Eric Toussaint on the basis of messages from Japan and Mali.

For the CADTM international network the beginning of this summer resonates with the counter-summit !

Myriam BOURGY (CADTM – Belgium), Sushovan DHAR (VAK – India) and Yoko AKIMOTO (ATTAC Japan) attended the G8 G8 Group composed of the most powerful countries of the planet: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA, with Russia a full member since June 2002. Their heads of state meet annually, usually in June or July. counter summit at Hokkaido in Japan. A gathering of anti-globalisation activists under high security, numerous persons were prohibited from entering the islands, the streets were full of posters calling for the denouncement of “terrorists” and the presence of more than 21,000 police (it was 18,000 at Rostock, Germany, last year)

Quite a number of activists coming from other countries were refused entry at the airports and borders while local activists were locked up for 28 days as “preventive measures”. This is the democratic climate in which the leaders of the G8 countries of the free world meet.

At the same time at Koulikoro, (Mali) the Peoples’ Forum was organised: an African counter-summit of G8 where Jérôme Ollier attended on behalf of CADTM.

Protests were as well held at Liege, (Belgium) on Wednesday, July 9^th with a street theater play. It staged a peoples’ tribunal where the G8 leaders were tried and convicted.

Do 8 countries have the right to decide for the whole planet ?

Myriam BOURGY asked the readers of Le Monde in a pessimist article about the global justice movement [1] However, leaving apart the normal propaganda for a uni-linear world, this is what Myriam told us about her experiences at Sapporo :

I did not have any problem at the immigration as was the case with Susan Georges (interrogated for 4 hours), Lidy Nacpil (the national secretary of FDC and Jubilee South, interrogated for 3 ½ hours yesterday at Tokyo), we will be attentive to the manner in which Walden Bellow (Focus on the Global South) will be received tomorrow. 19 Koreans (of KCTU and Via Campesina) were held at the airport for hours and then turned back.

We went to the workshop on ecological debt organised by Jubilee South. In spite of not making any presentations, we were there as we wanted to hear others on this. In the afternoon, I made a presentation at a seminar organised by Action Aid on G8 accountability, along with Vinod Raina, Walden Bello, John Samuel (Action Aid) and Noel from Cameroun. I strongly denounced the illegitimacy of G8 and the fact that the G8 is the pinnacle of the world capitalist order with the IFIs, WTO WTO
World Trade Organisation The WTO, founded on 1^st January 1995, replaced the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). The main innovation is that the WTO enjoys the status of an international organization. Its role is to ensure that no member States adopt any kind of protectionism whatsoever, in order to accelerate the liberalization global trading and to facilitate the strategies of the multinationals. It has an international court (the Dispute Settlement Body) which judges any alleged violations of its founding text drawn up in Marrakesh.

, trans-nationals, NATO NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO ensures US military protection for the Europeans in case of aggression, but above all it gives the USA supremacy over the Western Bloc. Western European countries agreed to place their armed forces within a defence system under US command, and thus recognize the preponderance of the USA. NATO was founded in 1949 in Washington, but became less prominent after the end of the Cold War. In 2002, it had 19 members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the UK, the USA, to which were added Greece and Turkey in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955 (replaced by Unified Germany in 1990), Spain in 1982, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in 1999. , etc. I also spoke about G8’s responsibility of the current crises and the result of its policies of the last 30 years. I explained the idea that we really can’t expect anything out of G8 by drawing the example of debt as a tool of domination & G8’s complicity. I concluded by raising the demand of abolishing G8 and changing the system.

At the same time, thousands of kilometres from there, the 7^th edition of Peoples’ Forum took place at Koulikoro, Mali. [3]

The opening ceremony took place in an amphitheatre at the Rural Polytechnic Institute of Katibougou, livened up by a rap performance by a group called “Les niananboys” which was very sharp in their criticism of the authorities. The hall was crowded, very hot with its very friendly atmosphere. A thousand of global justice activists came from Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Jérôme Ollier (CADTM- Belgium) who was there wrote this before the inauguration of the Forum :

The last preparatory meeting took place with the participation of around 40 participants from different branches of CAD (Coalition des Alternatives Africaines Dette et Développement- Coalition of african alternatives for African Debt and Development), Mali, some other Malian organisations (especially the students), the foreign participants (especially Senegalese organisations, Emilie from Benin, Ibrahima from Mauritania and a participant from Niger)

The opening speeches will be presented by the Governor of the Koulikoro region and then another by a minister. Mrs Barry wanted to question the agriculture minister about the “rice” initiative. The Malian government, to confront the food crisis, is launching a rice initiative which is publicly announced today. The Forum would focus a lot on agriculture (and food), there would also be the participation of the cotton workers union. The Forum will start tomorrow with a plenary session having 7 to 8 speakers. I will speak on the African debt. Mrs Barry and Dao (CAD) met the home minister and the prime minister to present the forum. Both expressed their support.

The major theme of this year is Africa and the neo-liberal globalisation, Africa as a playing field of policies and development models, food sovereignty, the debt problem, the economic and environmental impact of gold mining in Mali, the engagement of G8 and a lot of others… like the privatisation of HUICOMA, the destruction of the eco-system caused by water and atmospheric pollution, the ongoing insecurity and conflicts between certain neighbours.

In a message sent by Salissou Oubandoma, the delegate from RNDD Niger at the Forum wrote to us describing the first day of the Forum “It must be said that the comrades from the CADTM international network who spoke yesterday have literally distinguished themselves. I would like to speak of Jérôme Ollier (CADTM- Belgium) who blew up the hall when he exposed the unequal extravagant relations between the rich and the poor. It is also important to mention that with Jérôme, CADTM had the honour of being the first organisation to speak. The applause that followed his presentation raised unexpected militancy among the participants which was reflected in the slogans raised. Emilie Atchaka (CADD Bénin) rocked the discussions with her usual grit and determination exposing the enormous consequences that debt has wrecked. She finished by launching an appeal to the social movements present there to continue the struggle. In the afternoon we found Emilie very active in a panel on micro-finance”.

Luc Mukendi, delegate from CADTM/AMSEL Lubumbashi (DRC) described us the events of July 7 as: “Yesterday afternoon, the activities resumed in the plenary of the Peasants forum where a number of speakers took the floor 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. their experiences of Agricultural laws, the rice initiative, the access to inputs and the usage of pesticides. The theme was well developed by a young agricultural engineer from Ivory Coast who stimulated attention of a lot of peasants towards non-branded products. The debate that followed was very rich.”

The workshops started at 15:30 and went on till 20:30. As it is difficult to attend all the workshops at the same time, myself, Salissou and Solange went for the one on GM’s and Food Security. I had especially brought GM products from Lubumbashi (oranges, mandarin oranges, apples...) Emile activated the workshop on micro-finance, she now has thetitle of “Lady of the Forum...”.

This morning, the participants are ready for the forum. They are dressed in green loincloths with the logo of “CAD Mali and Peoples’ Forum”.

Luc Mukendi ended his message on July 8^th saying that “Lucile will arrive from Morocco and Victor Nzuzi is normally in his flight from Nairobi to Bamako. We shall have a meeting of CADTM soon”.

Salissou Oubandoma also wrote about the happenings of July 8: “Yes, the events resumed at 8 in the morning till 8 pm in a pleasant climate, thanks to the rain the night before".

The morning resumed with a report of the previous days work ; then there will be two plenaries. In the workshops, we will be present as CADTM in a series of panels probably lead by Emilie, Salissou, Moctar, Lucile Daumas, Gérard Akoumey, Babacar Ngom, Victor Nzuzi and Luc Mukendi”.

All the time, without a loss of tempo, at the heart of the social movements around the world is the demand of fundamental human rights.

Translated by Sushovan Dhar and Myriam Bourgy