Debt in History
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Who are the CADTM ? What is Illegitimate debt ? An ABC
28 October 2025 - by Eric Toussaint, Maxime Perriot
Founded in 1990, the Committee for the Abo- lition of Illegitimate Debt (Comité pour l’Abolition des dettes illégitimes, previously called Comité pour l’Annulation de la Dette du Tiers-Monde [Committee for the Cancellation of Third-World Debt], (…) -
Liège Revolution: 1789-1794
18 August 2025 - by Eric Toussaint
In the wake of the French Revolution that broke out on 14 July 1789, the Liège Revolution began on 18 August of the same year. The people of Paris seized the Bastille on 14 July and the people of Liège took the Town Hall and the Citadel on 18 (…) -
The task of solidarity implies a struggle for the complete cancellation of the Third World debt
20 July 2025 - by Ernest Mandel
We publish an interview with Ernest Mandel (1923-1995), a Marxist activist, known particularly for his economic and political analyses. Ernest Mandel supported the formation of CADTM from the beginning and spoke in the first large international (…) -
Sovereign Debt Repudiations: Stepping Stones in History
14 April 2025 - by Eric Toussaint
From the beginning of the 19th century, many States, from Latin America to Tunisia, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, among other countries, as well as Greece, have lost their autonomy. Debt has been a weapon for domination and spoliation. (…) -
An ABC of the CADTM and a historical perspective on illegitimate debts
22 January 2025 - by Eric Toussaint, Maxime Perriot
Founded in 1990, the Committee for the Cancellation of Illegitimate Debt (Comité pour l’Abolition des dettes illégitimes, earlier Comité pour l’Annulation de la Dette du Tiers-Monde [Committee for the Cancellation of Third-World Debt], the origin (…) -
Series : Debt cancellations : a historical perspective (part 4)
Democracy and Debt: Has the Link been Broken?
8 January 2025 - by Michael Hudson
The year 2025 is considered by Christians to be a jubilee year under the banner of debt cancellation. To mark the occasion, the CADTM is republishing a series of articles on debt cancellation, the struggles for debt cancellation and the role of (…) -
Series : Debt cancellations : a historical perspective (part 3)
Personal endebtment and debt forgivness in the Roman empire
30 December 2024 - by Jean Andreau
The year 2025 is considered by Christians to be a jubilee year under the banner of debt cancellation. To mark the occasion, the CADTM is republishing a series of articles on debt cancellation, the struggles for debt cancellation and the role of (…) -
Debt cancellation: a historical perspective (part 2)
Debt cancellation in the land of Canaan in the first millennium BC
27 December 2024 - by Isabelle Ponet
The year 2025 is considered by Christians to be a jubilee year under the banner of debt cancellation. To mark the occasion, the CADTM is republishing a series of articles on debt cancellation, the struggles for debt cancellation and the role of (…) -
The Long Tradition of Debt Cancellation in Mesopotamia and Egypt from 3000 to 1000 BC
24 December 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
The year 2025 is considered by Christians to be a jubilee year under the banner of debt cancellation. To mark the occasion, the CADTM is republishing a series of articles on debt cancellation, the struggles for debt cancellation and the role of (…) -
Series : Social Movements and the Politics of Debt
Social Movements and the Politics of Debt
15 August 2024 - by CADTM, Christoph Sorg
Social Movements and the Politics of Debt, Transnational Resistance against Debt on Three Continents, Christoph Sorg, Amsterdam University Press, 2022 The CADTM is glad to publish Christoph Sorg’s full doctoral thesis entitled Social Movements (…) -
In memory of Patrice Lumumba, assassinated on 17 January 1961
30 June 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
On 17 January 2025, we commemorate the 64th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961). After a resounding victory in the first real elections in which the Congolese participated, Patrice Lumumba became Prime Minister of (…) -
1944-2024, 80 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF, that’s enough !
Presidents Barber Conable and Lewis Preston (1986-1995)
15 May 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
In July 2024, the World Bank and the IMF will be 80 years old. 80 years of financial neo-colonialism and the imposition of austerity policies in the name of debt repayment. 80 years is enough! The Bretton Woods institutions must be abolished and (…) -
1944-2024, 80 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF, that’s enough !
The World Bank and the IMF: the creditors’ bailiffs
8 May 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
In July 2024, the World Bank and the IMF will be 80 years old. 80 years of financial neo-colonialism and the imposition of austerity policies in the name of debt repayment. 80 years is enough! The Bretton Woods institutions must be abolished and (…) -
1944-2024, 80 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF, that’s enough !
The Mexican debt crisis and the World Bank
1 May 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
In July 2024, the World Bank and the IMF will be 80 years old. 80 years of financial neo-colonialism and the imposition of austerity policies in the name of debt repayment. 80 years is enough! The Bretton Woods institutions must be abolished and (…) -
1944-2024, 80 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF, that’s enough !
The World Bank saw the debt crisis looming
24 April 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
In July 2024, the World Bank and the IMF will be 80 years old. 80 years of financial neo-colonialism and the imposition of austerity policies in the name of debt repayment. 80 years is enough! The Bretton Woods institutions must be abolished and (…) -
1944-2024, 80 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF, that’s enough !
The debt trap
17 April 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
In July 2024, the World Bank and the IMF will be 80 years old. 80 years of financial neo-colonialism and the imposition of austerity policies in the name of debt repayment. 80 years is enough! The Bretton Woods institutions must be abolished and (…) -
Series: 1944-2024, 80 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF, that’s enough !
Why the 1953 cancellation of German debt won’t be reproduced for Greece and Developing Countries
14 February 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
In July 2024, the World Bank and the IMF will be 80 years old. 80 years of financial neo-colonialism and the imposition of austerity policies in the name of debt repayment. 80 years is enough! The Bretton Woods institutions must be abolished and (…) -
Russia: Origin and consequences of the debt repudiation of February 10, 1918
8 February 2024 - by Eric Toussaint
In February 1918, the repudiation of the debt by the Soviet government shocked international finance and sparked off unanimous condemnation by the governments of the great powers. This decision of repudiation was intrinsic to this first big (…) -
Resisting the Debt System
10 August 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Ashley Smith
The combination of the pandemic, sharp global recession, inflation and interest rate hikes by central banks has triggered a new debt crisis throughout the Global South. The United Nations recently released a new report that found a total of (…) -
When President Joe Biden says that the US never denounced any debt obligation it’s a lie to convince people that there is no alternative to a bad bi-partisan agreement
Debt ceiling: Radio Silence Concerning United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s Repudiation of Debts
28 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint
During your education, did you learn that during the 1930s the government of the USA unceremoniously repudiated a central provision of debt contracts that represented phenomenal sums? Do any history books analyze that act? Historical narratives (…) -
Debt : Eric Toussaint at Université Paris Cité on January 31, 2023
20 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint
Eric Toussaint, spokesperson for CADTM International, spoke on the debt crisis and the global capitalist system at the Economic Policies for Global Transition (EPOG) seminars. The seminar was held at the Université Paris Cité on January 31, 2023. -
The urgent need to repudiate debt : The 1983 Vienna Convention, the foundation of a new international economic order
6 April 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Anaïs Carton
According to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, at the end of 2022, approximately 60% of low-income developing countries were already in debt distress or were at high risk of being so. Debt payment suspensions have multiplied in (…) -
The Paris Commune of 1871, banks and debt
20 March 2023 - by Eric Toussaint
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the extraordinary experience of the Paris Commune, it is fundamental to draw a number of lessons from it. The measures a government takes regarding its Central Bank, the debts of working class people, (…) -
ABC of Debt System
6 March 2023 - by Eric Toussaint
Abstract: This article argues that the indebted weaker countries are not the cause of sovereign debt crises and the outcomes of debt crises are directed by big banks and the governments that support them. It begins with a historical overview of (…) -
The 1953 London Debt Agreement on Germany’s debt
26 February 2023 - by Eric Toussaint
Germany benefited from the cancellation of most of its debt as of February 27, 1953. This cancellation was instrumental in helping the country regain its position as the leading economic power on the European continent. Since then, no other (…)
- Depression
- ICAN
- African Development Bank
- Agrarian Distress
- Agriculture and Food Sovereignty
- Antifascism
- Arbitration
- Audit
- Austerity/Structural Adjustment
- Bank of the South
- Banks
- Belt and Road
- Big Pharma
- BRICS
- Capitalism
- Colonial debt
- Colonialism
- Commercial agreements
- Commercialisation
- Corporate
- Corporate Debt
- Corruption / financial criminality
- Crisis
- De-dollarisation
- Debt campaign
- Debt crisis
- Debt in Northern countries
- Development
- dollarisation
- ECB
- Ecology/Climate
- Energy
- External debt
- Extractivism
- Feminisms
- Films
- Financial crisis
- Free Trade/Trade Liberalisation
- G7 / G20
- Health
- Housing
- Human Rights
- Illegitimate debt
- ILO
- IMF
- Imperialism
- Inequality
- Inflation
- Initiative for the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs)
- Internal debt
CADTM
COMITE POUR L'ABOLITION DES DETTES ILLÉGITIMES
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