Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

On the occasion of March 8, international day of struggle for women’s [1] rights, we, activists of CADTM INTERNATIONAL, mobilize against the debt and its patriarchal and capitalist violence. Peasant women, students, workers, mothers, unemployed women, in the North as well as in the South, we say no to debts and their criminal consequences on our lives.

Everywhere, illegitimate debts whose repayment is imposed on populations generate social and economic crises. It affects the most vulnerable and poorest populations, and therefore mostly women! On a daily basis, debt takes on a multitude of faces to impose its violence: high costs of living, rising interest rates Interest rates When A lends money to B, B repays the amount lent by A (the capital) as well as a supplementary sum known as interest, so that A has an interest in agreeing to this financial operation. The interest is determined by the interest rate, which may be high or low. To take a very simple example: if A borrows 100 million dollars for 10 years at a fixed interest rate of 5%, the first year he will repay a tenth of the capital initially borrowed (10 million dollars) plus 5% of the capital owed, i.e. 5 million dollars, that is a total of 15 million dollars. In the second year, he will again repay 10% of the capital borrowed, but the 5% now only applies to the remaining 90 million dollars still due, i.e. 4.5 million dollars, or a total of 14.5 million dollars. And so on, until the tenth year when he will repay the last 10 million dollars, plus 5% of that remaining 10 million dollars, i.e. 0.5 million dollars, giving a total of 10.5 million dollars. Over 10 years, the total amount repaid will come to 127.5 million dollars. The repayment of the capital is not usually made in equal instalments. In the initial years, the repayment concerns mainly the interest, and the proportion of capital repaid increases over the years. In this case, if repayments are stopped, the capital still due is higher…

The nominal interest rate is the rate at which the loan is contracted. The real interest rate is the nominal rate reduced by the rate of inflation. , erosion of public authorities, destruction of natural resources and employment, expropriations and destruction of our means of subsistence. It invades our homes, our bodies, our freedoms and our minds. In front of such violence, the reasons for our anger are many. We refuse to pay the price of the deadly policies enforced by major financial institutions such as 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 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.

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We demand:

• An end to the micro-credit scam that targets women and harms their financial autonomy. Micro-credit is in fact only a capitalist device set up to better dispossess and indebt women for the benefit of micro-finance institutions.
• An end to the austerity policies imposed in the name of debt repayment by financial institutions and States, which constitute an act of violence against women. Indeed, women specifically suffer the devastating effects of the economic crisis and the underfunding of the public sector. They have lower wages. They are the first victims of involuntary part-time work, precariousness, and unemployment. The absence of public policies pushes them into private debt and condemns them to take on invisible and free care Care Le concept de « care work » (travail de soin) fait référence à un ensemble de pratiques matérielles et psychologiques destinées à apporter une réponse concrète aux besoins des autres et d’une communauté (dont des écosystèmes). On préfère le concept de care à celui de travail « domestique » ou de « reproduction » car il intègre les dimensions émotionnelles et psychologiques (charge mentale, affection, soutien), et il ne se limite pas aux aspects « privés » et gratuit en englobant également les activités rémunérées nécessaires à la reproduction de la vie humaine. work without recognition.
• The end of extractivist and colonial policies imposed by structural adjustment Structural Adjustment Economic policies imposed by the IMF in exchange of new loans or the rescheduling of old loans.
  
  Structural Adjustments policies were enforced in the early 1980 to qualify countries for new loans or for debt rescheduling by the IMF and the World Bank. The requested kind of adjustment aims at ensuring that the country can again service its external debt. Structural adjustment usually combines the following elements : devaluation of the national currency (in order to bring down the prices of exported goods and attract strong currencies), rise in interest rates (in order to attract international capital), reduction of public expenditure (’streamlining’ of public services staff, reduction of budgets devoted to education and the health sector, etc.), massive privatisations, reduction of public subsidies to some companies or products, freezing of salaries (to avoid inflation as a consequence of deflation). These SAPs have not only substantially contributed to higher and higher levels of indebtedness in the affected countries ; they have simultaneously led to higher prices (because of a high VAT rate and of the free market prices) and to a dramatic fall in the income of local populations (as a consequence of rising unemployment and of the dismantling of public services, among other factors).
  
  IMF : http://www.worldbank.org/ plans that dispossess the women of the South of their resources, of their work. These policies lead to the deterioration of the environment, the monopolization of agricultural land and natural resources, and the collapse of biodiversity. These deadly consequences directly impact women’s work, in particular women farmers and local farming.
• The end of the gender-based division of labor and social reproduction.
• The end of a financial system dominated by a minority of speculators who seek to increase their profit Profit The positive gain yielded from a company’s activity. Net profit is profit after tax. Distributable profit is the part of the net profit which can be distributed to the shareholders. by putting in place a system of borrowing for what ought to be common goods Common goods In economics, common goods are characterized by being collectively owned, as opposed to either privately or publicly owned. In philosophy, the term denotes what is shared by the members of one community, whether a town or indeed all humanity, from a juridical, political or moral standpoint. .
• The implementation of audits and the cancellation of all public debts identified as illegitimate.

The forms of violence against women that capitalism and patriarchy feed on through debt are many, but insufficiently questioned. Together, in the North as in the South, we say no to illegitimate debts. We say no to the vampires of finance and to the international financial institutions that hide in a false humanist and feminist discourse.

Debts are a tool of oppression, we will not pay!

*When we refer to women, we mean anyone who identifies as a woman.