Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

CADTM : What are the economic, social and political reasons that can account for the success of the mobilisation in Rabat on December 4?

This national march is the first to be organized since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, which the authorities took advantage of to ban all forms of collective expression.

This national march is the first to be organized since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, which the authorities took advantage of to ban all forms of collective expression.

With placards reading “Akhenouch out” (« Akhenouch dégage »), participants chanted slogans condemning recent attacks on purchasing power and the government’s head, billionaire Aziz Akhenouch.

Launched by trade unions and left-wing political organisations within the coordination called the national social front, this mobilisation is a response to the sharp degradation of the living conditions for the majority of Moroccans, resulting from both structural and situational causes.

The structural causes are the result of neoliberal economic decisions by those who have been at the helm of our country for decades. Liberalization and privatisation policies, for instance, have been most profitable for a local elite centering on the “palace” and often in cahoots with Western multinational corporations to grab resources (water, forests, land, mines, etc.) or with the most profitable public companies, or vital and strategic sectors such as water distribution, energy, education, or health care.

Opening borders to foreign commodities, as demanded by Morocco’s neocolonial agreements (dubbed free-trade agreements), has further weakened our economic structure and resulted in job losses in urban areas, while the adoption of export-oriented agriculture over the last 14 centuries has impoverished our small farmers and increased our food dependency.

Those policies were recommended by the IMF and the World Bank and meticulously carried out by those in power, namely the King and his advisers.

The debt system is a key element in the imposition of such neoliberal recipes through the conditionalities that often go with loans.

Those structural factors are directly responsible for the current situation since they also shackle the state’s capacity to face a dire predicament as they constantly reduce the financing of public services and increase our energy and food dependency. This means that we are more exposed to fluctuations in the prices of essential commodities for our people and our economy. We have to add the consequences of the drought that has become more intense and frequent over the last 20 years, in connection with the global environmental crisis and climate change.

According to the latest Oxfam reports, social inequalities in Morocco are particularly high.

Repression appears to be the state’s only response to the multiple crises that its own policies have exacerbated.

CADTM: Can you remind us of major mobilizations over the past 12 years?

Struggles erupted for the defence of resources (water, land, forest, etc.). They have never stopped, particularly in the most marginalised areas, which the French colonisers called “useless Morocco.”

Struggles erupted for the defence of resources (water, land, forest, etc.). They have never stopped, particularly in the most marginalised areas, which the French colonisers called “useless Morocco.” They are a response to a violent process of accumulation through dispossession led by the ruling classes. Apart from those ongoing struggles, we can distinguish three major mobilizations:

• 2011: The movement that started on February 20 was the longest and most massive mobilization, with marches of tens of thousands of participants in over one hundred cities in Morocco. While this movement focused on cities and middle-sized towns and highlighted political and democratic demands, several protest movements for social rights, housing, land, and labour broke out at various places in the country and profited from the favourable environment resulting from what was called the Arab Spring.

• 2016-2017: Hirak (protest movement) in the Rif 
  On October 28, 2016, a tragic and fatal incident occurred in the town of Al Hoceima, in the north-east of Morocco, when a state official seized the goods of Mouhcine Fikri, a fish seller, and threw them into a rubbish truck. When the seller desperately climbed into the lorry to retrieve his fish, a local policeman ordered the lorry driver to start the compactor and “crush him,” according to activists and witnesses. The truck horribly crushed Fikri to death. This sad event resulted in peaceful demonstrations for 10 months on end. They mobilised the entire population of Al Houçaima and neighbouring towns. This movement, which echoed the 2011 movement in using some of its slogans and organising marches and/or sit-ins every weekend, also initiated many innovations in terms of organization, communication, and involvement of wide social layers through popular assemblies in coffee shops where the list of demands was discussed and approved, a list covering the whole region as well as all aspects of people’s lives (economic, social, political, environmental, cultural, and sport-related).

• 2017-2018: Hirak (protest movement) in Jerada:
  This movement was triggered by the conjunction of two successive events: the first was the repression of a demonstration against an increase in electricity prices, with two high school students arrested; the second occurred on the following day and was related to the death of two brothers who drowned in one of the makeshift mines dug without permit in the vicinity of the town to extract coal. Since the closure in 1998 of the Charbonnages du Maroc, which operated three large shafts in Jerada, the local people, who were entirely dependent on the mine, have begun to dig shafts in the surrounding forest to exploit the coal seams on their own. Thousands of people took part in demonstrations on the town square. Demands relate to three main areas: the price of water and electricity, an economic alternative, and the principle of accountability.

We should also mention the 2018 boycott campaign. In fact, after the liberalisation of fuel prices and the abolition of subsidies for some basic commodities, Morocco has witnessed numerous spontaneous attempts to organise campaigns to boycott products belonging to influential personalities close to the government. The 2018 campaign concerned three brands: the “Centrale” company for dairy products of the Danone group, Sidi Ali, which belongs to Meriem Bensaleh, former president of the employers’ union; and the Afriquia brand, which holds the bulk of the hydrocarbon distribution market and belongs to the current head of government, Aziz Akhenouch, who is one of the richest men on the continent. He accumulated wealth thanks to his proximity to the palace. This boycott campaign met with success and was widely supported, not only on social networks but also in the streets, resulting in the companies losing up to 40% of their turnover and having to review their pricing policy. This was the case for Danone concerning milk production.

CADTM: The Moroccan team’s victories in the World Cup have not been enough to quell social unrest.

The government has succeeded in setting up a climate of terror, with people being arrested and sentenced just for posting on Facebook or even “liking.”

No, I think the discontent has been there for decades and is not going to be dispelled, considering the level of economic, social, environmental, and cultural oppressions under which the vast majority of Moroccans suffer. What the government managed to stifle, at least for the time being, are outside manifestations of this discontent. These past two years, the pandemic played into the government’s hand as it instilled a climate of generalised fear and provided a pretext for banning and repressing any attempt at mobilization.

The government has also conducted a campaign of repression over the past few years. It started with sentencing the leaders of the Rif movement to 20 years in jail! It continued with the sentencing of the leaders of the Jerada movement to 10 years in jail, then also sentencing journalists and YouTubers to 5 to 10 years in jail. The government thus managed to establish a climate of terror in which people can be arrested and sentenced for posting on Facebook or even merely clicking on the “like” button for a post that is critical towards the king or his advisors.

As to the national team’s victories in the World Cup, the government has already launched its media machine to draw the maximum profit from it, promote a so-called national unity, and put the masses to sleep.

Unfortunately, people now need a sense of victory, however elusive, considering the many setbacks they have endured and the distress they suffer in all aspects of their daily lives.
But I think that their elation will be short-lasting and that even if a victory in football can erase their terrible living conditions from their minds for a few days, the sense of discontent and of being despised and ignored (Hogra) among the popular classes will soon revive. What cannot be predicted is when this sense of discontent will find expression in collective mobilizations matching the violence of the ruling classes’ onslaught.

CADTM : What is the current level of public debt?

The level of public debt has steadily increased. It has almost doubled since 2010 to reach over 95% of the GDP if we take the debts of public companies with state guarantees into account. This predicament has been aggravated by the fallout of the COVID crisis, combined with the drought that has affected Morocco since 2020. Concerning the debt service, according to the finance bill for 2023, expenses relating to the public debt will continue to increase from DH 90.21 billion in 2022 to DH 109.22 billion in 2023, i.e., a 19% increase.

CADTM : How has the indebtedness of popular classes developed?

Household indebtedness has increased by 4.8%, reaching 386 MMDH from 2020 to 2021, as against an average growth rate of 4.9% from 2013 to 2019. 

More than one debtor out of four has a rate of indebtedness over 40% of their incomes. Consumer credit, which accounts for 35% of private credit granted in 2021, continues to grow as a result of the deterioration of household financial conditions since the COVID health crisis.