Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Join the campaign by adding your signature to this Call, here: https://bit.ly/3vPzoLa

The date marks the 80^th anniversary of the signing of the Bretton Woods Agreements, which in 1944 created these International Financial Institutions (IFIs) so as to expand US and “Western” power in the post-war scenario. They continue to work at the service of an ever more concentrated, patriarchal and racist capitalism, impoverishing peoples and devastating nature and the climate.

With the promotion of this broad and open Campaign, the movements and groups call to organize actions during the coming months, in each territory, country and region, to expose these 80 years of misery, devastation and debts that 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 WB 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.

have provoked, and to debate needed alternatives. They also call to denounce and stop the advance of the current “green agenda” of these IFIs, governments and private interests that control them and who are their beneficiaries; an agenda that offers false solutions to the socio-ecological, climate, economic and political crisis we are experiencing.

The call to STOP IMF-WB! 80 years of misery, devastation and debts - Reparation NOW! is being launched with the signature of some one hundred organizations worldwide. Among them, at the regional and global levels, are Jubilee South/Americas, the Council of Popular Education of Latin America and the Caribbean CEAAL, CADTM International Network, SICSAL, ConVIDA20, Debt x Global Climate, ALBA Movements, the International Network of Chairs of Public Debt, World March of Women Americas Region, the American Association of Jurists, GRAIN, the World Social Assembly of Struggles and Resistance of the WSF, WoMin African Alliance, ITUC-Africa, MENA Fem, the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development APMDD, IWRAW Asia-Pacific and the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development.

As part of the Campaign, a decentralized, international Tribunal of Peoples and Nature vs. IMF and the WB is being prepared, where information and debate actions have begun in various places. For example, the Mesoamerica region of Jubilee South/Americas began a cycle on “Climate Change and the role of the IFIs” on July 2, and the Institute for Ecological Studies and others held an Ecologist Dialogue on “The Violence of Debt: 80 Years of the IMF-World Bank” on July 17 from Quito. On July 22, Debt x Climate and Debt Justice-U.K. will hold a webinar on “The Legacy of the IMF and the WB: 80 Years is Enough!”, and on July 25, in Buenos Aires, the Autoconvocatoria por la Suspension del Pago e Investigación de la Deuda and the Archivo Popular de la Memoria, will hold an event on “The Debt is to the People… Norita´s Legacy // Debt and Genocide: Responsibilities and Complicities”.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) will turn 80 in July 2024. Their entire existence at the service of a patriarchal, racist and increasingly concentrated capitalism that impoverishes peoples and devastates nature and the climate. 80 years of impunity and anti-democratic policies, in favor of the system of speculative and perpetual debt and of US and “Western” power.

Austerity and planned misery, coups d’état and dictatorial regimes, illegitimate and odious debt Odious Debt According to the doctrine, for a debt to be odious it must meet two conditions:
1) It must have been contracted against the interests of the Nation, or against the interests of the People, or against the interests of the State.
2) Creditors cannot prove they they were unaware of how the borrowed money would be used.

We must underline that according to the doctrine of odious debt, the nature of the borrowing regime or government does not signify, since what matters is what the debt is used for. If a democratic government gets into debt against the interests of its population, the contracted debt can be called odious if it also meets the second condition. Consequently, contrary to a misleading version of the doctrine, odious debt is not only about dictatorial regimes.

(See Éric Toussaint, The Doctrine of Odious Debt : from Alexander Sack to the CADTM).

The father of the odious debt doctrine, Alexander Nahum Sack, clearly says that odious debts can be contracted by any regular government. Sack considers that a debt that is regularly incurred by a regular government can be branded as odious if the two above-mentioned conditions are met.
He adds, “once these two points are established, the burden of proof that the funds were used for the general or special needs of the State and were not of an odious character, would be upon the creditors.”

Sack defines a regular government as follows: “By a regular government is to be understood the supreme power that effectively exists within the limits of a given territory. Whether that government be monarchical (absolute or limited) or republican; whether it functions by “the grace of God” or “the will of the people”; whether it express “the will of the people” or not, of all the people or only of some; whether it be legally established or not, etc., none of that is relevant to the problem we are concerned with.”

So clearly for Sack, all regular governments, whether despotic or democratic, in one guise or another, can incur odious debts. , neocolonial appropriation of territories, bodies and the commons, promotion of fossil fuels (conventional and non-conventional) and limitless extractivism, wars, militarization and repression, uprooted populations and massive migrations are just a sampling of their record.

Behind an apparently “technical” discourse full of supposed good intentions, such as “aid”, “development”, “stability”, even the "inclusion” of women, indigenous peoples or African descendants, the IMF and the WB have played a central role in promoting corporate and financialized globalization and the consolidation of an international financial architecture in tune with the model of exclusion, privatization and plunder they impose, giving rise to an immense historical, social, ecological, economic and cultural debt with peoples and nature.

As if all this were not enough, in the face of the advance of big private capital and global warming, the IMF and the WB seek to secure a reinforced mandate that positions them in the race to commodify and appropriate all of nature, terrestrial and marine - water, air, biodiversity, forests, soils and minerals -, in the interests of the corporative and financialized energy transition and a so-called “green” economy. Behind new schemes of debt”relief“and”swaps" - for climate, health, nature or whatever - they seek to ensure that the old power relations remain intact.

STOP! No more False Solutions! We call to join forces around the world, building from the peoples and nature most affected by their policies and conditions, to put an end to the criminal action of the IMF, the World Bank and the illegitimate debts they generate.

In the midst of the present social, ecological, economic and political crisis, provoked and worsened by the very model they promote together with their G7 owners - the group of the 7 most enriched countries -, we need to join forces to prevent them from continuing to violate our lives and rights and those of nature, in benefit of big capital and global financialization, and to ensure that they are brought to justice and make reparations for their multiple crimes.

We thus call to join forces through the promotion of a broad based and open campaign, articulating actions in all of our localities and movements, countries, networks, organizations, regions and on a global scale. Let us expose these 80 years of criminal action by the IMF, the WB and their beneficiaries. Let us strengthen, in this way, resistance to their ongoing plans and practices. Let us coordinate initiatives in pursuit of the reparations owed and mobilize support for the building of alternatives anchored in Popular Sovereignty and Self-Determination, the Rights of Peoples and of Nature, and the spirit of Buen Vivir.

STOP the IMF-WB! Reparations NOW for 80 years of misery, devastation and debt!

INITIAL ORGANIZATIONAL SIGNATURES - REGIONAL AND GLOBAL: Jubileo Sur/Américas - CADTM-AYNA - Consejo de Educación Popular de América Latina y el Caribe CEAAL - Servicio Internacional Cristiano de Solidaridad con America Latina y el Caribe SICSAL - ConVIDA20 - Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres Región Américas - Asociación Americana de Juristas - Deuda x Clima Global – ALBA Movimientos - Asamblea Social Mundial de Luchas y Resistencias del FSM - CADTM International Network – GRAIN - WoMin African Alliance - African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) – Red Internacional de Cátedras, Instituciones y Personalidades sobre el Estudio de la Deuda Pública - Réseau CADTM Afrique (Comité pour l’abolition des dettes illégitimes) - MENA Fem Movement for Economic, Development, and Ecological Justice - International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP) - CADTM South Asia - Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development - APMDD Asian Peoples’ Movement On Debt And Development - Revolutionary Reparations - CADTM Europe

LOCAL AND NATIONAL: ARGENTINA Diálogo 2000 - Autoconvocatoria por la Suspensión del pago e Investigación de la Deuda – ATTAC - CEMIDA Centro De Militares Para La Democracia Argentina - Corriente Político de Izquierda - Emancipación Sur - Asamblea no a la mina Esquel - Emancipación Sur-Comunidad mapuche urbana Pillan Manke - Equipo de Educación Popular Pañuelos en Rebeldía - Marabunta Corriente Social y Política - Mesa Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones de Jubilados y Pensionados de la Rep. Argentina - Movimiento Evita - MULCS Movimiento por la Unidad Latinoamericana y el Cambio Social - Observatorio Autónomo de conflictos socioambientales en Argentina - OLP-RyL Organizaciones Libres del Pueblo-Resistir y Luchar - Asamblea No a la Entrega de la Costa Quilmes Avellaneda – Asamblea Permanente de los Derechos Humanos Regional Jujuy BANGLADESH EquityBD BOLIVIA Encuentro Social Alternativo BRASIL Rede Jubileu Sul Brasil - Associação de Favelas SJCampos SP - Movimento de Esquerda Socialista - MES/PSOL - Serviço Pastoral dos Migrantes CHILE Asociacion De Inmigrantes Por La Integracion Latinoamericana Y Del Caribe, APILA COLOMBIA CENSAT-Agua Viva - Coalición Colombiana por el Derecho a la Educación - Coalición de Movimientos y Organizaciones Sociales de Colombia COMOSOC - Extinction Rebellion Medellín - Federación Nacional de Sindicatos Bancarios Colombianos “FENASIBANCOL” - Mesa Ecuménica por la Paz MEP - UNEB Unión Nacional de Empleados Bancarios ECUADOR Acción Ecológica - Instituto de Estudios Ecologistas del Tercer Mundo - Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos”Segundo Montes Mozo S.J." (CSMM) GUINÉE Centre d’études et de recherche pour l’intégration régionale et le développement de l’Afrique (CERIDA), Conakry HAITÍ PAPDA Plateforme haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif HONDURAS Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Indigenas y Negras de Honduras INDIA Indian Social Action Forum INSAF - Nadi Ghati Morcha-India ( River Vally Front ) INDONESIA Koalisi Rakyat untuk Hak atas Air MAROC ATTAC CADTM MAROC - Coalition marocaine de l´éducation pour tous MÉXICO Servicio Internacional Cristiano de Solidaridad con America Latina y el Caribe (SICSAL) - Equidad de género: ciudadanía, trabajo y familia AC NIGER Association Nigerienne des Scouts de l’Environnement ANSEN PANAMÁ Colectivo Voces Ecológicas PERÚ Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres Macronorte Perú - Iglesia Luterana Intercultural - Sindicato De Trabajadores En Construcción Civil De La Provincia De Chiclayo PUERTO RICO Comuna Caribe SIERRA LEONE REACHOUT SALONE SOUTH AFRICA Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) - ActionAid International USA TAP The Alternatives Project ZAMBIA Civil Society SDGs Campaign Zambia…
July 22, 2024

More information: stopimfwb(at)gmail.com