Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Organizations representing unions, farmers and agricultural workers, indigenous peoples, the popular movement, environmentalists, women, youth, children, and human rights from Mexico and many other countries of the world have convened here in the Social Forum “Another World is Possible” from the 18 to the 22 or March, in Monterrey, Mexico to make the voice of the excluded society heard by the International Conference for the Financing of Development sponsored by the United Nations Organization. We are gathered here, above all, to make known our complete rejection of the neoliberal globalization that has been advocated for so many years by the G-7 member countries and other multilateral organizations 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 , the 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.

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.

, who are responsible for imposing an economic order upon the entire planet that has brought about devastating consequences, has globalized misery, injustice, inequality and environmental degradation. We are here today to manifest our complete rejection of the intent to advance the increased integration and subordination of Mexico to the United States through the scheduled meeting between Vicente Fox and George Bush.

This UN conference will debate a document, the so-called Monterrey Consensus, which was brought to the conference with the stipulation that not even a comma could be change and that includes the “agreement” not to represent the necessities of the poor countries but that of the interests, limitations and conditions of the rich countries and of the same organisms that are in charge of globalization misery we experience on a daily basis. It proposes an exercise of situation, or of a scene mounted to recuperate a little bit of legitimacy for an economic model whose last priority is combating the causes of poverty.

The Monterrey Consensus is a document that is full of good intentions, but lacks concrete commitments, methods or mechanisms to advance development. Now we find that the poor and the rich 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. the same amount of responsibility and try to use corruption as a pretext for not distributing resources. The Official Assistance for Development has reduced the discussion to only a few crumbs left over from the earnings of the rich countries from which the poor people of the world must try to extract all that they can, earnings that are in large part due to the indiscriminate opening of the markets of developing countries. As we well know, Mexican programs, such as Progresa, as well as those on a global level, have not produced results since they are incapable of modifying the economic policies that cause poverty. The Monterrey Consensus maintains the principal paradigms of neoliberalism: more free trade and more indiscriminate investment to be used to promote a growth which only succeeds in further polarizing the world.

Mexico is a good example of the results of this model. Since the inception of NAFTA, Mexico has received 80,207 billion dollars in foreign investment; it has quintupled foreign trade, however during this entire neoliberal period its growth has hovered around zero, it has a 40% deficit in the generation of new employment, a trade deficit and seventy million people living in poverty.

We are not in agreement with the social disaster of NAFTA, or with the fact that the United States and the rest of the governments of the hemisphere intend to extend this model throughout this whole continent through the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The Puebla-Panama Plan, the Colombia Plan and the Dignity Plan form part of the “neocolonist” plans and of he hegemony of the United States to consolidate their economic, political and military domination throughout the continent.

Those with power intend to impose their domain upon the peoples and their culture. This can only be achieved by homogenizing all nations. The objective is that all nations are converted into one large market from which can be extracted that which is necessary for the continued reproduction of the system. This implies the necessity to destroy other cultures and their peoples through the subordinated integration of all into the same development model. Africa is a dramatic example.

Now, the indigenous peoples of Latin America are in more danger than ever. It is not a coincidence that the corridor that represents the Puebla-Panama Plan coincides directly with the lands owned by indigenous peoples. This represents a large part of the most coveted natural resources on earth and as provides examples of what “they” have deemed intolerable examples of rebellion.

Capital is not provided for the long-term, they only think and fight for immediate gains. Therefore, the conservation of the environment is not a priority for them. If the cost of “development” implies the destruction of the forests, the contamination of the rivers and seas and the devastation of the biosphere, they do not 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. . The official international cost calculated for environmental deterioration and degradation in Mexico is 10% of average GDP GDP
Gross Domestic Product Gross Domestic Product is an aggregate measure of total production within a given territory equal to the sum of the gross values added. The measure is notoriously incomplete; for example it does not take into account any activity that does not enter into a commercial exchange. The GDP takes into account both the production of goods and the production of services. Economic growth is defined as the variation of the GDP from one period to another. since the inception of NAFTA.

Privatization now has been extended to include energy, education, health, social security and even water and the biodiversity of agricultural products through genetic modifications, without considering the needs or the social interests of the people and their nations.

The oppression against women has increased and has achieved new levels, for this reason they have continued to fight incessantly to defend their rights and for justice for all as well as for the right to make decisions about their own bodies and their right to a life without violence. However, the road is still long. The full acceptance of sexual diversity, as well as all types of diversity in all aspects of life is a continuing fight.

This UN conference is legitimizing and promoting an economic model that produces consequences that we well know. The UN also has planned several attacks, for example, that which they intend to carry out in Chiapas with the displacement of the zapatista communities in Montes Azules under the pretext of protecting the biodiversity. More and more, the UN is being converted into a instrument to transmit the interests of the G-7, and particularly those of the USA. This has served as a security blanket for the military policies of the United States and its allies under the pretext of combating terrorism.

Since September 11, globalization has entered into a new, and even more dangerous, phase, that which Dr. Pablo Gonzalez Casanova has deemed the neoliberalism of war. It is truly insulting that the UN Conference allows the United States to exaggerate their contribution by 5 billion dollars to aid while their military budget is 48 billion dollars.

The genocidal wars in Afghanistan, Palestine and Colombia are part of this campaign, and are adding victims of hunger to those already felled by the war.

Facing the voracity of power, the people of the world have not remained passives. This shows us that ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE. In recent years, one can find resistance, defense and the creation of alternatives in all corners of the world. From the construction of networks, worldwide and continental coordinations and the protests in Seattle have proven advances in the globalization of alternatives and of hope. We continue in the fight for land, water, against privatization, for indigenous rights and culture, for labor rights, education, the equity Equity The capital put into an enterprise by the shareholders. Not to be confused with ’hard capital’ or ’unsecured debt’. of gender and respect for diversity, the environment and the recuperation of our natural resources. We call for all to join us in a continental campaign against the FTAA, to defeat the Puebla-Panama Plan, to reject a NAFTA Plus and to continue fighting against the embargo against Cuba.

In each summit, in all of the meetings of multilateral organizations, our voice will be present. There are advances in the coordination of the fights that will respond to the barbarity of power.

This is our work: To advance our levels of coordination, to travel to all corners of the planet to be the spokespeople of hope in the face of our common enemy and to advance in our Unity. We will be the voice of this humanity that is disposed to face death, war and hunger with life and justice.

To be the voice of dignity is our mission, to carry our word into the consciousness of all the women and men of this planet is our fight for the future.

In this way and only in this way IS ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE.