Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

From the beginning of the 19^th 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.

Contrary to popular belief, the peripheral indebted countries are not responsible for sovereign debt crises, which most frequently have their origin in the most powerful capitalist countries, and in turn result in large-scale crises in peripheral indebted countries. It is not excessive public spending but rather the conditions enforced by creditors that cause unsustainable debts. Debt crises and their outcomes are always monitored by the major banks and the governments ruling over the most powerful economies, that support them.

Over the last two centuries, several States have successfully repudiated their public debt. Éric Toussaint analyses several examples such as in Mexico, the United States, Cuba, Russia or Costa Rica. The questioning of debt repayment has led to the development of the legal doctrine of odious debt, which permits odious debt to be identified and repudiated.

This fascinating and well documented chronology provides the necessary elements to understanding the unrelenting mechanism of the debt system and how the capitalist world has used it for two hundred years.

See also: Eric Toussaint, The Debt System, A History of Sovereign Debts and their Repudiation, Haymarket Books, 2019.