Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

The CADTM was represented by a delegation of around fifteen activists from Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. This diversity allowed for a strong internationalist voice and enriched the debates on illegitimate debts, neocolonial domination, and solidarity-based alternatives.

In addition to its contributions in nine workshops (see summaries below), the CADTM hosted a stand throughout the UEMSS. This exchange space offered a privileged setting to create new contacts, strengthen activist ties, and disseminate our publications.

Finally, the delegation took advantage of this visibility to promote the CADTM Autumn Meetings, which will take place soon, and warmly invited participants to join them.

Participation in the UEMSS was a rich collective experience, confirming the importance of these international spaces for dialogue, training, and mobilization in building transnational social movements.

 Sunday, 24/08/2025 : Social movements in Europe facing the acceleration of deregulation : how to fight back ?

This one-day module, divided into three workshops, brought together numerous European and international organizations to address the issue of increasing deregulation driven by the European Union.

• The first workshop focused on analyzing how European policies, supported by corporate lobbies Lobby
  Lobbies A lobby is an entity organized to represent and defend the interests of a specific group by exerting pressure or influence on persons or institutions that hold power. Lobbying consists in conducting actions aimed at influencing, directly or indirectly, the drafting, application or interpretation of legislative measures, standards, regulations and more generally any intervention or decision by the Public Authorities. and conservative governments, undermine social rights and climate goals. Participants discussed possible strategies to counter this neoliberal offensive.
• The second workshop concentrated on the role and functioning of social movements in Europe, identifying their local specificities and ways to strengthen their capacity to fight back.
• The third workshop opened up reflection on the links between European mobilizations and global struggles, highlighting the importance of common initiatives such as the ECSA (European Common Space for Alternatives) in building a social and alter-globalist alternative.

The CADTM contributed its expertise on debt and financialization, emphasizing how indebtedness serves as a lever to impose neoliberal and deregulation policies both at the European and global levels. This input broadened the reflection on mechanisms of dependency and offered pathways for collective resistance.

Throughout the day, the discussions combined theoretical insights, the sharing of activist experiences, and strategic debates, all within a perspective of converging struggles and international solidarity.

 Sunday, 24/08/2025 : No to public debt blackmail and austerity - other choices are possible

This workshop explored how public debt is used as a political instrument to justify austerity policies. The speakers - Patrick Saurin from CADTM France, Vincent Drezet and Raphaël Pradeau from Attac France, and Ophélie Gath from Solidaires - showed that the increase in debt is not the result of so-called “mismanagement” but stems from deliberate political choices, such as tax cuts, exemptions from social contributions, and the CICE.

Drawing on a joint Attac–CADTM report, the discussions demonstrated that more than one-third of the rise in public debt between 2014 and 2023 comes directly from these measures favoring the wealthy and large corporations. The workshop also stressed the need to break with dependence on financial markets and to promote democratic management of debt, oriented toward financing the social and ecological transition.

Patrick Saurin also presented the booklet produced by CADTM France entitled “Public Debt : Where Does It Come From ? Who Benefits From It ?”.

 Monday, 25/08/2025 : New debt crisis in the Global South and other challenges : are the BRICS an alternative favorable to the people ?

This workshop provided an opportunity to analyze the new debt crisis affecting countries of the Global South and to discuss the role of the BRICS BRICS The term BRICS (an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) was first used in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, then an economist at Goldman Sachs. The strong economic growth of these countries, combined with their important geopolitical position (these 5 countries bring together almost half the world’s population on 4 continents and almost a quarter of the world’s GDP) make the BRICS major players in international economic and financial activities. (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) in this context. The central question was whether these countries represent a progressive alternative or simply reproduce existing patterns of domination.

• Solange Koné (CADTM Africa) highlighted the situation in sub-Saharan Africa, where indebtedness keeps countries in structural dependence. She showed how imperialist forces continue to exploit the region’s wealth, directly resulting in massive impoverishment of populations, the destruction of public services, and worsening social inequalities.
• Asma El Mandour (Attac – CADTM Morocco) focused on Morocco, illustrating the rapid rise of public debt. She emphasized that debt servicing drastically reduces social budgets in favor of repaying creditors and funding prestige projects, increasing dependence and serving the interests of both local elites and foreign powers.
• Éric Toussaint (CADTM International) analyzed the position of the BRICS in the face of global crises. He concluded that, despite their critical discourse toward the West, these countries do not constitute a credible alternative: their development banks and financial mechanisms remain tied to neoliberalism, and they do not challenge global capitalist logics. He also highlighted their contradictions, notably their economic relations with Israel and their silence regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Participants showed keen interest Interest An amount paid in remuneration of an investment or received by a lender. Interest is calculated on the amount of the capital invested or borrowed, the duration of the operation and the rate that has been set. in the BRICS question, which shaped much of the debate around Éric Toussaint’s analyses. Some exchanges, however, focused more directly on the debt crisis in the Global South, complementing the discussion.

Workshop conclusion: the new debt crisis is structural and further weakens countries of the Global South. As for the BRICS, they do not represent a real alternative for the people: they operate within a competitive capitalist logic without challenging exploitative relations.

 Monday, 25/08/2025: Increasing penetration of investment funds Investment fund
Investment funds Private equity investment funds (sometimes called ’mutual funds’ seek to invest in companies according to certain criteria; of which they most often are specialized: capital-risk, capital development funds, leveraged buy-out (LBO), which reflect the different levels of the company’s maturity. in the European economy
– >23755]

This workshop focused on the massive expansion of investment funds in the European economy and their social, economic, and political consequences. The speakers highlighted that these financial actors now hold a significant 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. of the capital in non-financial companies and are increasingly involved in strategic sectors such as public services, housing, and healthcare.

The analysis shed light on the mechanisms through which these funds accumulate power. In pursuit of quick profits, they impose restructuring and precarization measures: job cuts, deterioration of working conditions, and privatization of public services.

The CADTM, through the intervention of Claude Quemar, provided a specific perspective on vulture funds Vulture funds
Vulture fund Investment funds who buy, on the secondary markets and at a significant discount, bonds once emitted by countries that are having repayment difficulties, from investors who prefer to cut their losses and take what price they can get in order to unload the risk from their books. The Vulture Funds then pursue the issuing country for the full amount of the debt they have purchased, not hesitating to seek decisions before, usually, British or US courts where the law is favourable to creditors. , emphasizing how these actors exploit public and private debt crises to generate exorbitant profits at the expense of populations. This analysis helped link the issue of investment funds to the broader problem of indebtedness and financial domination.

The workshop concluded with the call to strengthen citizen oversight of these funds’ practices, promote transparency and regulatory mechanisms, and move toward the creation of a European citizen observatory capable of monitoring and denouncing their abuses.

 Monday, 25/08/2025: Haiti, the ransom of independence !

On the occasion of the bicentennial of the ransom imposed by France on Haiti in 1825, the workshop revisited this foundational episode of 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. that has left a lasting mark on the country’s history. After freeing itself from slavery and declaring independence, Haiti was forced to pay its former oppressors a colossal indemnity, plunging the nation into a spiral of indebtedness and hindering its development for more than a century.

The speakers emphasized that this ransom remains a textbook case for understanding the mechanics of illegitimate debts, often imposed by institutions like 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 or 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.

, which continue to keep many countries of the Global South in a position of dependence today.

The discussion also highlighted the current consequences of this history: endemic corruption, a weakened state, gang violence, and neocolonial oversight exercised by the Core Group. These elements reflect the continuation of structures of domination and show how the legacy of colonial debt still weighs heavily on Haitian society.

Haiti’s debt is not merely a historical issue but a contemporary political and moral struggle. The exchanges stressed the need to carry out an international fight to demand reparations, expose the responsibilities of France and financial institutions, and place Haiti at the center of mobilizations against all forms of illegitimate debt.

 Tuesday, 26/08/2025: Globalization in crisis : what solidarity-based alternatives ?

This workshop examined the transformations of globalization in a context marked by the return to power of Donald Trump, the persistence of the European Union’s free-trade logic, and the emergence of a new debt crisis. The speakers highlighted the effects of these dynamics on globalized agricultural value chains, food sovereignty, and the North–South balance Balance End of year statement of a company’s assets (what the company possesses) and liabilities (what it owes). In other words, the assets provide information about how the funds collected by the company have been used; and the liabilities, about the origins of those funds. .

Discussions focused on the limits of free trade and imperialist protectionism, while exploring ways to build a solidarity-based economy grounded in the relocalization of production, the defense of commons, and fair forms of cooperation. Emphasis was placed on the need to link mobilizations in the North and South to strengthen struggles against neoliberal policies and rearmament.

The CADTM, represented by Solange Koné from Côte d’Ivoire, stressed the importance of integrating the issue of debt into this reflection: indebtedness constitutes a structural barrier to solidarity-based alternatives, as it traps countries of the Global South in dependence on financial markets and reduces their capacity to invest in social and ecological transitions.

 Tuesday, 26/08/2025: Overcoming colonial modernity and its legacies – how ? Toward a decolonial path through CARE ?

This workshop began with the observation that current mechanisms of globalization, debt, IMF and World Bank lending, international cooperation, and “development aid” perpetuate power relations inherited from the colonial and slave-holding past. It highlighted how the promise of modernity has historically - and continues today - to be accompanied by the dispossession of knowledge, land exploitation, resource plundering, and violations of humanity’s commons.

The discussions explored decolonial alternatives, particularly those advanced by feminist movements, which place care at the center of their practices. Care, conceived as a political horizon, was presented as a lever for profound transformation, enabling the renewal of worldviews and opening avenues for justice and solidarity beyond colonial legacies.

The CADTM, represented by Emmanuelle Carton, emphasized the central role of debt in perpetuating colonial power relations, showing how the structural indebtedness of countries in the Global South maintains economic and political dependencies. This analysis contributed to collective reflection on the need to overcome modern coloniality by reinventing international solidarity practices grounded in social, ecological, and feminist justice.

In conclusion, the workshop stressed the importance of linking critiques of patriarchy and coloniality, and highlighted the capacity of decolonial and feminist struggles to open up an emancipatory political horizon.

 Tuesday, 26/08/2025: Finance versus food sovereignty : debt as a tool of neocolonial domination

This workshop demonstrated how international finance and large corporations directly threaten the food sovereignty of peoples. Practices such as land grabbing, commodity speculation, imposed monocultures, and private control of seeds deprive communities of their right to healthy, sustainable, and accessible food.

A central point was the analysis of debt as an instrument of coercion: many countries in the Global South, constrained by often illegitimate debts, prioritize export crops for global markets over meeting local needs. This mechanism increases dependence, weakens small-scale farming, and disrupts social and environmental balances.

The CADTM, through the interventions of Pablo Laixhay and Solange Koné, emphasized how debt functions as a neocolonial lever serving financial interests and complicit local elites. They highlighted the importance of canceling illegitimate debts and building economic models centered on fundamental rights, particularly the right to food.

Workshop conclusion: breaking the link between debt and export-oriented agriculture is an essential condition for reclaiming food sovereignty and ensuring social and ecological justice.

 Tuesday, 26/08/2025: Central America at the heart of political and geoeconomic stakes

The workshop offered an analysis of current geopolitical dynamics in Central America, a strategic region due to its historical role as an interoceanic transit zone. The discussions highlighted the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency, marked by a desire to “reclaim” the Panama Canal and reinforce American control over the region.

The speakers also explored the rising influence of China, which is forging new economic and political alliances in Central America, as well as the responses of local governments, notably Panama. Alternative projects such as the “dry canals” in Honduras and Guatemala, and the controversial interoceanic canal project in Nicaragua, were discussed in relation to extractivism and sovereignty issues.

Another central topic was the Special Development and Employment Zones (ZEDEs) in Honduras—true neoliberal enclaves that privatize entire territories for investors’ benefit at the expense of local populations. The discussion also showed how Central American migrants are used as a “bargaining chip” in geopolitical negotiations, revealing the brutality of power relations between global powers.

Finally, the workshop addressed projects led by the European Union, particularly in the environmental sector, often presented as “green” but masking similar economic domination logics.
Workshop conclusion: Central America illustrates both imperialist rivalries and popular resistance.

To counter recolonization by global economic powers, the role of social movements and international solidarity networks is crucial.