Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

 Preamble

The most significant manifestations of capitalist globalization involve banking crises, public and private debts, the consolidation of the debt system, alongside a myriad of other challenges such as economic, food, environmental, and political crises, migration, wars and terrorism. This globalization is considered as an implementation of liberal policies that aim to universalize market logic to all aspects of human activities at the expense of social gains and needs of the peoples, and to the gains of the working class and popular classes (economic and social rights, civil and political rights).

The current prevailing dynamic, which is encouraged by the global financial and trading Market activities
trading Buying and selling of financial instruments such as shares, futures, derivatives, options, and warrants conducted in the hope of making a short-term profit. institutions closely linked to multinational corporations and to the dominant imperialist states, expresses the will to eliminate all barriers to the trade of goods and capital, and to extend the dominance of financial capital.

Capitalist globalization and the neoliberal policies prevailing today do not allow for building a unified world, but rather deepen inequality between the countries of the North and the South, as well as within each country separately. They exacerbate the dependence of the Southern countries, dramatically raise the expenditure of arms, foster imperialistic military tendencies, and open up the planet to a terrible environmental crisis that threatens its existence. Powerful forces worldwide combine their efforts to dominate, whether through direct colonial wars or trade wars, by strengthening the power of global corporations that impose their will on nations to ensure profits. It also allows for the perpetuation of economic crises that are resolved at the expense of the popular classes and the depletion of natural resources leading to the destruction of the environment in general across various countries in the world. For our country and for the majority of the Southern countries, it means a complete recolonization in new forms.

With the expansion of the dynamic of capitalist globalization, there were dynamics to confront it and struggle against its effects, aiming to build popular alternatives. Various of these dynamics have engaged in struggles against the consequences of imposed austerity policies, global financial institutions, multinational corporations, international agreements aimed at deepening the plundering of the wealth of the countries of the South, imperialist wars, and environmental destruction. It sought to interconnect its work and to build movements and organizations capable of acting both in the field and presenting ideas and alternatives. The ATTACs represents one of the most important movements that has emerged to radically defend against liberal policies with perspectives that are enriched day by day. ATTAC CADTM Morocco is engaged in this global movement against capitalist globalization, fighting against its local evils on multidimensional areas and fronts:

 Free Trade Agreements: New Colonial Agreements

The so-called free trade agreements signed by Morocco with 56 countries, mainly involving major imperialist powers such as the European Union and the United States of America, are aimed primarily at granting full freedom to foreign capital and goods (often subsidized) to invade the domestic market. It destroys the local economic, deepens our economic dependence, undermines our food sovereignty, generalizes social marginalization and exclusion, and exacerbates the deterioration of the living and working conditions of the majority of society. Through these agreements, Morocco aligns its regulations with international laws in favor of multinational corporations and to ensure the investors’ interests.

The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA), negotiations which have been on hold since 2014, translates European demands in the areas of competition, industrial property and legal protection for investors. It aims to harmonize Moroccan laws with European standards in all areas beneficial to capital accumulation and to increase the liberalization the service sector, including public services, and to facilitate access to public contracts.

While both parties, Morocco and Europe, tout the benefits of these free trade agreements as clear evidence of openness and progress, the doors of the occupied cities of Ceuta and Melilla are closed to citizens They agree to strengthen measures against migrants coming from Morocco and all Africa, strengthening Morocco’s role as a gendarme serving Europe.

Within this unequal exchange framework, a section of the major capitalists in Morocco, associated with and supported by the state apparatus, are heading to the countries of the African continent to invest in certain sectors. They keep pace with the policy of imperialisms competing for Africa’s vast wealth. They also play the role as agents for the benefit of the global capital, not only within Morocco, but across the entire continent, as well as compete with other regional powers that aspire to play similar roles.

 Debt: A massive transfer of wealth in favor of the capitalists and a mechanism for perpetuating dependency.

Debt serves as a mechanism for transferring wealth produced by workers and small producers to the benefit of capitalists both domestically and internationally. Our country is burdened by a debt that has accumulated in the absence of any popular oversight and has been used as a basis for consolidating an despotic political system and establishing a dependent economic system. To ensure debt repayment, the trio composed of 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.

, the International Monetary Fund 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 World Trade Organization are jointly dictating liberal policies focused on the development of large capital at the expense of impoverishing the working class, small producers and popular classes.

Thus, debts are not merely loans that must be repaid, but a system of enslavement, oppression, and subjugation of our people, as well as the widespread plundering of their wealth by both domestic and foreign capital. This requires raising the demand we have always advocated for; the abolition of both internal and external public debt as a necessary step towards building our popular and food sovereignty and breaking free from foreign decision-making centers, including international financial and trade institutions and imperial powers.

Debt abolition will enable the provision of necessary financial resources for real development focused on meeting basic needs, and the establishment of public policies by truly democratic institutions that are independent in their decision-making and guarantee direct popular oversight. Auditing debts is a necessary step towards a broad mobilization against debts and their effects and for preparing the subjective conditions the demand for the abolition of public debt.

ATTAC CADTM Morocco works alongside other activist organizations to root the demand for auditing debts and mobilize for their abolition at the heart of popular and worker protests labor movements and struggles against oppression, inflation Inflation The cumulated rise of prices as a whole (e.g. a rise in the price of petroleum, eventually leading to a rise in salaries, then to the rise of other prices, etc.). Inflation implies a fall in the value of money since, as time goes by, larger sums are required to purchase particular items. This is the reason why corporate-driven policies seek to keep inflation down. and austerity. Additionally, our organization also dedicates efforts to popular education to ensure that this demand is understood by various victims of the debt system.

The struggle against illegitimate private debts borne by the popular classes

The austerity measures that result from indebtedness widen poverty and reduce income. Resorting to private debt has become an urgent need for workers and popular classes, hence the increasing indebtedness among low-income households toward banks and micro-credit institutions, which impose exorbitant interest rates Interest rates When A lends money to B, B repays the amount lent by A (the capital) as well as a supplementary sum known as interest, so that A has an interest in agreeing to this financial operation. The interest is determined by the interest rate, which may be high or low. To take a very simple example: if A borrows 100 million dollars for 10 years at a fixed interest rate of 5%, the first year he will repay a tenth of the capital initially borrowed (10 million dollars) plus 5% of the capital owed, i.e. 5 million dollars, that is a total of 15 million dollars. In the second year, he will again repay 10% of the capital borrowed, but the 5% now only applies to the remaining 90 million dollars still due, i.e. 4.5 million dollars, or a total of 14.5 million dollars. And so on, until the tenth year when he will repay the last 10 million dollars, plus 5% of that remaining 10 million dollars, i.e. 0.5 million dollars, giving a total of 10.5 million dollars. Over 10 years, the total amount repaid will come to 127.5 million dollars. The repayment of the capital is not usually made in equal instalments. In the initial years, the repayment concerns mainly the interest, and the proportion of capital repaid increases over the years. In this case, if repayments are stopped, the capital still due is higher…

The nominal interest rate is the rate at which the loan is contracted. The real interest rate is the nominal rate reduced by the rate of inflation. . The struggles of women, primarily victims of microcredit mainly in the southeastern regions of Morocco, highlighted the magnitude of the social disaster perpetrated by these institutions whose real purpose is to bind the poor to financial markets.

Just as with auditing public debt, a broad social mobilization is required to investigate the various forms of exploitation and abuses committed by microcredit institutions, consumer loan institutions and banking institutions against the victims from the popular classes. It also necessitates the auditing of the illegitimate and illegal practices that warrant the abolition of such loans.

 The struggle for climate and environmental justice is inseparable from the struggle for social justice

The ecological crisis is one of the most important manifestations of the civilization crisis faced by the capitalist system today. This crisis is linked to the capitalist mode of production and its system of distribution and consumption imposed on the inhabitants of the planet through the growing control of multinational corporations in all aspects of life (water, air, plants, media, health, education, etc.)

As part of its adherence to foreign decision-making centers, financial and commercial institutions as well as governments of the imperialist countries, the Moroccan state implements policies that allow foreign and local capitalists to seize our country’s wealth on land, sea and sky, depleting it at the expense of the impoverished popular classes in cities and villages. Sectoral strategies represent one of the areas where these policies are manifested. The state strives to turn the environmental damage resulting from its policies an area for “green” investments using huge financial allocations that lead to an increase in public debt.

Clearly, the logic centered on enormous productivity and expanding consumption, which forms the core of the overall policies being pursued, will deepen the deterioration of natural resources and biodiversity. This will necessitate a significant collective effort to conduct a comprehensive examination of the extent of the damage.

The environmental issue in our country is therefore linked to the nature of political, economic and social choices that perpetuate inequality. The pursuit for profit Profit The positive gain yielded from a company’s activity. Net profit is profit after tax. Distributable profit is the part of the net profit which can be distributed to the shareholders. is the cause of environmental destruction and the depletion of resources in all regions of the world at the expense of the impoverished groups in cities and villages. This is encapsulated up by the term “sustainable development” used by governments, international institutions and multinational corporations, which essentially means the continuation of development within the framework of a capitalist economy and while incorporating the environment within it.

The organization ATTAC CADTM Morocco fights for environmental justice in the concept articulated by movements and organizations globally and locally, which links the rapid and severe deterioration of the environment to the pattern of capitalist production and consumption system and its structural crisis today.

The exploitation of the environment and the destruction of resources are inseparable from the exploitation of humans and the generalization of different forms of injustice and oppression suffered by the majority of the population, especially in the countries of the global South. Consequently, the struggle for the preservation of the environment is therefore inseparable from the struggle for social justice and the redistribution of resources. Similarly, it is also inseparable from the struggle for true democracy, which is based on involving the people in determining their own destiny.

 Deepening the feminist dimension of our struggle

The crisis of neoliberal capitalism economically, socially and environmentally devastates the lives of the vast majority of humanity. This crisis particularly affects women, who perform three quarters of the unpaid labor and constitute the majority of the world’s poor people and victims of patriarchal violence. Women are the primary victims of closure of borders for migration from pillaged economies, conflict zones and wars in search of a safe life. In addition, women are endure severe exploitation in the workplace and receive low wages. They account for 80% of all victims of microfinance institutions worldwide. The multidimensional capitalist crisis fuels all other forms of oppression based on gender and race and fosters the rise of right-wing hostile to women’s rights.

Moroccan women suffer greatly from capitalist oppression and exploitation. Their situation is further worsened due to the debt system and the consequent generalized austerity policies implemented by the country’s rulers in cooperation with the imperialist decision-making centers.

The widespread involvement of women in the social movements across the cities and villages of Morocco against marginalization and poverty, such as the Hirak Rif movement, has revealed the falsehood of neoliberal development programs. ATTAC CADTM Morocco works to support and directly engage in all movements led by or involving women to encourage their resistance and to impose their own demands as a gender, as well as to confront the policies of injustice and social discrimination towards them. The organization works to eliminate gender disparities in all areas of life through affirmative actions and feminist popular education.
ATTAC CADTM Morocco is considered an association with feminist principles of thought and practice. It constantly strives to deepen the feminist dimension in its ideologies and struggles.

 ATTAC CADTM Morocco : A popular education association oriented towards action

ATTAC CADTM Morocco’s primary mission is to produce popular education tools to understand the nature of the neoliberal attacks and mechanisms to resist and defeat them.

ATTAC CADTM Morocco is aware of the depth of the crisis of the global capitalist system and the dependent capitalism in our country. It is working to develop popular alternatives to the capitalist system, the continuation of which threatens the foundations of life on earth. Together with all the forces of social struggle, it seeks to break away from it towards a system that is socially just, environmentally sustainable, guarantees Guarantees Acts that provide a creditor with security in complement to the debtor’s commitment. A distinction is made between real guarantees (lien, pledge, mortgage, prior charge) and personal guarantees (surety, aval, letter of intent, independent guarantee). democratic freedoms and achieves equality.

At ATTAC CADTM Morocco, we seek to disseminate and spread information about economic and social policies that are being engineered in the centers of capitalist decision-making: Multinational corporations, international financial institutions and the governments of the major imperialist powers. These policies negatively impact the daily lives of citizens and undermine their gains and rights. We want to contribute to the development of a broad popular resistance drawing inspiration from the resistance experiences that emerge and develop at the national, regional and international levels.

ATTAC CADTM Morocco does not seek to replace existing worker and popular organizations, but rather to consolidate the traditions of collective thinking and field coordination among the various resistance groups.

We want another globalization based on solidarity among people, where tomorrow is synonymous with social justice, freedom, democracy, dignity and development built on synergy and contrary to the logic of the capitalist market.

In ATTAC CADTM Morocco, we are internationally engaged in the struggle:

–  For the abolition of the debt system. Our active involvement in the international network of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts represents one aspect of those struggles .
–  Against international financial and economic institutions.
–  Against free trade agreements.
–  Against imperialist wars, militarization and military alliances, and in favor of the allocation of military expenditures towards funding social services.
–  For climate and environmental justice.
–  Alongside all the mobilizations that seek to enhance the capacities of the working class and the oppressed to confront the capitalist system and advocate for democracy and social justice.

In ATTAC CADTM Morocco, we are locally engaged in the struggle against:

–  Structural adjustment Structural Adjustment Economic policies imposed by the IMF in exchange of new loans or the rescheduling of old loans.

Structural Adjustments policies were enforced in the early 1980 to qualify countries for new loans or for debt rescheduling by the IMF and the World Bank. The requested kind of adjustment aims at ensuring that the country can again service its external debt. Structural adjustment usually combines the following elements : devaluation of the national currency (in order to bring down the prices of exported goods and attract strong currencies), rise in interest rates (in order to attract international capital), reduction of public expenditure (’streamlining’ of public services staff, reduction of budgets devoted to education and the health sector, etc.), massive privatisations, reduction of public subsidies to some companies or products, freezing of salaries (to avoid inflation as a consequence of deflation). These SAPs have not only substantially contributed to higher and higher levels of indebtedness in the affected countries ; they have simultaneously led to higher prices (because of a high VAT rate and of the free market prices) and to a dramatic fall in the income of local populations (as a consequence of rising unemployment and of the dismantling of public services, among other factors).

IMF : http://www.worldbank.org/ programs and their new formulations, against all policies dictated by international financial, commercial and political institutions that perpetuate the dominance of multinational corporations over our country and condemn the majority into the depths of underdevelopment, ignorance and deprivation.
–  Debts that serve as a mechanism for draining our country’s wealth under the supervision of international financial institutions. These debts are earmarked for dependent capitalist development, while the people bear their burdens as they live a life of austerity, poverty and suffering.
–  The micro-credit system that burdens the popular classes, especially women, and integrates them into a vicious vortex of living a life of indignity.
–  A tax system that crushes the working people and small producers and which we claim for imposing a progressive tax on wealth and on financial transactions.
–  Privatization of public establishments.
–  Privatization of public services and undermining their solidarity by subjecting them to market logic and linking their to ability to pay.
–  Laws, decisions and regulations that aim to dismantle and abolish civil service (contracting, regional employment, etc.) and to abolish laws that carry gains for the workers.
–  Oppressive policies that target the unemployed.
–  Dismantling social protection and retirement systems through counterproductive reforms that undermine all the worker’s gains.
–  Massive price hikes resulting from severe economic dependency.
–  Agricultural policies based on exportation and depletion of water and land, do not ensure our food security.
–  Policies that destroy the environment and accelerate the plundering of natural resources.
–  Against political detentions and for the release of all prisoners of conscience and social protest.
–  For a true and genuine democracy where the people will make their economic and social choices.
–  For the sake of real gender equality and for holding the capitalist system accountable for the cost of social reproduction costs imposed on women.

Additionally, ATTAC CADTM Morocco is also struggling locally to achieve the following main demands:

–  Conducting a public audit of Morocco’s total debt, identifying and abolish the odious and illegitimate parts of it, and reallocating the funds allocated to it to improve living conditions and pave the way for solidarity-based development.
–  Establishing a public financing system for small producers and working classes under popular supervision and making the banking services a public service.
–  A public sector under popular control that meets the needs of citizens for a decent life.
–  Reduce the number of legal working hours per week and lower the retirement age.
–  Comprehensive social protection for all workers and small producers.
–  Enactment of the escalator clause, that is, a general increase in wages according to the cost of living.
–  Enact an agricultural policy based on ensuring food and water sovereignty and respecting the environment and against the impoverishment of small farmers and fishermen.
–  Real environmental justice and the people’s sovereignty over their areas (land, water, forests, sea, etc.) and for a just energy transition.

Approved by The Seventh National Congress held in Rabat on December 16^th, 17^th and 18^th, 2022