Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

The Coordination of feminist struggles within the CADTM-Africa Network (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt), in collaboration with the World March of Women (WMW) and the National Forum on Economic and Social Strategies (FNSES), organized the fourth edition of the CADTM-Africa Summer University from 25 to 29 July 2024, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in the Conférence Episcopale Régionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CERAO) centre in the Cocody district.

The university provided a forum for social movements from Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon and Belgium to 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. experiences, analyses, grassroots mobilizations and proposals for alternatives.

The mechanism of debt as a system for plundering resources for the benefit of the dominant classes of the North and South and its consequences for the social and economic living conditions of the peoples on the African continent was at the heart of the sessions of this university.

We, the social movements, meeting for this purpose in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, after discussing the context of the global and African political and economic situation, analyzed several themes relating to the problems hindering the social and economic development of the African continent, particularly that of Côte d’Ivoire.

We have addressed the following issues:

• History of African debt, current debt levels, economic impacts
• Debt and public debt management in Côte d’Ivoire
• Women and debt in the web of capitalism and patriarchy
• How financial policies affect local communities
• Understanding global tax justice: how to achieve equity Equity The capital put into an enterprise by the shareholders. Not to be confused with ’hard capital’ or ’unsecured debt’.
• Food sovereignty and climate change
• The foundations of food sovereignty in Africa
• Debt and free trade agreements as instruments of neocolonialism
• Understanding the link between debt and extractive industries and the risks associated with loans secured by natural resources
• Does the alliance between 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. Bank and Africa represent a real opportunity for the continent or new threats?
• Multilateral mechanisms for resolving sovereign debt Sovereign debt Government debts or debts guaranteed by the government. crises
• The AfDB’s economic empowerment projects for women and civil society engagement
• The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its impact on Africa’s social and economic development
• The impact of projects financed by international financial institutions on women in the communities and the informal sector.

The relevance of the issues analyzed during this university has led us to reaffirm the need for greater collaboration between social movements in the South and between those in the North and South. The growing construction of resistance against the debt system and the policies of domination is the only way to free ourselves from the logic of dependence in which the capitalist system imprisons us.

We owe nothing, we will pay nothing.
Another world is possible.

Thus, we, the social movements gathered during these three days, have noted once again:

• That despite announcements of debt cancellation by the so-called developed countries and other Bretton Woods institutions, a wave of debt crises is making it impossible for some African countries to ensure the well-being of their populations;
• That the debt system and capital flight are an obstacle in achieving the Sustainable +Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 and, as a consequence, these goals are considered to be stillborn;
• That the monetary agreements between France and the countries of the Franc Zone are instruments of financing and plundering of raw materials in favour of France and that, as a consequence, they are part of the structural causes of underdevelopment in Africa;
• That the so-called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the Deepened and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) in North Africa and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) open up our borders to multinationals to monopolize our wealth and deepen the structural dependence of our countries. Together with debt, they are the two main pillars of neocolonialism;
• That the multinationals, particularly the extractive industries present in Africa, develop their activities without any regard for the right to life of the populations and workers, and that they carry out their plundering in complete freedom and impunity without control by the political and administrative authorities;
• That the orientation of agriculture towards exports in favour of cash crops is destroying subsistence agriculture, increasing the impoverishment of farmers and the food dependence of our countries on those of the North;
• That the micro-credit system, instead of fighting poverty, is pushing us deeper into extreme poverty, stress, humiliation and violence;
• That the regulations and legislation on inter-state road transport, which guarantee the free movement of people and goods within the ECOWAS zone, are systematically violated at the various checkpoints;
• That social movements are not sufficiently consulted during the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and policies.

For all the above reasons, we, the social movements, demand:

1. The restoration of subsidies for food products, fuel and the electricity sector, the cancellation of which had been imposed by 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 (IMF) on the Ivorian government increasing electricity rates;
2. That the African Development Bank (AfDB) pay reparations to communities affected by its hydroelectric dam projects, thermal or coal-fired power stations, mines and monoculture Monoculture When one crop alone is cultivated. Many countries of the South have been induced to specialize in the production of a commodity for export (cotton, coffee, cocoa, groundnuts, tobacco, etc.) to procure hard currency for debt repayments. plantations in Tabot and Jacques Ville in Côte d’Ivoire, Sanamadougou and Sahou in Mali, Bomboré in Burkina Faso, Malika in Senegal, Batchenga in Cameroon and Souapili in Guinea-Conakry;
3. That a citizens’ audit be carried out on Côte d’Ivoire’s external public and private debt, as well as its internal debt, to determine the illegitimate, illegal, odious and unsustainable parts of it and to proceed to their abolition;
4. The termination of all free-trade, partnership and investment agreements and a cut-off from 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.
   
   provisions;
5. The immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the CFA franc and the creation of an independent single African currency;
6. The establishment of a Bank of the South, in parallel with the abolition of the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and 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.
   
   );
7. The transformation of traditional tontines into self-managed, zero-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. , non-client-based savings and credit cooperatives;
8. That all women and men who are victims of microcredit receive compensation for the harm they have suffered;
9. An immediate end to the European Union’s inhumane migration policies and its interference in the Sahel;
10. The renationalisation of all state-owned companies and public services that have been privatized under pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and against the interests of Africans;
11. A halt to and cancellation of Chinese loan contracts and concessions from other multinationals based on the systematic plundering of natural resources;
12. An immediate end to land grabbing and the plundering of the mineral resources of the African continent for the benefit of a minority;
13. The abolition of all forms of oppression (social, patriarchal, neo-colonial, political, etc.) to promote human rights development.

We also:

1. Reject public-private partnerships, which are merely the hidden face of privatization or the mobilization of public money to nourish the private sector;
2. Advocate greater involvement of civil society and social movements in all political and institutional reforms;
3. Condemn the repression of social movements and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners and prisoners of war throughout the world.

We owe nothing, we will pay nothing.
Another world is possible.

Signed in Abidjan on 27 July 2024