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In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and its aggravating effect on the multidimensional crisis congenital to capitalism, the same destructive policies are still being imposed: the rich continue to capture ever greater parts of the World’s wealth at the expense of the environment and of the poorest sectors of the World’s populations. Yet there are clear and easy alternative choices that may be made! Prominent among them: debt cancellation for more social justice!
To get a closer look at the various issues raised by the current situation and in collaboration with several collectives and at various venues, the CADTM organizes its annual summer university in an adapted and interesting new format!
Three of our meetings will take place on line and others face-to-face. Thus, not only will they be accessible to the largest possible public but they will, at the same time, bring together struggles, from the smallest to the biggest, from all over the globe to exchange and share experiences. For the CADTM, it is essential to revitalize the initiative that started at Seattle in 1999, to re-launch an alter-globalization movement on a solid international solidarity basis, and to ring out loud and clear: “the world is not for sale, our lives are worth more than their profits.”
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Webinars
| Times are CET (Brussels, Paris…). To find out times in other zones, check here |
| Tuesday 14 September, 6.30-8.30 p.m.- Your debt or your life: a feminist approach to the multidimensional crisis |
| With Silvia Federici and Verónica Gago Silvia Federici, an Italian-American scholar, teacher, and activist from the radical autonomist feminist Marxist and anarchist tradition. She is one of the leading figures in anti-capitalist feminism. Witha long history of activism and critical examination of the capitalist globalization process and its impact on the environment, from the wages for housework campaign in New York in the early 1970s to her struggle against structural adjustment policies in Africa. Verónica Gago is a Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and at the {Universidad Nacional de San Martín} (Unsam), she is also a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina. A feminist activist of the Collective “Ni una menos” Argentina, she is a cornerstone reference to understand the issue of debt and finance in a feminist perspective. |
| The increase in public and private debt has direct consequences on households’ resources and women’s lives. It is most often the women who take on the responsibilities for social reproduction and are often pressured into debt to feed and support their families, to find shelter, to get access to health care and education, etc. When crises occur, women lose their means to repay their debts. Debt also prevents women from escaping situations of domestic violence. This is how gender oppression combines with financial extortion. Since debt is a tool that reinforces capitalism, it also strengthens patriarchy: women are burdened with more and more tasks that ought to be covered by public services. Seeing how debt, capitalism and patriarchy combine to the same end, proposals put forward by feminist movements are essential to build alternatives and put the sustainability of well-being before the sustainability of markets. |
| Thursday 16 September, 6.30-8.30 p.m. - What solutions for the countries of the South crushed by the burden of the debt? |
| With Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky (Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights from 2014 to 2020), Ndongo Samba Sylla (Senegalese economist, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Dakar and Collective for The Renewal of Africa (CORA)), Iolanda Fresnillo (Eurodad) and Omar Aziki (Attac/CADTM Morocco) |
| While many countries of the South were already facing difficulties in 2015, the severe consequences of the CoViD-19 pandemic have aggravated their debt situation. Over a third of them are on the verge of defaulting or have already suspended payment on all or part of their debt. Since March 2020, international institutions have repeated declarations of intent without really taking the measure of the current crisis. Faced with the distress of the populations, it is urgent to act for the cancellation of the debt of the countries of the South! But how? Through restructuring or suspension? Through cancellation or repudiation? Through an audit or an international device under the aegis of the UN? Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky will present the solutions put forward by UNCTAD. Ndongo Samba Sylla will explain the specific constraints relating to debts on countries of the South. Iolanda Fresnillo and Omar Aziki will develop the recommendations of their respective networks. |
| Thursday 23 September, 6.30-8.30 p.m. – Should debts held by the ECB be cancelled? |
| With Renaud Lambert (Monde Diplomatique), Benjamin Lemoine (researcher with the CNRS and author of L’ordre de la dette. Enquête sur les infortunes de l’État et la prospérité des marchés), Éric Toussaint (spokesperson for CADTM International), Aline Farès (author of Chroniques d’une ex-banquière) and Eva Betavatzi (member of CADTM Belgium). |
| In February 2021, the question of what to do with the €2,500 billion of sovereign debt held by the European Central Bank was all over the media. On 5 February, 150 economists from 13 European countries published an op-ed calling for the cancellation of those debts. Three weeks later, in another op-ed, 80 economists called for another solution. Meanwhile, as expected, the president of the ECB Christine Lagarde stated that cancelling this debt ran against the EU treaties and could not therefore be considered. So, for or against? Would it be a mere temporary relief or a real political lever? |
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