Sub-Saharan Africa: Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, the new deal

Development aid from Northern countries includes the ‘costs’ of receiving migrants, training border police and opening detention centres for migrants.

Broulaye Bagayoko, full-time secretary of CADTM Africa, analysed the political reshuffle in the region. Following three coups d’état, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have left ECOWAS to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The analysis of these changes is the subject of debate within CADTM Africa.

Broulaye Bagayoko also explained the influence that the International Monetary Fund has gained in the region since the Covid-19 crisis:

• The IMF has made a loan to Côte d’Ivoire conditional on the abolition of electricity subsidies.
• It put pressure on the Nigerian government to abolish fuel subsidies; the result was a large-scale social movement.

Broulaye Bagayoko also criticized the inhumane policies of the European Union, which led to the opening of a detention center in Niger. He railed against the so-called development aid of the countries of the North, which includes the “costs” of receiving migrants, training border police, and opening migrant detention centers.

Yvonne Ngogi concluded her presentation by highlighting the catastrophic situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the exceptional social movement that has exploded in Kenya.

CADTM Africa conducted numerous high-quality actions in 2024. Here are a few examples:

• Yaoundé, Cameroon, hosted the women’s capacity-building seminar from February 12 to 16, 2024.
• Participation in the African Collective for Climate Justice, with a focus on climate debt.
• Community empowerment on climate justice in several regions of Mali.
• Two written reports on the African Development Bank.
• The 4^th edition of the CADTM Africa Summer University in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) in July 2024.

Lastly, the CADTM listed its primary goals, which included expanding its activist base and continuing the campaign on the financing terms of the African Development Bank.

Middle East and North Africa: growing inequalities

Omar Aziki presented the political, economic and social situation in the MENA region. He underlined the tenfold consequences of the environmental crisis in the region: temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average, repeated droughts and floods, rapid desertification, etc. He deplored the proliferation of armed conflicts and the energy colonialism affecting the region. 

Omar Aziki recalled the various interventions by the International Monetary Fund in Lebanon and in Tunisia in 2022, with a requirement to privatise public companies and reduce the wage bill in the public sector. Egypt, which is extremely indebted, received a $5 billion loan from the IMF in 2024, as did Morocco a year earlier. 

These nations adhere to an extractive export model. They export mining, agricultural, and marine resources, which represent a low added value and are highly dependent on fluctuations in the world market.

The MENA region is the most unequal in the world. It has a growing number of billionaires, while youth unemployment and informal employment are enormous. As a result, emigration is enormous. Fortress Europe’s murderous migration policy has led to the deaths of many people from the region, including Syrians, Iraqis and Yemenis. 

Omar Aziki then analysed the two waves of revolution that have hit the MENA region since 2010:

• A first wave with the Arab Spring in 2010
• A second wave in 2019 in Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon and Morocco. 

Women and young people have played a major role in these revolutionary movements. 

However, there are several obstacles to these revolutionary plans, such as the weakness and bankruptcy of left-wing parties, the demobilising role of NGOs, Western imperialism, international financial institutions, and the Gulf petro-monarchies.

ATTAC-CADTM Morocco will continue its struggle to promote a political break at the intersection of the fights against capitalism, patriarchy, imperialism, and Zionism.

Asie du Sud : mouvements révolutionnaires, autorité et austérité

Sushovan Dhar highlighted the glaring inequalities that characterise South Asia. In India, for example, 66 million Indians account for 1% of the national wealth, while the number of billionaires is exploding (there are 119 of them today). He also spoke about the Reclaim the Night movement following the rape and murder of a young woman doctor in Calcutta in August 2024. He recalled the Hindu supremacism that has hit the subcontinent under Modi, where Muslims are considered second-class citizens. 

Sushovan Dhar then underlined the enormous influence of the IMF in the region, apart from India. The international financial institution has signed 17 agreements with Sri Lanka and 25 with Pakistan. It has also lent to Bangladesh in 2022 and 2023. With each agreement, the IMF imposes a reduction in public spending—an end to subsidies for basic necessities, privatizations, etc. This situation occurred in Sri Lanka following the revolutionary movement in the spring and summer of 2022. In September 2024, Sri Lanka elected a left-wing president, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka. As soon as he came to power, he agreed to continue the agreements signed with the IMF. Only a small minority in Sri Lanka, including the radical left, opposes the agreement with the Bretton Woods institutions.

The student social movement in Bangladesh, which led to the flight of the head of government, Sheikh Hasina, was also at the heart of the discussions. 

Mohamed Yunus, known as the father of microcredit and a staunch liberal, currently presides over the provisional government.

Also discussed were the debt crisis in Pakistan, the growth of religious fundamentalism in the region, and CADTM International’s participation in the World Social Forum in Kathmandu, Nepal, in February 2024, with the organisation of 7 workshops and conferences.

Latin America: In Mexico and Colombia, which left in power?

In Mexico, women have no title to the land. Only producers who can prove their land ownership receive farm subsidies.

Veronica Carrillo Ortega, a member of the Initiative for the suspension of debt payments to Mexico, gave an update on the situation in Latin America.

She began by recalling the victory of Claudia Sheinbaum, who became Mexico’s first female president. She began her term at the beginning of October 2024, and her term ended in 2291. She is a member of the Morena (National Regeneration Movement) party, like her predecessor Andrès Manuel Lopez Obrador. 

This left-wing party does not pursue truly radical policies. It has increased certain social benefits but is not carrying out any in-depth transformations. For example, it refuses to support the transition of the food production model to less intensive production methods, without chemical inputs, that do not destroy the health of consumers and producers. In Mexico, 60% of the costs incurred by small-scale agricultural producers go directly into the pockets of the multinational companies that produce inputs, chemicals, fertilizers, seeds, and so on.

It is not doing enough to break the free trade agreements signed with Canada and the United States, nor is it doing enough to correct the enormous inequalities, which are exacerbated by inflation, or to reduce youth unemployment.

Veronica Carrillo Ortega clarifies that social movements are not exerting pressure on the left, as they provide passive support to the government due to their fear of the right returning to power. This is similar to the situation in Brazil, where Lula is pursuing austerity policies that run counter to the needs of the population. 

She also highlighted Mexico’s dependence on US corn imports (whereas Mexico was a net exporter in the 1970s) and the staggering sums of public money that go toward repaying the public debt. 17% of the national budget goes toward repaying the interest on the public debt. The Mexican state spends far more on debt repayment and interest payments than it does on social measures as a whole. 

Veronica Carrillo Ortega explained that women play a major role in agriculture but do not have access to land. This is a fundamental issue because production aid goes to producers who can show that they have title to the land. But it is only men who have titles. 
The Initiative for the Suspension of Debt in Mexico is putting pressure on the Mexican government to suspend debt payments. In 1995, the government borrowed heavily to save the banks. Despite repaying the borrowed sum almost four times over, the government continues to make payments. This debt must be repudiated. The government recognizes this debt as odious, but it continues to pay it.

Other national situations were also discussed :

• Javier Milei’s Argentina is literally destroying the state. Budget cuts are affecting all sectors, particularly education. Since the libertarian party came to power, inflation has skyrocketed.-* Colombia’s Petro government, which makes radical statements but favours ‘solutions’ that are perfectly compatible with market mechanisms, such as ‘debt-for-nature’ swaps. 

• Puerto Rico, a state in the United States, will hold its elections at the same time as the United States. However, the citizens of Puerto Rico are second-class citizens, as they cannot vote in the US presidential elections. This state, locked into colonial mechanisms, is drowning in debt. Its population suffers frequent power cuts. These two issues will be central to the elections in November.

In conclusion, we are currently witnessing in part of Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, etc.) a second wave of progressive government that is far less radical than the first, marked by the governments of Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa between 2000 and 2011.