Activists from all over the Spanish state celebrate the III State Meeting of the Citizen Debt Audit Platform (PACD)
From May 31st to June 2nd the III State Meeting of the Spanish Citizen Debt Audit Platform (PACD)– We don’t owe! We won’t pay! took place. Activists from all over the Spanish State (as well as some from Portugal and Belgium)participated in this meeting, that took place in Barcelona, where they put together all the work done by the regional groups and developed the strategy for the next months. Three days of intense work at the fantasticcollectivised space of Aurea Social. The meeting started with an international conference organized by the Observatory of Debt in Globalization (ODG), where different activists fighting against the oppression of debt in Tunisia, Ecuador, Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Spain were heard. During this third encounter it was visible how the PACD has been growing in strength since it first started in October 2011. Nowadays it has become a reference for the fight against debt and austerity both inside and outside our borders, through the International Citizen Debt Audit Network (ICAN).
From this third encounter a road map has emerged with the following guidelines: consolidating the debate on the illegality of debt; advancing towards terrains such as municipal audits; promoting the contents generated by the platform; and deepening into the research developed by the PACD on different fields (financial, gender, social, ecological, etc.). A road map that gives us a special date for our calendars: the Week of Global Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions, that will take place from October 8th to 15th. The PACD places this event in the horizon as a key date to mobilize citizens in a unanimous shout against the ransom of our democracies by the financial powers.
The PACD categorically rejects the interference of the Troika in politics that condition our lives.
During their third visit to Madrid, framed by a series of visits for regular inspection, control and recommendation, the representatives of the Troika (the triumvirate formed by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) met with different representatives of the main banking institutions, the Ministry of Economy and the Bank of Spain. The PACD rejects the lack of transparency around these meetings that are so important to our lives, and that its main contents are not shown to the population. The Troika is dictating the politics that the government must follow. Is an electoralprocess regarding economic policies still viable if they are imposed from outside?
The PACD denounces the unacceptable neo-colonialist interference of the Troika and calls on the social movements to fight together to free ourselves from the tutelage of creditors.
When the policies of a country are imposed by institutions of anti-democratic nature (such as the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF); when in addition the catastrophic results for the population of their “recommendations” are widely known; and when all of the social achievements that were conquered through hard work are being dismantled, it is the duty of all citizens to stand in the defence of our rights, of justice and democracy.
The PACD fully supports and calls to continue with the mobilizations against the Troika and their murderous debt, imposed on the people through bank rescues, cuts on essential services and unfair tax adjustments.
The PACD denounces that the debt is still rising with economic policies that are in clear benefit of the 1% and in detriment for the 99%.
Meanwhile, the public debt keeps rising due to bank rescues and regressive tax policies, among other factors. This week we have seen published the last public debt figures that, according to the calculation system of “excessive deficit” (the one officially approved by the EU), is getting close to a trillion Euros. According to the figures published by the Bank of Spain, the global debt of public administrations reached 922,828 million Euros on the first trimester of the year. This amounts to a rise of 19% compared to the same period last year and reaching 88,2% GDP, a new historical record. Nevertheless we must take into account that this figure is incomplete. The public debt calculated according to the “outstanding liabilities” method, that also includes commercial debts, has reached, on December 31st 2012, the amount of 1,17 trillion Euros, breaking the trillion Euros barrier. The PACD considers these calculations, that are not offered by trimester, to be more accurate regardingthe indebtedness situation of the Spanish public administrations, even though the “excessive deficit” debt is the one used to compare us with our European neighbours.
We do not consider it a minor differentiation, given that in December 2012 the amount of the commercial debts, ignored in the last data published by the Bank of Spain, were already higher than 100 thousand million Euros.
We understand that debt is rising due to the financial bailouts and the lack of our government’s political will to undertake a profound tax reform, that not only results in a profound progressive taxation (in which the ones that have more really pay more), as in a real fight against fraud and tax evasion. We insist that only exercising the right to reject illegitimate debt we can start to think about getting out of this crisis.
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