Archivo de la etiqueta: CADTM @en

The PACD in the CADTM Summer University

photo

In the past days of June 28th, 29th and 30th, participants of the PACD attended the CADTM Summer University in La Marlagne, Namur (Belgium). An annual event facilitated by the CADTM that allows for people and organizations from a number of countries to meet in debate and training sessions about debt from different perspectives.

The CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt), founded in Belgium in the year 1990, is an international network of about thirty organizations active in more than 25 countries on 4 continents. Their main goal is the cancellation of the public debt on third world countries and the annulment of structural adjustment policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO) trio. Since slightly before the crisis, they have also started working on the public debt of the so-called North, with the final goal of exiting the current debt system, using the weapon of citizen audits to reach the construction of a socially just and ecologically viable society. Sigue leyendo →

The Debt Crisis: From Europe to Where?

The editors have chosen an excellent title for this book “The Debt Crisis: From Europe to Where?” which incorporates a series of analyses written mainly in 2011 – 2012. The epicentre of the crisis that began in the United States in 2007 shifted to Europe in 2010 and it is necessary to ask the questions: where is this crisis leading to? How will the rest of the world be affected?

The combined effect of a crisis of overproduction in the real estate sector in the U.S., as well as the banking and financial crisis of great magnitude produced the economic and social disaster. The banking and financial crisis was itself caused by the deregulation of the financial sector launched by the successive governments in the U.S. and Europe starting from the widespread introduction of neo-liberal policies in the 1980s. This deregulation allowed large banks and major insurance companies to develop derivatives and structured products that are powerful weapons of mass destruction. These bombs began to explode in 2007 and the explosions are not yet over. The current crisis is clearly a major crisis of the capitalist system. The current governments benefit from it, since they can apply shock therapy. The policies they are developing will prolong and aggravate the crisis. Sigue leyendo →

Debt Versus Democracy: A Battle for the Future

2013_0102_1

Strike Debt on Fifth Avenue for Global Noise Demo. (Photo: Marisa Holmes)

In the US and Europe, the movement of squares has responded to attacks on the social good by debt resistance and direct democracy. In assemblies, mic checks and self-organization, they demonstrated that another world is possible. Now the movement is articulating full-scale resistance. Sigue leyendo →