Archivo de la etiqueta: Debt @en

OCAX: an online tool to keep public budgets under people’s control

A year ago, the PACD (Spanish Citizen Debt Audit Platform) launched its campaign to fight debt and lack of transparency in the municipalities. The aim was to create citizen observatories to get the budgets under citizens’ control. An online tool has been developed in order to support this task. The tool, OCAX, is totally open source:  any group can download the code and implement it on their website. The code can be changed, there is no need to quote, but it can’t be used for lucrative purpose. Likewise, no logo from any political party or association can be attached to it since it wants to remain as a tool for the citizens.

The web enables any citizen to ask questions about the public budgets to the City Hall, and the people who make the observatory work are in charge of the bureaucracy involved. All the questions are open to the public on the website and answers can be tracked and processed so it can be replicated in other observatories. Furthermore, it also includes a budget analyser which breaks down different incomes and outputs. Some more extra information is provided: who is awarded public works’ contracts, on which issues the money is spent, or any other answers to questions raised by citizens. Sigue leyendo →

Journey to Greek social resistance

Viome

Desperate people queuing for food or stone and Molotov cocktail wars against asphyxiating gas. These are some of the most common images that come from Greece. But reality is kaleidoscopic and changes depending on where you look.

On the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki you can breathe some normality, but while businesses in the center are mostly open, in the suburbs signs “for rent” are everywhere. Urban furniture that suffered the brunt of the latest demonstration or simply the passing of time has not been repaired. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has no longer cleaning service. In the suburbs of Attica rubbish piles up because it is not collected every day. “The cuts”, they say. The majority of the population seems to be in shock. But there are also many that feed a swarm of citizen initiatives. 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 →

«A week of fighting for freedom from debt»

 «A week of fighting for freedom from debt»

The Global Week of Action against Debt and IFIs; a global mobilization that is gaining strength in Spain.
 From October 8th to 15th, the Global Week of Action against Debt will be celebrated worldwide. The Citizen Debt Audit Platform (PACD) has joined this initiative and is planning numerous actions and activities in various cities in Spain to denounce the illegitimacy of debt and social cuts. Sigue leyendo →