by Christian Aid
The enormous financial burden the Philippines labours under in servicing international debt while struggling to recover from Typhoon Haiyan and prepare for future emergencies must be lifted, said Christian Aid today.
25 novembre par William Gaviria Ocampo
María Lucia Fattorelli, coordinatrice nationale de l’organisation brésilienne Auditoria Cidadã da Dívida (Audit Citoyen de la dette), travaille depuis plusieurs années au côté d’une excellente équipe de femmes et d’hommes à la sensibilisation et à la conscientisation de la population brésilienne ainsi que des autorités administratives, judiciaires et des organismes de contrôle. Ils/elles sont parvenu-e-s à étendre leur rayon d’action à de nombreuses régions du pays, dans lesquelles des groupes d’audit citoyen avancent dans la recherche et l’analyse des budgets et des dettes de leur localité. L’organisation dispose maintenant à la fois d’un grand réseau national couvrant une ample zone géographique et d’un fort potentiel de participation citoyenne.
Au XIXe siècle, alors même qu’était réaffirmé le principe de souveraineté des États hérité de la paix de Westphalie, se déployaient de puissants dispositifs de dépendance liés à la dette. Comme d’autres États et Empires de la « semi-périphérie » (Empire russe, Égypte, Chine), l’Empire ottoman se trouva progressivement engagé dans une intense relation de subordination envers les « grandes puissances » de l’époque, France, Angleterre, (Allemagne, de manière secondaire). C’est l’usage de l’endettement public externe qui lia l’Empire au « centre » ; d’abord financière, la subordination fut rapidement étendue aux champs administratif et diplomatique.
by Patrick Saurin
Reader’s notes: The Body Economic. Why Austerity Kills.
David Stuckler & Sanjay Basu
Allen Lane, 2013.
In a recently published book, The Body Economic. Why Austerity Kills, David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu present an enlightening panorama of the consequences for public health, of the austerity based policies applied to the economic crisis. Adapting work they have published in the specialised press they arrive at the conclusion, that austerity not only kills, but it aggravates the economic problems it is supposed to solve.
From serious research in referenced and incontestable sources, often coming from the very institutions or States whose actions they criticise, David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu build up a detailed and precise inventory of the major crises since the 30s: starting with the great depression in the US at that time; the crisis of masculine mortality in Russia after the fall of the communist regime, the breaking up of the Soviet Union and the liberalising of the economy; the Asian crisis in 1997, and finally the Worldwide recession that began in 2007, are the events these researchers have studied.
The great recession of these last years has given the authors the opportunity to study the policies applied by a certain number of States, particularly concerning their attitudes to the banks, who are largely responsible for the crisis, and the results obtained.
by Isabel Ortiz , Matthew Cummins
A Review of Public Expenditures and Adjustment Measures in 181 Countries
This paper |1| examines the latest IMF government spending projections for 181 countries by comparing the four distinct periods of 2005-07 (pre-crisis), 2008-09 (crisis phase I: fiscal expansion), 2010-12 (crisis phase II: onset of fiscal contraction) and 2013-15 (crisis phase III: intensification of fiscal contraction); reviews 314 IMF country reports in 174 countries to identify the main adjustment measures considered in high-income and developing countries; discusses the threats of austerity to development goals and social progress; and calls for urgent action by governments to adopt alternative and equitable policies for socio-economic recovery.
1 July by Nilton Viana
João Pedro Stédile Interviewed by Brasil de Fato
Brasil de Fato — It is time for the government to ally itself with the people or pay the price in the future. This is one of the evaluations of João Pedro Stedile, national coordinator of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) on the recent mobilisations across the country.
According to Stédile, there is an urban crisis installed in Brazilian cities, provoked by the current stage of financial capitalism. “For people, large cities have becoming a living hell where they lose three or four hours a day in transit, which they could instead be using to spend with their family, studying or participating in cultural activities”, he says. For the MST leader, reducing public transport fare prices was of great interest to all the people and this was what the Free Fare Movement got right by calling for mobilisation on behalf of the interests of the people.
Britain needs a party that rejects neoliberal policies and improves the lives of ordinary people. Help us create one
Austerity is wreaking economic catastrophe on Europe, most recently on the people of Cyprus, but George Osborne is still following the same disastrous policies. Last week's budget came as no surprise: Osborne announced yet more spending cuts and extended the public sector's pay rise cap, amounting to a real terms pay cut. He's digging us even further into an economic hole, as the Office for Budget Responsibility's revised output forecast shows – from a predicted 1.2% growth down to 0.6%. That sounds like further decline, not the promised growth, and ordinary people are paying the price. The virulence of the government's economic attacks knows no bounds: Atos, workfare, council tax, the bedroom tax – punitive policies against the most vulnerable in society.
Roxanne Mitralias est militante à SYRIZA, au CADTM, ainsi qu'au Front de Gauche sur les questions agricoles et écologiques. Sociologue rurale et des sciences de formation, elle travaille aux côtés des mouvements paysans en France. Elle revient pour Contretemps sur la situation en Grèce et en particulier sur les effets destructeurs pour l'environnement des politiques d'austérité.
Contretemps : Quelle est la situation en Grèce aujourd’hui ?
Cela fait maintenant près de trois ans que la Grèce est devenue le laboratoire de politiques d’austérité d’une ampleur sans précédent au Nord. On y applique des recettes qu’on nommait « plans d’ajustements structurels » du temps du FMI et qu’on appelle, à l’heure de la Troïka, « plans de sauvetage ». Laboratoire aussi et surtout pour tester la population, évaluer jusqu’où il est possible d’aller sans que celle-ci ne se révolte. Malgré deux dizaines de grèves générales en trois ans et plus de cinq mille manifestations et grèves en 2012, des occupations et des mouvements de désobéissance civile d’ampleur, on peut dire aujourd’hui qu’il est possible d’aller très loin, au-delà de ce qu’il était permis d’imaginer. En termes de droits sociaux, la situation est relativement connue. En moyenne, un grec a perdu 40% de son salaire. Il doit en même temps faire face à l’augmentation du coût de la vie (liée à l’augmentation des taxes, mais aussi à la dépendance aux importations et à certains cartels – comme celui du lait, un des plus chers d’Europe) mais aussi à des impôts faramineux, qualifiés depuis trois ans d’« extraordinaires ».
by Jason Hickel
The World Bank and the IMF have the power to impose economic policies on developing countries even when voters and elected politicians in those countries unanimously reject them [AFP]
The crisis of capital, the rise of the Occupy movement and the crash of Southern Europe have brought the problem of income inequality into mainstream consciousness in the West for the first time in many decades. Now everyone is talking about how the richest 1 percent have captured such a disproportionate share of wealth in their respective countries. This point came crashing home once again when an animated video, illustrating wealth disparities in the US, went viral last month. When an infographic catches the attention of tens of millions of internet users, you know it is hitting a nerve.
by Social Movements Assembly
As the Social Movements Assembly of the World Social Forum of Tunisia, 2013, we are gathered here to affirm the fundamental contribution of peoples of Maghreb-Mashrek (from North Africa to the Middle East), in the construction of human civilization. We affirm that decolonization for oppressed peoples remains for us, the social movements of the world, a challenge of the greatest importance.
Semences locales et biodiversité, agriculture biologique, permaculture et agroécologie, réseaux de producteurs-consommateurs, jardins urbains autogérés et cuisines collectives : les grecs s’approprient leur agriculture et leur alimentation !
Sacando fuerzas del dolor, de este sentimiento triste de habernos quedado huérfanos como todo nuestro pueblo. Del pueblo que hoy en la calle acompaña, arropa, sigue cariñosamente al cuerpo de nuestro Comandante para homenajearlo como se merece. Sacando fuerzas de ese dolor, queremos hablarle a ese pueblo, al de los Abriles y Febreros.
Queremos recordar junto al pueblo bolivariano civil y militar a nuestro Chávez. El Chávez de la lucha por la independencia del imperio. El Chávez de mandar obedeciendo al pueblo. El Chávez irreverente junto a un pueblo rebelde. El crítico y autocrítico. Al Chávez nuestro capaz de hacer levantar vuelo al sueño de la unidad latinoamericana como tiene que ser, socialista. El Chávez nuestro es el del "Golpe de Timón".
Bogotá, Colombia, Marzo 5 de 2013
Desde la coordinación para América Latina y el Caribe del Comité para la Anulación de la Deuda del Tercer Mundo – Abya Yala Nuestra América “CADTM AYNA”, Organización social que lucha contra la deuda ilegítima que los países del norte han impuesto a los pueblos del sur, expresamos nuestro profundo dolor y pesar por el sensible fallecimiento del Comandante Presidente de la Hermana República Bolivariana de Venezuela HUGO RAFAEL CHAVEZ FRIAS. Lamentamos su muerte porque representa la pérdida de uno de los revolucionarios con mayor liderazgo en el proceso de emancipación de los pueblos.
Popular revolt in Bulgaria
A document by the Bulgarian Left Party
The antitrust protests in Bulgaria started on 5 February in Blagoevgrad and then throughout the country. The protests are against monopolies and the high energy bills for heating and electricity for the months of December 2012 and January 2013.
The protesters have the following demands:
• Energy Sector
1. Nationalization of the electricity companies in the country;
2. Elimination of all intermediaries and assumption of their functions by the National Electricity Company;
Press release
by Raid Attac/Cadtm Tunisie
Tunis, 6 February 2013
Today Wednesday 6th February 2013, the criminal hand of treachery took the life of comrade Chokri Belaïd, general secretary of the ’United Democratic Patriotic Party’ and a major personality of the Popular Front. By this assassination he has been withdrawn from the social, democratic and national struggle at a moment when he is most needed. Alive, the comrade and martyr would never have abandoned.
par Pascal Franchet
La juxtaposition des 2 termes peut sembler surprenante et pourtant, il y a bien un lien direct entre la lutte contre le nazisme et la défense de la protection sociale. En effet, la sécurité sociale n’est pas une question comptable ou technique mais est d’abord et avant tout une question politique de répartition des richesses aux conséquences sociales considérables.
by Eric Toussaint
The first three parts of the series ’Banks versus the People: the Underside of a Rigged Game!’ published in 2012, have been collected together in this one document.
This series is to be continued during January 2013.
Cet article n’a pas pour but d’analyser politiquement le sommet climatique qui s’est tenu à Doha, au Qatar, début décembre.
by Jean Andreau
There was no public debt in Grecian-Roman antiquity. This absence is peculiar to the period, unlike Italian cities of the late middle ages and modern times, and modern states.
par Eric Toussaint
Depuis 2007-2008, les grandes banques centrales (BCE, Banque d’Angleterre, Fed aux Etats-Unis, Banque de Suisse) donnent la priorité absolue à tenter d’éviter un effondrement du système bancaire privé.
