Reparations and Financial Sovereignty Now!
Colonial Debt – Imperialist Debt – Patriarchal Debt –
Ecological Debt – Economic Debt – Social Debt –
We peoples are the only creditors!
Dear friends, colleagues, comrades – Jubilee South member organizations and friends-
«The global capitalist financial system is colonial and imperialist. It is a weapon of the powerful countries to subject developing countries and peoples, to privatize and commodify, to subject us to the control of the oligarchy and of anarchic mercantilist capital. We thus should stop recognizing and dismantle the international financial system and its satellites. We call on the peoples and governments of the world to break the chains of bondage of financial colonialism, as only financial and economic sovereignty can allow us to sovereignly decide our future. «
-Evo Morales Ayma, Manifesto of the Isla del Sol, Mandate 10
Jubilee South / Americas, together with the rest of the great popular movement in Latin America, the South and globally, strongly condemns the harassment and detention suffered recently by the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales.
Such treatment constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and is an affront, not only against the peoples of Bolivia and their president, but against all peoples and countries that value dignity, respect for others, equality and justice as the basis of coexistence, if not our very survival. It is also an unequivocal demonstration that the colonial and imperial capitalist system continues to hang on the preservation of its privileges, sparing no effort to maintain its exploitative, destructive, and predatory dominance, undoubtedly affected by the very crisis it has unleashed.
We cannot ignore the continuity between this and other attacks made in recent years by the same colonial and imperialist powers, led by the U.S., its European allies and the transnational corporations they nurture and protect. Among the most egregious are the «regime changes» brought about in Haiti (2004), Honduras (2009), and Paraguay (2012), together with permanent destabilization actions against those governments, like Bolivia, that have dared to trace paths of sovereignty and independence.
In these and other efforts to maintain the order of domination and plunder, we recognize the centrality of the various mechanisms of indebtedness and financial subjugation that have been refined over the centuries. Their persistence and consequences today convert the reparation of the debts accumulated to the peoples and Mother Earth, and the recovery of financial sovereignty, in essential elements and tasks of the so dear and urgently needed struggle for decolonization, depatriarcalization, justice and equilibrium.
We thus call to join efforts among peoples everywhere, from indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants, women and all working people of Our America, throughout the South and the whole world, to achieve among other advances, the following:
1 – Audit, annulment, and non payment of debts illegitimately imposed on peoples, South countries and the Pachamama, both external and internal debts which remain instruments of exploitation and plunder, blackmail and submission, contrary to the rights and needs of peoples and Mother Earth and making it impossible to achieve sovereignty, equity and the equilibrium of Living Well (Vivir Bien). Rejection of debt restructuring or swaps used to “whitewash” questionable debts, legitimize processes of looting, and impose foreign interests. We call on everyone to mobilize together on October 15, the World Day of Non-Payment and Reparations for colonial and illegitimate Debt[1], culminating the Global Week of Action on Debt beginning October 8.
2 – Recognition, punishment, reparation and non-repetition of the debts accumulated to the peoples, South countries, and the Earth as a result of the crimes committed, thereby paying off the huge historical, patriarchal, social, economic and ecological debts that the colonial, capitalist and imperialist powers, and beneficiary elites, have accumulated and making Living Well a possibility. Solidarity and support to those communities and countries that are resisting the further accumulation of illegitimate debts against peoples and Mother Earth whether through the abuse of rights, financial looting, mega infrastructure and extractive enterprises, the advance of green capitalism, the criminalization of poverty and protest and the militarization of our countries and lives.
3 – Non approval, annulment, and termination of the bilateral and multilateral trade and investment protection treaties and agreements that favor capital over the rights of individuals, peoples, and all of nature, and impede the implementation by states of sovereign public policies consistent with their obligations in terms of human and environmental rights. Building and strengthening forms of local and regional production and exchange that are complementary and mutually supportive and born of the Living Well civilizational horizon.
4 – Non approval, annulment and termination of treaties, contracts, and laws that undermine the sovereignty of peoples and countries through the waiving of sovereign immunity, the ceding of jurisdiction to foreign courts, or the recognition of private arbitration mechanisms, including for example the World Band dependent ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes). Construction of a new financial and commercial legal order on the basis of the rights and needs of peoples and Mother Earth, complementarity and sufficiency.
5 – Withdrawal from and closure of the international financial and trade institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and regional development banks, that promote and protect the interests of capital at the expense of the rights of individuals, of peoples, and of Mother Earth. Sovereign control over capital movements and the definancialization and decommodification of life and natural goods, including among others the recognition and protection of fundamental human rights to water, territories, food and energy sovereignty, health, education, housing and communications. Creating our own popular, community, public and sovereign financial instruments and systems, on the basis of the socialized use of the wealth produced by our peoples the development of an institutional architecture in the service of public policies designed for the Living Well of all.
Jallalla peoples of the world!
Manupxtanti? Jiwasanakaru manupxistuxa! Debt? The people are the creditors!
No to colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy!
Yes to the rights of peoples and Mother Earth!
Reparations and financial sovereignty now!
Ιnvitation to the ICAN Meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece,
February 15-17, 2013
Against Debt and Privatisations
Dear Friends,
We propose to organise our next ICAN meeting on February 15-17, 2013, in Thessaloniki, a city chosen for its vibrant social movements. The meeting will be organised by the local citizens’ audit group No Debt No Euro, with the help of the Greek Debt Audit Campaign (ELE) and possibly other local groups. The meetings will be held at Aristotle University, and we invite participants to be hosted in activists’ homes, but they can find cheap accommodation if they prefer to. Local cooperatives will undertake the catering, for good and inexpensive food, and with connections to many European cities, we hope it will attract activists from the Mediterranean and Southeastern Europe.
The meeting aims to deepen the participants’ understanding of the situation faced by European countries in thrall of debt (that rose abruptly in the wake of bank bailouts); to throw a particular spotlight on Greece, where social struggles unprecedented in contemporary Europe are met with equally unprecedented repression; to open up our network to a wide range of allies in civil society, and to secure media coverage regarding the state of debt and debt audits in Europe. We also aim to strategise on how to take ICAN forward, and solidify the ICAN network activities.
The meeting will bring together different campaigns in Europe and North Africa on debt audits. We hope to attract delegates from Greece, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom, Tunisia and Egypt. We hope for a participation of a maximum of 50 people (3 to 4 people per country approximately). Οur objectives are to show to our activists and constituencies locally that we have an international dimension; that the struggles against debt dictatorship and austerity in Europe are coordinated; that we are willing to fight together and build stronger alliances among us. Also, to raise attention on news about Greece in european media, both mainstream and alternative, and especially in countries in crisis like Spain.
We hope to help the resurgent social movements, which may even eventually lead to a formation of a government of the Left that will recognise the importance of debt audit. Our internal discussions in the mornings and afternoons will be combined with a series of high profile evening public events in Thessaloniki, and subsequently in Athens, that will give prominence to our objectives. We hope to make this a high profile event with the participation of Syriza parliamentary deputies who share the goals and the general orientation of the ICAN, while members of various anti-debt and anti – privatisation groups are also expected to attend.
We will be providing translation in three languages (English, French, Greek) on the days of the meeting. The delegates’ travelling expenses cannot be covered, but we will seek financial help for persons coming directly from Balkan countries, as well as from Egypt and Tunisia. Accommodation will be mainly organised in activists’ homes, but a list of hotel addresses will be supplied too.
We hope by combining and coordinating our forces to advance our common campaign for a debt audit and the cancellation of the illegitimate and/or odious part of it. If you want to join us, please fill in the registration form below and send it as soon as possible, at the latest on February 6th and send it to our Salonica coordinator Michalis Longos, at nodebtnoeuro@gmail.com (phone: +30 69 46 977 196).
We look forward to seeing you in Thessaloniki,
Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further enquiries at nodebtnoeuro@gmail.com
No Debt No Euro
Thessaloniki, January 23, 2013
Open Letter to Mr. Tsipras: You call that a fucking plan?
To Mr. Tsipras of the Greece party, Syriza,
I read your letter to Angela Merkel today the Guardian and was not impressed. Frankly, I expected a guy who just might be running Greece next year to have a better argument than the one you gave. You stated:
As Angela Merkel visits Athens on Tuesday, she will find a Greece in its fifth consecutive year of recession. In 2008 and 2009, the recession was a spillover from the global financial crisis. Since then it has been caused and deepened by the austerity policies imposed on Greece by the troika – of the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, the European Central Bank – and the Greek government.
These policies are devastating the Greek people, especially workers, pensioners, small businessmen and women, and of course young people. The Greek economy has contracted by more than 22%, workers and pensioners have lost 32% of their income, and unemployment has reached an unprecedented 24% with youth unemployment at 55%. Austerity policies have led to cuts in benefits, the deregulation of the labour market and the further deterioration of the limited welfare state that had survived a neoliberal onslaught.
Yes. The financial crisis and austerity is taking its toll on Greece, but is that piglet Merkel unaware of this? Is she living in a cave? She knows exactly what the toll is on the population — she intends that austerity take that toll. So whining about it like some emoprog is not helpful in the least.
What the fuck are you prepared to do about it?
It is nice to know that Syriza, “respects the ordinary European taxpayer who is asked to shoulder loans to countries in distress, including Greece.” The question, however, is how Syriza proposes to end this burden, since Greece is now Europe’s AIG — a convenient pass-through account for a backdoor bailout of Europe’s banking system. In this shell game, Greece gets all the blame and the banksters get all the fucking money. How do you propose to end this fucking shell game?
And what are you offering to Greece as an alternative to participating in this monstrous scam?
What would you do different?
Europe, you state, “needs a new plan to deepen European integration”, but how does your idea of integration differ from the idea of removing fiscal control completely from the Greece state and handing it to an as yet undetermined new authority? Moreover, how does this differ from “neoliberalism” agenda that is already stripping European nation states of fiscal and monetary sovereignty?
You had a lot of rhetoric about placing priority on the needs of workers, pensioners and unemployed but — really — what does this mean? Do you or do you not intend to let the banks fail? Please, spare us all the Leftist rhetoric about “placing priority on the blah blah blah…”, and “popular struggles radically blah blah blah…”
I mean, really ARE YOU GOING TO LET THE FUCKING BANKS FAIL OR NOT! And if you let them fail, how do you propose to protect the Greece public from the effects of the financial system’s collapse? All in all, your message to Merkel is meaningless trash and bizarre given the fact you will actually have to run the country shortly.
Let me say this to you: the European Left are just a bunch of pussies. To put it in the words of Mobb Deep, an American rap group:
“You’re all up in the game and don’t deserve to be a player.”
The muthafuckas behind the crisis have been running Europe since the days of Rome. Do you seriously believe you are going to appeal to their humanity? These muthafuckas slaughtered 1,000,000 Iraqis — you think they care about Greece suffering? Frankly, Mr. Tsipras, I can’t understand it. Folks on the European Left think there are rules and keep calling for the ref. You are dumb fuckers. Let’s here what the guys behind the scenes think of your rules:
“That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality.” –Spokesperson for the Bush administration
If that is not enough, Draghi told you today what the rules are:
RULE NUMBER ONE: “Revitalizing the cycle of debt is crucial to recovery.”
And
RULE NUMBER TWO: “It is necessary to reassure banks over the quality of their assets.”
What part of “Fuck You” don’t you folks on the European Left get? You just let that horrid little fucking piglet waltz into Greece like she is visiting one of the provinces. And your only fucking response is,
“This plan will succeed only if popular struggles radically change the balance of forces. These struggles have started already and have led to the rise of left and resistance movements throughout Europe. They keep alive democracy, equality, freedom and solidarity, the most important values of the European political tradition. These values must prevail. Otherwise Europe will regress to a dark past we thought gone for ever.”
What fucking balance? What fucking plan? Holding your fucking dick in your hand and jerking furiously is not a fucking plan. These muthafuckas got a plan for Greece — and it ain’t “democracy, equality, freedom and solidarity”.
Which is to say, Mr. Tsipras, we all know how this ends, if Washington has its way. Frankly, you will be dead or in hiding six months after you take office; so whatever the plan, it better be quick, painful as hell for capital and irreversible. That means, no matter what, you kill the banks first, and divide their carcasses among the population — you have to keep Germany, France, Britain and the US busy trying to save those fuckers on Wall Street, while you wipe out unemployment. It only takes two steps to do this:
- Renounce all Greece’s debt, public and private, and
- reduce hours of work by half.
Those two moves will immediately trigger the collapse of stock and bond markets world-wide and send those fuckers scrambling. You have to make these fuckers think they are staring into the face of GOD — and that she is pissed beyond all belief. Your aim should be a 1000 point loss on the SP500 the first fucking day in office.
Then you immediately turn to the question of producing contagion — the crisis cannot be limited to Greece; it must spread to Spain and Portugal, Ireland and Italy. Every time they think things can’t get any worse, you have to fuck them again. If a big stick will work in this situation, then you have to use a fucking sledgehammer.
Getting rid of public and private debt is absolutely critical to killing the banks — not one bank should survive anywhere. So, repeat after me
- RENOUNCE THE DEBT,
- SLASH HOURS OF LABOR,
- CREATE CONTAGION
That’s a fucking plan.
Latin America’s past offers lessons on debt, but are EU ministers bothered?
Greek Lessons: Democracy versus Debt-Bondage
Greece is a smokescreen to hide the mother of all bank bailouts. By Nick Dearden of the Jubilee Debt Campaign
Spain 1936 – Greece 2012: Peoples of Europe Unite!
Τhe Eurobond Left, by Spyros Marchetos
Mass Movements and Popular Radicalization in Greece, by Spyros Marchetos
No Debt No Euro
Declaration
Since 2010 the Greek people is suffering an endless nightmare. Using as a pretext the public debt and the needs of the eurozone, gangs of banksters and their political personnel challenge our dignity, destroy our democracy, and bulldoze our lives. The streets of our country, till yesterday prosperous, are filled with homeless women and men; households freeze because they cannot pay for heating; one out of two young people, highly educated and competent by world standards, suffer exclusion from the labour market; fields lie fallow, while mass hunger is seen here for the first time after the 1940s.
In a country whose production was decimated in the years of the euro, rich get richer while salaries slide to Third World standards. The labour marked turns into a jungle under the orders of the Troika, and pension funds are sacked to save the banks. The social state is demolished; the public health system, education, and social provision are destroyed. A neoliberal mafia without any democratic legitimacy controls government parties and mass media, ruling through coups and terrorizing the people. It snatches national wealth, atomizes society, and makes us work like slaves in return for symbolic wages. To make this easier, media push around the stereotype of the lazy Greeks; on the contrary, OECD data show that Greeks are the hardest working people in Europe. But they are also among the most exploited.
The Greek people resist furiously this attack, which is but one of the first phases of a concerted attack against all working people of Europe. With their struggles, stronger and stronger these last two years, they give an example to all. They mobilize en masse, learn with impressive speed, blueprint a different life. As the present government, supported by no social group beyond bankers and the rich, lacks any legitimacy, a major rupture seems to be ahead of us. A democratic uprising is coming.
No Debt No Euro was founded to support these efforts of the Greek people. We aim to participate in the study of the crucial political and economic issues related to the debt and the euro, as well as in the mass mobilisation. Our central objectives are to make the Greek state audit and delete the public debt, and immediately cease payments to the creditors. We work for the creation of an Audit Committee of public debt, mobilising not only specialists but also women, unemployed, young people and immigrants.We demand to exit eurozone, and use productively the funds that will thus be secured, for the benefit of the poorest. To institute workers’ and social control of the means of production. To delete the debt of over-indebted households. To create a central bank belonging to the state, without private shareholders. To cooperate with the other peoples of Europe for the creation of a Europe of labour. To study how the exit from eurozone will affect Greece, and to present solutions attuned to the needs of the people and not of the banks. To counter the propaganda of the mass media, that promote the interests of the state-financial power nexus. And finally, to help in all possible ways to eradicate poverty from our country.
The democratic structure of No Debt No Euro reflects our central objective, to attain a democratic society. Power lies in the General Meeting of members, representatives are revocable at any time, and we do not receive funds or any other support from Greek or other state institutions. Nor do we accept as members persons who express nationalist, sexist, fascist, or racist ideas or views. We try to function at all instances in the most democratic way, and we expect your help in our struggle.
Contact: contradebt@gmail.com https://nodebtnoeuro.wordpress.com/
ΧΩΡΙΣ ΧΡΕΟΣ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΕΥΡΩ 