History of the CADTM’s anti-debt Policies – Part 1 – Against illegitimate debt: Origins
by LEMOINE Benjamin, TOUSSAINT Bruno, TOUSSAINT Eric
Interview with Eric Toussaint, spokesperson and co-founder of the international network of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM). Interview by Benjamin Lemoine.
This interview presents the genealogy of the anti-debt struggle, the campaigns for debt cancellation, the empirical foundation, the political battles and the concepts of the “illegitimate”, “illegal” or “odious” nature of public debt. In other words, how it is necessary for the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) – formerly known as the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt – to ally with opposition forces and social movements, where the concepts and the people involved can challenge and overpower debt and its "system” once the government hears their voice. Yet, for CADTM the outright priority is to fortify the activities described below rather than lobbying.
From Africa to Latin America, citizens’ participation in audits ushers in hope. However, most of the time their purpose is lost due to the neglect of the crusaders-turned-rulers, where the rulers have the final say vis-à-vis the financial system. Yet, sometimes the audits are immensely successful. We review the experience of the audit of the Greek sovereign debt, full of intrigues and unexpected twists in which it took very little to tip the balance. When the hopeful dream for a new international cooperation (a conference in London on the Greek debt as requested by Alexis Tsipras) seems naive and where, according to Eric Toussaint, unilateral sovereign decisions are indispensable in order to reverse the balance of power.
Pese a lo que han dicho muchos titulares de prensa, la 
It’s a big day for the new civil rights movement known as Black Lives Matter. Up until now, the movement had famously opted to forgo hierarchies in favor of a diffuse coalition that more resembled Occupy Wall Street than, say, the ‘60s-era Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The movement’s decentralized approach has been criticized in the past, and its activists have butted heads with both civil rights leaders and the Obama administration. But on Monday morning, Black Lives Matter made a decision to be a movement with a plan, a platform, and concrete demands.
La soirée du 26 juin 2016 a provoqué une immense déception tant pour l’échec face aux attentes comme pour le sens inattendu des résultats électoraux. Diverses questions se posent qui semblent devoir recevoir une réponse en fonction de l’échec de la plus grande partie des pronostics.
SINCE THE BEGINNING of the 21st century, the Left has won elections in most Latin American countries, in a powerful wave of popular rejection of the disastrous neoliberal policies of the previous regimes. One must however distinguish between two quite different sorts of left governments:
Five days after the coup attempt on 15th of July, the NSC and Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency in the country. This step shows the coup attempt might have been blocked, but the desire to rule the country with coup-like, authoritative mentality is not.
A 15 anni dal G8 di Genova e nell’anno del Giubileo della misericordia ci siamo dati appuntamento per condividere una delle questioni globali più urgenti: il progressivo indebitamento dei popoli dell’intero pianeta. Su questo tema abbiamo deciso di confrontarci con pensatori laici e credenti impegnati da anni su questo tema.
An authoritarian president has been saved by a peoples’ faith in democracy. But he is unlikely to credit them.
“Jeremy Corbyn has touched parts of the electorate Labour hasn’t reached in a long time” writes Andy Stowe. That was the judgement of Laura Kuenssberg, the Tory propagandist who delivers most of the BBC’s political coverage, reporting on the decision by Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) to allow the party’s leader appear on the ballot paper in the upcoming leadership election. And it goes a long way to explaining why he’s now going to be in a contest with former Pfizer lobbyist Owen Smith [1] and Angela Eagle who romped into fourth place with a stonking 17.9% of the vote when she stood for the deputy leadership last year. It can’t be repeated too often that Corbyn won 59.5% of the vote when he was elected last year.
I am writing you today to express my deep pride in the movement – the political revolution – you and I have created together over the last 15 months. When we began this historic campaign, we were considered fringe players by the political, economic and media establishment. Well, we proved them wrong.
Left Unity congratulates Jeremy Corbyn on his victory in the first battle against the coup plotters. Attempts to win a decision by the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party to effectively bar Jeremy Corbyn from the leadership campaign – by wilfully misinterpreting completely straightforward party election rules – were a complete disgrace. The plotters were defeated and the NEC agreed that the incumbent shall automatically appear on the ballot paper. Nevertheless this whole shameful episode is one of the most underhand and undemocratic political acts of modern times.
As the Chilcot Inquiry report is released to the public, those MPs attempting to depose Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn—their leading lights inescapably sullied by having supported the war—are suing for peace. Over a week of high-profile resignations, statements, demands, pleas and threats have seemingly done little but consolidate Corbyn’s position. In record time, it has gone from being a coup to a #chickencoup to a #headlesschickencoup. 
After a bitter and deeply reactionary campaign, Britain voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48% on June 23. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader, Nigel Farage, is celebrating his victory together with his chums on the hard-right Eurosceptic wing of the Tory Party. His far right friends across Europe, from Marine le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and similar people in Germany, Austria, Italy - and places beyond – are rubbing their hands in glee while working out how best to capitalize on this triumph. Conservative Prime David Cameron has resigned with effect from the autumn and it will be his successor – almost certainly prominent “Brexiter” Boris Johnson – that will lead divorce negotiations with the EU. Those that are now in the ascendancy in the Conservative Party are even further to the right that the defeated leadership of Cameron.
Sin duda, esperábamos una noche mejor. Del sorPPasso a la sorPPresa, las elecciones del 26J marcan definitivamente el final de la primera etapa del ciclo político abierto con la irrupción de Podemos en las elecciones europeas del 25 de Mayo de 2014 que, a su vez, es producto, no mecánico, de la sacudida de Mayo del 2011. Los resultados de Unidos Podemos son en términos retrospectivos inauditos, pero han quedado claramente debajo de las expectativas y las posibilidades. ¿Por qué no fue posible el tan deseado sorpasso al PSOE? El fiasco nos coge a propios y extraños por sorpresa. No se trata de dar lecciones a toro pasado explicando un fracaso que nadie vio venir, pero si al menos intentar entender por qué aconteció. Algunas reflexiones, pues, aún apresuradas y sin disponer todavía de los análisis detallados del comportamiento electoral, se imponen: