Secret IMF Documents on Greece commented by Eric Toussaint (CADTM)
by Eric Toussaint, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
The CADTM draws attention to two IMF documents dating from March and May 2010 that were kept secret. These authentic documents were placed at the disposal of the Truth Committee on Greek Public Debt by Zoe Konstantopoulou, the President of the Hellenic Parliament in office from 6 February to 3 October 2015.
"To persuade the IMF, the French, German and Dutch executive directors lied" Their contents are damning. They clearly show that a large number of IMF Executive Board members expressed severe criticism of the programme the Institution was preparing to implement. Some of them denounced the fact that the programme was aimed at rescuing the private European banks – mainly certain major French and German banks— who were creditors of Greek debt, both public and private. Several of them denounced the selfsame policies that had led to the Asian crisis of 1996-1997 and the Argentine crisis in 2001.
As a Syrian who has always identified politically with the left, I am particularly appalled by those men and women who call themselves left-wingers — and are therefore supposed to stand in solidarity with struggles for justice worldwide — and yet openly support the regime of the Assads, father and son, who are chiefly responsible for the Syrian disaster.
En matière de déni de démocratie, il y a eu évidemment l’illustre précédent du résultat, jamais respecté, du referendum français de 2005 sur la constitution européenne. Mais quand même, ce qui s’est passé en Grèce en ce funeste mois de juillet 2015 n’a pas son pareil dans l’histoire de l’Europe (anti)démocratique. Jugez-en vous-même…
If the very worst happens, it won’t be because we didn’t know that it might happen. We have all been amply warned. 
Fed up with slow (or in some cases, 
The present study shows that the Greek crisis that broke out in 2010 originated in private banks, not in excessive public spending. The so-called bail-out was designed to serve the interests of private bankers and those of dominant countries in the Eurozone. Greece adopting the euro played a major role among the various factors that contributed to the crisis. The analysis developed here was first presented in Athens on 6 November 2016 during a meeting of the Truth Committee on Greek Public Debt.
Six years ago, on 17 December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. Bouazizi did not know that by this extreme form of protest, he was setting not only himself or his town on fire, nor his province or even his Tunisian homeland alone, but the whole Arab region. Indeed, his protest inspired millions of others—“from the Ocean to the Gulf” as the saying went in the heyday of Arab nationalism—to protest their regimes and the status quo.
Gilbert Achcar (GA): Two reasons: one general and one practical. The general reason is the need to assess the new counter-revolutionary phase in the Arab upheaval, which started in 2013. Since early on, I have been describing what began in December 2010 in Tunisia and spread to the whole Arab-speaking region in 2011 as a “long-term revolutionary process” that will necessarily go through a succession of contrasting phases. My previous book, The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising—which came out in 2013 and was kindly reviewed by Maha Abdelrahman for Jadaliyya—analyzed the economic, social and political roots of the regional upheaval and its dynamics, along with an assessment of its first two years. Morbid Symptoms is a sequel to The People Want, assessing the reactionary phase that has been unfolding since the turning point of 2013.
The abomination that is the destruction of Aleppo, of its people and of its buildings and services will be remembered for centuries to come, should humanity have the good fortune to last that long.
Cela fait plusieurs semaines que je me dis que je vais t’écrire, et ce sont les événements tragiques d’Alep et ta réaction à ces événements, ou parfois ta non-réaction, qui ont fini par me persuader que l’heure était venue de m’adresser à toi. Pas nécessairement dans le but de te convaincre, car je crois que malheureusement il est déjà trop tard. Mais au moins, comme ça, les choses seront dites et tu ne pourras pas dire que tu ne savais pas.
Aujourd’hui s’ouvre à nouveau, au Luxembourg, le procès d’Antoine Deltour, Raphaël Halet et Édouard Perrin, les deux lanceurs d’alerte et le journaliste, grâce auxquels le scandale LuxLeaks a pu éclater au grand jour. En juin 2016, É. Perrin avait été acquitté mais le parquet luxembourgeois a décidé de faire appel. A. Deltour et R. Halet, quant à eux, condamnés respectivement à 12 mois et 9 mois de prison avec sursis et à des amendes, ont fait appel. Ce verdict est en effet tout simplement scandaleux, sanctionnant un acte citoyen courageux : la mise à jour d’un système de fraude fiscale de grande ampleur via des centaines d’accords secrets entre des multinationales et l’administration fiscale luxembourgeoise (« tax ruling »), par l’intermédiaire du cabinet d’audit Price waterhouse Coopers (PwC).
Cuéntenles a sus hijas e hijos quién es Marcos Ana. Porque de lo contrario, salvo que hayan tenido la suerte de conocerlo en alguna de sus visitas a colegios e institutos, es probable que no sepan quién es. Pese a algunos homenajes y reconocimientos recientes, este jueves eran muchos los que buscaban en Google quién es ese tal Marcos Ana. Y esa ignorancia da la medida de los agujeros que sigue teniendo la memoria colectiva de este país, sobre todo con los antifascistas, y más con los comunistas.
François Fillon est un adepte de la stratégie du choc. Abrogation des 35 heures et de l’ISF, fiscalité réduite pour le capital, retraite à 65 ans, réforme de l’assurance chômage, droit du travail… Il veut mener sa révolution néolibérale en deux mois. Au risque d’un choc récessif détonant.
They will blame