Zoe Konstantopoulou at the European Citizens’ Assembly on debt

Brussels, October 16th

In Greece as everywhere else, debt is an instrument to subject the people to the interest of the wealthy. In the name of debt, the Troïka and the Eurogroup have forced Greece to continue to implement austerity policies. However, many movements throughout Europe refuse to bow to the blackmail, and are now looking for alternatives. Debt audits already took and are taking place in several countries, and we now need to compare and disseminate their results.

After the Portuguese parliamentary election: quicksand in the center and an emboldened left

 by CAMARGO João

Although it may have come as a surprise elsewhere, the Portuguese center-right ultraliberal government, which went “far beyond the troika” has won a relative majority in last week’s general election. With 36.8% of the vote and 1.994 million votes, the previous governmental coalition (PSD and CDS) was the winner. In second place came the Socialist Party, with 32.4% and 1.746 million votes. The biggest surprise and strongest rise was the Left Bloc, which had 10.2% of the vote with 551 000 votes, followed by the Communist Party, with 8.3% and 446 000 votes. When compared to the previous 2011 election, the right-wing parties lost more than 700 000 votes, the Socialist Party (PS) had 160 000 more, the Left Bloc (BE) rose by 260 000 and the Communist Party (PCP) by 3400 votes.

Indonésie 1965 : Un bain de sang impérialiste

par VANEK Pierre

Il y a 50 ans, le 30 septembre 1965, un massacre inouï débutait en Indonésie. Plus d’un million de membres ou sympathisant·e·s du Parti communiste indonésien (PKI) furent assassinés, jetés dans des fosses communes, torturés.

Des dizaines de milliers de personnes furent emprisonnées sans jugement dans des camps. Disparitions, enlèvements, torture, ostracisme et mise au ban de familles entières… ont été par la suite les méthodes de gouvernement d’un régime qui a pillé les ressources nationales indonésiennes au profit de compagnies étrangères.

A critic of present mainstream feminism in the US: A Feminism Where ‘Lean In’ Means Leaning On Others

by FRASER Nancy, GUTTING Gary

This interview, the latest in a series on political topics, discusses philosophical issues concerning feminism. My interviewee is Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy and politics at The New School. She is the author of “Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis.” – Gary Gutting.
Gary Gutting: You’ve recently written: “As a feminist, I’ve always assumed that by fighting to emancipate women I was building a better world — more egalitarian — just and free. But lately I’ve begun to worry that . . . our critique of sexism is now supplying the justification for new forms of inequality and exploitation.” Could you explain what you have in mind?

Más de 5 millones de ciudadanos, preparados para realizar auditorías municipales

Fátima Martín y Jérôme Duval*

’El valor es buscar la verdad y decirla’
Jean Jaurès (1859-1914)

En el Estado español, desde el nacimiento de la Plataforma Auditoría Ciudadana de la Deuda (PACD), existe una experiencia para poner fin a la hemorragia de capitales que constituye el pago de una deuda que no nos benefició y que, si analizamos bien, ya hemos pagado varias veces. Esa plataforma ha jugado un papel central a medida que el tema de la deuda se ha ido colocando en el foco de la actualidad.

16 October Brussels, Belgium

European Citizens’ Assembly on debt 

Auditoire Dom Helder Camara, Rue Plétinckx, 19  (Siège CSC), 9h30-17h30

In the name of debt, the Troika and the Eurogroup have forced Greece to continue to implement austerity policies. The July 13th “agreement” blatantly demonstrated how the debt is a gun held by creditors and bankers to the temple of the people in order to impose austerity, insecurity and inequality. This only exacerbates the lack of legitimacy, the huge disparities and the instability of the European Union and the Eurozone.

Many movements throughout Europe refuse to bow to this blackmail and are seeking alternatives. The first objective of the conference will be to refute the false narrative of guilt (“we spent too much, now we must pay”) imposed by the elites. Debt audits took or are taking place in several countries and we now need to confront and publicise their results.

Britain Needs a Truth Committee on Debt

by Caroline Lucas (Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion.)

While the debt of states is widely used as an instrument of submission to neoliberal policies, Caroline Lucas points out, reflected by the recent experience of Greece, the need to set up a truth commission on debt .

Over the last few days I’ve been in Greece as part of a delegation with the Greece Solidarity Campaign. The scale of the challenge facing the Greek people, though already at the forefront of my mind, has been amplified by the many people I’ve met who describe to me a country in utter turmoil. Greece’s economy has been hit by a depression deeper than the one which plagued the USA in the 1930s. A quarter of the workforce is unemployed and half of the country’s children live in poverty. Wages have declined, more than half of pension payments don’t cover the basics and deprivation has risen.

Habla la CUP: ruptura, plan de choque y proceso constituyente

Beñat Zaldua

Primero el «qué», el «cómo» y el «cuando». Y después, el «quién». Tras una semana de silencio, la CUP presentó ayer sus líneas rojas para negociar con Junts pel Sí la hoja de ruta hacia la independencia, así como el Govern que la aplique. No hay novedad sobre la investidura, por lo que, de momento, se mantiene el veto a la reelección de Mas.

Restructuring public debts : CADTM International has debt auditing at the core of its A & B Plans

by CADTM international

On 10 September 2015, The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted, by a substantial majority (136 votes in favour, 6 against and 41 abstentions), a resolution on the nine principles to be followed in public debt restructuring. A restructuring usually means either a rescheduling of maturity or debt relief.

The UN objective is to set up an international legal framework for debt restructuring and thus counter the strategy of vulture funds. These private investment funds take advantage of this legal vacuum to reclaim from states in national courts the full repayment, plus the interest, of debts they had bought at heavily discounted rates on the secondary market.

"Independencia significa la oportunidad de crear otro país donde las condiciones de las clases populares sean mejores". Entrevista a Antonio Baños y Gabriela Serra (CUP)

Marc Font

La sede nacional de la CUP, situada en la calle Casp de Barcelona, es ahora mismo el epicentro de la política catalana. Los resultados de las elecciones de domingo han situado a la formación de la izquierda independentista en una posición clave y la han convertido en el centro de casi todas las miradas, hasta el punto que en una misma tarde medios globales como The New York Times y The Wall Street Journal han entrevistado a algunos de sus dirigentes. Público ha conversado con Antonio Baños y Gabriela Serra, números uno y cuatro de la candidatura de la CUP para el 27-S, que se estrenarán como diputados. Ambos dirigentes hacen balance de las elecciones, plantean las exigencias del partido para llegar a un acuerdo con Junts pel Sí y subrayan la importancia de utilizar la palanca institucional para dar visibilidad a las alternativas al capitalismo que ya existen.

La crise mondiale des réfugiés et la crise de l’Union européenne

 par ROUSSET Pierre

Jamais, depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les déplacements forcés de population n’avaient connu une telle ampleur et n’avaient été aussi meurtriers – aussi aléatoires et dangereux, imposant à tant d’enfants, de femmes et d’hommes des conditions d’existence aussi inhumaines, des souffrances aussi intolérables. Une véritable tragédie qui met à nu la vérité du nouvel ordre international instauré par la mondialisation capitaliste, comme en témoignent la multiplicité et l’universalité croissante des flux migratoires.

L’attention se porte aujourd’hui sur les réfugiés de guerre en provenance du Moyen-Orient ; mais il y a bien d’autres conflits militaires, en Afrique notamment, avec leurs cortèges de populations déplacées. Il y a peu, c’était des victimes climatiques dont la presse parlait, frappées par millions en Asie. Quant auxdites « migrations économiques » contemporaines, elles sont aussi « forcées » (donc politique) par le déchirement du tissu social sous les coups de boutoir du néolibéralisme et la violence de régimes soutenus par les puissances occidentales.

Climate disaster is on it’s way! – Ecosocialism or barbarism

Fourth International

CLIMATE: DISASTER IS ON ITS WAY!

The earth’s climate is changing quickly, much faster than experts thought.

There is no doubt what is causing this: the warming of the atmosphere as a result of emissions by greenhouse gases, mainly CO2 from the burning of oil, coal and natural gas.

The Earth has warmed by 0.8°C degrees over the last two centuries. This is sufficient to cause a rise in sea levels by almost two metres in the centuries to come. Nobody can stop it. Hundreds of millions of people will be forced to move, millions of hectares of land for growing food will be lost, urban areas will need to be evacuated. The peoples of the South, who are the least responsible, will be the most affected.

Britain – A Statement: “The election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party, a political earthquake”

Socialist Resistance (Britain)

Socialist Resistance enthusiastically welcomes the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. Such a result seemed inconceivable after the Tory victory on May 7 and represents a political earthquake in British politics with the potential to regenerate and reshape the left [2]

The scale of Corbyn’s victory in the first round, over his lacklustre opponents, [3] deals a crushing blow to the New Labour machine which tried time and again throughout the campaign to undermine his ideas and his record without success.

Restructuring of sovereign debt: UN Expert stresses GA principles are binding

by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

The Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, welcomed today the new resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the “Basic Principles on Sovereign Debt Restructuring Processes.”

“The new GA resolution is a positive step towards clarifying which existing rules and principles of international law apply to sovereign debt issues,” said the Expert. “It will for example provide legal guidance on how to prevent and deal with vulture credits,” he added.

“Sovereign debts should be geared towards implementing economic and social policies, with a view to achieving growth and development in the concerned countries. Unfortunately, as it is too often the case, sovereign debts can also throw millions of people into poverty, in particular when resulting in a debt crisis,” said the expert.

Turkey: The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) launches an urgent international call for solidarity

“Until now, over 128 party buildings all over the country have been attacked”

HDP (Turkey)

Turkey is increasingly drifting into a civil war. Politics of violence have escalated after the general elections of June 7 led by the AKP provisional government. Today, the peace and negotiation process between PKK and the Turkish state has come to a halt and war has started again.

Just within the last month, severe clashes have taken place in many Kurdish cities such as Silopi, Lice, Şemdinli, Silvan, Yüksekova and Cizre where the civilian population has been targeted by state forces. Tens of civilians, guerillas and members of state security forces have died in the ensuing clashes. Since July 24, the AKP interim government has not been attacking ISIS, as it claims to be doing, but the Qandil Mountains in the territory of the Kurdistan Regional Government instead, as well as Kurds, democratic forces, democratic politics, civilians, women and the opposition as a whole in Turkey.