A call to mobilize on October 8 to 15, Global Week of Action Against ILLEGITIMATE DEBT & International Financial Institutions
Debt payments, tax avoidance and capital flight are impoverishing people to enrich a few. Money is transferred from the global South to the global North, from the marginalized to the powerful, from the 99% to the 1%. This financial system devastates the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people through the impacts and crises it creates.
Predatory and reckless lenders are protected from the impacts of the debt crises they have caused, whilst people who had no say in the loans are paying the price. The system of predatory and reckless lending and bank bailouts has increased inequality and undermined democracy in every corner of the world.
This system must come to an end, as a step towards true democracy, greater equality and the meeting of basic human rights.
We are a global movement of citizens across the world who are calling for:
- Public or citizens audits to determine whether debts are legitimate;
- Repudiation or cancellation of illegitimate and unsustainable debts;
- An end to imposition of responses to debt crises by self-interested lenders, such as banks and the IMF;
- A just and progressive tax system;
- Public borrowing and debt management practices that guarantee citizen participation and transparency;
- Public spending that prioritizes essential services and shifting to equitable and sustainable development pathways;
- Transformation of the financial system, to prevent the continual creation of debt crises.
Join us for a week of action on October 8 to 15 and do any one or more of the following actions to express these calls:
- Hold public forums and community discussions, distribute literature and materials
- Organize a rally, a march or other forms of action – in schools, communities, workplaces, public spaces
- Send letters and statements to your governments
- Send out electronic messages via social media with the hashtag #notourdebt – ie Facebook or Twitter
- Organize press conferences, circulate press statements, send letters to your newspapers