Spain: Third world debt calls for global action
Nearly 300 organisations in 60 countries will participate in the Week of Global Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions taking place on October 14-21
di Staff
Nearly 300 organisations in 60 countries will participate in the Week of Global Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions on October 14-21. The aim of the global campaign, that will involve events and pressure groups across the world, is to confront northern governments, international banks, transnational companies, and multilateral institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and WTO to take responsibility for debt domination and illegitimate debt.
This Week of Global Action coincides with a number of significant anniversaries and events, such as the 20th death anniversary on October 15 of Thomas Sankara, former President of Burkina Faso who called for debt repudiation, the World Food Day on October 16, the World Youth Day on October 20 and the Annual Ministerial Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, USA on October 20-22, 2007.
The campaign is calling for governments and international financial institutions to revisit their strategies as despite the wide range of promises and schemes offered to deal with the debt crisis ? the most recent being the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative launched by the Group of 8 the IMF and the World Bank ? the populations of the world?s least developed countries remain crippled by their difficult access to health, education, housing water and other basic services.
The weeks highlights
In Belgium the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM ) is organizing a two-day seminar on the Audit of the Debt in the Belgian senate in Brussels on October 19-20th. The objective of this seminar is to deepen the audit of the debt. The Seminar will feature representatives of 5 countries working on the audit: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Ecuador, the Philippines and Brazil.
In Spain a series of round table discussions will be held in Madrid, kicking off on the 17th October at the capital?s Social Sciences faculty in Pozuelo de Alarcòn. The discussion will be presented by Jorge Fonseca, professor of Economy specialized in the EU and will count with the participation of representatives of the Observatory on Debt and Globalisation, the Observatory of Latin American Multinationals and the Spanish environmental group Ecologists in Action. Some of the themes that will be dealt with are Spanish aid to development, the impact of Spanish and Latin American energy producers and the role of the EU in the world.
On the 20th, Spanish activists will hold a day of activities which include music, theatre, film screening and conferences and a popular march in downtown Barcelona, while at the same time Catalan cities such as Tarragona, Manresa and Lleida will also support the intitiative with popular action. There will also be a 12 km popular race and a day of action on Illegitimate Debt, Debt in Africa and the Ecological Debt of Climate Change in Madrid under the slogan ?Who owes whom??.
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