Reparations and Financial Sovereignty Now!
Bolivian social movements and organizations of the Unity Pact and the National Coordinator for Change, convened the "Antiimperialist and anticolonist Summit of the Peoples in Defense of Human Rights and the full enforcement of the International Treaties and Conventions that regulate relations among States", held in Tiquipaya, Bolivia, from July 31 to August 2 (See the Final Summit Declaration here, in Spanish). Dialogue 2000, together with the Jubilee South/Americas network, presented the following text in support and as a contribution to the Summit debate.
Reparations
and Financial Sovereignty Now!
Colonial Debt
– Imperialist Debt – Patriarchal Debt -
Ecological
Debt - Economic Debt - Social Debt -
We peoples are the only creditors!
"The global capitalist
financial system is colonial and imperialist. It is a weapon of the powerful
countries to subject developing countries and peoples, to privatize and
commodify, to subject us to the control of the oligarchy and of anarchic
mercantilist capital. We thus should stop recognizing and dismantle the
international financial system and its satellites. We call on the peoples and
governments of the world to break the chains of bondage of financial
colonialism, as only financial and economic sovereignty can allow us to
sovereignly decide our future. "
-Evo Morales
Ayma, Manifesto of the Isla del Sol, 12/21/12, Mandate 10
Jubilee South / Americas, together
with the rest of the great popular movement in Latin America, the South and
globally, strongly condemns the harassment and detention suffered recently by
the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales.
Such treatment constitutes a
flagrant violation of international law and is an affront, not only against the
peoples of Bolivia and their president, but against all peoples and countries
that value dignity, respect for others, equality and justice as the basis of
coexistence, if not our very survival. It is also an unequivocal demonstration
that the colonial and imperial capitalist system continues to hang on the
preservation of its privileges, sparing no effort to maintain its exploitative,
destructive, and predatory dominance, undoubtedly affected by the very crisis
it has unleashed.
We cannot ignore the continuity
between this and other attacks made in recent years by the same colonial and
imperialist powers, led by the U.S., its European allies and the transnational
corporations they nurture and protect. Among the most egregious are the
"regime changes" brought about in Haiti (2004), Honduras (2009), and
Paraguay (2012), together with permanent destabilization actions against those governments,
like Bolivia, that have dared to trace paths of sovereignty and independence.
In these and other efforts to
maintain the order of domination and plunder, we recognize the centrality of
the various mechanisms of indebtedness and financial subjugation that have been
refined over the centuries. Their persistence and consequences today convert
the reparation of the debts accumulated to the peoples and Mother Earth, and
the recovery of financial sovereignty, in essential elements and tasks of the so
dear and urgently needed struggle for decolonization, depatriarcalization,
justice and equilibrium.
We thus call to join efforts among
peoples everywhere, from indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants, women and all
working people of Our America, throughout the South and the whole world, to
achieve among other advances, the following:
1 - Audit, annulment, and non payment of debts illegitimately imposed on
peoples, South countries and the Pachamama, both external and internal debts
which remain instruments of exploitation and plunder, blackmail and submission,
contrary to the rights and needs of peoples and Mother Earth and making it
impossible to achieve sovereignty, equity and the equilibrium of Living Well
(Vivir Bien). Rejection of debt restructuring or swaps used to “whitewash”
questionable debts, legitimize processes of looting, and impose foreign
interests. We call on everyone to mobilize together on October 15, the World
Day of Non-Payment and Reparations for colonial and illegitimate Debt[1],
culminating the Global Week of Action on Debt beginning October 8.
2 - Recognition, punishment, reparation and non-repetition of the debts accumulated
to the peoples, South countries, and the Earth as a result of the crimes
committed, thereby paying off the huge historical, patriarchal, social,
economic and ecological debts that the colonial, capitalist and imperialist powers,
and beneficiary elites, have accumulated and making Living Well a possibility.
Solidarity and support to those communities and countries that are resisting
the further accumulation of illegitimate debts against peoples and Mother Earth
whether through the abuse of rights, financial looting, mega infrastructure and
extractive enterprises, the advance of green capitalism, the criminalization of
poverty and protest and the militarization of our countries and lives.
3 – Non approval, annulment, and termination of the bilateral and
multilateral trade and investment protection treaties and agreements that
favor capital over the rights of individuals, peoples, and all of nature, and impede
the implementation by states of sovereign public policies consistent with their
obligations in terms of human and environmental rights. Building and
strengthening forms of local and regional production and exchange that are
complementary and mutually supportive and born of the Living Well civilizational
horizon.
4 – Non approval, annulment and termination of treaties, contracts, and
laws that undermine the sovereignty of peoples and countries through the
waiving of sovereign immunity, the ceding of jurisdiction to foreign courts, or
the recognition of private arbitration mechanisms, including for example the World
Band dependent ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes).
Construction of a new financial and commercial legal order on the basis of the
rights and needs of peoples and Mother Earth, complementarity and sufficiency.
5 – Withdrawal from and closure of the international financial and trade
institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and regional development
banks, that promote and protect the interests of capital at the expense of the
rights of individuals, of peoples, and of Mother Earth. Sovereign control over
capital movements and the definancialization and decommodification of life and
natural goods, including among others the recognition and protection of
fundamental human rights to water, territories, food and energy sovereignty,
health, education, housing and communications. Creating our own popular, community,
public and sovereign financial instruments and systems, on the basis of the
socialized use of the wealth produced by our peoples the development of an
institutional architecture in the service of public policies designed for the
Living Well of all.
Jallalla
peoples of the world!
Manupxtanti?
Jiwasanakaru manupxistuxa! Debt? The people are the creditors!
No to
colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy!
Yes to the
rights of peoples and Mother Earth!
Reparations and financial sovereignty now!
Jubilee South / Americas August 1, 2013 Day of the Pachamama
Initial signatures of support: Diálogo 2000-Jubileo Sur Argentina; Adolfo Pérez
Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate - Argentina; Nora Cortiñas, Mother of May Square
Founders´ Line - Argentina, Mirta Baravalle, Mother of May Square Founders´
Line – Argentina; Peace and Justice Service – Argentina; Plataforma de Acción para un Desarrollo Alternativo
PAPDA – Haití; Jubileo Sur México; Otros Mundos Chiapas – México; Intipachamama
– Nicaragua; Políticas alternativas para el Cono Sur PACS – Brasil; Rede
Jubileu Sul Brasil; Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y
Desarrollo (PIDHDD); Red Sinti Techan
- El Salvador; VientoSur – Chile; Attac-Argentina;
Cadtm-Ayna; Unidad Ecologica Salvadoreña
– El Salvador; Campaña Justicia
Climatica- Mesoamérica;Bia´lii,
Asesoría e Investigación, A.C. (México); Colectivo Voces Ecológicas COVEC –
Panamá; Movimiento Social Nicaragüense Otro Mundo es Posible; Observatorio de
la Deuda en la Globalización (ODG) – Catalunya; Asociación Centro de Estudios y
Apoyo Laboral CEA - El Salvador; Foro Ciudadano de
Participación por la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos – Argentina; Observatorio
Tunecino de la Economía – Túnez; Fatoumata Toure – Uganda; Auditons
deudas con Túnez ACET-Túnez; Observatorio sobre Latinoamerica SELVAS–Italia; Jubileo
Sudáfrica; Pires Eugenia, economista portugués; Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña, OFRANEH –
Honduras; Fronteras Comunes – Canada; Universidad Sin Fronteras - EE. UU.; Centro
de Investigación sobre Inversión y Comercio, CEICOM - El Salvador; Programa de
Deuda Ilegítima de la Federación Luterana Mundial; POJOAJU Paraguay; Red Mexicana de Acción
frente al Libre Comercio; Alianza Social
Continental; Ditsö - Costa Rica; Red Nacional de Género y Economía, REDGE - México, DF; Aníbal
Quijano – Perú; Alberto Acosta, Ex-presidente de la Asamblea Constituyente –
Ecuador; Ecuador Decide; COECOCeiba/ Amigos de la Tierra - Costa Rica; Federación Ecologista Costarricense FECON; Batay
Ouvriye, Haití; Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras
COPINH; Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres de Latinoamerica y el Caribe
REPEM-LAC; Accion Ecologica – Ecuador; Red de Ecologistas Populares, Ecuador; Associação
de Favelas de São José dos Campos - São Paulo – Brasil; Colectiva de mujeres
Hondureñas CODEMUH; Fórum Mudanças Climáticas e Justiça Social –
Brasil; SINALTRAINAL – Colombia; Revista La Resistencia, Jesús María, Córdoba,
Argentina; Equity BD – Bangladesh; ATALC Amigos de la Tierra América Latina y
el Caribe; Coordination des Comités Popularies de Martinique (CNCP) –
Martinica; Fórum Mudanças Climáticas e Justiça Social – Brasil; Ongd Africando –
Sénegal;Oscar Rivas – Paraguay; Roberto Montiel Fernández – Paraguay; Plataforma
Auditoria Ciudadana de la Deuda ¡No Debemos! ¡No Pagamos! - PACD - Estado
Español; Red ¿Quién debe a Quién? - QdQ - Estado Español; "Plataforma 12 de octubre nada a celebrar" – Barcelona; Museo
“Ernesto Che Guevara” de CABA-llito Higuera, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Escuela
de Solidaridad con Cuba “Chaubloqueo”, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Federación
Nacional de Trabajadores del Agua Potable y Alcantarillado del Perú – FENTAP; Plataforma
DESCAm Uruguay; Observatorio Social-Amerindia; Jubilee Debt Campaign, UK; CONAPAMG
– Guatemala; Red Costarricense de Agendas Locales de Mujeres REDCALM – Costa Rica…
[1] October 15 is the anniversary
of the 1987 assassination of Burkina Faso president, Thomas Sankara. He was killed in a coup, shortly after
calling on his fellow African presidents to stop paying colonial debts and to
demand their reparation. The World Day
of Non-payment and Reparation of Colonial and Illegitimate Debts has been instituted
by social movements active in the struggle for freedom from debt
domination. The Global Week of Action on
Debt is marked every year, from October 8 to 15.