>
>
> Many organizations and prominent persons in
> third world countries and Europe have signed
> the "Amsterdam APPEAL For the Cancellation
> of African debt."
>
> The list of signators, below, includes just
> one organization in the USA and none from
> Canada!
>
>
>
>
>From: "Eric Toussaint" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: 3) Dakar/Amsterdam APPEAL For the Cancellation of African debt
>Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 12:40:47 +0200
>
>
>
>2) Amsterdam APPEAL
>For the Cancellation of African debt
>Africa : From Resistance to Alternatives
>
>The new slavery in Africa, which results from the burden of the debt and the
>enforcement of structural adjustment policies, is an unprecendented shame at
>the beginning of the 21st century. In an overwhemling majority of African
>countries debt service absorbs more resources than those allocated for
>education and health combined. It should be obvious that each cent spent on
>paying for the cost of public debts is lost in the urgent fight against
>poverty, illiteracy, malaria, AIDS and other wide spread diseases, some of
>which could be easily cured. The structural ajustment policies imposed by
>the World Bank and the IMF have largely contributed to put many African
>countries in a deep economic crisis : they exacerbate social and gender
>inequality, they spread poverty on a large scale, they imperil the
>environment and access to food and water, they fuel armed conflicts and
>create conditions that are favourable to recolonizing the continent through
>privatization and liberalization policies.
>
>Like all previous gestures, the initiatives taken in Cologne (June 1999) and
>in Cairo (April 2000) do not offer any actual solution.
>
>It is in light of this predicament that a worldwide movement has emerged
>calling for the cancellation of the Third World debt and for the rejection
>of adjustment policies that have only contributed to generate more poverty
>and regression wherever they have been implemented.
>
>In most cases the debt was incurred by non democratic governments that were
>often supported by industrialized countries. The borrowed money was used to
>finance repressive, if not genocidal policies (as in Rwanda in 1994) and
>never helped the people of the indebted countries. The embezzlement of
>public loans was systematically organized in full knowledge of public and
>private lenders in industrialized countries. In terms of international law
>the �odious� debt that results from such loans is invalid.
>
>In the specific case of sub-Saharan Africa, an irrefutable historical
>argument in favour of unconditional cancellation is that what is owed to
>western �creditors� is only a tiny portion of what European have stolen
>there since the 15th century. From slavery that robbed the continent of 60
>to 100 millions of its inhabitants forcibly taken to the Americas, to
>colonization followed by the current recolonization, Africa has already paid
>more than enough.
>
>Today, the World Bank, which is largely responsible for the disaster of the
>last thirty years, acknowledges that the standards for human development
>continue to deteriorate in Africa. The real income per capita has steadily
>decreased over this period. In several African countries, life expectancy,
>which is hardly 46, is dramatically falling as a consequence of abject
>poverty.
>
>Yet the IMF and the WB still insist on imposing structural adjustments and
>debt repayments through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC
>�s Initiative). The only change is at the level of the discourse : �The
>Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)� has replaced �Structural Adjustment
>Programs (SAPs)�.
>
>For all these reasons, an immediate and unconditional cancellation of Africa
>�s external debt is no more than an ethical demand for social justice. It
>would free resources that are urgently needed for investments in productive
>sector (to provide jobs for younger generations), in health, in education,
>in culture, for women�s emancipation, for a better future for the young
>generation, for the eradication of poverty and the preservation of the
>environment and biodiversity.
>
>Africa must simultaneously break with adjustment programs, that are largely
>responsible for its current catastrophic situation. The stress on budget
>austerity in the name of an alleged "macroeconomic equilibrium" and forced
>State�s disengagement have translated into a curtailment of public
>spending, which in turn, has led to recession, unemployment and poverty.
>Liberalization and privatisation policies have contributed to stifle
>national enterprises and to the takeover of African economies by western
>transnational corporations, dubbed �strategic partners�. The free-trade
>creed has undermined policies aimed at achieving food security for Africa.
>Cultural creation is imperiled as a result of a wild competition from
>cultural products from industrialized countries. It is only by breaking with
>such policies that the continent will have a greater control over its
>destiny by recovering its autonomy in formulating its own development
>policies.
>
>African people cannot be expected to watch passively the sacrifice of whole
>generations and a new colonization of the continent that hides its true
>nature. This is why African organizations and personalities are determined
>to rely on popular support to participate in a global mobilization, which
>has found a new impetus with the "Jubilee 2000" campaign, involving as it
>does millions of people throughout the world and collecting over 20 million
>signatures that were presented to the G-7 leaders in Cologne in June 1999.
>But the "Jubilee 2000" campaign ends this year. It is thus urgent to take
>stock of what has been achieved and review the limits of the campaign in
>order to carry on the struggle for the cancellation of Africa's debt, the
>rejection of adjustment policies and the elaboration of policies promoting a
>sustainable human development. The present appeal follows upon the
>Declarations of Accra (Jubilee 2000 - April 1998), Lusaka (Jubilee 2000 -
>May 1999), Johannesburg (Jubilee South - November 1999) and Yaound� (January
>2000), as well as on converging initiatives, such as that of ATTAC (Paris -
>June 1999), the protest in Seattle, the Women's World March in 2000 and the
>Bangkok appeal (February 2000), all of them calling for the cancellation of
>Third World countries' debt.
>
>Meeting in Amsterdam, from 4 to 7 April, we call for an international and
>panafrican meeting in Dakar, from 12 to 17 December, 2000 that will be named
>� DAKAR 2000 : from Resistance to Alternatives �. Its objectives will be:
>
>1. to assess Africa's debt at the end of the year 2000, after the Jubilee
>campaign and to evaluate the impact of bilateral and multilateral solutions
>for debt "relief";
>
>2. to review the economic, social and human effects of structural adjustment
>policies, focusing on key sectors, such as education, health, employment,
>income distribution, traditional farming ;
>
>3. to devise short-, medium- and long-term strategies in order to a) achieve
>the cancellation of the debt and the rejection of adjustment programs, b)
>contribute to the implementation of a development policy based on the needs
>of the people. This implies new forms of mobilization and new ways of
>distributing wealth as well as new financing methods, such as the recovery
>of illicitly-acquired wealth, a tax on international financial transactions,
>fair trade and taxation policies.
>
>
>Send signatures to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and the "Dakar 2000" Coordinating
>Committee: e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Movement:...............................
>Postal Address :����.
>Email:...............
>Name of the contact person:.................
>
>
>
>1) New list of signatories (update 12th May 2000)
>
>International Network:
>
>-Association des Femmes Africaines pour la Recherche et le D�veloppement
>(AFARD) Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD);
>-Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financi�res pour l�Aide aux
>Cityens (ATTAC)
>-Comit� pour l�Annulation de la Dette du Tiers Monde (CADTM)/ Committee for
>the Cancellation of Third World Debt (COCAD),
>-Development Alternatives with Women for a New era -DAWN (Fidji)
>- F�d�ration Internationale Syndicale de l'Enseignement
>(FISE)
>- -International South Group Network (Harare - Zimbabwe)
>-Jubile Sud / Jubilee South
>- Red Europea de los Comites OSCAR ROMERO
>-Trans National Institute (TNI � Pays-Bas)
>
>Central Africa ("Grands Lacs") : Service de Renforcement des Appuis aux
>Communaut�s
>de Base en Afrique Centrale (Seracob - Burundi, Rwanda, RD Congo)
>
>South Africa (Rep): Alternative Information and Development Center (AIDC �
>South Africa); Institute for Black Research (University of Natal, Durban,
>South Africa)
>
>Angola: ADRA- A��ao para o Desenvolvimento Rural e Ambiente (Luanda -
>Angola)
>
>Belgium : A.C.D.A. Aide et Coop�ration au d�veloppement d'Arequipa ;
>ATTAC � Louvain la Neuve ; Centre National de Coop�ration au D�veloppement /
>National Center for Development and Cooperation (CNCD - Bruxelles) ; Centre
>Tricontinental ; Comit� pour l�Annulation de la Dette du Tiers Monde (CADTM)
>; Commission Justice et Paix ; Entraide et Fraternit�/ Action Vivre
>Ensemble; ERAD (Equipe de Recherche et d'Action pour le D�veloppement) ;
>Forum Nord Sud; Forum Nord Sud; Fondation Jacquemotte ; Fr�re des Hommes ;
>GRESEA ; Mensuel � Avanc�es � ; Socialisme Sans Fronti�res (SSF)
>
>B�nin : CADTM/COCAD-B�nin
>
>Brazil : Jubilee 2000 Campaign (CNBB � Brasilia); Cespeg Alemasa (Bahia �
>Br�sil) ; PACS (Rio de Janeiro)
>
>Cameroun: Service oecum�nique pour la paix, Jubilee 2000
>
>Congo (R�p d�moc) : Coalition Congolaise pour l�Annulation de la Dette et le
>D�veloppement (CCADD � DR Congo) ; Afriquespoir
>
>Congo Brazzaville : La Cause
>
>Spain: Plataforma 0'7 de Lleida; Fundaci�n Paz y
>Solidaridad- Euskadi ; Club Albatros (Navarra) ; Red Ciudadana para la
>Abolici�n de la deuda Externa de Balmasda (Bizkaia)
>
>France : Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financi�res pour l�
>Aide aux Cityens (ATTAC) ; Association Internationale des Techniciens
>Experts et Chercheurs (AITEC - France) ; Agir Ici; ATTAC - Bastia (Hte
>Corse) ; CEDETIM; Collectif "TotalFinaElf ne fera pas la loi", Conf�d�ration
>Paysanne (France) ; Europe 99; F�d�ration des Associations de Solidarit�
>avec les Travailleurs Immigr�s (FASTI � France) ; Fondation plan�te Timoun ;
>France-Libert�s Fondation Danielle Mitterrand ; M�dia et Communication
>�ducative (MEDIA-CED) ; Revue GOLIAS; RITIMO (r�seau des centres de
>documentation pour le d�veloppement et la solidarit� internationale);
>F�d�ration SUD-PTT; SURVIE (Paris - France)
>
>Ha�ti: ATTAC Ha�ti
>
>Mali : Coalition Jubilee 2000 du Mali (CNM/J2000 � Mali)
>
>Mauritius : Ledikasyon Pu Travayer
>
>Mexico: Comision Independiente de Derechos Humanos de Morelos (CIDHMOR)
>
>Nicaragua : Coalicion Jubileo Nicaragua.
>
>Rwanda : Ubuntu Development Center
>
>S�n�gal : S�n�gal : Conseil des Organisations Non Gouvernementales d�Appui
>au D�veloppement (CONGAD - S�n�gal) ; Comit� de D�veloppement Local de Yoff;
>Association Nationale pour l�Alphab�tisation et la Formation des Adultes
>(ANAFA); Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes du S�n�gal (UNSAS -
>S�n�gal) ; SODEFITEX D�veloppement rural ; CARAF - Collectif Africain pour
>la Recherche l�Action et la Formation ; Sauvegarde du Nord/Concept ;
>CEU �Cooperative Essere Umani ; RADI - R�seau Africain pour le D�veloppement
>Int�gr� ; SENATTAC Mouvement ATTAC S�n�gal.
>
>Suisse : Association pour le Commerce Equitable de Gen�ve (ACEG - Suisse) ;
>ATTAC-Fribourg ; Centre Europe - Tiers Monde (CETIM - Suisse) ; Commission
>Tiers Monde de l'Eglise Catholique (COTMEC - SUISSE) ; Groupe Dette Tiers
>Monde � ATTAC Gen�ve Suisse ; UNITE - Plate-forme suisse pour l'�change de
>personnes dans la coop�ration internationale
>
>Togo : CADTM/COCAD - Togo
>
>USA : Tobin Tax Initiative
>
>Venezuela : CADTM Venezuela
>
>Personnalities :
>Harlem D�sir (Eurod�put� - France)
>Pablo Gonzalez Casanova (Professeur UNAM � Mexique)
>Michel Husson (Economiste � France)
>Alain Krivine (Eurod�put� - France)
>Micha�l L�wy (Directeur de recherche au CNRS � France)
>James Petras (Professeur Binghamton University - USA)
>Valter Pomar (PT - Br�sil)
>Roseline Vachetta (Eurod�put� - France)
>Pablo Gonzalez Casanova (Professeur UNAM � Mexique)
>
>
>
>-------------
>Committee for the Cancellation of the Third World Debt (COCAD)
>29 rue Plantin
>1070 Bruxelles
>tel (322) 527 59 90
>fax (322) 522 61 27
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>http://users.skynet.be/cadtm
>
>
>
>
>
> .............................................
> Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> .............................................
>
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