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 marginalised 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 who support 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 the proposed actions here
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tags: global week, debt movement, odious debt, debt audits,