14 June,
Eric Toussaint
This contribution puts forward
suggestions and alternative avenues for debate. They do not make up an
all-inclusive programme, nor should they be seen as proposals to accept or
reject en bloc. At best, they are a collection of necessary-but-insufficient
conditions for charting the path forward.
A. Introduction on the conjuncture
-World economy: US and China as
locomotives
-Periphery: accumulation of hard
currency reserves
-The periphery is a net lender to
the central capitalist countries
-The bourgeoisies and governments
could change the world situation to the benefit of the dependent countries if
they wanted to — but they won't
-Only the peoples in action can do
it / Actuality of permanent revolution
-Regaining public control (public
and collective property) over natural resources: the example of Bolivia
B. Reflections on the blockage of
capitalist development in the periphery
C. Adopting methodology of the
transitional programme
1. Breaking
the infernal cycle of debt
1.1. The Judicial Basis for Debt
Cancellation
'Odious
Debt'
According to Alexander Sack, who
theorized this doctrine, "If a despotic power contracts a debt not in
accordance with the needs and interests of the State, but to strengthen the
despotic regime, to repress the population who are combating it, this debt is
odious for the population of the State as a whole. This debt is not an
obligation for the nation: it is debt of a regime, the personal debt of the
authorities which contracted it; consequently, when the regime falls, the debt
becomes null and void." (Sack, 1927).
'Force
majeure'
1.2. Other
arguments and concrete experiences
2. Extra resources to finance development
2.1. Restitution of stolen
property to the citizens of the Global South
-Ill-gotten goods
-Reparations
2.2
Nationalization/socialization of the domestic assets of dictatorial regimes
2.3 Making
fraudulent capitalists pay their fair share
2.4 Monetary
reform by redistribution
2.5. On the
international level, set up global taxation
2.5.1. Tax
financial transactions
2.5.2. Taxes on DFI, on the
profits of multinational corporations (MNCs) and other global taxes…
2.6 Raise Official Development Aid to at
least 0.7% of the GDP and completely change the thinking behind it. Instead of
ODA, let's talk about Reparation Funds
2.7 Levy an
exceptional tax on the estates of the very wealthy
3. A new development strategy
3.1
End Structural Adjustment Policies
3.2 Ensure
the return of privatised strategic sectors to the public domain
3.3
Adopt a partly
self-based development model
3.4 Act upon
trading practice
3.5. Guarantee people's right
to circulate and to settle
4. New rules of good financial practice
4.1
Re-regulate the financial markets
4.2
Control capital movements
4.3
Eliminate tax havens
4.3
Adopt rules to ensure the protection of countries
which have recourse to external indebtedness
4.4 Adopt
rules to ensure the protection of countries which have recourse to external
indebtedness
4.5 Democratic
control of political indebtedness
5. Further indispensable measures
Arms expenditure
Multinational
corporations (MNCs)
Global public goods
6. What future for the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO?
7. Venezuela
and ALBA