Source:
International Debt Observatory
Fri Sep 22 2006
The First International Symposium on "public debt, citizen auditing and investment and savings alternatives for Latin American peoples", will take place from September 22-24 in Caracas, Venezuela. During the event, different thematic cores will be analyzed, among them: public debt audits, the Southern Bank and the Southern Monetary Fund.
In recent times, Latin America has been registering significant levels of economic recovery. However, progress in the region remains constrained by the mechanisms for ongoing indebtedness of international capital markets, the imposition of regressive policies on governments by multilateral institutions and the squandering of public resources through cycles of financial speculation, capital outflows and the recurrent debt cover up of privileged capitalist groups.
Neo-liberal policies aimed at opening up, privatization and deregulation have been increasingly questioned in recent years. Yet, the severe consequences of inequality, marginalization and lack of productive investment both in infrastructure and social areas which are characteristic of regressive strategies of economic and financial concentration are nevertheless maintained and in many cases strengthened.
The immediate cancellation of perverse illegitimate debts, the carrying out of open and participatory audits of public indebtedness, the end to the imposition of external conditionalities by multilateral institutions, and, in particular, the breaking up of persistent dependence, call for new financial institutions and instances at regional level which should be independent for the purposes of channelling savings and investment. All of the above are pressing challenges for Latin America.
Within the framework of the 6th World Social Forum held in January 2006 with broad participation of social movements, decisions were made to ratify and strengthen the existing international mobilization campaigns against the debt, as well as to create spaces where to exchange views on the debt problem of less developed countries and finally propose alternative routes.
The “International Symposium on public debt, citizen auditing and investment and savings alternatives for Latin American peoples” will be an open and democratic framework for representatives of debt groups, social and political leaders and academics, in search of paths for Southern countries, aimed at breaking the hegemony in the capital markets of Northern powerful nations and the multilateral institutions under their control.
This event is jointly organized by the Centro International Miranda of Venezuela, the International Debt Observatory, Jubilee South and the Committee for the Cancellation of Third World Debt (CADTM)
Thematic cores:
• Report of the International Debt Observatory (IDO).
• Public Debt Audits.
• Southern Bank.
• Southern Monetary Fund.
• Block and coordination of policies and actions of indebted countries.
• Conditions and significance of increased domestic public indebtedness.
• The initiative of G-8 countries with regards to less developed countries.
Signatures:
· Luis Bonilla (CIM - Centro Internacional Miranda)
· Jorge Marchini (IDO - Internacional Debt Observatory)
· Beverly Keene (Jubilee South / Américas)
· Éric Toussaint (CADTM – Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt)
See some papers (Spanish language)
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