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African Social Forum Debt Workshop - 6,7 January 2003
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2. Alternative Solutions:
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The Workshop stressed the fact that the solutions to the African debt crisis are in Africa and Northern partners should support this view. The workshop stressed that the building of the debt and reparations movement from the grassroots up entails an intensification of our efforts at circulating information and educating people on debt and reparations. It also requires further research and the continual development of our analysis.
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Debt cancellation:
The Workshop reiterated the call for debt cancellation without conditions imposed by the World Bank, the IMF or G8 countries. This call is based on the historical origins of debt and the need to address its structural causes. In addition, cancellation is the only solution that addresses debt from a human development perspective, contrary to failed conventional "solutions", including the HIPC Initiative, that tend to focus on narrow economic and financial criteria, such as "debt sustaianability".
However, we need to ensure that resources released by any such cancellation are used to address people's needs and not misused by the governments in our countries.
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Debt repudiation:
Given that the G 8 countries, the World Bank and the IMF are not going to relinquish debt as an instrument of domination of their own accord, the Workshop recommended that we increase our efforts to persuade our countries to move toward a collective repudiation Africa's debt.
This entails taking the necessary steps toward getting the governments of our countries to stop debt service payments. Repudiation will only be successful if it is done collectively. We must therefore develop the momentum toward repudiation across the continent and together with our partners in the Global South (Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, etc.)
However, caution was expressed that we should take care that our approach to governments to repudiate debt does not get misused by undemocratic governments as a means to gain false legitimacy.
Reparations:
The workshop forcefully reiterated the position expresed in the Bamako Declaration that the debt represents a Crime Against Humanity and argued that the "creditors" be taken to task for their crimes. We must step up our demand for reparations for all the past and present damages caused by debt. In addition, we must fight for reparations for damage caused by structural adjustment policies and megaprojects, such as large dams, mining activity and oil extraction. We must also demand reparations for the plundering of our natural resources and the destruction of our environment.
We need to look at the option of sueing the "creditors" for this damage. In this regard, it was agreed to support the court case in which Jubilee South Africa and the Khulumani Support Group are demanding reparations from Northern banks and corporations for their support for the Apartheid regime.
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Repatration of stolen wealth:
The Workshop emphasized that the return of wealth stolen from our countries by corrupt leaders and stashed in Northern banks is an important aspect of f the overall solution to the debt crisis. Another recommendation was that we should call on the people of our continent who have developed skills and expertise and settled in the North to return and avail their skills to the development of our continent.
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Debt and neoliberalism:
The workshop stressed the importance of locating our approach to debt and reparations within a broader challenge to values, policies and institutions of the neoliberal paradigm.
It was noted that the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organisation (WTO) have adopted a policy of coherence between their activities. We should also develop increased coordination in our struggles against these institutions. This entails working more closely with organizations and networks focusing either on broad trade issues or exclusively on the WTO. In our opinion, these three institutions, especially the IMF and the WTO, are illegitimate and should be abolished.
It was noted that one reason that the governments of our countries continue to repay the debt is that they want to be seen as being "responsible" and pursuing "sound policies" so as to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). We need to enhance awareness of the dangers associated with FDI and insist that solutions to Africa's indebtedness should not be held hostage by misguided attempts to attract FDI.
We need to ensure that our information and education activities include critiques of the neoliberal paradigm. The Workshop recommended supporting campaigns and efforts to introduce taxes on wealth, increase aid flows from the North to the South, with no strings attached, renationalize privatized assets and reverse the negative terms of trade and financial flows that are crippling the African continent.
Another major recommendation is the need to step up our efforts to develop an alternative development paradigm to the neoliberal global system. In that perspective, the Lagos Plan of Action (1980); the African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustement Programs (AAF-SAPs, 1989); the Arusha Declaration (1990) and other key documents can be the basis for developing a genuine alternative development. These documents must be enriched by the works of African researchers and institutions as well as the experiences of the African people in their struggles for debt cancellation; against the policies imposed by the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and the G 8 countries.
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