CADTM - en

The Japanese Government's investment agency, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Government for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project (MAHSR), popularly known as the ‘Bullet Train Project'. There are two sets of government norms that the ‘Bullet Train Project' has to adhere to: one, as per the Indian laws and second, as per the JICA Guideline of the Japanese Government.
The JICA Guidelines, April 2010, (...)

The Kenyan Peasants League (KPL), a member of the La Via Campesina (LVC) is concerned about the reform package being pushed down the throat of Kenyan government by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is already having adverse impacts on Kenyan citizens who are expected to pay more for basic services.
The IMF has been peddling a reform package which include repealing the interest rate cap law to remove the power of capping interest rates from Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to the (...)

Summary - Political ramifications of IMF programme in Jordan trigger protests - Jordanian prime minister resigns - Developments raise broader questions around IMF conditionality
In June, King Abdullah II of Jordan accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki, amid the biggest protests in Jordan since the 2011 Arab Spring, after spending two years pushing through a series of unpopular government initiatives and IMF-mandated reforms.
Widespread protests broke out throughout (...)

Our First Few Bullet Questions to the Modi Government: - Why is MoEF&CC absent while a foreign government agency is participating in Environmental Consultation? - Ongoing Consultation accepts the need for environmental concerns. Then, why the Environment Laws of India and MoEF&CC have no role in the process? - Are the MoEF&CC and the Environment Laws of the Land mortgaged to the JICA?
We are supporters of the ‘Public Train Transport System'. Our objection to the “Bullet Train” (...)

CADTM collaborated with Kenyan social movements to organise a training on debt audit and also a meeting to strengthen the anti-debt activities in Kenya.
This programme held from July 29-30 at Nairobi (in the slums of Kangemi) witnessed the participation of more than 50 grass roots activists representing various social movements of the country - Kenya Peasant League (a member of La Via Campesina), feminist activists (including Kenyan members of World March of Women), Human Rights defenders, (...)

Slide-show presented by our comrades from Tanzania at the three days training on Citizens Debt Audit, held in Nairobi.

Central America is considered by the US government as part of its own exclusive sphere of influence. The policies adopted by the World Bank in terms of granting loans to the countries of the region are directly influenced by the political choices of the US government. The case of Nicaragua and Guatemala during the 1950s makes this clear.
“Thus one of the largest developing country borrowers, in number of loans, was Nicaragua, a nation with one million inhabitants, controlled by the Somoza (...)

Sri Lanka's foreign debt is again talk of the town. Is the country overly indebted to China? Are we borrowing too much from international capital markets? Or are we financing ourselves into trouble with multi-lateral agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB)? And how do we assess the role of foreign financing for economic development?
Economic growth and prosperity requires investment. And investment can either be funded through (...)

Feminism and the situation of women is an ever-growing concern for the CADTM network, which becomes almost unavoidable in the broad fight against domination(s). Women are indeed impacted by debt in several ways; as the main contractors of micro-credits, as the caretakers that have a higher workload in times of austerity, as the main beneficiaries and workers of social services, and victims of various kinds of oppression and violence inherent to capitalism. Several recent analyses by members (...)

In order to win the presidential election of November 2006, Daniel Ortega succeeded in making his election acceptable to the ruling classes, and in particular to the COSEP (Superior Council for Private Enterprise), the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, represented by Cardinal Obando y Bravo, former presidents Arnoldo Alemán and Enrique Bolaños, and the IMF. Daniel Ortega had also done his best to keep the support of a number of leaders of Sandinista popular organizations. He succeeded (...)

The Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts (CADTM) successfully held a three days training on Citizens Debt Audit in Nairobi, Kenya. The training that attended by delegates from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi was organized by the Kenyan Social Movements for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts bringing together the Kenyan Peasants League, the Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders Kenya, Bunge la Mwananchi, the Mathare Social Justice Center and a score of other (...)

Political positions and laws on foreign investment have been polarized into two opposing perspectives. On the one hand, there is the assumption that foreign direct investment (FDI) is essential for the economies of peripheral countries to take a leap toward development, prompting FDI promotion and even generating competition among countries to attract more investment. On the other hand, there are those who think that countries should legislate and regulate FDI so as to prioritize the (...)

Writing about Nicaragua is as painful and sad as it is indispensable. Memories of the Sandinista Revolution are still alive for the generation that lived through it. To remain silent would be an affront to those who took part in that memorable insurrection against Somoza.
Events of recent months leave little room for doubt. A series of social protests has been brutally repressed. Some 350 from only one side have died at the hands of police or paramilitary forces. In all cases there was (...)

At the time of the general election in Turkey, I pointed out that Turkey was near the top of the pile for a debt and currency crisis. It was running a massive current account (trade and payments) deficit with other countries and its external debt (what it owes to other countries in credits) was over 50% of its annual output (GDP), the highest among major ‘emerging economies', while it foreign exchange reserves to cover repayments and support the value of the currency, the Turkish lira, were (...)

Representatives of La Via Campesina in Southern and Eastern Africa (LVC SEAf) and in European (ECVC) small-scale farming agree that free trade agreements (FTAs) on farm products benefits primarily transnational corporations and furthers the industrialisation of agriculture. All at the expense of local food production.
The Kenyan Peasants League – member of LVC in SEAf region, and the LVC SEAf Secretariat, met Tuesday June 12 in Copenhagen with representatives of Danish small scale farmers, (...)

Through its peculiar “Securities Market Programme”, the European Central Bank generated billions of profits for creditor Member States such as France and Germany. Our research shows that nearly €8 billion have been lost for Greece – leading to further unnecessary austerity.
In a desperate attempt to calm market panics in 2010, the European Central Bank announced the Securities Market Programme, or SMP. This programme was in fact a precursor to quantitative easing: it consisted in the purchase (...)

The violence against demonstrators protesting against brutal neoliberal policies is just one of the reasons why different social movements have condemned the Nicaraguan regime led by Daniel Ortega and the Vice-president Rosario Murillo. The left has many more reasons to denounce the policies of the regime. To understand this, we must go back to 1979.
An authentic revolution in 1979
On 9 July 1979, an authentic popular revolution triumphed over the dictatorial dynasty of the Somoza regime. (...)

Three people were killed on Friday 13 July 2018 during demonstrations against the Haitian government's decision to increase fuel prices. Journalists saw the bodies of two protesters who were shot in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince during clashes with the police. It was not clear who shot them.
The third death was of a security guard of a former political candidate who was stopped at a barricade. The guard left his vehicle and shot in the air apparently to try to disperse the crowd. A (...)

“RIF Hirak” prisoners in Morocco are facing undeserved sentences
Let's expand the international solidarity until the drop of adjudications and their release.
The Appeal Court of Casablanca stated on Tuesday, 26 June 2018, heavy sentences against the leaders and activists of the popular and heroic movement of the Rif region “Hirak Rif”.
This protest movement started after the murder of Mohsin Fikri, who was crushed in the garbage truck on October 28, 2016. Since then, Rif people have been (...)

On Friday 22 June 2018, after night-long negotiations, the Eurogroup (meeting of the finance ministers of the eurozone, along with representatives of the IMF and the ECB) announced with great fanfare / pomp and circumstances, a new agreement concerning Greece. It is supposed to be a “historic” agreement that would sound the death knell of the Greek crisis. Now all the media are saying that Greece “is turning a page,” that “the Greek people can smile again,” that it marks “the end of the Greek (...)