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Declaration of Havana, II South-North Consultation
"Resistance and Alternatives to Debt
Domination"
Havana, Cuba, September 30, 2005
In the year 2000 representatives of national Jubilee debt remission
campaigns from the South and from the North met in Dakar, Senegal
without reaching a consensus on common positions and action plans.
Now, five years later, a South-North Consultation on Resistance and
Alternatives to Debt Domination held in Havana, Cuba has articulated
a common position embraced by debt campaigners from both the South
and the North. Here follows the final declaration from this historic
meeting.
| 1. |
Five years after the first international South-North
consultation on debt was held in Dakar, Senegal, representatives
from 51 countries convened the second South-North Consultation
on ‘Resistance and Alternatives to Debt Domination’,
from 28 to 30 September 2005 in Havana, Cuba. We marked the
20th anniversary of the historic Havana meetings that focused
the world's attention on the true nature of the debt crisis
and strengthened the resistance to the payment of enslaving
debt. |
| 2. |
We, Southern and Northern people's movements and organizations,
agree to work together to promote international recognition
of the peoples and countries of the South as social, ecological,
cultural and financial creditors of the North. We demand that
Northern governments recognize these debts, caused by policies
of plunder in violation of human rights, including the right
to sovereignty and self-determination. |
| 3. |
The strength of the struggle against debt domination lies
in the unceasing efforts of debt campaigns and social movements
across the world. We affirm our commitment to work together
in solidarity through campaigns and initiatives in both the
South and the North, strengthening our movements to reverse
the enormous historical injustice that has brought us together
here. |
| 4. |
In 2005, we recognize that the accelerating processes of
globalization have only extended and exacerbated the debt crisis,
one of the worst scourges afflicting humanity. Far from diminishing,
the burden of foreign debt remains a major obstacle limiting
countries' development, forcing them to pay interest to wealthy
countries and institutions instead of investing in people's
priorities. Initiatives of those same countries and institutions,
such as HIPC [the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative],
have not put an end to this grotesque situation. On the contrary,
their policies and actions – including on trade and the
environment - have increased debt and inequality around the
world. |
| 5. |
Debt is used as a tool of control over exploited and impoverished
countries.
- Debt domination must be ended.
- The injustice and poverty caused by debt must be ended.
- The plunder of natural resources and exploitation of
people carried out in order to guarantee debt servicing
must be ended.
- The use of debt to impose policies such as neo-liberalism
on the countries of the South must be ended.
- Unjust trade must be ended, including so-called “free
trade” treaties, which lead to greater indebtedness
and loss of control over resources and sovereignty.
- Relations between countries must be based on justice
and respect for human rights, not on oppression, militarization,
and war.
- The illegitimate, unjust and unpayable debt of the South
must be cancelled immediately. This cancellation cannot
be linked to externally imposed conditions. We will advocate
repudiation of debt and will be in solidarity with governments
that choose to take this course of action.
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| 6. |
Wealthy governments, transnational companies, and institutions
such as the IMF, World Bank, and WTO must accept responsibility
for the plunder of the countries of the South, for creating
and perpetuating the debt crisis, and in particular for odious
debt. Given the historical and on-going exploitation of the
countries of the South; the imbalanced financial, economic and
political relations between the exploited and the exploiting;
and the ecological devastation imposed on the South by governments
and commercial interests of the North, it is indisputable that
the North owes the South. |
| 7. |
The South-North Consultation on Resistance and Alternatives
to Debt Domination thanks Cuba for its generous support for
our meeting. At the same time, we call on the government of
the United States to recognize its historic debt to Cuba, accumulated
through the illegal and immoral blockade and by other acts of
aggression by the United States government. |
| 8. |
While stressing the urgent need to overcome debt domination,
we recognize that this alone is not enough. We must at the same
time promote integrated economic and social policies that promote
respect for and development of peoples and nations, and strengthen
the building of alternatives. |
ELIMINATE THE DEBT NOW
DON'T OWE – WON'T PAY!
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