Global Day for the Cancellation of Egypt's Debt
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Published on Fri, 2011-10-28 08:24
Individual and civil society organizations prepare parallel events in London, Berlin, Paris and Cairo on Monday Oct 31 to call on their respective governments to drop the debts accumulated by Mubarak’s regime in Egypt. The Popular Campaign to Drop Egypt’s Debt is made up of citizens and groups concerned with the common good and the realization of social justice in Egypt. According to the founding statement of the campaign, "the economic policies that were applied by the ousted Mubarak regime have left us with enormous internal and external debts”. “The regime borrowed extensively in order to pay off its debt premiums and interest. Real solutions would have entailed searching for alternative mechanisms to finance government expenditure –such as income and wealth taxes– towards the goal of creating a more just economy. But instead of seeking ways to address the structural issues at stake, policymakers attempted to sustain a failing economic model by borrowing both internally and externally," the statement reads. But the Egyptian people never had a say in decisions regarding external loans nor their spending priorities, according to the campaign. If not dropped, the accumulated debt will remain a burden for the Egyptian people, the coming generations and the future governments to bear, it adds. With the slogan "keep your eyes open, the debt is out your pockets," this coalition encourages the Egyptian people to share with the government the economic decision making process that affects the quality of their lives and that of their children. The campaign also rejects the shackling of the political will to the debt conditionalities. Financial expert Reda Eisa, and campaign member says: “Tying the Egyptian will to political, economic and social conditionalities has pushed millions of Egyptians into a spiral of poverty and illness. The corruption of the former regime is suspected to have extended to some of the external borrowing, with the benefits prioritized for the aides of the ousted regime over the rest of the people. This debt burden, which the people and the coming generations will bear, urges us to insist on an audit of Mubarak’s debts and to evaluate their benefit to the Egyptian people at large.” The members of this coalition will start this Monday “a popular movement to rally all those concerned with pressuring for the cancellation of Egypt’s debts both domestically and internationally in creditor countries and by creditor institutions”. On October 31st, the global day for dropping Egypt's debts, Jubilee Debt Campaign UK, an organization fighting for the cancellation of the illegitimate debts of third world countries, will held in coordination with Egyptian campaign members based in London a meeting with British Members of Parliament to deliver petitions to drop the debts. The meeting will be followed by a demonstration at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. On the same evening of October 31st, the Campaign will hold a conference at the Journalist Syndicate in Cairo under the title: “The impact of external debts on Egyptians”. The panelist for the conference will include economist Ahmed El Naggar, Fathi El Chamkhy from the Tunisian Debt Audit Campaign, economic journalist Wael Gamal, as well as Khaled Ali, director of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights. Workers, popular committee members, activists and public figures supporting the campaign will all be present. More information: Source: Popular Campaign to Drop Egypt’s Debts |
