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debt relief
Global South Debt Relief Benefits Everyone
Private creditors’ current power to disrupt sovereign debt resolution has negative ripple effects on our own people in the US, especially the most vulnerable.
Jul 10, 2026
Amid a succession of financial shocks, the Middle East war being only the most recent, developing countries’ debt levels are alarmingly high and continuing to rise. These burdens make it even more difficult for governments in the Global South to meet the basic needs of their populations. And because the world is interconnected through international trade and financial markets, these developing country debts boomerang back to harm ordinary people in the United States and other advanced economies as well.
To effectively address this growing crisis, we need to recognize that the debt landscape is very different today than it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when global leaders agreed on relief initiatives worth more than $130 billion. Back then, private creditors held only about 5% of developing country debt. The rest was in the hands of public creditors, including the United States, UK, Germany, and other Group of 7 rich country governments, as well as multilateral financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which the G7 largely control.
Today, more than 60% of developing country debt is owed to private creditors who typically have the power to sue for full payment even when collective talks or international community initiatives for debt relief are ongoing. The mere threat of litigation gives these private creditors disproportionate leverage that puts debtors at a disadvantage and erodes debt relief gains. During Ethiopia’s prolonged struggle to access debt reductions under the G20 Common Framework, for example, private bondholders threatened to sue rather than make an effort similar to that of public creditors.
What can be done? One promising approach involves working the levers of power in the jurisdictions that govern private debt contracts. More than 90% are issued in New York and the UK. And over the past year, a bill to crack down on predatory private creditors gained real traction in the New York legislature. The “Champerty Fix Act” would prevent private creditors with debt contracts in that state from purchasing heavily discounted debt and then litigating to collect in full, instead of constructively engaging in debt negotiations. The bill would also significantly cut the high interest rates that debt crisis countries pay on claims under litigation.
Lifting the burden of unsustainable debts is the morally right thing to do—and it is in our interest.
With support from a coalition of religious, business, union, anti-poverty, environmental, development, and diaspora organizations, the bill passed the New York Senate and had enough support to pass in the Assembly, but that chamber’s leader chose not to bring it up for a vote by the time the session ended in early June. Supporters continue to demand that the Assembly be re-opened for a vote on the matter before the end of the year.
This legislation would be a huge win for the billions of people in countries where high debt payments divert essential financing for poverty reduction, social services, and development progress. It would also benefit workers, savers, consumers, and taxpayers in advanced economies—including the United States. Private creditors’ current power to disrupt sovereign debt resolution has negative ripple effects on our own people, especially the most vulnerable.
When debt crises affect US trade partners, jobs and wages that depend on import- and export-dependent companies in the United States inevitably suffer. And when inflation goes up due to supply chain disruptions in countries undergoing debt crises, consumers quickly feel it in the prices of their groceries and other everyday goods.
Pensions and other savings vehicles in the United States have exposure to indebted developing economies either directly—when they invest in instruments they issue—or indirectly—when they invest in US companies that have trade or investment in such countries. Reducing the time it takes a country to go from a debt crisis to a lasting restructuring—which currently averages 10 years—would significantly improve returns for our pensions and savers.
Taxpayers also have a stake in ensuring that taxpayer-funded debt relief does not bail out private creditors unwilling to negotiate fairly. In current restructuring deals, private creditors typically get repayments that are 20 percentage points higher than those received by public lenders.
Debt relief for the poorest has strong religious foundations that cut across multiple faith traditions and has been a landmark bipartisan pillar of US policy under every administration since the late 1990s.
Last year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his counterparts in all G20 countries adopted a declaration on debt sustainability. As the United States took over this year’s Presidency of the G20, he reaffirmed this direction by making the improvement of debt restructurings and debt transparency a priority. Building checks on private creditors in jurisdictions whose courts they use as leverage would go a long way toward supporting these goals by facilitating successful debt renegotiations.
Lifting the burden of unsustainable debts is the morally right thing to do—and it is in our interest.
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'Only the Beginning': Santa Marta Summit Heralded as New Dawn in Fight to End Fossil Fuel Era
“Amid a tense geopolitical context and worsening climate extremes, Santa Marta helped spark a feeling of renewed energy, but delegates must now follow through to deliver action, not just words," said a senior climate adviser at Greenpeace.
Apr 30, 2026
Environmental activists are hopeful after a six-day climate summit in Colombia resulted in a coalition of more than 50 countries agreeing to start developing plans to move away from planet-heating fossil fuels. But they say action must now follow talk.
In marked contrast to the annual United Nations climate summits, which have been routinely overrun by oil and gas industry lobbyists and concluded with agreements that largely ignore the imperative to divest from fossil fuels, Shiva Gounden, the head of Greenpeace's delegation this week in Santa Marta, said the conference that concluded Wednesday "was a breath of fresh air, a real sign that the wind is finally shifting."
The 59 nations that attended the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels did not ultimately end with a binding agreement to transition away from fossil fuels within a specific timeframe, which activists say is urgently necessary as global heating rapidly approaches 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.
Many of the world's biggest polluters—including the United States, China, and India, as well as petrostates like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—were also absent.
However, the summit did end with attendees, nearly half of whom are fossil fuel producers and who represent more than half of global gross domestic product, agreeing to form tangible "frameworks" for how they plan to transition away from a fossil-fueled model of capitalism that Colombian President Gustavo Petro decried as "suicidal."
Perhaps the single biggest breakthrough at the conference was France's unveiling of a national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels in the coming decades. It became the first developed nation to lay out such a plan, with the goals of removing coal from its national grid by 2027, phasing out oil by 2045, and fossil gas by 2050.
The French climate envoy, Benoit Faraco, described it not only as an obligation but an opportunity: “This process has made us realise we want to be an electro-superpower,” he said, according to The Guardian. “We want to be the electricity Saudi Arabia of Europe, selling green electrons to the UK, Ireland, Germany, and other countries.”
Many attendees also agreed that any collective movement away from fossil fuels would require addressing the debt crisis in the Global South, which many countries—especially those in Africa, where national debts have doubled in the past five years—have found themselves cranking up fossil fuel production to cope with.
While the conference concluded without any binding plan for debt forgiveness, which many delegates from developing countries had proposed, the participants agreed that poorer countries would need support to move out of debt and finance a green transition.
"Fossil fuel dependency deepens economic instability, fuels conflict, and traps countries in cycles of debt," said Bronwen Tucker, public finance lead for Oil Change International. "As long as Global South countries remain locked in this system, while Global North governments write the financial rules, public resources will continue to flow away from people and toward the systems driving crisis."
Laura Caicedo, the campaigns coordinator at Greenpeace Colombia, described the conference as "an important space to put the just energy transition on the agenda ahead of the Climate COP," which will take place in Turkey this coming November.
"There is willingness and a sense of fresh momentum that is worth celebrating," she said. "But this is only the beginning: more time is needed for this process to mature into a true platform for dialogue that can inform decision-making in this and other cooperation spaces on key energy issues."
The next conference on Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuels is set to occur early next year in Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific island nation that is at risk of becoming uninhabitable within decades due to sea-level rise.
While climate activists were heartened by the progress made in Santa Marta, Gounden said countries need to come to Tuvalu with concrete plans.
“When we get to Tuvalu, the conversation has to change," she said. "We can’t just bring more ambition; we have to bring proof of implementation."
This week's conference took place against the backdrop of the US and Israel's war in Iran, where US President Donald Trump has suggested a key goal is to "take the oil" controlled by Iran. The obstruction of oil shipments has become a critical piece of strategic and economic leverage and simultaneously inflicted chaos upon the global economy, disrupting humanitarian aid for some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people.
"Amid a tense geopolitical context and worsening climate extremes," said Rodrigo Estrada, Greenpeace International's senior climate adviser, "Santa Marta helped spark a feeling of renewed energy, but delegates must now follow through to deliver action, not just words."
While the war has sent energy companies' profits soaring, the climate advocacy group 350.org estimated this week that the continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could cost households and businesses an additional $600 billion to $1 trillion.
"It’s never been clearer that fossil fuel phase-out is imperative for stability and peace," Tucker said. "Every step away from fossil fuels weakens the outsized power and wealth that allows the US to wage illegal wars in the name of energy dominance."
At the next conference, she added, "The richest polluting countries must show they are serious. Canada, Norway, the UK, and the EU must make real plans to accelerate their fossil fuel phaseout at home and come to the table with real economic collaboration."
Mariana Paoli, the climate policy lead for Oxfam, said the lack of action by rich countries was "disappointing" and needed to change.
"Wealthy governments have still not stepped up to provide sufficient climate financing for poorer countries, which face the brunt of the impacts of the climate crisis," she said. "Rich countries hold the historical responsibility for the climate crisis, therefore they must not only move first and faster but also provide finance at scale for others to follow them."
"A just transition," she said, "must make rich polluters pay for the crisis they have caused."
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The Global South Needs Fair, Equitable, and Enduring Climate Finance
While the developed world is rapidly changing its relationship with the rest of the world, the price of not providing climate finance will be economic losses, health impacts, increased disaster costs, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and infrastructural damage.
Feb 17, 2025
The global commitment to fair climate finance is at a crossroads. COP29 concluded with a disappointing New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, or NCQG, leaving developing nations at risk of being left behind. With the U.S. withdrawing from the Paris agreement and slashing development aid, prospects for more ambitious fair climate finance are disappearing out of sight. Decisions like these not only threaten global cooperation on climate change but will also fail to meet its core purpose in supporting the most affected communities in adapting to and mitigating climate change. Now, more than ever, fair and equitable climate finance—such as increased grant-based funding and debt relief—is critical.
In Africa, the impacts of climate change are stark and undeniable. Extreme weather events on the continent surged from 85 in the 1970s to over 540 between 2010 and 2019, causing over 730,000 deaths and $38.5 billion in damages. The increasing frequency and severity of floods, droughts, and storms are threatening food security, displacing populations, and putting immense stress on water resources. According to the World Bank, climate change could push up to 118 million extremely poor people in Africa into abject poverty by 2030 as drought, floods, and extreme heat intensify. A stark reality that underscores the urgent need for robust climate finance to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies to safeguard and secure the continent's future.
Without stronger commitments to public grants and additional funding, developing countries risk falling into a cycle of debt that hinders climate action.
At the same time, climate response remains critically underfunded in Africa. From the figures released by the Climate Policy Initiative, the continent will need approximately $2.8 trillion between 2020 and 2030 to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris agreement. However, current annual climate finance flows to Africa are only $30 billion, exposing a significant funding gap for climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Climate Finance at COP29
COP29's main objective was to deliver on a finance goal that would see the world off the tipping point. However, after two weeks of nearly failed climate diplomacy, negotiators agreed to a disappointing $300 billion annually by 2035. This amount falls short of the $1.3 trillion per year figure, supported by the Needs Determinant Report, that many developing countries had advocated for.
Nevertheless, the Baku to Belem Roadmap has been developed to address the climate finance gap. This framework, set to be finalized at COP30 in Brazil, offers a crucial opportunity to refine finance mechanisms to effectively and equitably meet the needs of developing countries.
Why the Finance Outcome of COP29 Could Leave Developing Countries Behind
Beyond the insufficient funding, the NCQG lacks a strong commitment to equity, a key principle of the Paris agreement. The principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) emphasizes that developed countries should bear a greater share of the financial burden. However, the NCQG merely states that developed nations would "take the lead" in mobilizing $300 billion, reflecting a lack of firm commitment.
A major concern is the climate debt trap for developing nations. Much of the climate finance provided is in the form of loans rather than grants, worsening existing debt burdens and limiting investments in sustainable development. Without stronger commitments to public grants and additional funding, developing countries risk falling into a cycle of debt that hinders climate action.
Moving Forward: Shaping Conditions for Fair, Equitable, and Enduring Climate Finance
To ensure COP29's finance outcomes do not leave the Global South behind, several actions are needed.
Firstly, debt relief is crucial. Approximately 60% of low-income countries are already in or near debt distress. Between 2016 and 2020, 72% of climate finance to developing nations was in loans, while only 26% was in grants. Reducing debt burdens would allow developing countries to allocate more resources to climate projects, improve fiscal stability, and attract additional investments.
Similarly, given the mounting climate finance debts in low-income developing countries, increased grant-based financing for climate action is needed. In 2022, developed countries provided around $115.9 billion in climate finance to developing countries, but a significant portion was in the form of loans. Heavy reliance on debt-based financing exacerbates financial burdens on these nations. Grant-based finance, on the other hand, aligns with equity principles and ensures that funding effectively supports adaptation and mitigation.
Another potential path is leveraging private sector investment. The private sector plays an essential role in climate finance. However, its involvement often prioritizes profit over genuine climate benefits. Strategies must ensure that private investments align with climate justice principles. To address this, approaches are needed such as those used by Bill and Melinda Gates.
Lastly, implementing robust governance and transparent mechanisms is critical. This includes developing detailed reporting templates, public participation in decision-making, and clear monitoring systems to track climate finance flows and prevent double counting.
While the developed world is rapidly changing its relationship with the rest of the world from aid to trade, the price of not providing equitable, grant-based, public climate finance will be economic losses, health impacts, increased disaster costs, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and infrastructural damage. Quite simply, taking the equity conditions into account is the way forward if we are to ensure that the outcomes of COP29 leave no low-income developing nation in the Global South behind.
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$4 Trillion Funding Gap for Global South Keeping Green Transition Out of Reach: UN
"A green transition will remain out of reach if the world doesn't help developing countries attract more investment in clean energy."
Jul 05, 2023
Wealthier nations must do much more—including implementing debt relief—to bridge a $4 trillion annual gap in funding needed to meet the United Nations' sustainable development goals, the world body's agency in charge of promoting Global South trade interests said in a report published on Wednesday.
In its annual World Investment Report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) calls for "urgent support to developing countries to enable them to attract significantly more investment for their transition to clean energy."
"Developing countries need renewable energy investments of about $1.7 trillion annually but attracted foreign direct investment in clean energy worth only $544 billion in 2022," the report states. "Developing countries face an investment gap of $2 trillion annually for the energy transition, out of a $4 trillion annual funding gap for the sustainable development goals."
"Debt relief is urgent to give developing countries fiscal space to make the necessary investments for a clean energy transition and to attract international private investment by lowering country risk ratings," UNCTAD added.
The U.N.'s sustainable development goals (SDGs) form the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all U.N. member states in 2015. The 17 sweeping goals include eradicatingpoverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, boosting education and public health, and taking urgent action on climate change.
The UNCTAD report showed that international investment in renewable energy production, including solar and wind, grew 8% in 2022, down from 50% growth reported in 2021, while battery manufacturing tripled to more than $100 billion last year.
"We are at least a decade late in our efforts to combat global warming," warned U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in the report's introduction.
"Investments in energy infrastructure and efficiency still fall far short of what is needed."
"Investment in renewable energy in developing countries is therefore essential and often the most economical way to bridge the energy gap," the U.N. chief added. "But while the transition to renewable energy is a global priority, investments in energy infrastructure and efficiency still fall far short of what is needed."
UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said that "the scale of the challenge is enormous."
"So is the range of actions needed to boost investment in sustainable energy in developing countries," she added.
"The growth of green finance in global capital markets, with sustainable bonds growing fivefold in five years, shows that the appetite among private investors to fund climate change mitigation is there," Grynspan asserted. "The task is now to channel those funds to where they are most needed to support the transition and to provide affordable access to electricity for all."
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Get Ready for Mass Strikes Across the US This May Day
As the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies and exposes America’s inequalities, workers, so long stifled and embattled, are showing renewed force.
May 01, 2020
Toiling amid a pandemic and a callous response from corporate America and the federal government that is exposing millions to deadly hazards and deepening poverty, workers across the country are rising up, planning hundreds of strikes and sickouts for International Workers' Day on May 1.
May Day actions throughout the United States will include worker strikes, car caravan protests, rent strikes, and a host of social media onslaughts urging work stoppages, and boycotts of major corporations that are failing to fairly pay and protect their workers amid the pandemic.
At a time when worker organizing could be stifled by physical distancing rules and the Trump administration's disabling of the National Labor Relations Board, workers are walking off the job in massive coordinated walk-outs and sick-outs targeting major employers such as Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, FedEx, and Instacart, demanding hazard pay, personal protective equipment and other basic protections.
May Day actions throughout the United States will include worker strikes, car caravan protests, rent strikes, and a host of social media onslaughts urging work stoppages, and boycotts of major corporations that are failing to fairly pay and protect their workers amid the pandemic, activists say. Activists are also pressuring for rent and debt relief, and a "People's Bailout" demanding a more equitable stimulus and economic recovery plan that prioritizes workers.
Long overworked and underpaid, warehouse and food industry workers (including grocery clerks, meatpackers, and farmworkers) are now deemed "essential"--responsible for hazardous jobs at the epicenter of the Covid-19 storm. Yet while some unionized workers have secured hazard pay and protective gear, millions of these workers on the pandemic's front lines remain in or near poverty and without adequate healthcare or safety protections. Now they're striking back, shining a spotlight on the struggles of low-wage workers laboring amid viral hazards while corporations like Amazon and Instacart report booming business and profits.
Even as unemployment skyrockets above 20% (with an astounding 30 million new claims since the beginning of March), Amazon alone is raking in $11,000 per second and its shares are rising, the Guardian reports. The company's CEO Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, has seen his personal fortune bloat to $138 billion amid the pandemic.
Protesting unsafe conditions and lack of hazard pay for many employees, Target Workers Unite is waging a mass sickout of the retail chain's workers, stating, "We want to shut down industry across the board and pushback with large numbers against the right-wing groups that want to risk our lives by reopening the economy."
On its website, the group describes "atrocious" foot traffic in stores, "putting us at needless risk when greater safety measures are required to ensure social distancing. Workers nor guests have been required to wear masks...Our maximum capacity of guests have been set too high."
Whole Worker, a movement of Whole Foods workers pushing for unionization, plans a mass "sickout" for what is also being called #EssentialWorkersDay. Workers at the non-union corporate chain, which is owned by billionaire Bezos, are demanding guaranteed paid leave for employees who self-quarantine, reinstating healthcare coverage for part-time and seasonal workers, and the immediate shutdown of any store where a worker tests positive for Covid-19. According to organizers, 254 Whole Foods workers have tested positive for the virus nationwide, and two have died.
Gig economy workers for Instacart, the app-propelled tech corporation that dispatches "shoppers" for customers, will wage their second work stoppage in a month, after a March 30 strike demanding hazard pay, paid sick leave and safety protections. Despite Instacart's booming business amid the Covid-19 pandemic, "Most workers STILL haven't been able to order, let alone receive, proper PPE," according to the Gig Workers Collective.
This week, dozens of workers at an Amazon fulfillment center warehouse in Tracy, CA walked off the job after learning that a co-worker who had tested positive for Covid-19 had died. One employee told a local television station, "We are short handed now working extra hard, and I'm questioning what I'm still doing here honestly...I'm actually nervous now and wondering if it's even worth coming."
Citing a "lack of response from this government in terms of PPE and mandatory [safety] standards," the AFL-CIO will be supporting and "uplifting" striking workers at Amazon, Target, Instacart and elsewhere who are "risking their lives every day on the job," said spokesperson Kalina Newman. "While our affiliates who work with retail workers, UFCW and RWDSU, aren't helping organize the May Day strikes, they may uplift them. At the end of the day, we support workers who are standing up for their rights."
In an email, Newman elaborated that the AFL-CIO is encouraging union members "to contact their congressperson stressing that the coronavirus relief packages approved so far leave many working families behind, including hardworking immigrants who provide essential services."
Since the pandemic began, union workers at Safeway, Stop & Shop and Kroger's have won hazard pay and protective equipment guarantees, Newman added, following pressure from the United Food and Commercial Workers.
Other prominent labor groups are backing the May Day strike actions. Jobs With Justice "is supporting worker walkouts across the country, from Amazon workers to Instacart drivers," and will be "standing in solidarity with workers who are walking off the job and demanding safer working conditions," organizing director Nafisah Ula said in an email.
A range of other groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America and new grassroots initiatives like Coronastrike will also be backing up the workers on May Day. Launched by Occupy Wall Street alumni, Coronastrike aims to "amplify the efforts and voices of those striking," says organizer Yolian Ogbu, a 20-year-old climate justice activist.
"We're frustrated by the inaction by these corporations," Ogbu adds. "There is all this pent-up energy, and we're asking people to put it somewhere. People are desperate."
According to Fight for 15, the nationwide coalition for a $15 federal minimum wage, fast food workers have already been striking for fair wages and safety protections as they attempt to survive low-wage work and exposure to Covid-19. Since the pandemic began, fast food workers have walked off the job in Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago, Memphis, Miami, St. Louis and other major cities, demanding personal protective equipment, hazard pay and paid sick leave.
In early April, hundreds of workers from more than 50 fast-food restaurants across California--including McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King and Domino's--walked out of work to demand better pay and safety protections, Vice reported. This week, Arby's workers in Morris, Illinois, walked out in the middle of their shift to protest conditions and climbed into their with windows festooned with big posters stating, "We don't want to die for fries," and "Hazard pay and PPE now!" They are demanding $3 per hour in added hazard pay and say the corporation has not provided masks or any other protective gear.
Since March, there have already reportedly been at least 140 documented wildcat strikes across the country.
As the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies and exposes America's inequalities, workers, so long stifled and embattled, are showing renewed force.
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'Fighting for Their People,' Puerto Rico's Faith Leaders Condemn Austerity
The call goes beyond debt relief: 'We call for economies to serve people, not for people to serve economies.'
Aug 31, 2015
Denouncing new austerity plans and proposed "fiscal adjustments" that they say will adversely impact Puerto Rico's poor and needy people, the island's faith leaders on Monday called for debt relief and a resolution to the financial crisis that eschews further austerity.
With a working group restructuring plan due to be delivered to Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla on or before September 8, the letter from religious leaders (pdf) comes as the U.S. territory struggles to address crippling debt and double-digit unemployment.
Two recent reports suggest new austerity plans to pay off portions of the debt, one commissioned by a group of hedge funds that purchased the island's distressed debt and the other authorized by Puerto Rico's government. These plans include reducing the minimum wage and cutting education and healthcare programs.
Citing the Biblical concept of debt relief, or Jubilee, the letter's signatories express concern about "predatory hedge funds which seek to benefit from our distress and push our economy to the brink of collapse" while calling for full-scale debt restructuring "that invests in Puerto Rico's people."
"This debt crisis threatens to push more of our people into poverty and put people out of work," stated San Juan Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, leader of Puerto Rico's mostly Catholic population. "The religious community stands with vulnerable people and we call for the crisis to be resolved in a way that protects the poor and grows our economy."
In resolving the financial crisis, the religious leaders call for policymakers to adhere to six principles:
- In any solution that is reached, there should be no more austerity policies affecting people and poor families and young people who are the most vulnerable.
- Any solution must create an investment in the Puerto Rican people and seek to grow our economy.
- We need enough debt relief to restore our total debt to sustainable levels.
- We encourage all solutions that enhance Puerto Rico's laws on budget transparency.
- We seek greater participation in resolving this crisis and working with the government on solutions that protect Puerto Rico's people.
- In addition to the participation of the religious sector, we call for multi-sectorial participation in which our people are well represented. A representation that also includes the poorest because they are always the most affected.
"Puerto Rico's religious leaders are fighting for the lives of their people," stated Eric LeCompte, the faith-based development coalition Jubilee USA Network executive director. LeCompte, who visited Puerto Rico in mid-August to advise religious and political leaders on solutions to the crisis, said: "We need to get Puerto Rico's debt back to sustainable levels and ensure that the island has a path for economic growth."
However, the letter acknowledges how Puerto Rico's complicated geopolitical standing makes finding solutions to the crisis more challenging:
We understand that some processes and options typically available to indebted governments are not available to ours. Because Puerto Rico is not a sovereign country, we can't receive low-interest loans or emergency financing from the International Monetary Fund. Because Puerto Rico is not a US state or city, we can't access US bankruptcy laws. In the absence of Congress extending bankruptcy protection to Puerto Rico, we must call for greater involvement from the Federal Reserve to act and to arbitrate our debt according to our six principles to protect the common good. The Federal Reserve has the power to act and should act. The Federal Reserve has the ability to restructure our debt in ways that limit austerity and ensure debt relief without harmful conditions.
It expresses solidarity with communities worldwide- such as Greece, Argentina, and some of Puerto Rico's Caribbean neighbors- that are also struggling against austerity politics in the face of high debt burdens and poverty.
"As we call for a Jubilee for Puerto Rico's people, we call for a Jubilee for all people," the letter reads. "We call for economies to serve people, not for people to serve economies."
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Anger Aimed at Troika's Ruthless Neoliberalism as Greece Exit Looms
With banks shuttered, capital controls in place, and democracy under threat, the world's eyes turn toward what the Greek people will decide
Jun 29, 2015
President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker delivered a speech in Brussels on Monday that observers say has dramatically escalated the tensions surrounding a referendum vote in Greece next Sunday--a vote that could ultimately result in the country's exit from the Eurozone.
With global financial markets responding to Sunday's announcement that Greece's banks and stock exchange would be closed this week and the imposition of capital controls has been ordered, the crisis in Greece--or 'Grisis,' as its become known--has now reached a fevered pitch. On top of that, the people of the financially devastated nation have been asked to vote "yes" or "no" against a deal put forth by the so-called Troika, which consists of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank, in exchange for the continuation of cash infusions and extended credit.
Telling Greek voters to vote "yes" to accept the Troika's proposal, the Guardian's Graeme Wearden called Juncker's speech "jaw-dropping" in its implications. By telling the Greek people "not to commit suicide for fear of death," Wearden says Juncker has "effectively told the Greek people that they are choosing between the euro and the exit door on Sunday, that their government has lied to them, and that he has been their friend and ally at the negotiating table."
Meanwhile, on Monday the Syriza-led government announced that public transportation would be free this week in order to soften the blow of the economic situation and that certain banks would be offering unique access to pensioners who might otherwise face difficulty accessing their funds.
On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made a televised address to the Greek people in order to explain the latest developments--including the decision to close the banks in the days ahead and to implement restrictive measures on withdrawals--and said, "the more calmly we confront difficulties, the sooner we will overcome them."
Watch:
Contrasting Tsipras' message with that of Juncker's on Monday, the Syriza Party has made it clear they are opposed to the terms of the deal on the table and will urge people to vote "no" on the proposal.
What happened over the weekend, according to New York Times columnist and Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman, was what he termed a "reverse Corleone" -a reference to The Godfather film--in which the Troika made the Syriza government an offer it "couldn't accept." The commissioners, he argued, "presumably did this knowingly" to exert overt pressure on the left-wing government. Put aside the economics of the deal, explained Krugman, and "the ultimatum was, in effect, a move to replace the Greek government. And even if you don't like Syriza, that has to be disturbing for anyone who believes in European ideals."
"The EU and the IMF seem to be hell-bent on ruthlessly punishing Greece for daring to stand up against grossly unfair debt conditions that are causing enormous amounts of suffering. Refusing to allow a short delay for the referendum to take place is a brutal enforcement of unfettered capitalism over democracy and the needs of people."
--Nick Dearden, Global Justice Now
Nick Dearden, executive director of the UK-based Global Justice Now, slammed the Troika's collective behavior, specifically its refusal to allow a short extension of its bank liquidity program leading up to next Sunday's referendum vote.
"The hardline, inhumane policies of the EU now threaten to provoke a world crisis," Dearden told Common Dreams. "The EU and the IMF seem to be hell-bent on ruthlessly punishing Greece for daring to stand up against grossly unfair debt conditions causing enormous amounts of suffering. Refusing to allow a short delay for the referendum to take place is a brutal enforcement of unfettered capitalism over democracy and the needs of people."
With people across Europe calling for debt relief for Greece, Dearden continued, refusing to treat the Greek people with dignity is simply unforgivable. "This violent imposition of austerity in Greece will leave yet more blood on the hands of the EU's financial class," he said.
As the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis tweeted over the weekend, what's at the heart of the debate right now is making sure that the people of Greece--the ones who have already sacrificed much at the altar of imposed austerity and the ones who will be most impacted by the acceptance or rejection of the deal--should be allowed to weigh in on the decision. In the wake of the referendum's announcement, he said:
Later, in a blog update posted on Sunday, Varoufakis described what happened on Saturday at the European Commission meeting:
The Eurogroup Meeting of 27th June 2015 will not go down as a proud moment in Europe's history. Ministers turned down the Greek government's request that the Greek people should be granted a single week during which to deliver a Yes or No answer to the institutions' proposals - proposals crucial for Greece's future in the Eurozone.
The very idea that a government would consult its people on a problematic proposal put to it by the institutions was treated with incomprehension and often with disdain bordering on contempt. I was even asked: "How do you expect common people to understand such complex issues?". Indeed, democracy did not have a good day in yesterday's Eurogroup meeting! But nor did European institutions. After our request was rejected, the Eurogroup President broke with the convention of unanimity (issuing a statement without my consent) and even took the dubious decision to convene a follow up meeting without the Greek minister, ostensibly to discuss the "next steps".
Can democracy and a monetary union coexist? Or must one give way? This is the pivotal question that the Eurogroup has decided to answer by placing democracy in the too-hard basket. So far, one hopes.
As tensions soar and fears of a financial panic set in, however, it's not just high-level Syriza officials who are saying that Greek voters would be right to reject the Troika's continued imposition of austerity, even if it means leaving the Eurozone's single currency.
In his Monday column at the Times, Krugman gave three reasons why Greece should vote "no" against the deal:
First, we now know that ever-harsher austerity is a dead end: after five years Greece is in worse shape than ever. Second, much and perhaps most of the feared chaos from Grexit has already happened. With banks closed and capital controls imposed, there's not that much more damage to be done.
Finally, acceding to the troika's ultimatum would represent the final abandonment of any pretense of Greek independence. Don't be taken in by claims that troika officials are just technocrats explaining to the ignorant Greeks what must be done. These supposed technocrats are in fact fantasists who have disregarded everything we know about macroeconomics, and have been wrong every step of the way. This isn't about analysis, it's about power -- the power of the creditors to pull the plug on the Greek economy, which persists as long as euro exit is considered unthinkable.
So it's time to put an end to this unthinkability. Otherwise Greece will face endless austerity, and a depression with no hint of an end.
Costas Panayotakis, associate professor of sociology at the City University of New York, argued much the same on Monday. "Since its election in January the Greek government has, in its attempt to reach an agreement, made many concessions to the eurozone's austerity agenda," explained Panayotakis. "The fact that, during the negotiation, Greece's European partners always asked for more suggests that they may not have truly desired an agreement, instead preferring to squash the only European government with the audacity to criticize the neoliberal consensus openly. The European response to Tsipras' announcement of a referendum also displays the long-standing aversion of European economic and political elites to democratic processes that allow European people to have a say over the future of the European project."
Meanwhile, Guardian foreign correspondent Jon Henley spoke with some of those Greeks who have been most affected by many years of financial ruin. As Henley reports:
After seven years of a crisis that has left 26% of Greece's workforce unemployed, 30% of its people below the poverty line, 17% unable to meet their daily food needs and 3.1 million without health insurance, it is hard to see how anything decided in Brussels or in Athens in the coming week will do much to change the lives of a large number of Greeks any time soon.
"Those that were already on the margins have been pushed right to the very, very edge, and those who were in the middle have been pushed to the margins," said Ioanna Pertsinidou of Praksis, a charity that runs day centres for vulnerable people and offers legal and employment advice.
"So many people - ordinary, low-to-middle income people with jobs and homes and their lives on track - have seen their lives go drown the drain so fast," Pertsinidou said. "People who never dreamed that one day they would not be able to pay their electricity bill, or feed their children properly."
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