Articles
The political harakiri of the World Social Forum
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Report on the WSF2016 in Montreal and on its International Council meeting
This is a personal report of the WSF and mainly of the IC meeting in August 2016 in Montreal. It was a very emotional event and may have consequences for the future of our global initiatives. Since I was directly involved in the clashes of the different meetings, I felt the need to give a detailed report. For the very first time, and for the same reason, I call people by their names. Some may have a different reading of what happened, but then a calm discussion is what could finally settle a couple of difficult points. Do we want to be political?
How African countries can break the cycle of debt dependency
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Key to the implementation of the ambitious 17-point Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the question of how the estimated cost of between U$614 billion and $638 billion that will be required annually will be financed.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has produced a report assessing the relationship between Africa’s capacity to finance the 15-year SDGs and maintaining debt sustainability. The report ignores critical deficiencies in the approach to the continent’s development agenda.
The report highlights the fact that official development aid alone will be inadequate to sustain the development needs of the continent. Instead, it recommends a three-pronged approach:
up-scale the use of domestic debt that is market oriented to supplement external debt and development aid;
Read more: How African countries can break the cycle of debt dependency
Panama Papers and EU’s two-track response
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Mossack Fonseca did not create 214,000 companies only for their Panamanian customers. Cross-border mentality is integral to tax evasion, avoidance and other forms of illicit financial activity: concealing money from your own authorities almost always involves transferring it over any number of borders to secrecy jurisdictions and eventually back to your own pocket. Mossack Fonseca’s customers came from all over the world but even if the legal practice was (in)famous for its ability to alleviate tax liabilities, its customers didn’t flock in by themselves. It was other lawyers, investment bankers and the like who connected the buyer and seller. The Panama Papers data gives you an idea where these customers and their middlemen are from: Hong Kong, Switzerland, the UK and Luxembourg all had more active intermediaries working with Mossack Fonseca than Panama, or any other country in the Americas. The success of Mossack Fonseca was not caused by the lack of oversight of Panamanian regulators, even though it had its part to play in the equation as well. This particular Panamanian legal practice was just one node of a wide network of actors who together weaved the web of offshore secrecy. The data shows that the search for the other nodes is best started in Europe.
Capitalism's Utopia: Special Economic Zones
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Reporters from the Centre for Investigative Journalism gained access to three of the world’s “special economic zones”—and found paradises for corporations and wastelands for workers’ rights.
Read the revealing report
Universal Basic Income is a neoliberal plot to make you poorer
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Basic Income is often promoted as an idea that will solve inequality and make people less dependent on capitalist employment. However, it will instead aggravate inequality and reduce social programs that benefit the majority of people.
At its Winnipeg 2016 Biennial Convention, the Canadian Liberal Party passed a resolution in support of “Basic Income.” The resolution, called "Poverty Reduction: Minimum Income," contains the following rationale: "The ever growing gap between the wealthy and the poor in Canada will lead to social unrest, increased crime rates and violence... Savings in health, justice, education and social welfare as well as the building of self-reliant, taxpaying citizens more than offset the investment.”
Read more: Universal Basic Income is a neoliberal plot to make you poorer
