Havana, Cuba, September 28, 2005  (Pour lire le document en français CLIQUER ICI )

 
1.With the presence of representatives from 39 countries, Jubilee South held its II South-South Summit and tricontinental Assembly in Havana, Cuba, from September 25 to 28, 2005.

2.We recalled the historic meetings that took place in 1985 in Havana that helped to generate greater global consciousness about the real nature of the debt problem as well as to strengthen the struggle of resistance against the payment of an enslaving debt. President Fidel Castro echoed what had been widely sustained by the diversity of participants when he declared that the debt of the countries of the South had already been paid many times over, had no moral, political or legal standing, and should in any case not be paid.

3.Twenty years later, Jubilee South is here to assert the fact that we –the peoples of the South – are the real creditors of a massive ecological, moral, social, financial historical debt that has accumulated over the last few centuries during the long history of colonization, and continues to accrue today because of the continued plunder and exploitation of our resources, peoples, labor and economies. In particular we denounce the ongoing wars against peoples that are struggling for national liberation and against occupation. The continued collection and payment of the debt constitutes a systematic violation of human rights, often including imprisonment, death, disappearance, and exile. We reiterate the total and absolute nullity of the debt claimed of our country, for being immoral and unjust and undermining popular sovereignty and our right to determine our own future.

4.Six years have passed since our founding assembly. In this Second Assembly in Havana we reviewed the considerable growth and consolidation of our unique South-based network and movement for overcoming debt domination and securing the recognition and restitution of the historical, social, financial and ecological debt of the North to the South. We came together to further those gains, evaluate new possibilities, and prepare our plan of action.

5.Since our last Assembly we have witnessed a dramatic escalation of neoliberal terrorism taking also the form of imperial aggression including the invasion and occupation of sovereign nations and the escalation of militarization in many parts of the world. At the same time, however, there has been a growth in the number and scale of movements resisting war and the spread of neoliberal corporate globalization. Jubilee South is proud to be part of the global resistance, playing a strategic role in the anti-globalization movement and the constitution of the World Social Forum process. We note that the issue of debt continues to be prominent in the agenda of the movements around the globe, and that it is increasingly recognized as a human rights issue, linked to the “free trade processes” and militarization that are part of the same neoliberal practice.

6.The force of the movement and its demands have even forced the so-called creditors to engage with the debt issue, although in an inadequate way. One example of this is the recent proposal of the G8 governments —countries most enriched by the fraudulent mechanisms of the debt — offering to cancel a minuscule quantity of debt claimed of a handful of countries with collateral conditionalities that signify the maintenance of the same system of domination. Those initiatives are a clear manifestation of the depth of the current debt crisis as well as a confirmation of the flawed nature of the multiple schemes of so-called debt alleviation, reduction, and swaps offered by lenders.

7.Jubilee South reaffirms the role and mandate adopted at our founding assembly to demand and work for the unconditional repudiation and annulment of all the external debts of all the countries in the South. At the same time, we demand the recognition and restitution of the social, financial, ecological, and moral debt of the North to the South.

8.We pledge to broaden and deepen our movements, to challenge and overcome our weaknesses, to ensure the active presence and participation of JS in the campaigns and movements against imperialist globalization in all its manifestations, including wars against sovereign peoples, free trade agreements, privatizations, military bases, and environmental destruction. We will also expose the involvement of South governments in perpetuating the debt problem, often placing at risk the resources of our peoples that many governments seek to privatize. We pledge to redouble our efforts to force changes in South government policies that should lead to the repudiation of “external” debts. We view the realization of debt audits as fundamental steps in that regard.

9.We will build upon our gains of the past years strengthening Jubilee South as a movement that gives force and voice to the oppressed and exploited people the world over struggling against debt and capitalist globalization. While we call on peoples of the North to continue and enhance their support for a call to an end to debt domination, we will remain rooted in regional and country movements and people’s organization also enhancing our own South-based capacities for analysis, building consensus and articulating positions on debt and related issues. We will form part of efforts to develop and articulate people’s alternatives to the neoliberal global order and to war. And in this light Jubilee South pledges its support for the sovereignty of Cuba and the end of the cruel illegal embargo spearheaded by the United States government.

10.We draw energy from the holding of this Assembly in Havana, Cuba—a symbol and inspiration to all those fighting the oppressive neoliberal order. As we stand in solidarity with Cuba we thank its generous collaboration with our meeting and our cause, faithful to the spirit and presence of Ernesto Che Guevara, a living spirit present in our tri-continental struggle and alliance against imperialism.

A LUTA CONTINUA!

THE PEOPLES OF THE SOUTH ARE THE CREDITORS

FOR A WORLD FREE FROM DEBT AND DOMINATION

THE DEBT IS ILLEGITIMATE – NO TO DEBT PAYMENT

TOTAL AND UNCONDITIONAL DEBT CANCELLATION