TUNISIA - The dictatorship of Money

“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.. (Karl Marx on 18 Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1851, Part 1)).

The theatre expands, since it now embraces the whole of the land and seas. But the forces that struggled against one another in each particularly state are precisely those that fight across the earth. In each country, capital seeks to subdue the workers. Similarly, on the level of the broadest world market, capital, which had grown enormously, disregards all the old borders and seeks to put the entire mass of producers to work on behalf of its profits, and to secure all the consumers in the world." (Reclus, Communist, geographer)

 

The powerlessness of the poor

Is our globalized by force planet not slipping down slowly towards a global dictatorship led by the forces of money?

Political regimes, whether they are at the head of the major Western nations or of small countries of the Third World, do they still have any real power, any decisions about the course of events? What is happening around the world sometimes encourages us to think it is too late.

 

Do governments still have a minimum of power? Transnational institutions, whether financial or economic control everything. These include, for example, the European Commission in Brussels, the IMF, the World Bank and WTO. These superstructures that impose their will on local governments is an instrument in the hands of mystic international financial groups that control all production of goods around the world and have almost all the wealth.

 

By the time of imperialism, the big capitalist companies used the armies and governments of their countries to plunder lands, exploit labor and rob wealth of poor countries. Today, Globalization offers them all at lower prices: the local authorities are responsible for this work. But to hide this fact, we hear of the necessary reforms imposed by globalization: incitement for individual effort, encouragement of consumption, corrections to bureaucratic systems and many other slogans.

 

Imperialism of capital is solely responsible for this war against the right of the nations to self-determination and against the sovereignty of peoples; it crushes poor nations by its totalitarian malicious system using control of cash flow supported by its mass media and using his reaction forces, it represents a permanent threat to democracies around the world.

 

Tunisia: The country is in debt up to the neck !

 

It is not easy for everyone to understand how the global poor countries debt system works, then let us only focus on our country and speak with facts and data.

 

Our "Masters": In Tunisia, 5 donors hold more than 76% of the outstanding debt, and therefore they have their words to say about our choices, our decisions, our politics, our society.. These are our hostage-takers that dictate to us everything we have to do, just because we owe them money (lots of money):

 

• financial markets (multinationals)

• the French State

• EIB (European Investment Bank)

• ADB (African Development Bank)

• WB (World Bank)

 

The Tunisian economy is extremely fragile with a foreign debt of around $ 22 billion.

We borrow to pay our debts: As shown in this graph, weight of servicing the debt is overwhelming. This payment is the first item of expenditure for the Tunisian state. But the most glaring thing is the weight of debt interest. Only for interest, Tunisia must pay for $ 1 billion, which is the largest item after education! In addition, the total amount of debt service exceeds the total amount of loans.

Breakdown of Tunisia 2011 budget

Tunisia repays more than it receives in respect of external borrowing. It is an exporter of loan capitals. So Tunisia finances the outside and not the other. In other words, new loans are redirected to the repayment of earlier loans, and not to finance development.

 

Hence it is clear that the loans and external public credits are not used to develop the economy, or creating jobs or improving the living standards of Tunisians, nor even to the preservation of the environment, etc

 

Debt impoverishes Tunisia (the three "straight to the wall"): Despite a too heavy debt, the payment of debt service is more and more expensive. To ensure the sustainability of the payment, the Tunisian government will have no choice but to take on more loans, or deploy new resources of funding such as:

 

• adapting the tax system: to pay higher taxes for citizens

(#1 straight to the wall)

 

• The cuts in social spending: less aid to the poor

(#2 straight to the wall)

 

• Privatization: selling the country's wealth to foreigners

(#3 straight to the wall)

 

One last question my friends: If the G8 does not help us, will we starve to death? “NEY!”

 

Dear fellow citizens, my position is now made up: I am against the foreign debt.

I invite you to stick together, work hard with dedication and devotion to pay this debt, no longer need to beggars, for the future of our children. Let’s live free, let’s live proud, andlet’s live Tunisians.