Press Release
Popular Campaign to Drop Egypt`s Debt
Four Events Worldwide Mark the Global Day for the Cancellation of Egypt`s Debt
October 31st marks the global day for the cancellation of Egypt`s debt in Cairo and a number of other cities around the world. Independent activists and a number of civil society organizations will be organizing various actions in London, Berlin, Paris and Cairo in parallel, calling on their respective governments to drop the debts accumulated by Mubarak’s regime. The dictator’s regime resorted to external borrowing to finance its budget deficits and political projects. But the Egyptian people never had a say in decisions regarding external loans nor their spending priorities. If not dropped, the accumulated debt will remain a burden for the Egyptian people, the coming generations and the future governments to bear.
With the slogan "keep your eyes open, the debt is out your pockets" the campaign 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 members of the Popular Campaign to Drop Egypt’s Debt are Egyptian individuals and civil society organizations 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." Philip Rizk, a film-maker explained his reasons for joining the campaign, “there is a lot of discussions about social justice in Egyptian society. I believe this campaign is good way to speak directly about the economy in Egypt and to change economics from a realm restricted to "experts" to a subject that every Egyptian can discuss.” Rizk has released a number of short films about the debt problem in Egypt and why it constitutes a burden that Egyptians should refuse to carry.
The campaign also refuses that economics becomes a monopoly of economists only. "I am not a specialist in economics, but I believe that individuals should be involved in how the country is run,” says Wael Khalil, an activist and blogger and member of the campaign. “Part of this involvement is through knowledge sharing. The priority is to access information, to access the details and to be able to publish it. This could then be followed by mobilizing and putting pressure when finding out what did not benefit the public” he adds.
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.”
To avoid the perpetuation of the current economic regime, which resorts to internal and external borrowing as the first and easiest strategy to address the complex questions of economic planning, the campaign will be starting 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.
The Egyptian government is spending EGP 106 billion this year on total internal and external debt services. This exceeds annual amounts allocated for education, health and all other public investments. In aggregate, the taxpayer pays 40 piasters for each Egyptian pound in payment of debt services. “Internal and external debt service payments are one the largest budget expenditures, therefore depriving vast groups of Egyptians from their basic right to a dignified life”, explains Wael Gamal, an economic journalist and member of the campaign.
On the 20th of October, a workshop on “Debts and Social Justice” was held in Cologne, Germany. The workshop was organised by “ATTAC” an anti-globalisation organisation, in cooperation with “Rosa Luxembourg Foundation”. Noha El Shoky, a PhD researcher at the United Nations University and member of the campaign, was a panelist at the workshop discussing the Egyptian debt situation in relation to success stories such as Ecuador’s, where similar calls for debt cancellation were initiated following the fall of dictatorial regimes.
On October 31st, the global day for dropping Egypt`s debts, “Jubilee Debt Campaign UK” an organisation fighting for the cancellation of the illegitimate debts of third world countries, is organising in coordination with Egyptian campaign members based in London a meeting with British Members of Parliament to deliver petitions to drop Egyptian debts. The meeting will be followed by a demonstration at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Dina Makram-Ebeid, a member of the campaign and a PhD researcher at the London School of Economics, said “we have been coordinating this event for more than 2 months, after meeting in Egypt and London with some of our Egyptian colleagues living in England.”
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. The conference will be marking the launch of the campaign in Egypt and will include an open call for new members to join the campaign.