[PEN-L:4675] Re: Trond's Debt/Asset polarization model

[Patrick Bond <PBOND@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Oh, also, on the debt forgiveness/default issue, I've just returned
from a two day Friends of the Earth seminar on the IMF, which
included a long discussion of how NGOs could engage in high-level
debates over managing the debt crisis in this mutual fund era.

There were some interesting papers (by Hazel Henderson and Kunibert
Raffer) on Chapter 9 insolvencies, but they had none of the moral
vigor that Trond contributes, nor the creativity and political
implications of the Probe International (Toronto) notion of `The
doctrine of odious debts.'  Not even the ANC in South Africa has the
self-confidence to demand even a rescheduling of $20 bn in apartheid
era debt (though there is a growing movement within the Communist
Party, trade unions and minor revolutionary groups, following a
`Unity of the Left' conference last November, to begin a campaign on
this front).

But like so many portentous ideas, my guess is that the Inside the
Beltway NGO leadership may take debt forgiveness (or sovereign
bankruptcy) over to the lawyers, denude it of politics or popular
input, and watch it wither on the vine...

Can you give us any more positive practical applications from Norway,
comrade?