There is definitely a plague ravaging the world. The left and the liberals call it debt. We, the internationalists, call it capitalism. It is this capitalist system which inflicts misery and suffering on the ordinary people of the poorest countries, the working people. The reasons for the debt are simple. Many of the poorest countries may have had dictators who bought arms on a huge scale and spent lavishly on themselves, salting money away in Swiss banks. But it was the major nations that encouraged them to do so. They sold them the arms and used them as tools and supporters for their own imperialist ends. They may have followed false policies. But many of the policies were imported via the major nation's own agencies, the IMF and the World Bank. At the root of the problem for the poorest countries of the world is one thing - the crisis of capitalism.

Debt and the crisis

The current crisis of capitalism is the longest in its history. It came to the fore in the late 60s and really made its presence felt in the early 70s. The effects of this crisis for the poorest countries of the world were - massive rises in the price of oil, they are all importers of oil - huge changes in the values of currencies, both the major currencies and their own - most importantly, a massive drop in the prices of commodities, from coffee to iron ore, they were the producers, the major nations the importers and users. The major nations exported their problems to the poorest countries. Making them earn less for what they produced and pay more for what they imported and owed. At the same time there were container loads of dollars floating around the finance houses. It had to find a home - it was lent to these countries in difficulties to earn a profit. This capital could not find a suitably profitable home in the major countries as many industries hit stumbling blocks. So the burden was passed on to the poorest countries - to earn the profit for the richest.

The debt of the peripheral countries stands at $2.5 trillion (what is traded daily on the New York and Chicago exchanges), in 1990 it was $1.4 trillion.

Poverty grows

The problem of poverty has not receded - it has widened and deepened.

Approximately 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 per day. Around 2.4 billion people live on less than $2 per day (just over a pound). Each year another 30 million are added to these numbers. The poorest 20% of the world earn 1.1% of global income, less than half what they did in 1960.

Life expectancy for one third of the people of the poorest countries is 40 years. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most blighted - by death, by war, by diseases which could be easily cured, famine which could be easily solved, lack of education, housing, water ... it goes on and on.

The rich graciously discuss the poor We have heard a never-ending stream of offers of what the leaders of the richest countries will do for the poorest. Brown - $50 billion off debt.

Clinton - $70 billion. We should sell IMF gold says Brown (but only to make up the shortfall in the World Banks' trust fund for the poor country initiative, $1.2 billion). But they have been spouting figures for years.

10 years ago they agreed to cut debt by 33%. In 1991 - 50%. By 1994 it was 67%. Now - 75%+. In the last year the help offered to the poor countries fell by $2.5 billion to $23 billion.

What they offer is the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. Only Uganda and Bolivia have qualified - it takes 6 years of harsh conditions.

Then, as the IMF has privately said they could even pay out more. The countries most talked about now are African countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, both of the Congo's, Rwanda, Burundi and so on. Each has suffered a civil war, or is still fighting. Each is a major supplier of raw materials to the major nations, or they are in areas of real imperialist interest for the same nations.

The Left has no solution, the internationalists have

The suspension or scrapping of the debt is not an option for finance capitalism. They want their pound of flesh, or better their billions of dollars. There can be no reform of capitalism that will stick or make any real difference. The only realistic solution is to fight for an end to capitalism. We must say no to cosmetic reforms! We must say no to slogan-mongering! We must say no to pie-in-the-sky solutions! We must say yes to the socialist solution, the internationalist solution! For the unity of workers all over the world! For the world party of the working class! An end to capitalism!