“G7 responsible, IMF guilty, let’s cancel the debt for a livable planet”, read a banner deployed in front.
A few dozen activists from Extinction Rebellion, Youth for Climate, Attac or 350.org have targeted this IMF building in a global campaign called “Debt for climate” organized on the occasion of the G7 summit in Germany to demand the cancellation of the debt of the poorest countries so that they can face the climate crisis.
Some activists glued their hands to the glass doors at the entrance of the building while others, seated on the ground in front, chained themselves to each other, their arms inside long pipes, to be more difficult to dislodge.
“We must give these countries the means to fight the climate crisis, they are the first victims and the last responsible”, launched “Chalou”, an activist from Extinction Rebellion, while her comrades threw counterfeit notes marked ” Stop fossil fuels”.
In the middle of the day, part of the demonstrators blocked traffic with banners, hoping for a reaction from the IMF, called to “go down to negotiate the debt”. Before dispersing calmly and the last activists “glued” inside leave the premises of the IMF.
The countries of the South “are forced to exploit fossil fuels to have liquidity” and “to repay this debt”, declared the activist of Extinction Rebellion “Zita” to AFP. According to her, this “vicious circle” would prevent the poorest countries “from investing in durable solutions”.
“The real debt is the ecological debt of the countries of the North towards the countries of the South”, claimed Julien Rivoire of Attac France, also calling for “breaking with this colonial management”, for a “just transition”.
For “Joad”, a hand glued to the glue against the entry of the IMF, the challenge was to “respond to the call of several countries of the South which cannot act with the same means as us”, against the ” liberal capitalist system.
