As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank hold their annual meetings this October, communities across the Global South continue to bear the weight of an economic system designed to keep them in crisis. From deepening debt to climate disasters, the people who did the least to cause the world’s problems are paying the highest price.
That’s why this Global Week of Action (October 13–18), under the banner Stop the Harm! Cancel the Debt! Reparations and Just Transition Now!, movements across the world are rising to demand an end to an unjust system — one that prioritizes profit over people and the planet.
A World in Polycrisis
Eighty-one years after their creation, the IMF and World Bank continue to leave behind a trail of economic and social devastation. Their policies have forced countries into austerity, deepened inequality, and eroded public services — all while enriching the powerful few.
The result is staggering: public debt in the Global South has now reached $31 trillion, growing twice as fast as in the Global North since 2010. For billions, that means more is spent on paying interest than on education, healthcare, or climate adaptation.
This is not development. It is a cycle of dependency and despair — a continuation of colonial exploitation under a new name.
Cancel Unsustainable and Illegitimate Debts
Much of the debt claimed from the Global South is illegitimate — rooted in projects riddled with corruption, exploitation, and environmental harm. From coal plants financed by the World Bank’s private arm, the IFC, to extractive industries that devastate communities, these loans have benefited investors while destroying lives.
We demand immediate and unconditional debt cancellation, to free nations from a system that drains public wealth and locks generations into poverty.
Democratize Global Debt Governance
Debt decisions should no longer be dictated by the IMF, World Bank, and G20 — institutions controlled by the richest nations. We call for a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in global lending.
Borrower nations deserve a voice. A just financial system must uphold human rights, gender equality, and environmental sustainability, not undermine them.
No to Loans as Climate Finance
The Global North — historically responsible for the climate crisis — continues to push loans instead of grants to fund climate action. The World Bank still invests billions in fossil fuels while claiming to promote “green growth.”
Climate finance must not become another debt trap. We demand grants, not loans, for renewable energy and community-led climate solutions. Those most affected by climate change must not only benefit — they must lead.
End Austerity, End the Death Trap
For decades, IMF and World Bank austerity policies have gutted public services and stripped nations of their ability to care for their people. Health, education, and food systems have suffered, while wealth continues to flow out through debt repayments and tax abuses.
Austerity is not a solution — it is a sentence of poverty and inequality. The Global South deserves justice, not punishment.
Reparations and a Just Transition Now
Debt and climate injustice are rooted in colonialism and exploitation. Countries that were once enslaved and plundered are still paying for the crimes of empire — while the former colonizers profit.
Reparations are not charity. They are justice owed — for centuries of resource extraction, human suffering, and ecological destruction. The same powers that built their wealth on the backs of the Global South must now pay their climate and colonial debts.
A Just Transition must be built from the ground up — ensuring workers, communities, and vulnerable groups are protected, that public services are strengthened, and that the shift to renewable energy is equitable, democratic, and people-centered.
Resist. Reclaim. Rise Up.
From October 13–18, people’s movements across the world will mobilize to hold the IMF, the World Bank, and the Global North accountable. On October 16, the Day of Globally Coordinated Mobilizations, we raise our collective voice:
✊🏽 Cancel unsustainable and illegitimate debts
✊🏽 Democratize global financial systems
✊🏽 Grants, not loans, for climate action
✊🏽 End austerity and false solutions
✊🏽 Reparations and Just Transition Now
This world is ours — not theirs.
Resist, reclaim, and rise up for system change.