GALLERY / MULTIMEDIA
Global tax rules are biased in favor of multinational corporations, rich countries, and the world’s elite. Corporate tax abuses and other illicit financial flows remain unchecked, bleeding economies dry and depriving people of health, education, and other public services. Inequalities in the global tax system worsen inequalities everywhere.
The ‘tax deal’ proposed by the OECD/G7/G20 will only benefit rich countries and will not solve the fundamental problem of imbalances in global tax rules that place developing countries at a severe disadvantage.
The fox cannot be left to guard the chickens or the chicken coop. Dereje Alemayehu, of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, argues that “trusting the OECD to set global rules on corporate tax when OECD member countries are responsible for over two-thirds of global corporate tax abuse is like trusting a pack of wolves to build a fence around your chicken coop.”
Stop the foxes. Fight inequalities in the global tax system and fight for just, progressive and gender-responsive systems. Stop corporate tax abuses and other illicit financial flows. Tax the rich, not the poor!
The first version of this video was shown in a session of the Festival2FightInequality 2021 of the Fight Inequality Alliance on 13-14 August 2022. The session was organized by the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and it regional partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
As the G7 held their annual meeting in the UK last June 2021, APMDD held debt actions in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to raise anew the global call for debt cancellation. The meeting of G20 finance ministers from July 9-10 only reiterated the G7 positions of promoting limited, temporary and meager debt relief solutions and peddling more debts, while remaining silent on dire conditions in middle-income countries excluded from these schemes grows more. With peoples of the South facing deeper debt burdens in the coming years, without adequate public health support and facing ever-intensifying climate change, debt cancellation grows even more. It is a vital step for peoples’ survival from COVID-19 and the multiple crises.
Statement on the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the Israel-Hamas Truce
The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development welcomes the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of fierce fighting, the most intense conflict between the two parties since 2014. The ceasefire provides relief from military violence and better conditions to ensure that humanitarian assistance is delivered to the affected communities. But the roots of the conflict run deep – for so long as the root causes are not addressed, peace for the people of Palestine remains fragile if not elusive.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their continuing struggle for self-determination and search for durable and just peace. The recent Israeli invasion and bombardment of Gaza that killed at least 243 Palestinians, among them children, is reprehensible.
Israel unleashed its security forces on 7 May 2021 under the pretext of suppressing a Palestinian protest staged last 6 May over the anticipated eviction of six Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah in the occupied East Jerusalem. The area is recognized under international law as part of Palestinian territories but is occupied by Israel.
Israel’s refusal to withdraw its forces from the compound of a mosque considered to be one of the holiest sites in Islam subsequently triggered a response from Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who in turn fired rockets into Israel. On 16 May, Israel began its airstrikes on the Gaza strip, demolishing at least 18 buildings, 40 schools and hospitals, 19 medical facilities, and striking at least one refugee camp.
As the world fought to save lives from a raging pandemic, we watched with horror as hundreds of Palestinian people lost homes, families, loved ones not to an unforeseen health threat but to the cold, relentless and deliberate violence that could only come from a colonizing power.
This latest attack on the Palestinian people adds another layer to the multiple forms of violence, subjugation, discrimination and other human rights violations, including the fundamental right to self-determination that they have been subjected to for decades. We know that one Palestinian too many have died either from violence unleashed by the occupation forces or from preventable deaths due to poverty, deprivation, sickness or poor access to health and medical facilities. In 2019, the UNCTAD reported about the alarming humanitarian and economic conditions in Palestine, with falling per capita income, increased mass unemployment, deepening poverty and increased environmental toll of occupation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Israel has enjoyed massive military and economic support from the US. It is the top foreign recipient of US military assistance since World War II. From 2001, it has received 52 percent of US military assistance, almost entirely for weapons grants. In 2020 alone, the United States provided Israel with $146 billion in military, economic, and missile defense funding.
The historical roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict are deep and complex, marked with its own defining characteristics – but the narrative of occupation and colonization either by military might or economic domination, or both, is a familiar story that has also defined the history of many Asian people. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their continuing struggle against domination and for self-determination and liberation.
We demand an immediate halt to the massacre and genocide of the Palestinian people. The ceasefire should lead to other measures to address the root causes of the longstanding conflict, a precondition for building durable and just peace.
We demand the immediate withdrawal of all military support to Israel, especially from the US which has been its strongest supporter and ally.
We demand immediate humanitarian assistance to treat the wounded and ensure that food, water, health and other basic needs of the Palestinian people, especially those most affected in this current outbreak of conflict, are met. We insist that the human rights of Palestinian people are respected at all times.
We reject any militarist solutions or any solutions that subvert the rights of the Palestinian people, especially their right to self-determination.
Highlights of the Online Rally on Matabari Coal Power Hub on September 23, in solidarity with the grassroots resistance against the coal plant. People in Bangladesh already experience the worst impacts of the climate crisis — and building more coal plants will make climate change impacts worse. People are calling on Japan to stop funding coal plants in Bangladesh.
We stand today in Asia and link arms of solidarity on these Global Days of Action to make ourselves heard on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the UN General Assembly, that we demand national and global COVID19 measures based solidly on tax and fiscal justice, the primacy of people and human rights, and the sustainability of our environment and the planet.
