TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE/245credibility, their power and their ability to strike back. The foreign
assets of dictatorial and corrupt regimes must be returned to the
people of the country in question, in the form of national development
funds democratically controlled by grassroots organisations. In
1997, the question was squarely posed after the fall of the Mobutu
regime. Would Mobutu's entourage live abroad comfortably from a
fortune built on theft, embezzlement and murder? If Mobutu's assets
were frozen and expropriated, to whom would they go? To lenders in
the North, with the IMF and World Bank first in line? Or to the
Congolese people?
Nationalisation/Socialisation of the Domestic Assets of
Dictatorial Regimes
Debt cancellation turns the clock back to zero. The expropriation of
ill-gotten gains - dictators' (and their entourage's) holdings abroad
- would provide the ideal basis for a development fund. To this fund
should be added the wealth accumulated by these predatory regimes
within their own borders. A proper register of these holdings must be
established. The regime's physical wealth (not just financial) should
also be placed at the disposal of the development fund. This fund is
essential for undertaking constructive projects aimed at satisfying
the real needs of the population, and for setting up a host of social and
environmental programmes.
Making Fraudulent Capitalists Pay their Fair Share
Holders of capital from the South hold large sums of money in foreign
accounts. They have enriched themselves on the backs of their
people, through out-and-out theft and/or through organised capital
flight. A proper register of domestic and foreign-held wealth must be
established. This means that officials in each country, under the
pressure of the social movements, must take legal steps to demand
that banking secrecy be lifted at both national and international
levels.
These same officials must determine how much wealth is involved
and who controls it. To do so, they can also send commissions of
enquiry to private foreign banks. With this information in hand,
governments can establish what tax penalty should be imposed to
ensure that state coffers receive all taxes due.