Your headline some time ago 'Debt before dishonour' in relation to a speech by Bruce Golding aptly summed up why our economic situation as one getting worse and why our present course of action is hopeless.

The headline actually should have read 'death before dishonour' because that is the philosophy of our leaders, captives of finance capital. Instead of doing the right thing and repudiating the debt they would rather institute the most draconian death-threatening tax collection measures on the poor and the working class in order to maintain a false notion of honour.

Even with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal in the making a default by default is inevitable, but I think that a conscious debt repudiation is the best course of action. Allow me to briefly make the case. In the fist place, all things being equal in terms of our inherited neo-colonial political economic structure (even if oil were to be discovered tomorrow), it is mathematically impossible to pay down substantially on the debt or reduce interest payments short of forcing the poor to turn over all of their income for debt payment. This economy has not been 'growing' for decades and there is no prospect of meaningful growth on the horizon.

tinkering at the edges

There are all sorts of plans being bandied about, especially by so-called financial analysts and economists for interest-rate reductions such as the current talks going on between the Government and local debt holders (which is a start), but with the debt at 130 per cent of GDP the trajectory of such talks suggest that this is only tinkering at the edges. The truth is that the demands of compounded interest means that we will never be free any time soon of being forced to fork over 60 per cent of the Budget for debt payment. Development is impossible with what's left over.

To repudiate the debt immediately means not having to come up with $350 billion. To be sure, there will be political repercussions but the immediate relief will be boon to the poor and the working class.

A sensible pro-working class government which repudiates the debt would have positioned itself to dictate the terms of any repayment deemed politically appropriate and the options range from long-term moratorium to selective debt buy back ... 10 cents on the dollar?

illegitimate debt stock

Some of our debt stock is illegitimate based on the fact that it was not used for development from which the people benefited, but used corruptly to line the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats. International law recognises this concept and a forensic audit of the debt will point out where this happened.

Surely, there is the risk of capital flight and capital strike as a reaction (certain vested interests will be affected) but measures such as nationalisation (first of the financial system) and capital controls would be the response.

Finally, with a deepening of the democratic system beyond the present parliamentary model, allowing the real producers of wealth to take charge of the economics and politics of the country, organising production for social needs rather than for profit, makes it plain that there is an alternative to social death which is the path being pursued by our political leaders.

I wish the prime minister would stop saying he has no choice.

I am, etc.,

LLOYD D'AGUILAR

lgdaguilar@yahoo.com

Kingston 6