Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens' Action

An ATTAC poster in the French countryside, 2004

An ATTAC banner in front of Cologne Cathedral, Germany, 2004

French ATTAC members protesting privatization and the "dismantling" of public services, 2005

An ATTAC stall at the Volksstimmefest, Vienna, Austria, 2005 (details)

The Association pour la taxation des transactions financières et pour l'action citoyenne (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens' Action, ATTAC) is an activist organization originally created for promoting the establishment of a tax on foreign exchange transactions.

Background

Originally a single-issue movement demanding the introduction of the so-called Tobin tax on currency speculation, ATTAC now devotes itself to a wide range of issues related to globalisation, monitoring the decisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ATTAC attends the meetings of the G8 with the goal of influencing policymakers' decisions. Attac recently criticised Germany for what it called the criminalisation of anti-G8 groups.

ATTAC is not an anti-globalization movement, but it criticises the neoliberal ideology that it sees as dominating economic globalisation. It supports globalisation policies that they characterise as sustainable and socially just. One of ATTAC's slogans is "The World is not for sale", denouncing the "merchandisation" of society. Another slogan is "Another world is possible" pointing to an alternative globalization where people and not profit is in focus.

James Tobin opposing Attac

Attac was originally founded to promote Tobin tax by the Keynesian economist James Tobin. Tobin himself has accused Attac for misusing his name and said that he he has nothing in common with Attac and is a supporter of free trade — "everything that these movements are attacking. They're misusing my name."

Organisational history

In December 1997, Ignacio Ramonet wrote in Le Monde diplomatique an editorial in which he advocated the establishment of the Tobin tax and the creation of an organisation to pressure governments around the world to introduce the tax. ATTAC was created on June 3, 1998, during a constitutive assembly in France. While it was founded in France it now exists in over forty countries around the world. In France, politicians from the left are members of the association.

ATTAC functions on a principle of decentralisation: local associations organise meetings, conferences, and compose documents that become counter-arguments to the perceived neoliberal discourse. ATTAC aims to formalise the possibility of an alternative to the neoliberal society that is currently required of globalisation. ATTAC aspires to be a movement of popular education.

Communism and Attac

At least in some countries, communists have been founders and leading figures in Attac, and even Ramonet himself praises Cuban leader Fidel Castro .

Finland

Communist Juhani Lohikoski, previously a chairman of Communist Youth League and Socialist League, served as the chairman of Finnish Attac for two terms (2002 - 2004). Yrjö Hakanen, pro-Soviet chairman of the Communist Party of Finland, was a member of the board and a member of the founding committee. In March 2002 Aimo Kairamo, the long-time chief editor of the party organ of the Social Democrat Party, resigned from Attac and recommended the same decision for other social democrats because of the left-wing minority communists' leading positions. Soon also the social democrat foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja considered to follow Kairamo's example.

Sweden

Sydsvenskan newspaper suggested that the collapse of memberships in Swedish Attac may be due to its founder and leading figure, the communist America Vera-Zavala, but also because Attac is actually supporting protectionism and because its arguments don't hold: countries that have chosen capitalism, free trade and liberal policies have been able to reduce poverty, sometimes dramatically, and most people in Africa and Asia want more, not less free trade.

Issues and activities

The main issues covered by ATTAC today are:

• Control of financial markets (e.g. Tobin tax)
• "Fair" instead of "free" trade, via democratic control of the WTO and international financial institutions such the IMF, Worldbank, EU, NAFTA, FTAA, and G8.
• Defense of public goods - air, water, information
• Defense of public social services - like those relevant to health, social services, and social security. For example, it is against the privatisation of pensions and of the health care system. ATTAC has also taken a position on genetically-modified organisms. ATTAC also opposes General Agreement on Trade in Services.
• The struggle to end tax evasion (tax havens) as practiced by transnational corporations and rich individuals
• Sustainable globalisation
• Cancellation of the debts of developing countries.
• ATTAC campaigned against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

In France, ATTAC associates with many other left-wing causes. ATTAC supports José Bové.

See also

• Alter-globalization
• Anti-globalization
• Clearstream scandal, a clearing house (meta-bank) involved in one of the biggest financial scandals ever
• Currency transaction tax
• Financial transaction tax
• MRAP, anti-racist NGO engaged in the creation of ATTAC
• Tobin tax

References

• Bernard Cassen, On the Attack, New Left Review 19, January-February 2003
• Bernard Cassen, ATTAC against the treaty, New Left Review 33, May-June 2005

External links

• ATTAC official web site
• ATTAC-Austria
• ATTAC-Belgium
• ATTAC Catalunya
• ATTAC Chile
• ATTAC Denmark
• ATTAC Finland
• ATTAC France
• ATTAC Germany (Group on Information Society (German only))
• ATTAC Hellas
• ATTAC Iceland
• ATTAC Italia
• ATTAC Lebanon
• ATTAC Madrid
• ATTAC Mallorca
• ATTAC Norway
• ATTAC País Valencià
• ATTAC Poland
• ATTAC Québec
• ATTAC Spain
• ATTAC Sweden
• "Disarming the Markets", editorial by Ignacio Ramonet