Countless countries suffer under the strain of external sovereign debt, forcing governments to implement austerity measures while simultaneously making massive payments to financial markets and international institutions. Most affected by this system is the Global South, whose states are forced to provide at least $2.6 trillion in debt service per year. While China’s role in the global lending landscape has grown ever more important, the vast majority of sovereign debt is held by private creditors in the Global North and multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This mechanism exacerbates social inequality, pushes people into precarity, destroys health care and social services, intensifies gender inequalities, and harms the lower classes the most. Austerity, the technical term for state spending cutbacks, is a global problem. However, it primarily affects states in capitalism’s peripheries — not only the vast majority of countries in the Global South, but also Greece and many countries in Eastern Europe.

Today, the grassroots campaign Debt for Climate is holding an international day of action for the cancellation of the Global South’s sovereign debt, giving them the financial capacity to leave fossil fuels in the ground and transition their own economies. Activists will hold rallies at German embassies around the world to call attention to Germany’s historical responsibility and obligation to support a debt write-off today.