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Fiscal Disobedience

"We will not pay our bank loans"

The banks are being urged to review their interest rate policy and free up the assets of small depositors who are being subjected to a "savage" capital control policy.

"We will not pay our bank loans”, announced the protest movement on one of its Facebook pages.

Five days after asking citizens not to pay their EDL (Electricity of Lebanon) electricity bills, the institution is considered to be a den of corruption, part of the popular protest is now taking it up a notch by announcing its intention not to honor its commitments to commercial banks. "We will not pay bank loans”, is written on the Facebook page of the movement that launched the idea of ‘fiscal disobedience’, as they call it. They want to refuse payment until the banks revise their interest rate policy and release the assets of small depositors, who, they claim, are being subjected to a "savage policy" of capital control. This measure, which began from a desire to show solidarity with citizens who have been unable to settle their debts since the worsening of the economic crisis, is accompanied by regular sit-ins in front of the Bank of Lebanon (BDL), the Lebanese Banks Association, and other banking institutions in Beirut and in the regions. The walls of these institutions are now tagged with the slogan "We will not pay".

In cahoots with the political class

At the heart of this campaign, and along with other activists, is Zena Helou, a researcher and political activist who points a finger at "the incapacity of a state to protect the rights of its citizens", and at “a banking sector in cahoots with the political class", which "is depriving citizens of their money”, and "is lowering the interest owed to depositors without, however, reducing the interest owed [to the bank]”. Hence this initiative by a group of protesters, in particular the People’s Observatory Against Corruption, the Li Haqqi association, in cooperation with the Committee for the Protection of Small Depositors, the purpose of which is to “stand in solidarity with the most powerless people”, and to "put pressure on the banks" in order to push them to reduce the interest rates on their loans. "We are calling on citizens to stop paying back education loans, house loans and car loans”, said the activist, who called on the protesters to respond to the initiative en masse. She also believes that, given the high interest rates, a citizen who has already paid half of their loan should be considered free of debt. "I personally decided that I will no longer pay my car loan. And if they threaten to confiscate it, then I will burn it”, she says. As the group is perfecting its strategy to protect people who want to participate in this movement of disobedience, it gives a glimpse at what the next step might be: "Very soon, not only will we refuse to pay the tax for the cars’ official maintenance procedure, income tax, building [tax] as well as municipality tax, but we will also launch a civil disobedience campaign”, she promises.

Equally harsh on the government and the banking sector, activist Camille Mourani wonders "why should we pay bills and taxes if the state and the banks are depriving the Lebanese people of their own money?" Referring to the latest scandal, "the transfer by nine Lebanese political leaders of some 11 billion dollars to Swiss banks", he considers "unacceptable" while citizens are struggling to withdraw 200 dollars a week, politicians are transferring their billions with total impunity. "Billions”, which he believes come “from illegal enrichment”. In addition to the streets’ crisis of confidence in the government, there is "the inability of a population to honor its commitments, due to the fact that it has been deeply affected by the crisis," said Mourani. Hence the need to show solidarity with the most disadvantaged. "With a think tank, we are implementing an organizational strategy and a communication campaign Mesh Def3in (we are not paying)", he said.


"If all citizens commit"

Will the protesters achieve their goals? "We totally understand the citizen who is refusing to pay his bills. We can only support him”, says Amine Issa, the political coordinator of the National Bloc, especially as it is that same citizen who is paying the State’s deficit, while knowing full well that their access to their money is being controlled and its value is becoming a source of speculation. Mr. Issa mentions that the government pays EDL at least $ 1.6 billion per year and that in the past thirty years, it has already paid the electricity supplier some 40 to 45 billion dollars from the taxpayer's pocket, according to estimates. Observing that "all the economic indicators are in the red", and that the men in power "persist in bickering", the political coordinator guarantees that "the initiative is applicable if all citizens can commit" to it. "We still are not in a pattern of change, but one of contestation", he says again. A protest that refuses to be violent and insists on remaining peaceful must use new means of pressure, such as civil disobedience." And this civil disobedience can take on various forms, “such as suspension of payments, demonstrations, temporary road blockages, occupation of public buildings, but also the decision to stop paying taxes."


(This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 27th of Décember)


Five days after asking citizens not to pay their EDL (Electricity of Lebanon) electricity bills, the institution is considered to be a den of corruption, part of the popular protest is now taking it up a notch by announcing its intention not to honor its commitments to commercial banks. "We will not pay bank loans”, is written on the Facebook page of the movement that launched the idea of ...