Unconditional and Total Cancellation of the Cross-Border-Leasing (CBL) Contracts
We demand that the Federal Government, the governments of the states and the municipalities take a resolute and effective initiative for the unconditional and total cancellaton of the CBL contracts, without any disadvantages for the municipalities! This initiative has to be directed towards the participating US-American, European and German banks, as well as towards the US administration and the EU.
Many of us belong to those who, from 1999 to 2003, rejected the unlawful and immoral CBL contracts from the very beginning as being highly risky, speculative adventures at the expense of the American taxpayers. We met with pitying smiles, were insulted and attacked. All objections, as well as successful public petitions were recklessly ignored. Representatives of CDU, SPD, FDP and often Bündnis 90/Die GRÜNEN agreed to the projects. With the CBL contracts the municipalities not only became victims, but also became involved in the dubious business of international finance capital. The real goal of the business of the participating banks was to create fictive bookkeeping money through the mock purchase of municipal property. This was concealed from the municipalities with an inane cash advantage. The municipal finances were at the mercy of speculators and profiteers, of neo-liberal concepts and deregulation strategies.
Already in 2007, the CBL contracts were declared to be improper, unlawful and immoral by the US tax authorities. Since then, those involved have been trying to play their lucrative game under modified conditions.
But with the worldwide financial and economic crisis, the bubble has burst! The so-called rescue umbrellas are the successful attempt to replace fictive bookkeeping money with the real money of the busy-working taxpayers.
Deliberately misleading the public, the impression is currently given that municipalities like Recklinghausen, Bochum, Wuppertal or Gelsenkirchen have successfully gotten out of the CBL business ventures. But the alleged “cancellation” is not really a cancellation at all, but an expensive and risky contract modification or restructuring of the agreements in favor of the US investment trusts and insurances and the remaining banks in a circulation of finances which will continue for decades.
The municipalities are facing shattered remains. In many cases the “cash advantage” has been used up for a long time. Additional costs in the order of millions and unforeseeable risks have come along. This is not merely a question of satisfying the dictatorial expectations of the banks, benevolently declared to be “investors and insurers”. Also an army of advisors and lawyers – often the same ones who worked out the deal – are earning considerably. Supplementary budgets are already on the agenda of the municipalities, aimed at rigorously passing on the costs to the broad masses of the population.
The Federal Government and the states, the regional banks, as well as the Credit Institution for Recovery are involved themseves in the CBL business. NRW, the core state of the CBL business ventures, pushed the contracts under Peer Steinbrück, at that time Minister of Finance. Instead of demanding that these contracts be cancelled and pushing this through with determination, the municipalities now have to carry the entire burden by themselves. While the Federal Government is putting itself in the limelight in the media for its alleged untiring commitment against locusts and tax havens, they even made deals with the accommodation addresses on the Cayman Islands. This is why all CBL contracts which have been made on the level of the Federal Republic or the states also have to be disclosed, as well as all shares of the regional banks.
Short text:
I demand that the Federal Government, the governments of the states and the municipalities take a resolute and effective initiative for the unconditional and total cancellaton of the CBL contracts, without any disadvantages for the municipalities, as well as the disclosure of all CBL contracts which have been made on the level of the Federal Republic or the states, as well as all shares of the regional banks.
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name, function/organization, address, e-mail
Initiators:
Elisabeth August, Stadtverordnete DIE LINKE, Wuppertal, elisabeth_august @web.de
Nuray Boyraz, Ratsmitglied Soziale Liste Bochum, SOZIALELISTEimRat@bochum.de
Monika Gärtner-Engel, Fraktionsvorsitzende AUF/Die Linke in Gelsenkirchen, gaertner.engel@t-online.de
Günter Gleising, Ratsmitglied, Gruppensprecher Soziale Liste Bochum, SOZIALELISTEimRat@bochum.de
Fritz Hofmann, Fraktionsvorsitzender Eisenacher Aufbruch im Stadtrat von Eisenach, hofmann-fritz@t-online.de
Dietrich Keil, Ratsherr Essen steht AUF - Fraktion LINKE/DKP/AUF, keil.susanne@web.de
Gerd Labatzki, Stadtverordneter für AUF Gelsenkirchen, IGM-Bertriebsrat Küppersbusch Gelsenkirchen, gerd.labatzki@t-online.de
Dr. Werner Rügemer, wer_ruegemer@web.de
Werner Sarbok, BASTA Ratsherr Stadt Recklinghausen, wsarbok@aol.com
Gerd-Peter Zielezinski, DIE LINKE im Rat Wuppertal, GZielezinski@aol.com
Further signatories please send Email to info@cbl-totalausstieg.de
Signatories:
Vorstand AUF Gelsenkirchen, Ringstraße 71, 45879 Gelsenkirchen, auf-treff-ge@gmx.de
Pit Bäuml, Liedermacher, Heilbronn
Siegfried Beier, Berlin
Dipl.-Ing. Heinz Bogon, Beratender Ingenieur Bauwesen - Umwelttechnik, Neustadt am Rbge., h.bogon@oekobauconsult.de
Claudius Caßemayer, Sprecher Die Linke. KV Rhein Berg, c.cassemayer@t-online.de
Werner Chichowski
Achim Czylwick, Ratsmitglied für AUF Witten
Harry Fischer, Journalist/dju in ver.di, Bad Kissingen, harryf@mac.com
Karin Groenewoud, Vorstand AUF-Kassel, cjGroene@hotmail.com
Peter Gille, peterottogille@yahoo.de
Johannes Günther, Abgeordneter im Stadtparlament Offenbach DIE LINKE, neilati@arcor.de
Cristof Judenau, M.A.(derzeit Lehrbeauftragter FH Düsseldorf)
Samina Khan, Stellvertretende Kreisvorsitzende DIE LINKE Stadt und Kreis Offenbach, sanya99@aol.com
Ralf Kilian, Grevenbroich, ralf.kilian@arcor.de
Andreas Kleffmann, Wuppertal, kleffmann@beyenburger.de, Internet: www.cross-border-wuppertal.de
Patrik Köbele, DKP-Ratsmitglied in der Fraktion Linke/DKP/AUF, Essen
Frank Kuschel, MdL Thüringen (Partei DIE LINKE), Geschäftsführer des Kommunalpolitischen Forums Thüringen e.V., kuschel@die-linke-thl.de
Toni Lenz, Gelsenkirchen, Kreisvorsitzender MLPD, lenz.weber@t-online.de
Christiane Link, für AUF-Gelsenkirchen im Ausschuss für Arbeit und Soziales
Knut Maßmann, Die Linke Alternative Gelsenkirchen, knutmassmann@web.de
Dr. Willi Mast, AUF-Bezirksverordneter Gelsenkirchen-Süd
Wolfgang Meyer, Ratsmitglied Gelsenkirchen
Ursula Möllenberg, Ratsfrau Gelsenkirchen
Christoph Nitsch, Vorsitzender der Sozialen Liste Bochum
Hannelore Philippi, Saarbrücken, aktiv in der Friedensbewegung, hannelore.philippi@t-online.de
Martina Reichmann, für AUF-Gelsenkirchen im Ausschuss für Gesundheit und Verbraucherschutz
Dr. Walter Satzinger, FIAN, walter.satzinger@t-online.de
Peter Schnell, Offenbach
Joachim Schweitzer, Vorstand, Kommunalbündnis HOPP, Heilbronn
Holger Stephan, DIE LINKE. Offenbach a. M., Vorstand der BO OF-Ostkreis
Hartmut Sternbeck, Vorstandssprecher von WIR aus Mühlheim, hsternbeck@t-online.de
Helmut Toppmaier, Vorstand AUF-Gelsenkirchen
Bodo Urbat, Vorstandssprecher „Essen steht AUF“, sachkundiger Bürger Umweltausschuss, Verbraucherschutz, Grün und Gruga für die Fraktion Linke/DKP/AUF, bodo.urbat@arcor.de
Helmut Usinger, Attac-Region Offenbach, helmut.usinger@t-online.de
Günter Wagner, AUF-Bezirksverordneter Gelsenkirchen-West, gwagner@gelsennet.de
ZUG (zukunftsorientiert-unabhängig-gemeinsam) Albstadt, Vorstandssprecherin: Elke Rapthel-Kemle, Albstadt