[stop-imf] Why are we protesting the IMF and the World Bank? (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

>From the Mobilization for Global Justice:

Why Are We Protesting the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank?

We are protesting at the IMF and the World Bank
because they, together with the World Trade
Organization, are principal architects of
"corporate globalization," a set of economic,
social, and political policies that have
prioritized the profit demands of multinational
corporations over the living standards, human
needs and democratic input of the majority of the
world's population.

We are protesting the IMF and the World Bank
because they are fundamentally anti-democratic
institutions. Although they claim to be
"international," they are principally controlled
by the finance ministries and treasury departments
of the richest countries. IMF and World Bank
decision-making takes place largely in secret; the
policies that governments adopt at these
institutions are shielded from the public; and
process whereby the IMF and the World Bank
negotiate agreements with developing country
governments also takes place largely in secret.
Democratically elected legislatures, whether in
the Global South or in the U.S. or Europe, have
very little input into IMF or World Bank policies.

We are protesting the IMF and the World Bank
because they refuse to stop collecting debt
repayments from the impoverished countries of the
world, even though the IMF and the World Bank have
the resources to cancel these debts and despite
the fact that these debt repayments are depriving
people of these countries of basic human rights:
the right to education, the right to medical
attention, the right to clean water, the right to
live with dignity.

We are protesting the IMF and the World Bank
because they continue to impose draconian
"structural adjustment" economic and social
policies, including "user fees" on primary health
care and education which keep kids out of school
and keep them from getting medical attention;
water privatization that jacks up rates until poor
people can't afford clean water and become
susceptible to waterborne diseases; privatization
of public pension systems (like our Social
Security systems) so that workers lose retirement
security; changes in labor laws that make it
harder for workers to organize and that depress
wages.

We are protesting the World Bank because it
continues to use our tax dollars to subsidize oil,
gas, and mining projects, despite the
environmental devastation and human rights abuses
associated with these projects, and continues to
fund large dams, even when these involve
relocation of people living nearby against their
will. Meanwhile the World Bank claims to be too
poor to cancel debt.

And we are protesting the U.S. government, because
it is the largest shareholder and most dominant
country in the IMF and the World Bank, just as it
and its European allies dominate the World Trade
Organization, and we hold the U.S. government
responsible for the policies of the IMF and the
World Bank.