Smash the IMF and World Bank!
Super exploitation
Since the multinational companies are based in the West, and since they have already dominated their own national markets, the main thrust of "neo-liberalism" has been to open up markets in the "under-developed" world. This enables the multinational companies to sell their products at a cheaper rate than local businesses and to take over their economies. Neo-liberal cuts are engineered to destroy all subsidies for the production of domestic goods, aid for domestic farmers, and programmes to foster domestic small businesses. Neo-liberalism has been an absolute disaster for the peoples of the poorer countries. Under the guise of the so-called "free market", companies have robbed the wealth of these countries and stored it in the vaults of the major banks of the West. This super exploitation of these countries is merely a less overt version of the directly racist colonialism of the past.
Nominally, the IMF and World Bank are international organisations whose policy is set by all 182 member countries. In reality, they are used as tools to further the interests of the big capitalist powers, with the US having the dominant position. Even the New York Times let slip that the "(IMF) acts as the lap dog of the U.S. Treasury."
The demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank are only the beginning of an ongoing and escalating fight back of workers and young people against the multinational corporations. But what is the programme strategy and demands that can mount an effective challenge to global capitalism?
The movement is already clear in its opposition to the IMF, World Bank and its neo-liberal program. But there needs to be more clarity on what concrete measures are needed to rectify these problems. We also need a strategy of how we are going to get from here to there. What is the next step in building a mass movement against the multinationals and global capitalism?
Smash the IMF and World Bank
The IMF, World Bank and the World Trade Organisation should be smashed. The IMF and World Bank deliberately attack our rights and living standards and accelerate exploitation of the environment, all for the sake of maximising profits. They are hostile institutions, representing the interests of the ruling class.
Some groups make the mistake of trying to reform the IMF and the World Bank, saying that abolishing them is "utopian" and "unrealistic." Global capitalism is here to stay, and it requires international institutions to uphold it, they argue. This logic leads them to avoid really challenging the agenda of big business. Instead, they focus on ameliorating conditions within the framework of the existing system, claiming it is more "strategic" to try and get a seat at the negotiating table for labour, environmental and consumer representatives.
In fact, this is the most utopian and unrealistic strategy. In the first place, workers and environmental representatives would be unable to effect significant change in the IMF and World Bank policies. They would be vastly outnumbered, and they would have much less pull than the representatives of big business. Also, their goals would be completely at odds with the fundamental goals of the IMF and World Bank. The policies of the IMF and World Bank are the inevitable result of the logic of capitalism in this period. Focusing on trying to reform these institutions confuses the issue of who the real enemy is, creating illusions that the policies of these institutions are somehow independent from capitalism.
The politicians pay lip service
The debt of the less developed world acts as a crushing weight on their economies, and has transformed these countries into loan repayment machines that benefit rich investors. The increasing public outrage over this situation has forced the IMF and World Bank to begin to make some noises about "debt forgiveness." Realising that much of the debt is simply not collectable and there is no chance of it ever being paid, they may be willing to write off a certain portion of this debt as a public relations manoeuvre, but they will try to avoid a comprehensive, immediate, and total cancellation. Furthermore, they have attempted to link "debt relief" with demands for structural adjustment. Only five countries so far have had any debt relief at all. We cannot expect that the same people that make huge earnings on the debts and use them as means of blackmailing would completely and unconditionally abolish the very same debts.
Non-payment of the debts!
It is obvious that the cancelling of the debts will only come about as a result of a decisive struggle by workers and poor on a national as well as an international plane. It is part of a struggle to establish governments that represent the interests of workers and the poor. The CWI demands: Kick out the IMF! Non-payment of the debts. Bring the banks and the financial institutions under public ownership.
On this basis would it possible to wipe out the debts and free up billions of dollars of resources for development of their economies, providing food, housing, health care, child care and education. Ending debt would help relieve the pressures building up on the world's ecosystem. It is likely that in the coming period, under conditions of a deep international downturn, indebted countries will simply cancel their debts unilaterally, refusing to pay any longer.
Once one country declares it is ceasing to pay, how long will it take for the other countries to follow? Once a precedent is set, it will be impossible to convince the semi-developed world to continue to fork over billions, when they can see a living example of a country that simply refused to pay.
While non-payment of the debt would represent a huge progressive step forward and a blow against imperialism, it would not in and of itself be a lasting solution to the deeply rooted misery and exploitation confronting the people of Asia, Africa and Latin America - the former colonial world. The burden of debts grew out of a system, capitalism, and is one tool among many employed by the industrialised countries to keep the former colonial world in shackles. It is this system that must be ultimately transformed. If capitalism remained, it would only be a matter of time until a new debt was accrued - because the same structural economic relations would still be operating.
Fight neo-liberal policies!
Social gains won over decades have been rolled back. Workers' share of the national income has been drastically cut and that is why inequality has reached an unprecedented level. The richest 2.7 million Americans (roughly 1 percent of the population) now earn as much as the poorest 100 million. Cuts in welfare and benefits have meant that today's workers are less protected than the generation before. Privatisation is just another word for a more costly and worse service than before. Working class people are forced to pay more for less, while private companies looting the state take home billions. Privatisations represent the single largest transfer of wealth that has ever taken place in history.
Moreover, in the 1990's workers had to work more in order just to stand still. The average American today spends 162 more hours at work than in 1969 - nearly a whole month of added work per year. Almost 8 millions adults in the US held two or more jobs at the beginning of 1999. Job insecurity and more pressure and stress at work affect every aspect of human life and cause de-motivation, ill-health and enormous strains on the family.