IMF/World Bank Adjustment Spending Failed to Ignite Third World Growth

The following statement was issued by civil society organizations in Bamako, Mali as James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, and Horst Köhler, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, met with heads of state from West and Central Africa between February 18 and 21, 2001.

The following statement was issued by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme in advance of the visit of Wolfensohn and Köhler to Dar es Salaam, immediately after their Bamako meetings.

The heads of the World Bank and IMF reportedly came to Africa “to listen.” Aha, listen to whom?

A Call Issued by: 50 Years Is Enough Network; Jobs with Justice; Essential Action; Center for Economic Justice; Nicaragua Network; Global Exchange; Jubilee South Africa; ACERCA; Native Forest Network - Gulf of Maine; Native Forest Network -Southwestern US; Native Forest Network - Eastern North America Resource Center; STITCH; Freedom from Debt Coalition (Philippines); INSAAF International (India); CIRPED (Senegal); LALIT (Mauritius); Global Justice Center (Brazil); Queers for Racial & Economic Justice; Youth Counsel (Macedonia); Development VISIONS (Pakistan); Alliance for Global Justice; Campaign for Labor Rights; Mexico Solidarity Network; EPICA; Rights Action; NICCA.

In January and February 2001, many sectors of Ecuadoran society, with the indigenous groups in the lead, rose up against the oppressive economic policies being implemented at the behest of the IMF. At least four people were killed by government forces in the course of the civil society actions, and several others injured or detained. The 50 Years Is Enough Network organized a demonstration in support of the actions outside the Ecuadoran embassy in Washington, and then participated in a meeting with the Ambassador. On February 7, the leading indigenous organizations, after long negotiations, arrived at an agreement with the government for a roll-back of some of the most damaging components of the IMF program.

Trade and investment policymakers have yet another neoliberal project up their sleeve: the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). As if the corporate-driven agenda of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which covers the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, wasn’t bad enough for labor, the environment and democratic sovereignty, magnify it ten times and we’ve got an idea of what the FTAA has in store.

The movement for global economic justice didn’t begin at the Seattle WTO meetings, but the protests there were a pivotal moment, often described as the movement’s “coming out party.” Similarly, the World Social Forum held at the end of January in Porto Alegre, Brazil was hardly the first conference of activists and intellectuals concerned about economic globalization. But it was the biggest (so far), and the first explicitly dedicated to bringing together the many forces of the international movement that is attracting so much attention in the media, and stirring up so much fear in the circles of power and wealth.

Historically international trade agreements focused on promoting trade in goods by lowering tariff barriers between countries. This was to change dramatically when, at the behest of American Express, the U.S. lobbied successfully to have services included in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, which were concluded in 1994. Thus the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) came into being. The world was about to change in dramatic ways.

In December 1998, the French government asked Parliament to approve an increase of about $3 billion for the French quota payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Some members of Parliament (MPs) decided that perhaps the time had come to ask how taxpayers’ money was being used by the IMF and the World Bank (WB). Until that day most French MPs had shown little interest in these issues. They suddenly realized they knew almost nothing about how and why decisions were being made by the French government — that is, the Treasury — in Washington. Therefore they passed an amendment stating that every year the French government would submit a report to the Parliament about IMF and WB activities, decisions of the Boards, and French positions on these decisions.