THE IMF, THE WORLD BANK, AND
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT

What are the IMF and World Bank?

The IMF and World Bank are controlled by the wealthy governments of the world, led by the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Germany, France, Canada, and Italy -- the "Group of 7," which holds over 40% of the votes on their boards. Their function is to impose economic austerity policies in the countries of the so-called "Third World" or "global South" and the "transition economies" of the former Soviet bloc. Once countries build up large external debts, as most of those in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have, they cannot get credit or cash anywhere else and are forced to go to these international institutions and accept whatever conditions are demanded of them. None of the countries has emerged from their debt problems; indeed most countries now have much higher levels of debt than when they first accepted IMF/World Bank "assistance."

Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)

IMF/World Bank conditions, known as "structural adjustment programs" (though the institutions are trying to escape that termâs negative reputation by changing the name to "poverty reduction and growth programs"!) force countries to promote sweatshops, exports to rich countries, and high-return cash investment. The increase in international commerce ö corporate globalization that followed the widespread imposition of SAPs in the 1980s led to demands by corporations and investors for ways to lock in their privileges and protection against the perceived danger of governments seizing assets or imposing new regulations. The WTO, established in 1995, was the answer to those demands, an institution whose secret tribunals can overrule national laws if they are found to violate the rights of corporations.

The World Bank is best known for financing big projects like dams, roads, and power plants, supposedly designed to assist in economic development, but which have often been associated with monumental environmental devastation and social dislocation. In recent years, about half of its lending has gone to programs indistinguishable from the IMFâs: austerity plans that "reform" economic policies by suffocating the poor and inviting corporate exploitation.

Although the IMF finally got some of the criticism due it with the East Asian financial crisis (where it imposed austerity programs on South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand), the two institutions continue to be the chosen tools of the political and business elites for ruling the global economy, and run, to one degree or another, about 90 countriesâ economies. These countries are forced to adopt policies even more committed to deregulation and withdrawal of government from insuring public welfare than those in the U.S. Considering how impoverished many of these countries were to start with, the effects of these policies have been predictably devastating. The "emerging market success stories" we sometimes read about generate wealth which goes to very small segments of the populations, and much of it ends up in the North. The great majority of the people of the South are enduring increased poverty, decreased access to basic services, and decreased control over their own economies.

SAPS Work for Corporations and Elites; Impoverish the Rest

How -- and why -- do the structural adjustment programs that the IMF & World Bank impose create conditions that multinational corporations desire and that devastate most people in the Southern countries? A look at the most common SAP conditions show how economic "advice" is used to maintain the interests of the wealthy at the expense of continued suffering for the bulk of the people.

So Why Do Countries Agree to SAPs?

SAPs are anti-democratic in more than one way. The institutions are correct in saying that the plans are formulated in part, and agreed to, by the governments. But the government officials involved are usually limited to the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank, usually among the most conservative, Northern-educated, and wealthy members of the government -- in other words, those most likely to agree with IMF economics and benefit from the policies. In many cases even they feel coerced into going along with IMF/World Bank demands. If they donât cooperate, the consequence can be a complete cut-off of credit because other lenders follow the lead of these institutions.

With such unpopular policies, it is the rare government that can "sell" structural adjustment to its people, especially after 20 years of similar failed policies. The slogan "short-term pain for long-term gain" sounds hollow when people have heard it for a whole generation. SAPs encourage instability in democratic countries by forcing elected governments to institute measures which make them illegitimate among their people. It has been argued that the IMF prefers dictatorships to democratic governments, because dictators can more successfully impose SAPs. And once the rules are in place, the WTO extends the attack on democracy by overruling any regulations that corporations claim interfere with their right to profits.

The fact that institutions based in Washington and largely controlled by the U.S. Treasury Department have been starving peoples around the world for two decades is a scandal. That people in the U.S. are barely aware of the fact is a disgrace. The April mobilization maneuvered the mainstream press into paying attention to the institutionsâ existence; in September we will make the connections to local economic and labor struggles in the United States, and demonstrate that the same struggle is going on North and South, East and West.

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice

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