CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION'S MANY MASKS

The Multilateral Institutions & Treaties Supporting Corporate Rule Include:

IMF, WORLD BANK, OECD, BIS, IDB, WTO, ADB, AfDB, EBRD, NAFTA, IFC

(International Monetary Fund
World Bank Group
Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development
Bank for International Settlements
Inter-American Development Bank
World Trade Organization
Asian Development Bank
African Development Bank
European Bank for Reconstruction & Development
North American Free Trade Agreement
International Finance Corporation)

The underlying ideology of "free trade" agreements like the FTAA and of "structural adjustment programs" of the IMF and World Bank is neo-liberalism: the belief in elimination of governmental regulation and freeing of investors and corporations to do as they like. Neo-liberal advocates claim these steps create overall prosperity: the rich get richer and create jobs for the rest of us. No industrialized society developed through such policies ÷ U.S. businesses were protected from foreign competition in the 19th century, as were those of more recent "successes" like South Korea. Indeed, faith in the "free market" is in such contradiction to history and statistical evidence that it takes on a dogmatic, mystical character. The modelâs ideal is even sometimes referred to as "the invisible hand": in markets free to respond to the law of supply and demand, goods will be provided to all buyers at the fairest prices, and sellers will make fair profits, as if a divine being were apportioning everything fairly.

In the 1970s, market fundamentalism took hold in some influential circles. "Free trade" and the "invisible hand" work best for those who already have resources and power ÷ the corporations which can pressure governments to make concessions on their minimum wage laws or intimidate a workforce to vote against a union, for example, by threatening to move their facilities elsewhere. The losers -- those with little or no power and few resources to exploit the new "freedom"-- workers, the unemployed, and people (especially women) in countries with less "developed" economies. The FTAA would allow multinational corporations to relocate facilities almost anywhere in the hemisphere and to sue governments which attempt to limit their profits (through insisting on environmental protections, for example). Workers in the Americas, and especially Latin America, would find their right to organize unions increasingly denied, and their attempts to cross borders still illegal ÷ and no international tribunal would hear their cases.

With the rise of Margaret Thatcher in the U.K. in 1979 and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. in 1980, neo-liberals secured control at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank just as countries in Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia were entering a debt crisis. The IMF and World Bank leapt into a new role: overseeing the economic plans and finance ministries of most of the Global South. They accomplished this by lending money when no one else would, and attaching economic reform conditions to loans (structural adjustment programs). The tenets of structural adjustment ÷ elimination of subsidies for basic foods and services, privatization of state-owned companies, trade liberalization (eliminating taxes and tariffs on imports), re-orientation from subsistence economies to export production (cheap labor and raw commodities), cuts in social spending, currency devaluation, and "labor flexibility" (layoffs and neglect of minimum wage laws) ÷ became the rules of the day, and remain so now, 20 years later.

After structural adjustment succeeds in opening up countries to cash cropping (growing coffee or flowers, say, for export instead of food) and to sweatshops producing goods for wealthy countries, the multinational corporations mounted pressure for more market-opening measures and more legal security for the rights of investors. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in 1995 to lock in and enforce the "reforms" ordered by the IMF and World Bank. Now privatization, liberalization, and the other rules would not only be conditions agreed to in order to get loans, but pre-conditions in order to trade on the world market.

The programs of the IMF and World Bank clear the landscape for companies and banks from the North to make money in Southern countries. Little of the wealth generated stays in the country where itâs produced, though the fact of its being produced there makes statistics like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) look better. In fact, living standards are slipping in most countries with IMF/World Bank programs, and debt levels have increased substantially. Forty-nine countries now have lower real per capita income than they did in the mid-1970s.

The FTAA, with its secrecy, lack of transparency, and rules protecting corporate rights over peopleâs rights, would continue the principles for governing the global economy established by the IMF and World Bank. Like the WTO, it codifies the rules of structural adjustment and provides enforcement mechanisms.

The just world that the 50 Years Is Enough Network and many others fighting for justice envision is one where economic policy is dictated not by institutions in Washington or Geneva, or by treaties governments are coerced to sign through fear of losing all trade relations, but rather by the people of each country through democratic processes. We believe that food security, health, education, human and workersâ rights, and cooperation are the priorities, not cash crops, privatization, and corporate profits. This requires taming the powers of financial institutions, reining in the reach of trade treaties, and strengthening and broadening the power of civil society in every country.

• Stay informed, educate, and organize others. There are hundreds of websites and dozens of publications on corporate globalization. Visit the 50 Years Is Enough Network website at www.50years.org. Subscribe to our e-mail listserv on IMF and World Bank: send a message stop-wb-imf-subscribe@50years.org.
• Contact elected officials and urge them to act to limit the powers of financial institutions and free trade regimes.
• Join and support coalitions and organizations working for democracy in your community and country, or start your own effort.
• Organize and support actions against the institutions that make the rules of global economic apartheid:
  • April 29 - 3-5 p.m.: Washington DC - IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, (18th & Pennsylvania, N.W.).
  • May 4-11: Honolulu - Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank. Or organize a solidarity action in your community. See http://www.crosswinds.net/~hexis/ADB-Watch.html for details.
  • September 28 - October 4: Washington, DC - Massive mobilization for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Organize a solidarity action in your community. Visit ww.50years.org for more details.