Mobilize (Again!) Against the IMF & World Bank
Protests, Direct Action, Education, and Strategy: September 28 - October 4, 2001
By Soren Ambrose

July/August 2001
Volume 38, No. 6

The list of cities that have hosted mass mobilizations against corporate-led globalization since the Seattle World Trade Organization (WTO) protests keeps growing -- Chiang Mai (Thailand), Davos (Switzerland), Washington, Melbourne, QuŽbec, Geneva, Seoul, Honolulu, Prague, and probably several I've forgotten -- not to mention Barcelona, where the World Bank recently canceled a small meeting rather than face another large protest. With QuŽbec just starting to fade in the public memory, those of us in North America begin looking toward the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meetings this fall in ...Washington DC.

Yes, we get multiple shots at these mobilizations because Washington is host not only to the federal government, but also to the most powerful international financial institutions, which together make the rules for the global economy. In fact, the Articles of Agreement creating the World Bank and IMF in 1944 specify that they will be headquartered in the capital of the country making the biggest single contribution (which is one reason some Europeans argue for unifying their representation -- so Brussels could become a great center of power, and host to frequent protests).

Another Big Protest?
Many have begun to ask whether these mobilizations at meetings of the international financial institutions are still necessary. After all, they take up a lot of resources and time that could be devoted to grassroots organizing. So far, however, nothing comes close to generating the attention that mass protests do, and these events still seem essential in building an identity for the anti-corporate globalization movement that, for North America, came of age in Seattle. The answer for now is probably that we need both. Events that capture media attention still give us a significant opportunity to reach people who normally don't hear about things like debt and structural adjustment programs (the austerity plans imposed by the World Bank and IMF in exchange for loans) we don't get otherwise. The presence of massive numbers of people also shows the officials of the institutions, as well as those in the South who are struggling for economic justice, that people in the North care about these issues and know what the global institutions are up to, and how negatively they are affecting the lives of tens of millions of people.

At the same time we need to work on our capacity to reach people where they live, particularly in economically-distressed communities, to demonstrate that the economic war that has been waged on the vast majority of people in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America is one being fought by the same forces and for the same reasons as that waged against the politically powerless in the U.S. and other Northern countries. And that means creating bonds of solidarity -- international solidarity -- between people in difficult circumstances everywhere. Mass mobilizations won't accomplish that; only education and organizing will.

Washington 2001: Protest, Strategize, Celebrate
The 50 Years Is Enough Network, which has been opposing the IMF and World Bank since their 50th anniversary in 1994, together with several other organizations around the U.S. and the world, has issued a call for activists to come to Washington between September 28 and October 4 for a week (or more) of workshops, marches, teach-ins, and direct actions. Among the activities we hope to offer is a serious debate with officials of the IMF, World Bank, and their official "bosses" from the G7 (the Finance Ministries of the U.K., France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and the U.S. Treasury Department).

Already a large group of activists in Washington is meeting regularly in about a dozen working groups, from Housing to Media to Training to Scenario, to coordinate actions which are even more creative, and more successful, than those held in April 2000. At the last full meeting of the group, which is again calling itself Mobilization for Global Justice, there were probably 150 people. Meetings are on alternate Wednesdays, at 7 p.m, at SEIU Headquarters, 1313 L Street, NW.

Although the specific plans for the direct action won't be worked out for some time to come, we do know that there will be a large teach-in event this year, and that the 50 Years Is Enough Network will be one of the lead coordinators. It will take place Friday and Saturday, September 28 and 29. The largest actions -- a direct action and a rally safeguarded by official permits -- will almost certainly take place on Sunday, September 30, although that doesn't mean there won't be fun to be had on the other days.

A couple overarching demands are beginning to come together for this action. The campaign for the cancellation of impoverished countries' debts which has been gathering strength since the launch of the Jubilee 2000 coalitions around 1996 is mounting a major campaign for the G7 Summit in Genoa, Italy this July. Its demand for 100% cancellation of the debts claimed by the IMF and World Bank without damaging structural adjustment conditions and without further contributions from outside the already-wealthy institutions, will -- unless the G7 governments give in in Genoa -- be a major rallying call in Washington. So will calls for opening up the meetings of the IMF and World Bank, which are among the most secretive, unaccountable institutions in the world. Those who loudly trumpet the promises of democracy, such as the institutions themselves and the G7 governments, should not be allowed to get away with using these institutions as thoroughly undemocratic (votes are awarded by size of contribution) and non-transparent (minutes from the Board meetings are rarely released) enforcers of neo-liberal free-market economic orthodoxy. We demand not a "seat at the table" but a new table altogether. In the meantime, we think it would be a good thing indeed if people all over the world could see who is sitting at that table and what each person is saying or not saying, asking or not asking, and approving or disapproving.

At the same time, we will not be forgetting the battle against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) which took so many activists to QuŽbec for the Summit of the Americas (Western Hemisphere heads of state) in April. The tenets of the FTAA -- particularly its emphasis on eliminating trade "barriers" -- mirror the conditions of IMF/World Bank programs, and in fact probably would be unthinkable without the foundation of laws and policies the IMF and World Bank have coerced everywhere they've gone in the last 20 years.

Finally, we will also be putting a spotlight on alternatives, on ways to make globalization something that brings people together instead of pushing profits higher. These range from "fair trade" businesses that prioritize paying producers a decent price for their goods to notions of "deglobalization," of scaling back the rules that have put corporations in the driver's seat in society after society, and of diminishing the powers of institutions like the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF, to force governments to accept policies that are bad for their people, on the flimsy pretext that higher profits will eventually trickle down to the poor.

Genoa, Italy in the summer (July 18-22) -- if you can afford a European jaunt -- and Washington in the fall (September 28 - October 4): Be on the frontiers of global justice. Keep the momentum building, be part of forcing the elites to listen to the voices of the people!

For more information, visit www.50years.org. To subscribe to e-mail listerves about the September protests, send a blank message to: IMF-WB-Protest-Announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. To subscribe to the 50 Years Is Enough e-mail listserv about developments at the IMF and World Bank, send a message to: subscribe50years@yahoo.com

Soren Ambrose is a Policy Analyst with 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice.