Protesters aim for fall meetings of World Bank and IMF
By Matthew Campbell
     Neo-Liberalism: An ideology whereby large Corporations and investors are exempt from all political and social measures that interfere with their so-called "success." The rise in Bus fares, the failure of the local living wage campaign, big money for stadiums, privatization, the decline of any sort of local manufacturing base, the rise in health care premiums, and many other currently relevant issues can be traced to the gradual implementation of this ideology over the past 30 years.
     Companies and politicians would have you believe these are all isolated events each of which has a reasonable or lamentable though unavoidable reason behind them. "We just can’t compete with Mexico;" "There’s no money for transit without raising taxes;" "globalization is a fact you can’t change;" "if we don’t do it someone else will;" "it’s jobs or the environment; "if we don’t take your house for this new highway we’ll fall behind."
     The fact is the things happening in Pittsburgh are part of a larger picture of what’s occurring on a global scale. The world is being reshaped in a corporate image.

In Money We Trust:
     The goal of corporate capitalism is to promote and implement neo-liberal ideology around the globe. Big business seeks to eliminate anything that interferes with their ability to make as much money as possible. Environmental regulations, quality of life laws, personal rights to property, cultural values or traditions, and any other obstacle must be eliminated if profit is to be maximized.
     Corporations seek one giant homogenous marketplace where society pays the costs associated with production and extraction, leaving them with only the profit. The problem for corporate power is that isn’t the way the World currently is.
     Local governments have often tailored local laws to respond the desires of the people to preserve a certain way of life. Countries around the world have developed diverse responses to the fundamental questions of how to structure their societies. Good and bad. The reason for this is simple: What works here might not work in Zambia just as what works in Germany might not work here. Additionally, every country is at a different stage of development and experimentation.
     These are all problems for big business because they reduce profit efficiency. There’s not as much money to be made by putting drinking wells in a country as there is in constructing a massive dam. Wal-Mart can’t make as much money if a town restricts the size of a proposed store. No company can maprofit if the government provides services outside the company’s reach.
     Advertisers can’t catch as much of your attention if the size of billboards is restricted. The big Tobacco countries can’t expose billions more to their product if imports are banned.
     That’s where the IMF-WB-WTO come in. Commonly referred to as the three-headed monster of corporate globalization, they are the main institutions now responsible for reshaping the economic and cultural systems of the world.
     The World Bank "loans" countries money to pay for large projects they couldn’t otherwise afford. A country might want wells, but they’re only given money for a massive dam. The bank loans billions to countries desperate to develop and to keep pace with the development of the rich countries. One effect of the restrictive loans is to increase the pace of environmental devastation already underway. Areas that used to be inaccessible to logging and settlement are now being invaded with roads financed by World Bank gas pipelines.

The International Monetary Fund:
     Funded by its member countries, the IMF was created to stabilize the world economic situation. One dollar in contributions equals one vote.
     The IMF is where a country must turn when they’re out of money and cannot pay debts owed to large banks and institutions like the WB. The IMF will then step in with a plan for how you must restructure your economy before they will come to your "aid" with short-term loans thus.
     The plans are called SAP’s: Structural Adjustment Programs. Unfortunately the prescription is always the same, privatization, decreased spending for the poor, reduced health care, increased interest rates, and deregulation. This is all done at a time when countries are at their weakest and have no choice but to change democratically enacted laws to the favor of western governments and their corporations.
     Although the IMF portrays these negotiated SAP’s as a choice the government must make, there is no choice. The country owes big western banks this money and if they don’t come to an agreement no bank is going to lend them money. There is also the implicit threat that if you don’t agree to the SAP then you will be shut out of any other trade or development aid by western governments. Many countries are now stuck in this ever increasing cycle of debt and new SAP’s. In the end a country is unable to keep up with the cycle and finally collapses.
     All of this has created a system where the wealthiest countries have the most say and they use it to their advantage and the advantage of the companies who fund them. For every dollar the WB loans out for a project, western corporations get 2 dollars in contracts. In secret halls lobbyists and government officials plan how to divide the bounty.

The World Trade Organization:
     The WTO is the legal muscle of the system. In order to get equal access to the markets of the world you need to join the WTO by agreeing to follow the rules all member countries agree to. The idea in theory is to create a level playing field on which countries can trade to mutual advantage. The reality is that a quasi-global body now exists with the ability to overrule any local law or regulation to the advantage of large companies.
     The WTO’s power rests in its ability to allow retaliatory sanctions against a country in cases where it determines a country’s law or regulations unfairly discriminate against another country or business. In effect they say you are in violation of the agreement that you have signed and therefore must pay the price.
     In every case the secret WTO tribunals have ruled on they have undermined health, safety and environmental standards, human rights advocacy efforts and democratic accountability in policy-making in the U.S. and worldwide. In a Venezuela gas case challenge, the U.S. was forced to amend gasoline cleanliness regulations under the Clean Air Act, adopting a policy towards limiting contaminants in foreign gasoline that EPA had earlier rejected as effectively unenforceable. How many people in the U.S. voted to join a group that can overrule the Clean Air act?
     Of course all of the above is really a simplification of what is going on. We encourage people to look into the specific cases where the WB-IMF-WTO has caused massive harm to the people and environment of the world. From endangered Sea Turtles to old growth logging they are leaving a path of devastation.
     The question we must now ask ourselves is how we can oppose the current system and what should we system and what should we advocate in its place. Difficult questions indeed. Protests, petitions, riots, vigils, occupations, and other forms of resistance have been steadily escalating around the globe during the last decade in direct response to the IMF-WB. This opposition has occurred mostly in the Global South where the effects of neo-liberal policies are most apparent and destructive.
     In richer countries resistance has been most visible since protesters disrupted the November 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle.
     The last meetings on April 20 were opposed by 75,000-plus people. The WB and IMF are having their larger fall meetings this Sept. 28-29 in Washington D.C. Over 15,000 bankers and delegates will be in D.C. to expand the reach of Corporate Capitalism.
     If we do succeed in stopping them what would a future system look like? Many people and groups have put forward proposals for a new system: one based on human need and sustainable development. It’s possible that reforming the current system might be enough. POG feels it’s more likely that the current system cannot be reformed. We must replace it with new forms of mutual aid between the people of the world where all benefit and none are exploited.

What is happening in D.C.?
     Two groups in D.C. are planning large-scale protests to coincide with the meetings. The D.C. Anti-Capitalist Convergence (ACC) is planning one day of city-wide direct action on Friday, Sept 27. The goal is to shut down corporate D.C. as part of The People’s Strike: A Day of Non-Compliance and Resistance. The ACC is calling for affinity groups to come to D.C. prepared to take part in diverse city wide action.
     The general theme of the action is: What does a strike mean to you? What part of your life will you take back? Some workers and students will stay home or join the protests while others sing, dance, block intersections, chant, or otherwise disrupt corporate business. Part of the goal is to stop the IMF-WB delegates from reaching the meeting site downtown.
     The goal of the ACC action is manifold: To expand the focus of these continuing mass protests beyond the World Bank/IMF to include the systemic problems inherent in the neo-liberal system that created them, and to address the ways in which the local struggles for justice are directly related to the fight against these policies.
     To attack the poverty created by the WB-IMF you must confront the system that gave rise to these institutions, and that system is corporate capitalism. Multinational Corporations are out of control; they truly are a plague, and the only question is how best we can destroy them and the system that serves them.
     The Mobilization For Global Justice (MGJ) is focusing primarily on the weekend of Sept. 27-28 while still trying to support the Friday Shutdown. On Saturday there will be a mass, permitted rally. In the evening groups will move to non-violently surround the IMF-WB meeting site. The idea is to quarantine (much as you would a virus) the meetings until the institutions agree to end their destructive agenda. This is symbolic non-violent direct action.
     The specific demands of the quarantine are the cancellation of the crippling debt and an end to forced structural adjustment programs. As of now the action is scheduled only for Saturday but the MGJ is considering extending it all night and possibly through Sunday.
     The goal of the march is to include everyone seeking to oppose the WB and IMF in a safe environment without the threat of possible arrest. The quarantine seeks to pose an inescapable non-violent moral challenge to those in power.
     Additional events will include vigils, puppet making, radical cheerleading, making and serving free food to activists and those regularly on the streets, as well as numerous education events: lectures, teach-ins, forums, debates, and other learning opportunities.