|
April 17, 2000
Washington Protests Deliver Message to World Bank, IMF
Although they did not shut down international finance meetings, peaceful demonstrations yesterday
remained a reminder of the social costs of unfettered globalization.
SocialFunds.com --
Last year, thousands of protestors paralyzed the meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
Seattle, charging that the forces of globalization need to pay closer attention to human rights,
labor, and environmental concerns. Protestors in Washington D.C. this past weekend were delivering
essentially the same message on the occasion of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)
meetings.
 Between 10,000 and 30,000 protestors conducted two days
of marches and street theater, in an effort to draw attention to the tarnished history of the two
international financial institutions, and to urge reform of their practices. Although the protests
were punctuated by occasional confrontations with police, the level of violence was much lower than
at the Seattle protests.
"Today we are sending a loud and clear message to these
unaccountable institutions that we hold them responsible for devastating the lives of poor people
around the world in the name of globalization," said Chloe Frommer of Mobilization for Global
Justice, one of the groups organizing the protest.
Protesters accused the World Bank and
IMF of burdening poor countries with crushing debt payments, unsafe food, and environmental
destruction, and of abetting the violation of human and labor rights. While the goal of these
institutions is ostensibly to bring developing countries to financial independence, their history
has ironically been marked by a widening gap between the rich and poor.
The World Bank has
been widely criticized for its support of an oil pipeline project in Chad and Cameroon, with
catastrophic environmental and social implications, and a development project in Tibet that could
further marginalize Tibetans in China. The IMF continues to take heat for its handling of the Asian
financial crisis, and is seen as an agent of debilitating debt in developing countries.
But the record or the financial institution is far from black and white, and is ardently
defended by some supporters. Michael Moore, Director General of the WTO who suffered the
consequences of protestors in Seattle, reportedly compared blaming the World Bank for poverty to
blaming the Red Cross for starting wars.
There is some hope that recent criticisms of the
World Bank and IMF are having some effect. The IMF is now much more transparent than in the past,
publishing far more data about the economic condition of its member countries. The World Bank is
concentrating more on nutrition, education, and microloans to small businesses, many run by women
in the third world, shrinking the bank's big power projects to just 2 percent of its total
spending.
The protests in Washington failed to shut down the financial meetings that began
Sunday, although the finance ministers of France, Brazil, Portugal, and Thailand were thwarted by
the crowds. But shutting down the meetings was not the goal of the demonstrations, which were as
much a festive celebration of global solidarity and humanity as a criticism of the World Bank and
IMF.
On the heels of the Seattle protests, the Washington Police were well-prepared for
the demonstrations, blocking off a downtown area as large as 90 square blocks and letting
demonstrators largely have their way outside the security zone. The meetings continued on Monday
without incident. While many federal offices remained closed, most of the demonstrators from the
weekend had thinned out.
But the nonviolent outcome of the weekend's marches hold as much
weight as last year's Seattle protests, if not more. "We stand in solidarity with millions of
people in the developing world who are demanding to take control of their lives out of the hands of
the World Bank and IMF, and the powerful corporations that are calling the shots," said Frommer.
©
SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Top
| 
