Unhappy Birthday, World Bank!

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http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10286

Unhappy Birthday, World Bank!


Mark Engler, a writer based in New York City, is a commentator for Foreign Policy in Focus and for the Global Beat Syndicate.


In 1994, when the IMF and World Bank were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their creation, very few people in this country could tell you anything about the twin fixtures of corporate globalization. "Globalization" itself was only beginning its life as a buzzword, almost always used to celebrate an uncontroversial march of progress into the 21st century.

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Perhaps the most remarkable change since protesters began aggressively challenging these institutions is how the mainstream has adopted their criticisms. Today the legitimacy of protestors' demands for IMF/World Bank reform—or at least moderate versions of them—is acknowledged by virtually all fair-minded observers of development policy, including a growing number who have defected from the World Bank itself. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and former chief economist at the Bank, states that "even those in the Washington establishment, now that rapid capital market liberalization without accompanying regulations"—a core element of neoliberal globalization that contributed mightily to financial collapse in East Asia—"is dangerous." Stiglitz further argues that demands "such as the need for better ways of restructuring debt might have seemed controversial a short while ago. Today they are either in the mainstream or are gradually being accepted."


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The demands of this weekend's protest mirror the original platform promoted by the network 10 years ago:

-Democratic reforms to force greater openness and accountability upon bodies accustomed to directing foreign economies based on closed-door sessions in Washington, DC.

-An end to "structural adjustment" mandates—such as deregulation and required cuts in public spending—which increase poverty and inequality in the developing world.

-Discontinuation of the many IMF/World Bank projects that failed to meet even rudimentary environmental standards.

-Debt cancellation for poor countries whose foreign debts prevent them from making basic investments in health and education.


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