Defunding the Fund, Running on the Bank

Monthly Review, July, 2000 by Patrick Bond

Two ordinarily impenetrable financial institutions--the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank--have finally come into focus for activists, in a way that sharpens what are often fuzzy discussions surrounding globalization and popular resistance. Around thirty thousand protesters joined the Mobilization for Global Justice in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2000, capping a week that began ominously. It started with a chilly and poorly attended Jubilee 2000 USA debt-relief rally on April 9 (controversially addressed by neoliberal Clinton economist Gene Sperling); a protectionist and vaguely xenophobic "No Blank Check for China" demonstration at the Capitol on April 12, which included fifteen thousand workers organized by the AFL-CIO; and dozens of other related events. Auspiciously, in contrast, the bulk of the A16/17 protesters rallied around a call for the Fund and Bank to be defunded (not reformed),just as most Seattle demonstrators had surpassed reformist leadership in relation to the World Trade Org anization (WTO). God smiled on the 16th, giving the Mobilization the warmth and sunshine denied the Jubilee reformers, and many left Washington convinced that a campaign to attack the funding of the IMF and World Bank is a sensible next step.

Socialists across the world should be heartened. With momentum captured by the Mobilization, rather than by the reformist Jubilee, enormous ideological progress and political maturity can be claimed and consolidated. A16/17 was built upon a militant, internationalist platform and slogan--"Break the Bank, Defund the Fund, Dump the Debt!"--endorsed by a coalition of forces as strong and diverse as Seattle's. The legal rally/march was joined by initially nervous trade unionists, NGO developmentalists, and environmentalists. Skillfully, the Mobilization's official core of left-leaning Washington thinktank and NGO staff--notably, 50 Years is Enough, Alliance for Global Justice, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Center for Economic Justice, the Nader group Essential Action, and Jobs with Justice--helped to merge (at least temporarily) the very different agendas of inside-the-Beltway bureaucrats and grassroots activists. Labor/NGO/green officials have historically wobbled when faced with global political-eco nomy issues, as a result of the disadvantageous balance of forces prior to Seattle, their often-debilitating ties to the Democratic Party and a faux professionalism heightened by dependence upon bourgeois funders. The AFL-CIO even supported the eighteen billion dollar recapitalization of the IMF in late 1998, after some dealmaking with the Clinton administration.

The activists, in contrast, were anxious to conduct a joyous symphony of Seattle-like lockdowns and street parties to blockade the Bank/Fund Spring meetings. To do so, they introduced a cultural liberation ambience virtually unknown to Washington, utilizing radical participatory democracy and affinity-group cell structuring in strategy sessions and trainings facilitated by striking young talents from the Direct Action Network (DAN). In this milieu, Michael Albert reported,

The various tactical wings of the movement--whether seeking to get arrested, to militantly protest, to make a public but peaceful statement, or just to learn or teach--worked together marvelously. Diverse tactics did not trump one another. Tension was minimal. Intercommunication was considerable. Coalitions were strengthened rather than dissolving into tactical disputes. There was in-the-street mutual aid, careful planning of venues and events, and pre-demonstration communication of aims. [1]

Results included abundant forms of civil disobedience and 1300 arrests. Unlike Seattle, the one-thousand-strong Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc of black-clad anarchists worked in harmony with those carrying out civil disobedience and had the honor of attracting a police helicopter devoted solely to trailing their movements across Washington on A16. Commitments were made to hone tactics for the upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

But most importantly for our purposes here, the Mobilization drew the economic, social, and environmental concerns of the global South far deeper into the fabric of the U.S. movement than ever before. Granted, the protest failed to obstruct the Fund/Bank meetings, due to the massive police presence. No matter, the combination of thorough preparation and the large size of the turnout in Washington helped raise public consciousness about the Fund and Bank to unprecedented levels; brought sympathetic activists from different constituencies into successful coalition; taught organizers a great deal about Washington logistics (and how they can really be gummed up next time); showed South allies the extent of solidarity possibilities, encouraging them to intensify their own local critiques of the Fund/Bank; and facilitated a long-overdue split amongst development-NGOs (a group of twenty-two conservative organizations under the banner of "Interaction" sent a bizarre, self-discrediting endorsement note to the Bank an d Fund).