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Title: Your Money or Your Life
Author: Zabalaza
Date: April 2001
Language: en
Topics: anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, neo-colonialism, Zabalaza
Source: Retrieved on 5th August 2021 from https://zabalaza.net/2001/04/15/zabalaza-1-april-2001/
Notes: Published in Zabalaza #1.

Zabalaza

Your Money or Your Life

If you’ve ever owed money to a bank, you’ll know it’s not a pleasant

experience. Depending on whether they think you’re good for the money,

the bank will either screw you in the short term or milk you dry over

the long term. Banks are in the business of making money and generally

they’ll stop at nothing to get their way.

Right now across the world, the lives of millions of people are in the

hands of two of the most powerful financial institutions ever created —

the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). These

banks hold the lion’s share of the debt currently owed by the “Third

World”. This debt first accumulated in the 70’s when poorer countries

borrowed in order to develop their economies. But when the world

recession hit in the 80’s huge numbers of countries found they couldn’t

repay their loan — this was when the IMF and WB first stepped in.

TURMOIL

To understand why the so-called “debt crisis” has happened we need to

look back at why the WB and IMF were set up. This relates to when the

world economy collapsed for the first time 70 years ago — an event often

called the Great Depression. One of the major consequences of the Great

Depression was the acknowledgement by those in power that the world

economic system was unstable. This instability has given rise to massive

poverty and social turmoil and, for the elite, one of the most worrying

consequences of this was the trend towards revolution in Europe, Asia

and South America.

When World War II neared conclusion, Bankers and Financiers from the

Western countries met at Breton Woods to consider how best to minimise

future economic instability and collapse. One of the key decisions taken

was to set up the IMF and WB. These two institutions would be financed

by the Western Powers and their primary role would be to “manage” the

international financial markets — realising money in times of shortage,

withdrawing cash in times of surplus. The WB and IMF played a major role

in avoiding a world depression when they took over responsibility for

the “bad debt” incurred by the “Third World” countries by the

mid-1980’s. Much of this debt was initially owed to private banks like

Barclays, Credit Lyons, Chase Manhattan etc. In order to stave off a

disaster (and the collapse of a number of major Western banks) the IMF

and the WB moved in and ‘loaned’ money to a wide range of countries who

were about to default on these loans.

This saved the big “private banks” from disaster, and gave the IMF and

WB a position of overwhelming power that they have never relinquished.

FORCE

Since the mid-1980’s nearly 70 countries in the world have been “forced”

to adopt “Structural Adjustment Programs” as conditions of loans and

infrastructural projects designed and developed by the WB and IMF.

Backed up by the massive economic power of the United States, Japan and

European Union these SAP’s (as they are known) were supposed to “revive”

Third World economies. Instead they have led to disaster and massive

poverty. Because of SAP’s, local economies and wages have collapsed;

basic services like sanitation, water, housing, health and education

have fallen apart. Meanwhile the burden of debt has been forced onto the

poorest of the poor with the result that poverty has increased, life

expectancy has deteriorated and infant mortality has soared.

While it is not difficult to see why the SAP’s have failed (instead of

promoting investment they suck the money supply from local economies) it

is important to remember that these programs were never intended to be

anything other than harsh. More to the point SAP’s have played an

important role in the long-term economic strategy of the West. This

strategy is all about making Third World economies more dependent on (or

“integrated into”!) Western needs and in particular more open to

exploitation by Western multinationals; SAP’s also guarantee the West a

massive supply of cheap labour.

DEMOCRACY??

The power that the IMF and WB now have is enormous. They are dictating

to millions of people how they should live and what they should do. For

many their policies mean a life of harsh exploitation and low wages, or

even an early death.

We all want a world of freedom and justice, in which we have effective

and meaningful control over the conditions of our lives. A world economy

in which the lives of millions are controlled by a small number of

Western bankers leads in the opposite direction. In fact, despite

rampant poverty and desperation in the world, there is a massive surplus

of wealth. The personal fortune of Bill Gates alone would sort out the

major health and educational needs of billions of people (with change

left over). In other words, the problem is not the generation of wealth

but how it is distributed. And the problem of wealth distribution, as we

all know, is one of power and politics. Wealth is distributed according

to the interests of those with the power. After all, why is the “global

South” in such debt? The historic exploitation of Africa, Asia and Latin

America by European imperialism is the root cause not only of the

economic, political, and cultural destabilisation of most of the world’s

people, but the continuing legacy of the WB and IMF themselves. In the

current era, these centralised financial institutions are simply puppets

of the Northern political elite and their corporate bosses, designed to

maintain control on the hands of a few.

What is to be done? Anarchists want a democratic political economy. We

want every “unit” of the world society (down to the smallest workplace,

community and organisation) to be structured along egalitarian lines —

election of managers, assemblies to organise work and work conditions;

participation in active decision-making by all those affected by the

decisions. This is our vision for the “long-term”, but it is also our

model for truly effective organising in the here and now. The use of

top-down leadership will always be prone to the sorts of co-option and

institutionalisation that have afflicted the world’s struggles,

including our own. But when we realise and create our own effective

power, we build momentum for truly revolutionary change. Education and

awareness is the first step in such a task. This is why we participated

in the solidarity action known as S26 during the IMF meeting in Prague

in the Czech Republic at the end of September 2000. S26 was an important

step in bringing world attention to bear on the crime and injustices of

the present ‘debt crisis’. We were there to show our anger at this

insane world!