IMF
MARKET
REFORM AND CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION
Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History and African
Studies, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Connecticut,
USA.
A.
Most current Structural Adjustment and Economic Reform Programs around
the world have a common international context of origin. In this site
we explore some of the various dimensions of the IMF record not only in
Africa but also in Asia and the Caribbean because we observe similarities
in terms of initial conditions, imposed conditionalities, ideological
orientations, implicit and explicit objectives and impact on the countries
hosting the IMF programs.
These consequences include the following:
Forced devaluation
Forced privatization
A free fall in the value of the domestic currency
Lower purchasing power
A fall in the standard of living
Unemployment and retrenchment of workers
Inflation and the phenomenon of rising prices
Food riots and social unrest
Challenges to trade unions and labor
Substantial challenges to human rights organizations
Increased mortality because of the compulsory removal of subsidies on
health Declines in school attendance along gender lines Challenges towards
democratic governance The rise and/or consolidation of military dictatorships
De-industrialization as the economies are inundated with cheap foreign
products Reduction in the number of nationals owning industries due to
privatization and an invasion of foreign capitalists Intensified unequal
development amongst ethnic groups Ethnic tension Transfer of as much as
40% of the domestic budget in debt repayment to the creditors/bankers
of Euro-America
De facto loss of sovereignty The feminization of poverty
Child Labor- reluctantly sanctioned by impoverished/"SAPPED"
parents who depend on the child's meager supplement to make ends meet.
The proliferation of terrorist organizations, armed conflict or/and resistance
movements- with recruits from the expanding army of the unemployed .
B.
REGIONAL EXAMPLES
The above effects have been documented extensively in Nigeria, Zimbabwe,
Zambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and other African countries.
In the Caribbean, Jamaica is a classic example. Indonesia and South Korea
are among the most recent in Asia. In most instances democratization becomes
more and more illusory since dictatorial generals or factions of the army
sympathetic to the draconian IMF conditionalities have often seized power.
The Babangida coup of 1985 in Nigeria is a great example. This coup has
been called "the IMF coup." In Somalia and Rwanda, total chaos
and ethnic conflict ensued as the national pie shrunk and unequal development
amongst regions and between one ethnic group and another, intensified.
The IMF cannot always be blamed for the crises preceding the bailout.
In several cases domestic elites plundered the wealth of their countries
and engaged in blatant mismanagement of national resources. Often they
were associated with the wastage of resources in non-productive prestige
projects and siphoned off vital resources to Swiss and other Western banks.
We should note, though,that the IMF prescription has seldom helped to
solve the crisis and the agents and agencies that seem to gain from its
advice are in most cases foreign banking and financial institutions, invariably
protected by the IMF.Poor peasants, factory workers and civil servants
usually pay the price of the draconian conditionalities imposed by the
IMF rescue squad. The organization seems to be unconcerned about the ill
effects of its program or 'progrom.' It pushes on with its campaign for
the removal of subsidies in poor economies whilst turning a blind eye
to the massive use of subsidies in agriculture and the aviation industry,
in the United States and Europe.This point was courageously made in Cancun
Mexico at the annual meeting of the WTO, a sister organization created
in 1995.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READINGS
Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents,Penguin,
2002
Kristin Dawkins, Global Governance,Open Media,
2003
Arianna Huffington,Pigs At The Trough,Crown Publishers,
2003
David Korten, When Corporations Rule The World,Kumarian,2001
Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,
Penguin, 2003
Patrick Bond, Against Global Apartheid,University
of Cape Town Press, 2001
Walden Bello,Dark Victory,The United States and
Global Poverty,Pluto Press, 1994
Walden Bello,Deglobalization:Ideas for a New World
Economy,Zed Books,2002
John Pilger,The New Rulers Of The World,Verso,2002
Gloria Emeagwali(ed.), Women Pay the Price: Structural Adjustment in Africa
and the Caribbean, New Jersey, AWP.
IMF Reports
Africa's Debt- World Bank Report
C.
In Nigeria, the Shagari civilian regime fell into
the debt trap by 1983
A military coup was launched.The newly established Buhari-Idiabon regime
was clearly unwilling to do business with the IMF. Buhari envisaged barter,
direct counter trade with Brazil and other Third World economies and other
innovations as an option
A pro-IMF coup was staged by Ibrahim Babangida, endorsing the draconian
conditionalities.
Street protests, Indonesian-style, engulfed the nation. Many died. Students
were killed.
But Babangida got the sanction of the IMF and new bailout loans.
Riots continued. Democratic opposition was silenced and their leaders
jailed indefinitely, 1994
BUT Babangida went laughing to the Swiss banks
Eventually another military heavyweight, seized the baton in a new coup
d'etat and a new wave of riots and imprisonment continued : A "gentleman"s"
agreement?
General Abacha aimed at becoming a new civilian president, 1998
The US administration endorsed the plan. His death in June 1998 buried
this project and many gave a sigh of relief.
Needless to say that the removal of subsidy on health and education continued.The
Nigerian education system continued to crumble under the weight of IMF
conditionalities
Babangida stayed in the background and continued to enjoy a multi-billion
fortune.
General Abdulsalam Abubakar, a new military leader
promised to initiate democratization processes and return the trigger-happy
soldiers to the barracks in free and open elections.This he apparently
did. In 1999 and 2003 respectively, Olusegun Obasanjo, a former head of
state and military leader won the Presidential election. We shall comment
on the new developments from time to time.
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ASIA
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The Tsunami of 2004
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1.Chronology and detailed focus on the Asian Crisis
(Roubini, NYU)
2.What is the IMF's Agenda for Asia (Walden Bello)
3.The IMF Korea Bailout
4.Asian Studies
MAIN PAGE :
JUBILEE 2000 launched a praiseworthy campaign for
the eradication of massive Third World debt-repayment to rich countries
on Friday 15th May 1998. The Seattle,Washington DC. and Prague protests
of 2000 have been done in this spirit and so too, that of Quebec, Canada,
April 2001.Some of the issues highlighted in this site were discussed
by Dr Gloria Emeagwali at the Conference on Globalization: Towards the
year 2000, University of Central Lancashire, Preston,UK, April 24-26,
1998; and also at the weekly seminar of the CCCRW, Institute for Development
Studies, QEH, Oxford University, UK, May 18, 2000
Dr. Gloria Emeagwali, Professor of History and
African Studies, CCSU, New Britain, CT06050, USA.
Phone:860-832-2815
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