The Resistance
The stark fact that the Fund and the Bank now operate with
reverse capital flows - in other words they take more money
out of the Third World than they put back in - is sobering
for those who believed these institutions were there to
help. Peoples of the Third World are resisting structural
adjustment either through street riots or less
confrontational politics. Protest too is coming from the
four million people uprooted or to be uprooted by World Bank
mega-projects, particularly the building of large dams.
Rejection of all things Western is on the rise.
Fundamentalism and the politics of ethnic exclusion (from
Somalia to India) are turning political costs into military
ones. And the Bretton Woods institutions themselves are
coming under direct pressure from community activists and
environmentalists calling for either their reform or
outright abolition. After 50 years the decisions reached at
Bretton Woods need some fundamental rethinking.
Many of these themes will be explored at the People's Summit
from June 11 to 18, 1995 in Halifax.
Go to the P7 Events Page