Protest against capitalist IMF

    THOUSANDS OF people will be converging on Prague to protest against the meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) taking place there between 27-28 September.

    Rob Crowhurst

    The IMF is a major global capitalist institution. It exists to help profit-hungry multinational companies exploit the world’s people and resources. It does this by imposing ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes’ on the countries of the ex-colonial world and eastern Europe.

    This means blackmailing these countries into opening up their economies to Western banks and corporations.

    The brutal neo-liberal policies of privatisation and of labour deregulation that the IMF forces on these countries does nothing to help ordinary people as the capitalists cynically claim. In fact it means the opposite, ie, mass poverty, unemployment, disease, wars and massive environmental destruction.

    The recent G8 summit in Japan, highlights the fact that the world’s financial institutions, backed up by their governments, are incapable of solving the problems caused by capitalism. Claims of halving the number of people living in poverty, speeding up debt relief and tackling Aids, etc, are just empty gestures to try and quell the anger of protesters.

    Similar statements were made at last year’s summit in Cologne. To date little or nothing has happened. Only nine of the 25 countries scheduled for debt relief have received any.

    The US, who promised $600 million, hasn’t delivered a cent and the EU and Japan have used this as an excuse to delay their own contributions .

    Over the last year anti-capitalist demonstrations have taken place around the world including London, Seattle and Washington. More and more people are questioning the role of these parasitic institutions as well as capitalism itself .

    The Socialist Party and its sister organisations in the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) in Europe will be mobilising for the demonstration in Prague. Come along and join us.

    • Book your place on our transport. Write to Socialist Party PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD. Tel: 020 8988 8777 or email prague @socialistparty.org.uk