World Bank/IMF Protest Forum Takes a Step Away from Engagement

 
As in 1999, the World Bank and the IMF will face protests during their annual meeting in April. The cast of characters is changing, however. Many of the most serious proponents of engagement have become disgusted with the lack of results of their efforts. One important group, the Development GAP, will hold an event at the same time that many others will be preparing to take to the streets in Washington, D.C. The tone of the event's announcement is explosive, considering this group's efforts over many years to work within the World Bank structure. It marks the continuation of a trend observed at the World Social Forum - radicalization and rejection. This trend leaves little hope for rational transition between the extremes. In today's world, it seems, you are either with the bank or against it. In reality, and this might take some thought, the only beneficiary of this trend toward polarization is likely to be protectionism.

Development GAP plans to hold an alternative forum in Washington on April 18-19. The group claims to be acting on behalf of the global civil society network SAPRIN, in collaboration with the 50 Years Is Enough Network, International Rivers Network and other social change organizations. The stated purpose "is to address the intransigence of the World Bank and its principal board members on policy issues that are of critical interest and importance to civil society."

According to the group, the bank's efforts at engagement have actually been part of a deliberate strategy "to divide and discredit"" civil society organizations.

It reports "widespread dissatisfaction among civil society participants in the bank's performance," arguing that "time after time, the bank has failed to honor its commitments."

The forum will feature presentations by speakers representing organizations and networks that have followed a policy of engagement with the bank. "Those involved," the organizers claim, "are united in the belief in the need for continued pressure on the bank and its sister global economic institutions and their G-7 and corporate constituencies through activism, citizen mobilization and public protest in the South and North." Among the topics to be discussed are "the devastating consequences of bank-promoted structural adjustment policies, as well as a report on the bank's failure to follow through on its commitments." The forum will end with presentations on mobilization and protest and a public discussion of strategies for change.

Updates about the forum will be available on the following web sites:
SAPRIN: www.saprin.org
The Development GAP: www.developmentgap.org 
50 Years Is Enough Network: www.50years.org
International Rivers Network: www.irn.org