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Fight Back! is a newspaper covering the people's struggles for justice. You can check back issues here by edition or by topic. |
¡Lucha y Resiste! es un periódico que cubre la lucha del pueblo para la justicia. Se puede leer ediciones anteriores por número o por tema. |
What are the World Bank & IMF?
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, which was the target of protests in Seattle last year, are the pillars of a global order, which creates huge profits for multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, farmers, and poor people.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were created by the United States and other major capitalist powers after World War II. Both institutions lend money to Third World governments. These loans come with strings attached, including agreements that Third World governments sell off state-run industries, abolish price supports that hold down the prices for things people need, and cut spending for social programs.
Many of the governments getting these loans are dominated by the Western powers or Japan. Foreign corporations have looted their economies. One result is those countries who have gone deep into debt, will never be able to repay the IMF/World Bank loans, so they are forced to squander their wealth making interest payments.
The big capitalist countries also dominate the World Trade Organization. Founded in 1995, the WTO deals with trade disputes, banking regulations, agricultural subsidies, and a host of other economic issues.
The reality of this global order is, workers and poor people lose their right to basic services like health care and education, and then have to work under slave-like conditions in sweatshops that make goods sold in the U.S. Workers who are producing the goods are denied their basic rights, such as the right to organize a union. In addition, racist, anti-immigrant policies in the U.S. make it illegal for workers to leave their home countries in search of better paying jobs. Workers are locked into a system that exploits them, paying them a few pennies to produce goods, which are then sold in the U.S. for hundreds of dollars.
The end result is the further concentration of wealth into the hands of the few, and pushing down wages in the never-ending hunt for cheaper labor.