>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Following is a shortened version of an article posted on the >International Action Center website 3/26/00. It raises the point that >much of the literature about the April 16 protest in Washington, while >strongly opposed to the IMF and WTO, says little about the struggle >against imperialism and the intimate relationship between the Pentagon >and corporate globalization. The full article is at >www.iacenter.org/imfworld.htm. >--Jack A. Smith, Mid-Hudson Natoinal People's Campaign. > >IMF/WORLD BANK, GLOBALIZATION >AND U.S. MILITARISM > >By Richard Becker > >It is impossible, without mutilating reality and doing great disservice >to the people's movement, to separate the struggle against the >International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the World Trade Organization >from the struggle against U.S. imperialism, its military aggression >abroad and repression at home. > >Big demonstrations against the IMF and the World Bank on April 16-17 in >Washington are now in the final planning stages. Many organizations have >poured time, energy and resources into these actions, which are aimed at >shutting down the semi-annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. > >The opposition to these two predatory institutions--which have wreaked >such >great suffering on the oppressed countries and peoples of the world for >more than a half-century--comes from a wide range of organizations >including progressive religious groups, unions, anarchists, and >solidarity and political groups. > >Some organizers have billed the DC protests as "Seattle East"-- a >follow-up to the mass actions that disrupted the World Trade >Organization in Seattle in late >November/early December of last year. The events on April 16-17 promise >to be the biggest manifestation of opposition to the IMF and World Bank >yet seen inside the United States. > >As generally progressive and important as this mobilization is, there is >a glaring >omission in much of the organizing. There is almost no mention of the >relationship between globalization and U.S. militarism and repression. >This is not a secondary or side issue. > >U.S. imperialist domination is the number-one problem, the main obstacle >to real development and progress for the people of the world. And >military superiority above all is what makes the United States the >leading imperial power. > >>From Washington's point of view, the aim of globalization-- breaking >down all >barriers to capital's worldwide exploitation--is not just "corporate >domination" in >the general sense, but U.S. corporate domination. To achieve this >domination, the ruling establishment often uses economic, political, >diplomatic and military >means in an integrated strategy, as they have against Iraq and >Yugoslavia. > >Maximizing profit is, of course, what drives the system. But maintaining >its dominant position in the world economic and political order is the >guiding principle of U. S. strategic doctrine. Globalization yes, but >globalization with U.S. capital in the driver's seat. > >In its drive to maintain global hegemony, the IMF, World Bank and WTO >are instruments of U.S. policy. The enforcing arm is the Pentagon.... > >Since 1940, Washington has spent the unimaginable sum of $20 trillion >($20,000,000,000,000!) on the military--enough money to have provided >for adequate nutrition, clean water, electrification, housing, literacy, >and basic health care for the world's entire population. In the next >four years alone an additional $1.2 trillion will go down the military >rathole. > >Today the U.S. military budget is bigger than that of the rest of the >United Nations Security Council members combined. This bloated military >establishment exists to protect and serve U.S. capital--not only to >extend and maintain its domination in what used to be called the Third >World, the oppressed countries, but also vis-a-vis its imperialist >allies and rivals. > >U.S. strategy employs economic, financial, diplomatic, political and >military means to achieve its ends. As Thomas Friedman, a leading >mouthpiece for U.S. imperialism, put it in his New York Times column, >the military is the indispensable "hidden fist" making imperialist >globalization work. Friedman wrote this column four days after the start >of the 1999 bombing war against Yugoslavia.... > >To be effective, the movement resisting imperialist domination must >fight against U.S. wars and intervention everywhere, at the same time >that it struggles against the IMF, World Bank and WTO. > >It also must resist any attempt to line the movement up with one faction >or >another in the U.S. ruling class in its struggle against the People's >Republic of China. This emerging movement would be disoriented and >eventually demobilized if it supported the call to exclude China from >the WTO or deny it normal trade status. (end) > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
