http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2066703,00.html
The Guardian Friday April 27, 2007
The World Bank has the perfect standard bearer
The bank's credibility was already fatally compromised by hypocrisies far
greater than those of Wolfowitz
By Naomi Klein
It's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy. That's the line on Paul
Wolfowitz coming from editorial pages around the world. It's neither: not
the act (the way he disregarded the rules to get his girlfriend a pay rise);
and not the hypocrisy (the fact that Wolfowitz's mission as World Bank
president is fighting for "good governance").
First, let's dispense with the supposed hypocrisy problem. "Who wants to be
lectured on corruption by someone telling them to 'Do as I say, not as I
do'?" asked one journalist. No one, of course. But that's a pretty good
description of the game of one-way strip poker that is our global trade
system, in which the United States and Europe - via the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation - tell the
developing world: "You take down your trade barriers and we'll keep ours
up." From farm subsidies to the Dubai Ports World scandal, hypocrisy is our
economic order's guiding principle.
Wolfowitz's only crime was taking his institution's international posture to
heart. The fact that he has responded to the scandal by hiring a celebrity
lawyer and shopping for a leadership "coach" is just more evidence that he
has fully absorbed the World Bank way: when in doubt, blow the budget on
overpriced consultants and call it aid.
The more serious lie at the centre of the controversy is the implication
that the World Bank was an institution that had impeccable ethical
credentials - until, according to 42 former World Bank executives, its
credibility was "fatally compromised" by Wolfowitz. (Many American liberals
have seized on this fairytale, addicted to the fleeting rush that comes from
forcing neocons to resign.)
The truth is that the bank's credibility was fatally compromised when it
forced school fees on students in Ghana in exchange for a loan; when it
demanded that Tanzania privatise its water system; when it made telecom
privatisation a condition of aid for Hurricane Mitch; when it demanded
labour "flexibility" in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami;
when it pushed for eliminating food subsidies in post-invasion Iraq.
Ecuadoreans care little about Wolfowitz's girlfriend; more pressing is that
in 2005 the World Bank withheld a promised $100m after the country dared to
spend a portion of its oil revenues on health and education. Some
anti-poverty organisation.
But the area where the World Bank has the most tenuous claim to moral
authority is in the fight against corruption. Almost everywhere that mass
state pillage has taken place over the past four decades, the World Bank and
the IMF have been first on the scene of the crime. And no, they have not
been looking the other way as the locals lined their pockets; they have been
writing the ground rules for the theft and yelling "Faster, please!" - a
process known as rapid-fire shock therapy.
Russia under the leadership of the recently departed Boris Yeltsin was a
case in point. Beginning in 1990, the World Bank led the charge for the
former Soviet Union to impose immediately what it called "radical reform".
When Mikhail Gorbachev refused to go along, Yeltsin stepped up. This
bulldozer of a man would not let anything or anyone stand in the way of the
Washington-authored programme, including Russia's elected politicians.
After Yeltsin ordered army tanks to open fire on demonstrators in October
1993, killing hundreds and leaving the parliament building blackened by
flames, the stage was set for the fire-sale privatisations of Russia's most
precious state assets to the so-called oligarchs. Of course, the World Bank
was there. Of the democracy-free lawmaking frenzy that followed Yeltsin's
coup, Charles Blitzer, the World Bank's chief economist on Russia, told the
Wall Street Journal: "I've never had so much fun in my life."
When Yeltsin left office, his family had become inexplicably wealthy, while
several of his deputies were enmeshed in bribery scandals. These incidents
were reported in the west, as they always are, as unfortunate local
embellishments on an otherwise ethical economic modernisation project. In
fact, corruption was embedded in the very idea of shock therapy.
The whirlwind speed of change was crucial to overcoming the widespread
rejection of the reforms, but it also meant that by definition there could
be no supervision. Moreover, the payoffs for local officials were an
indispensable incentive for Russia's apparatchiks to create the wide-open
market that Washington was demanding. The bottom line is that there is good
reason that corruption has never been a high priority for the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund - their officials understand that when
enlisting politicians to advance an economic agenda guaranteed to win those
politicians furious enemies at home, there generally has to be a little in
it for the politicians in bank accounts abroad.
Russia is far from unique. From Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator who
managed to accumulate more than 125 bank accounts while building the world's
first neoliberal state, to Carlos Menem, the Argentinian president who drove
around in a bright red Ferrari Testarossa while liquidating his country, to
Iraq's "missing billions" today, there is in every country a class of
ambitious and bloody-minded politicians who are willing to act as western
subcontractors. They will take a fee, and that fee is called corruption -
the silent but ever present partner in the crusade to privatise the
developing world.
The three main institutions at the heart of that crusade are in crisis - not
because of the small hypocrisies, but because of the big ones. The World
Trade Organisation cannot get back on track, the International Monetary Fund
is going broke, displaced by Venezuela and China. And now the World Bank is
going down.
The Financial Times reports that when World Bank managers dispensed advice,
"they were now laughed at". Perhaps we should all laugh at the World Bank.
What we should absolutely not do, however, is participate in the effort to
cleanse the bank's ruinous history by repeating the absurd narrative that
the reputation of an otherwise laudable anti-poverty organisation has been
sullied by one man. The bank understandably wants to throw Wolfowitz
overboard. I say: let the ship go down with the captain.
• A version of this article appears in the Nation
***
Memos and suggested actions and what you can do
from United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
==========
Yesterday President Bush vetoed the $124 billion Iraq war
funding bill, because it included a timid troop
withdrawal plan.
Unfortunately, the Democrats in Congress now seem to
think that they must compromise with the arrogant,
incompetent administration that led us into war, rather
than stand up for us, our troops and the Iraqis. If we
do not create a national outcry right now, Congress
will capitulate and simply give Bush the money he wants
to continue the war.
Let's make some noise!
* Don't get up from your computer until you've sent
a letter to the editor of your local paper -- you
can do so here, with just a few clicks.
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BnAoVx1AgTJ0lhDQMPeFWu6qHlkeEd9J>
* Call local radio talk shows, and jam the Capitol
Hill switchboard (202-224-3121) with calls to your
senators and representatives. Click here for
talking points.
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ElUE0Rff0N5xbiCmpLEhS20vWLK9dVGO>
* Download and deliver "The People's Emergency
Funding Bill,"
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ODNK4%2F%2FGawt0lhDQMPeFWu6qHlkeEd9J>
by fax or in person, to your representative's and
senators' local and Washington, DC offices. (Click
here to find their office addresses and fax
numbers.)
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZZrm20FiJHpxbiCmpLEhS20vWLK9dVGO>
* Find out if there is an activity already planned
near you,
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=VTKqu65c%2Fc1xbiCmpLEhS20vWLK9dVGO>
and then call everyone you know and urge them to
join you there. Be sure to bring a sign with a
clear message -- e.g, Congress: Stand Up to Bush!
More actions are listed on MoveOn.org.
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=4MsTniUH%2FOlxbiCmpLEhS20vWLK9dVGO>
* If you can't find a local protest, you can put
one together quickly, with even just a friend or
two. Here are a few ideas:
* Street Actions: vigils, rallies, cell-phone-
a-thons, street theater;
* Banner Drop: Make big banners, and hang them
from highway overpasses, buildings or other
prominent places;
* Actions Inside and/or Outside Congressional
Offices: Read letters from military families,
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp
?v=2&c=iFGRsfIKezxxbiCmpLEhS20vWLK9dVGO>
hold a vigil, organize a picket, or do street
theater.
Find more details about organizing these kinds of
actions and more click here.
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=3pU1O%2Fkj9%2FRxbiCmpLEhS20vWLK9dVGO>
If you do organize an action, be sure to post it on our
events calendar so others can find it.
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=KOCAm3o9yRNxbiCmpLEhS20vWLK9dVGO>
While it is critical to raise our voices now, we should
not be surprised if Congress ends up giving the
president the money he wants without any ties to
specific troop withdrawal plans, even weak ones. But
our outcry now will set the stage and build pressure
for the next struggle: In the coming days Congress will
begin to debate the Defense budget. This will be
another key opportunity for Congress to use its power
to end the war and bring all the troops home, now!
We'll do our best to keep you posted on these and other
developments.
Yours, for peace and justice,
Leslie Cagan
National Coordinator, UFPJ
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