the international community commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods agreement which led to the founding of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the GATT.
The Structural Agreement Programmes imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions to obtain the reinbursement of the debt have led to famine and the brutal impoverishment of the developing world while contributing to the 'third worldization' of the countries in the former Eastern bloc.
While the World Bank's mandate consists, amongst others, in "combating poverty" and protecting the environment its actions have contributed to the dismantling of health and education programmes. Its electric and agro-industrial projects has speeded up the process of deforestation and cles of the destruction of the natural envi- Organisation. ronment, leading to the forced displacement of several million people. In the South and the East hundreds of millions of undernourished children are denied the fundamental right of primary education.
In several regions of the tional trade policies. world the brutal compression of social expenditure, combined with the collapse of purchasing power, has led to resurgence of infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and cholera.
The GATT agreement further violates fundamental people's rights, particularly in the areas of foreign investment, biodiversity and intellectual property rights. Several clauses Programmes are now perma- enterprises. nently entrenched in the arti- In the South, the East and the World Trade North a privileged social miThe WTO's nority has accumulated vast mandate consists in regulating amounts of wealth at the exworld trade to the benefit of the pense of the large majority of international banks and tranna- the population. This new intertional corporations as well as national financial order feeds 'supervising' (in close collabo- on human poverty, the destrucration with the IMF and World tion of the natural environment, Bank) the enforcement of na- generates social apartheid, encourages racism and ethnic In the developed countries strife, undermines the rights of of the North, similar socially women and often precipitates oppressive economic polices in countries destructive conare now being applied. The frontations between nationaliconsequences are unemploy- ties. ment, low wages, the marginal- The time has come for huisation of large sectors of the manity to forcefully respond population, and racism and establish a agenda for soSocial expenditures are cur- cial change. tailed and many of the achieve- signed — citizens, workers, ments of the Welfare State teachers, writers, artists, civil repealed. State policies have servants, trades unionists, also encouraged the destruc- members of Non-Governmenthe worid — • reassert the fundamental right of people to national economic sovereignty, democratic development and social justice.
We denounce this destrucI 'World Bank, IMF, WTO: Enough!" I Name Address Post Code 1 Fax I Occupation | Organisation (optional) We the under- I Signature reasserting our firm opposition to the interference of the Bretton Woods institutions and the new World Trade Organisation in the internal affairs of sovereign states. Tiwe endorse the International Appeal: --Tel Email
Socialist Outlook 98 • March 2, 1996.