[afro-nets] Multilateral Institutions Taken Hostage

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Multilateral Institutions Taken Hostage
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from "Nance (PHM)" <nance-phm@netpratique.fr>


Multilateral Institutions Taken Hostage (1)
By Damien Millet and Eric Toussaint (2)

On line:
http://www.cadtm.org/article.php3?id_article=1316


The conservative offensive within the multinational institutions
has scored a few points in recent months. People like us who are
trying to put across a different logic cannot afford to rest yet
awhile. On the other hand, such frustrations nourish the fight-
ing spirit.

Scene 1: on 18 January 2005, Kofi Annan, the Secretary General
of the United Nations (UN), decided to appoint Ann Veneman, Min-
ister of Agriculture in the Bush Administration, as Executive
Director of UNICEF. The USA and Somalia are the only two coun-
tries who refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (189 countries did ratify it). One can well
imagine the pressure Washington put on Kofi Annan to get him to
make such a decision.

Scene 2: on 28 February 2005, Kofi Annan decided to appoint Su-
pachai Panitchpakdi (Thailand) as General Secretary to the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), for
four years as of 1st September. This appointment is somewhat
surprising, considering that the man they call "Dr. Sup" is at
present the head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the fa-
vourite instrument of those who wish to forcibly impose the de-
regulation of the global economy, to the greater profit of in-
ternational finance and trans-national corporations. UNCTAD,
which defends the point of view of the countries of the South,
has nothing to gain by having at its head a man who has consis-
tently demanded particularly unfavourable economic measures for
the poorest countries. Third World countries, under the G77 ban-
ner, have protested at not having been consulted, as they usu-
ally are, before this appointment was made. However rumour has
it that Kofi Annan, his position weakened by the "food for oil"
revelations about Iraq involving his son, gave in easily to the
United States.

Scene 3: on 7 March 2005, George W. Bush chose John Bolton as
the US Ambassador to the United Nations. This man tried to have
Mohamed ElBaradei sacked when ElBaradei was the director of the
UN institution in charge of the Iraq disarmament programme, just
before the war in 2003. It was Bolton who was responsible for
the fact that the United States did not ratify the International
Criminal Court; and he it was who withdrew from the United Na-
tions Conference on Racism in Durban in August 2001. Bolton con-
siders that the UN should on no account impede US foreign pol-
icy. He even went so far as to declare: "Now more than ever the
United Nations needs American leadership".[1] At least his posi-
tions are perfectly clear, if not particularly endearing. His
hostility to the UN is so well-known that a significant number
of American Congressmen (including some Republicans) tried to
oppose the appointment.

Scene 4: on 10 March, George W. Bush announced his decision to
propose Paul Wolfowitz, Number 2 in the Pentagon and a fervent
advocate of the invasion of Iraq 2003, as candidate for the
presidency of the World Bank. There is no doubt that this is the
finishing touch to the events of recent weeks. To begin with,
the procedure for designating the president of the World Bank is
particularly antidemocratic. It is emblematic of an imperialist
conception of diplomatic relations. Whereas good governance is
at the heart of the World Bank's recommendations to countries of
the South, the Bank itself proves unwilling to respect even the
most basic rules of democracy. Do as I say, not as I do! Things
have become so dire that the incumbent president, James Wolfen-
sohn, a New York banker of Australian origin, had to take US
citizenship before being appointed in 1995.

To listen to the officials of the World Bank, you would think
that the sinister structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s
were a thing of the past, and that combating poverty has become
the only worthwhile cause. Yet the World Bank's policies over
the last few decades have faithfully and unfailingly obeyed a
perfect logic. And that logic always and exclusively benefits
the major powers who founded the Bank at Bretton Woods in 1944
(before most African and Asian countries had achieved independ-
ence) and who have never taken their hands off the wheel. This
explains why the presidency always falls into the hands of big
bankers or former US Defence Secretaries. The tradition was al-
ready established in 1968 with the appointment of Robert MacNa-
mara, who conducted the Vietnam War and used the World Bank as a
geo-political tool to help the United States' strategic allies.
During the first five years of MacNamara's presidency, the World
Bank granted more loans to developing countries than in the pre-
vious 23 years of its existence. The aim was to acquire the
right to oversee policies conducted by its clients. This was how
he supported the USA's strategic allies (such as Mobutu of then
Zaire, the Brazilian and Argentine dictatorships, Pinochet in
Chile, Suharto in Indonesia, Marcos in the Philippines, etc.).
There is no doubt that Wolfowitz will follow the line of this
kind of president, using the World Bank for geo-political ends.

Officially, all the World Bank administrators could block the
proposed appointment. This has already happened at the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF), where the Managing Director is al-
ways a European. In 2000, when the Frenchman Michel Camdessus
left office, the German Finance Secretary of the time, Caio
Koch-Weser, who was the European candidate, was vetoed by the
USA, and the Europeans finally agreed on Horst Köhler. Yet at
the World Bank, the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz won unanimous
approval, proving that the 24 groups of countries represented
are perfectly happy with it. It is worth noting that most Euro-
pean countries are hoping that the United States will return the
favour. The French government is manoeuvring to get Pascal Lamy
elected Managing Director of the WTO and Bernard Kouchner to
take over the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR); the Belgian
government is pushing forward Marc Verwilghen's candidature for
the same post; the British are angling for the United Nations
Programme for Development. Not to mention the countries that
want the US support in getting a permanent seat on the Security
Council: Germany, Japan, Brazil, India, South Africa, Nigeria.
However unethical, the intense bargaining never ceases.

How is it that the presidency of the World Bank has never been
entrusted to a Third World citizen, in the front line against
the challenges of human development? Indeed, Joseph Stiglitz, a
former Number Two of the World Bank and Nobel prize-winner for
Economics in 2001, declared: "Choosing the right general in the
war on poverty cannot guarantee victory, but choosing the wrong
one increases the risk of defeat". The only explanation for this
choice is that the real war is not on poverty, despite the offi-
cial discourse of those who, even as they speak, continue to im-
pose policies which spread destitution.

The legitimacy of multilateral institutions such as the World
Bank and the IMF is called into question. The events of the last
few months demonstrate beyond any shadow of a doubt the crying
need for a different international architecture!

(1) This opinion was published (in French and in an adapted
form) by the Belgian daily Le SOIR on 16 April 2005, under the
heading "Des institutions multilaterales prises en otage" (Mul-
tilateral Institutions Taken Hostage) in the Forum column.

(2) Damien Millet is president of CADTM France, Eric Toussaint
is president of CADTM Belgium (Committee for the Abolition of
the Third World Debt). They co-authored the book "Who Owes Who?"
published by Zedbooks, London, 2004 and "The Debt Scam" pub-
lished by VAK, Mumbai, 2003. CADTM Site: http://www.cadtm.org

Translated by Vicki Briault Manus CADTM France
_____

[1] Financial Times, 12 avril 2005