Monday 6 June 2011

When the IMF are endorsing the Tories, it's time to fightback!

So, the International Monetary Fund has supported the right wing, neo-liberal agenda of the Tories? Well that is hardly surprising! Many working in the field of development have campaigned against the IMF for decades because it has always sided with the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.

The IMF, like Cameron, have disguised their language to sound as if they really care about the most vulnerable, but in practice, their policies have continued to follow the rules of the 'Washington Consensus'. Privatisation, trade liberalisation, erosion of public services (especially health and education) and the steady decline of democracy, as power is handed over to international finance bodies and trans-nationals.

The IMF has often wrecked national economies by offering a simplistic 'one size fits all' approach in formulating their policies. They also fall short of being a model of transparency, and have become synonymous with unaccountable and undemocratic governance. There are far too many examples of destructive social and economic impacts following the imposition of IMF policies for us not to be worried about their comments regarding the UK.

Now that the IMF have endorsed Tory economic policies, it is clear that we need to redouble our efforts to resist them!

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