Volume 1, No. 4, June 2000

After Seattle, violent demonstrations against imperialism and their institutions have gained tempo. Then it was against the WTO, now it is against the World Bank, IMF and Asia Development Bank (ADB). This years May Day demonstrations too, were marked by pitched battles with the police in many cities of Europe.

The month of mid-April/mid-May witnessed four major international meetings — the bi-annual spring meeting of the World Bank and IMF at Washington; the Group 77 meeting in Cuba; the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) meeting in Columbia; and the Asian Development Bank meeting in Thailand. The first and last meetings were held under a virtual siege by thousands of demonstrators; while the Group 77 meet saw even a number of comprador governments speak up against the impact of globalisation in the third world.

The contrast was striking. On the one hand, the sentiment against imperialism, specifically US imperialism, was seen to be growing. On the other hand, the Indian lackeys were seen to be cringing more and more towards imperialism, particularly US imperialism. Both these trends were evident in and around these meetings.

The Yeshwant Sinhas, Jaswant Singh and gang have acquired a new-found pompous arrogance, bloated and puffed up by US flattery. Programmed by US imperialist software, they merely reproduce their master’s voice .... but with an air of originality, that would put to shame India’s best cine actors. Experts in the art of duplicity, they wallow and grovel before their imperialist bosses, but act as pompous asses before the media and at international fora, mouthing pre-programmed imperialist trash.

So, at the IMF/World Bank meet of Finance Ministers, Yeshwant Sinha lectured at length on the need to restructure the IMF in order to strengthen its role. While, the entire third world has been devastated by IMF conditionalities, Sinha calls for strengthening its role in world affairs !! Not surprisingly, the very next day the Group-7 countries(of the major imperialist powers) after a separate meeting, issued a statement, of their resolve to push ahead with the restructuring of the two bodies. To strengthen the IMF, defacto means, to strength US hegemony and TNC loot.

At the ADB’s 33rd annual general meeting held in early May, Sinha’s servility to US policy was even more blatant. This meeting was marked by a clash of interests between the US and Japan, with the latter persisting in their demand for setting up an Asia Monetary Fund (AMF). This has been actively supported by most ASEAN countries, having faced humiliating IMF conditionalities during the recent bail out. At this meeting, the US representative, Truman, sought to undermine the ADB, seeing it as a challenge to their own global hegemony asserted through the Fund/Bank combine. Here, Truman and Sinha spoke exactly similar words against the AMF.

A similar role was witnessed at the two other meets. Prior to the Group 77 meet, the US sought to arm-twist countries not to attend the meeting, being hosted by the ‘rouge state’ Cuba. This fact was openly stated by the Indonesian president, who said that Thomas Pickering had been specifically dispatched to Jakarta to dissuade him from attending the meeting.

Significantly, Vajpayee, who had earlier announced that he would be going to Cuba, suddenly changed his mind after Clinton’s visit to this country. Even the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, who was in neighbouring Columbia just a day earlier, attending the NAM meeting, did not attend the Cuba meet. Instead the HRD minister Murali Manohar Joshi, was sent to put in a nominal appearance.

The five-day summit at Havana of the Group 77, was attended by 133 countries, of which 42 were heads-of-state. Castro set the tune by outlining the disastrous impact of globalisation on the third world. This tune was taken up by speaker after speaker, with the Indian representative totally silent. Ofcourse, being comprador rulers themselves, they had no solutions to offer, except to beg for a few more crumbs from the imperialist cake.

Even at the more mild 13th summit of the foreign ministers of NAM, Jaswant Singh sought to divert the agenda. Here, the whimperings were even milder than at the Group 77 meet. The main theme was globalisation and humanitarian intervention, with the delegates pleading for more doles from the imperialists, and pathetic appeals that the less developed countries should not be marginalised. The Indian delegation totally digressed from the main theme of the summit, focussing on international terrorism. In fact, a few days before the summit, the minister of state for External Affairs, Ajit Kumar Panja, went so far as to question the very relevance of NAM, saying that India has emerged as a loser because of its long association with the organisation. At the summit itself, Jaswant Singh pushed the new US-India geo-political goals, saying that ‘democratic’ rule should be a criteria for membership to NAM. This, in effect, targeted Pakistan, the Taliban, Myanmar and had nothing to do with the NAM agenda.

At these meetings the Indian rulers seemed in desperate haste to prove to the imperialist chieftains, that they are ‘more loyal than the king’. The vulgar display of servility by India, surprised even some of the comprador rulers of the other countries, having always been seen as a supporters of Cuba, Iraq, Palestinians etc., against the US.

But while the Indian rulers cringed before Bank/Fund officials, the masses rose in loud protest outside the venue.

The Washington headquarters of the IMF/World Bank, was, defacto, turned into a war-zone to facilitate the holding of its semi-annual meeting from April 15 to 17th. The police had made elaborate preparations to prevent a Seattle from recurring. As students had been demonstrating against ‘corporate greed’, they closed down the George Washington University for five days, and banned guests from staying at the campus. They declared a holiday for government employees and warned them not to enter the ‘war-zone’. The IMF/World Bank buildings were barricaded, with a massive police cordon thrown around both buildings. And on the very first morning of the meeting the police stormed the headquarters of the protestors, closing down their meeting place.

But inspite of these preparations, some 30,000 demonstrators formed a human chain around the building preventing delegates from reaching the venue. The way was cleared by the use of tear gas, pepper sprays and the arrest of 600 activists. Many delegates reached late and the meeting was disrupted. The next day, inspite of the police high-handedness the demonstrators continued shouting slogans against the Bank/Fund combine portraying them as agents of the TNCs. The delegates had to sneak into the venue hall by coming two hours early. Yet many could not make it. Finally, whatever meeting was actually managed by the finance ministers, was under heavy armed guard, surrounded by thousands of slogan-shouting demonstrators.

This was again repeated at the ADB meeting in Thailand. Here 25,000 demonstrators, belonging to 38 organisations, smashed the police barricades around the 5-star hotels housing the delegates and pushed the police force backwards. The government had to call in the Thai Border Security Force and army to hold back the demonstrators, using lathis, tear gas,water cannons, etc. At the venue of the meeting the demonstrators ripped down the barricades, broke through the police cordon, and were prevented from entering the gates, only after the forces regrouped and launched a vicious attack at the very entrance of the premises. Behind the building another group of protestors, battled riot police. The demonstrators demanded to know "who was running this country" and to "kick the ADB out of Thailand."

Meanwhile, in Europe, May Day was celebrated with violent protests. In America hundreds of protestors took to the streets in US financial centres. In Berlin, leftists briefly clashed with neo-nazis and later fought pitched battles with the police. Thousands fought the police armed with water canons, clubs, tear gas and riot shields. About 50 persons were injured in separate clashes in the port city of Hamburg. In London thousands rampaged through the city disfiguring statues of imperialist chieftains (like Churchill, Gen. Smuts, etc.,) dug up the grass at parliament square and attacked the McDonald’s restaurant. In the pitched battle that followed with the police, shops and cars were smashed and about 100 people arrested. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in an angry outburst abused the demonstrators as "mindless thugs", praising the real imperialist thugs, Churchill and Gen. Smuts.

The events of this month show that while a section of the ruling classes are capitulating totally to the imperialist offensive, there is a rising tide of opposition to the imperialist policies of globalisation. And, with each passing day, more and more people are taking to the streets to voice their protests.

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