[lbo-talk] IMF = Slums. Slums = Viral Hothouse. Viral Hothouse =Mass Death

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Feb 3 10:11:43 PST 2004


Ulhas:
> India's doesn't owe any money to IMF. India is not subject to any IMF
conditionalities.
> India's FX reserves are about $105 bn and has been prepaying foreign
debt in recent years.
> There is no point in blaming IMF for urban squalor in India. Indian
state's indifference,
> dispersed/unorganised state of urban poor and their inability to
influence state policy are
> primarily responsible for this state of affairs.I am not defending
IMF.
>

WS: I think your point is well-taken, and it also pertains to other parts of the world. The IMF "structural adjustment" policies (imho, an ideologically driven effort to "stomp out the reds" and eliminate all vestiges of state socialism) may have inadvertently contributed to the growth of slums and poverty, but are not a cause, let alone the main one.

One need to look first for internal forces and causes, as blaming foreign influences is the usual cover up strategy. Among them are: - population growth - local kleptocracy and clientelism (nourished by the Soviet and Western influences during the Cold War) - internal conflict or warfare - failure of agrarian reforms and getting rid of the land owning class - weak position in the global markets ( i.e. dependence on raw material/agricultural exports; lack of "attractive" commodity that may successfully compete in the global markets).

This is not say that the IMF and company have nothing to do with the third world poverty, but theirs is mostly the sin of the omission (i.e. not doing anything to help or standing in the way of those who wanted to help) rather than that of the commission.

Wojtek



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