THE RECORD
April 12, 2000

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Well, the strikes in Costa Rica against the privatization of the electrical and energy systems are still paralyzing the country and still ignored by our media. So far the only news service that picked up the story was the Agence France Press, while the rest of the world is trying to ignore it. So far five demonstrators have been shot by the police and some hunger strikers have been hospitalized, but the government still insists on privatization.

The rulers of the world have either not realized yet, or are trying to cover up the daily growing ground swell of public outrage against the sacrifice of human rights, freedoms, democracy and civilization on the altar of the Almighty Money God.

April 16 in Washington DC could be another rude awakening for them. The Seattle affair last November was the beginning of the by now unstoppable unrest that has been building up on every continent. While the debate over Seattle is still going on, the official propaganda gang still dismisses it as an isolated action by anarchists, trouble makers, tree huggers and overpaid unionists wanting to preserve their featherbed jobs. According to media PR hacks when people make billions in profits overnight that's the sign of welcomed economic growth. However, when some union signs for a 2 percent raise the panic buttons are punched and the stock markets fall, because good wages are calculated as inflation.

The Seattle demonstrations were against the meeting of the World Trade Organization, an international body established mainly on US insistence in 1995. Even during the few years of it's short existence the WTO devastated countries and destituted and killed millions by replacing democracy with a secret tribunal interested only in the profitability of multinational corporations. Of the 135 member nations only a few delegations have the right to say anything. Whatever they decide the poorer countries must follow, or they get hit by trade and capital sanctions, their currency is destroyed by the speculators of the money markets. This is called "free enterprise."

The April 16-17 demonstration in Washington will be against the meeting of the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Both these organizations were set up following the Bretton Woods Agreement soon after WW2, half a century ago. The original purpose for both was the stabilization of the currencies and the issuing of loans for the development of various countries.

These organizations dangled along for years relatively unnoticed until the end of the Cold War, but then the controllers of the world monetary system pulled all the stops and began using both the WB and the IMF as the ultimate weapons of neo-colonization.

Whenever a country gets into some kind of an economic problem the Unholy Trinity of the WB, IMF and the WTO are there to take over. Their first demand is always the destruction of public education, health and all social services. Then comes the privatization of public properties, the mass firings and the destitution of millions. The publicly and locally owned industries and the resources are sold off to multinationals at fire sale prices and the currencies are devalued. However, the local banks and foreign investors, who often are the cause of the original problems are bailed out.

This pattern never fails. We now have a long line of precedents that show huge amounts going into the pockets of investors in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and the USA in the name of help, while loans to the impoverished countries are mere pittances with interests due that become ropes around their necks. Russia is a very good example. The IMF and the WB created a huge criminal Mafia, while public poverty levels went from 10 percent to 60 percent.

Mozambique is one of the most impoverished countries on Earth. We all saw on TV the terrible floods that devastated the already destituted country, killing thousands, while the great powers of the West stood by for days. Seventy percent of the population live in great poverty without any health care. Sixty percent of adults and 78 percent of women are illiterate. The reconstruction of the basics will cost an estimated $250 million. Who will help them?

The country was devastated long ago by many years of Marxist dictatorship and a South African financed civil war. After these were over the WB and IMF moved in and started on the final destruction. The major industry was cashew nuts with relatively good processing industries, albeit publicly owned. The saviours demanded privatization and the dismantling of the processing plants, with the firing of 15,000 workers, most of them women. Now the raw cashew nuts are exported to India, where child labour can do the processing "cheaper."

Now, after the floods, the IMF is demanding the repayment of the outstanding loans, which in 1985 stood at $2.9 billion, in 1997 at $5.9 billion and now at $9.3 billion, thanks to the interests.

What will happen in Washington on April 16? It is hard to say, but by all accounts it could make the Seattle affair look like a dress rehearsal, with demonstrations planned all over the world, including here in Canada the home of "wealth creating free trade."

Copyright (c) 2000, West's International