Making Sense of the Protests.

• Position: World Bank, International Monetary Fund - Brief Article

The organizers of the mid-April protests in Washington, D.C., outside the annual Spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, did not succeed in their ostensible goal of shutting down the official meeting Seattle-style. But they did achieve their larger mission: catapulting complicated issues such as "structural adjustment" onto front-pages and airwaves worldwide.

Under structural adjustment loans from both the World Bank and the IMF, recipient countries agree to implement specified policy reforms in exchange for access to large infusions of cash. These reforms can include slashing government budgets, opening up to trade and foreign investment, and privatizing government-owned enterprises. Activists charge that imposing such conditions often exacerbates poverty and environmental destruction.

The demonstrators in Washington were a diverse lot who deliberately eschewed a party line. They included numerous thoughtful analysts and activists raising uncomfortable questions about who is benefiting from today's surging global economy, and who is losing out. As is inevitable in large demonstrations, the ranks of the protesters also included some who were not particularly well informed about the issues at hand, and who were more interested in theatrics than in serious debate. This latter group attracted disproportionate attention from the media.

The protesters were on target when they noted that despite an escalation of environmental and social...