Spank the Bank.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Protesting the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

I was at the April 16 demonstration in Washington, D.C., against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and it was a balm to the spirit.

When I was working for Multinational Monitor in Washington almost twenty years ago, we couldn't get more than fifteen people out to protest the destructive policies of these two most powerful economic institutions in the world. Yet here were 15,000 people!

For five decades, the IMF and the World Bank have been shrouded in mystery--here in the United States. But the IMF and the World Bank are certainly not mysteries in the Third World or in Eastern Europe. These institutions are front page news. They are economic overlords. And the effects of their policies are immediate and tangible.

When the IMF insists that governments eliminate subsidies on basic items like bread, rice, and cooking oil, millions of people feel it right away. When the IMF insists that governments slash the public payroll, millions feel it right away. When the IMF insists on raising interest rates to exorbitant levels, millions feel it right away. When the IMF insists that governments open up every sector of their economies to foreign corporations, millions feel it right away. When the IMF insists that governments spend five times as much on debt repayment as on health and education, millions feel it right away. When the World Bank joins the IMF in imposing these "structural adjustment" policies, millions feel it right away. Or when the World Bank finances oil, gas, and mineral projects and huge dams that displace indigenous people and pollute the environment, millions feel it right away.

That's why the IMF and the World Bank have sparked demonstrations from Argentina and Bolivia to Zambia and Tanzania to Egypt and Jordan to Indonesia and South Korea.

It's altogether fitting and proper that they should also spark demonstrations in Washington, where the IMF and the World Bank are located. And since U.S. citizens pay the biggest share of their bills, and since the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury pretty much calls the tune at these institutions, it is incumbent upon us to demand that they be shut down, or, at the very least, that they should stop making life miserable for millions around the world.

Before the protest, I doubt that one in twenty Americans even knew what these institutions were. After the demonstration, a large section of the public had heard of the IMF and World Bank and had a clue that not everything they did was a blessing.

The protesters' ability to grasp and convey the workings of the IMF and the World Bank was impressive. And the crowd itself was exhilarating.

Young people predominated, though there were plenty of middle-aged people like me, as well as elderly activists.

Whites and blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans, and indigenous peoples from around the world linked up. AIDS activists, anarchists, consumers, environmentalists, religious groups, unionists--all came together.

A satirical group called Billionaires for Bush was there, dressed up in suits and ties. "Don't tax...