In February of this year, a World Bank press release on Africa boldly declared: “Economic performance has improved considerably with over 24 countries posting growth figures of over 4 percent—above the rate of inflation . . . this success has given ground for cautious optimism" (New African, May 1997). "Cautious" indeed.
What the Bank failed to point out is that when you are on the bottom, the only way you can go is up. As always, World Bank reports continue to confirm they suffer what critics have termed the bikini syndrome—what is revealed is interesting; what is concealed is more so.
We are not told, for instance, that of the 174 countries listed on the United Nations Human Development Index, 25 of the poorest 30 are in Africa, and that 44 African countries are ranked below the 100 figure. Neither will you hear of Zambia spending 35 times more servicing multilateral debt between 1990 and 1993 than on primary education.
Again, we are no more likely to hear of the 47 percent of sub-Sahara African children not attending school than we are to hear them report their share of the £400 million in interest and capital repayments transferred from the "Third World” to the West every day between 1982 and 1990. Such revelations will only ever portray the big financial policemen of the World Bank and the IMF as the corrupt and self-serving profit-mongers that they are.
The World Bank and the IMF can often be heard saying that the cause of Africa’s mis-development are its leaders and the failure of its economic policies, neglecting to mention that it is they who make the Mobutus wealthy and that it is their structural adjustment programmes that makes economic stability preclusive. Thanks to the assistance of these multilateral organisations. Mozambique debt in 1994, as a percentage of its GNP, was 450 percent.
Mozambique, still suffering from a devastating civil war and a GNP per capita of £60, the lowest in the world, hardly needed the IMF-imposed privatisation measures which are aimed at reducing inflation of 15 and which the country was advised to adhere to if it wanted further loans.
It is understandable that the IMF and the World Bank have every reason for wanting others to believe their propaganda. The 1980s are painful times to remember. It was then, that having loaned so much, they were faced with a growing unwillingness to repay. When Mexico and Peru threatened to renege on repayments, they were only cowed back into line by having their repayments rescheduled. Today, there are undoubtedly concealed but real fears that many countries might come to the conclusion that being so poor they’d be no worse off for withholding cash earmarked for the IMF and World Bank.
It was perhaps this realisation that brought the IMF, World Bank, various commercial banks and governments together last September to hammer out a new initiative to reduce the debt burden on the HIPCs (heavily indebted poor countries). This might have sounded promising but for the fact that this new venture has been put on hold for a few years. And of course, there are the usual preconditions. Countries wishing to qualify must be "well behaved" and prepared to commit themselves to further structural adjustment programmes. The hair-of-the-dog remedy indeed.
Though they will try to deny it, the power of the World Bank and the IMF is increasing. Like the colonial regimes of old, they have power to influence which government is elected, what is produced and the size of a country’s health service. In short they have power to decide who lives and dies.
In fairness, the World Bank is the lesser evil of late, going so far as to insist that public expenditure cuts should not hit health and education, prepared to accept criticism and supposedly taking heed of voluntary agencies and the UN. Of course, there is method in their madness, so to speak. They are all too aware that in the longer term a healthy and educated workforce means increased profits and an increased chance of debt repayment.
Conversely, the more powerful IMF couldn’t give a damn. It preaches a pay-up-or-else creed, is less accountable and has erected a higher temple to the god Mammon, even going so far as to oppose, in recent months, World Bank plans for the building of schools in Mozambique.
There is a third pillar supporting the global economic order—the World Trade Organisation. As the enforcer of the GATT "free trade" agreement, it is likely that many African countries will be dragged into the mis-named "free trade global economy” by the WTO and in Darwinian fashion only the fittest will survive.
The supposed logic behind this "free trade" clap-trap is that with barriers removed, the world economy functions at the height of efficiency and to the benefit of all. We can immediately ask. however, how African countries are supposed to compete with the 500 mainly western companies who control over 70 percent of world trade, or the likes of Cargill, the giant grain conglomerate whose income is higher than that of the poorest 10 African countries. Already, of the 47 countries deemed to be “too slowly" integrating into the world economy, 21 are African.
It goes without saying that the only real benefactors of free trade are the multinationals.Their power is such that they can control not only the fate of national currencies, but also force governments to tailor their economic policies to their own interest. In addition, they face little host government opposition when they destroy a country’s environment. Witness Shell in Nigeria. Like sharks scenting blood they are drawn to countries where there will be tax concessions and where they will be exempt from local labour laws. And it is not uncommon for them to have non-union policies and to take advantage of low-cost economies with poor health and safety standards.
This then is the reality of the "free trade" Africa will benefit from. This is the reality of the "new dynamism" the World Bank claims is taking hold in sub-Saharan African.
From the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean coup and conflict are commonplace. From Mali to Mozambique, homelessness and hunger exist alongside illiteracy and unemployment. This on a continent potentially the richest on Earth. And all of this in the name of profit.
We can at least offer a little consolation to the pessimistic. In the last year the seeds of socialism have been scattered around Africa and are already taking root. Workers in Uganda. Gambia and Sierra Leone have already joined us in our struggle to rid the world of capitalism and to replace it with a world of free access. Others await in Zambia and Namibia. At last something of real world significance is germinating on the fertile land of the poorest continent on Earth.
John Bissett
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