IMF policies designed with the rich in mind

THE director of the World Development Movement, a national organisation that campaigns for justice for the world's poor, had his accreditation to attend the G20 Summit removed at the last minute.

This was presumably to try to exclude commentators who might have challenged the claim that the conference was a brilliant success.

Questions certainly need to be asked about the $1 trillion input to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There has been no mention of the need to make the IMF more democratic and to open up its decision- making processes to public scrutiny.

Because it is dominated by the rich countries, the policies of the IMF are designed to serve the interests of the rich.

Lending to developing countries has been characterised by the imposition of structural adjustment programmes which force them to cut public expenditure, privatise state-held businesses and open up all their markets to goods and services from the rich countries.

There is no indication that these policies will change while the IMF is effectively controlled by the USA and Europe, so what is presented as a boost to the global economy will, in fact, represent the further export of unemployment and poverty from Europe to the Third World.

Graham Davey and Phillada Ware, Bristol WDM Group.